Synodontis Posted December 2, 2016 Share Posted December 2, 2016 I'm really not sure about showcasing my system, but a handy spot to leave some dribble about plans, thoughts, ideas & post a few pics. I've always had Yamaha AVR's so now I'm old I'll stick with them as I know what 38% of the buttons on the remote do. If I go changing now it will just result in GOMFU (grumpy ole man flare up) which the good cook wont put up with & results in myself being banished to the garage. Not that I really mind, gives me a chance to think of something else to make or pull apart. So this journey started because after 14 months of playing with a fish tank it was finally finding it's rhythm & I found myself with time to do other things. I've always wanted to something with the HT but time & finances had been directed into other activities. Now was my time to play with HT for a bit. So Uncle Google stepped up to plate & helped me out with so reviews on AVR's, speakers, cables & found Stereonet. I did find another AU forum but it didn't do anything for me so kept lurking around here After deciding I was going to use a preamp / amp setup the next bit was to find a spot to stick it all. Like the next bloke I like a bargain so started searching around for the decent sized TV stand. They dont make em to big do they? With all the toys one can buy you'd think someone would come up with a stand that holds everything plus a bit more. Perhaps they do & I just never looked in the right place. Any way, I decided to build one that suited the bits I wanted to use, couldn't be that hard could it? Yeah right lol. Took a gander at some YouTube vid's laminating timber & figured that was above my skill set. Bench-tops! they are long, wide & solid. Found a local place that supplied raw Victorian Ash 26mm thick, 2100mm long, 600mm deep & figured that's gotta be as good as anything to build a stand from. We have a lot of timber around the shack so a coat of stain should blend it in nicely. A few pics of the stand I built Started with this bit first lol Then progressed up to the top bit Spent more then a couple of hours sanding & throwing around a paint brush to end up with a suitable stand So then the cook pipes up with "your not putting that inside smelling like that! So it had to sit outside for a few days till the smell of the stain had drifted off to the neighbors. One weekend I started pulling the old pretend Harvey Norman stand out so I could maneuver the new stand in. I was half through doing that when I thought of taking a pic lol. You can tell it was a Saturday morning as Ben10 was still on Still have to finish the wall repair, we had to run cables to a second switch board for the tank & that was the easiest way to get into the back of the main switch board. My wiring skills need a bit of work so hopefully this time around I will make a better job of running wires. I do have some power boards I'll use to switch off stuff that isn't used everyday. We use lots of power so switching gear off instead of standby makes a difference each month. I haven't worked out where I'm going to mount them yet. At the end of the day I ended up with 3 speakers hooked back up, the TV going & the Xbox's in their new home. The original NES has been taken upstairs & plugged in up there. Not the greatest pic I know I picked up the preamp last week along with the Bluray (CX-A5100 / BD-A1060) so they are installed into a hole & waiting on the other bits to get them running. Stumbled across a Thor PS10 on Gumtree at the right price, after lurking around here & studying the threads, I decided to grab it. No idea if I need it or not but it seemed like a good idea at the time. Went & picked it up from a gentleman who turned out to be a member here by the name of David. Nice guy & very sweet sounding setup he was nice enough to show me, after hearing it from his doorstep lol. I had to text him that I was there, his doorbell is nowhere near as good as his stereo. Remember that "good idea" well after slinking back into the house with my new toy, the cook wants to know what "thing" I've brought now. I'm sure she has me under surveillance when I leave the shack! Probably doesn't help I'm an anti-social GOM so if I do go out other then work she knows I'm up to something. After a detailed explanation on the pro's of having one it seemed to get me a reprieve for the time being. A couple of buy's from the classifieds here, a set of Zu RCA's & some Bi-wire Osborne speaker cables. After reading one of the threads & being a new bloke around here I might stay away from the classifieds. So after all the dribble, this is what I have so far that will be staying.... LG TV Yamaha CX-A5100 preamp Yamaha BD-A1060 Bluray Thor PS10 & board Xbox 360 & Xbox OneS Sony CDP-CX260 linked to a Sony CDP-CX200 Bits due next week... 13x Balanced XLR - XLR Canare L-2E5 / Neutrik cables 1.5m 2x RCA Canare L-2E5 / Canare F-series 1.5m Wish list / research / toys Electra amps- Really need these Speakers- Kinda need these, but if speaking with the cook, "Really need these" Room treatment- Seems the thing to do Anti-vibration thingy's- Perhaps That's about where I'm up to now. Thinking about doing a run around some stores tomorrow but I have to wake up & evaluate the day first. I did have a message asking about our tanks. So I'll drop a couple of pics here. There are other tanks around here? I don't take to many Full tank shots as you cant see much being so far away lol, more close up coral pics. Marine tank is 12ft long 4ft wide & 2.5ft deep, 4000Ltrs total volume. There's also a 8x3x2.5 tropical tank in the same room. 6000Ltr's in our lounge with this HT stuff lol. I'll leave you with these, sorry for dribbling on so much lol 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jamiebosco Posted December 5, 2016 Share Posted December 5, 2016 IMHO, if you're after a "home theatre" on a budget, I wouldn't spend anymore $$ on cables/speaker wires/power conditioning beyond the minimum to get it all connected properly. I'd start channelling funds towards perhaps better speakers (more suited to HT) and some really capable subwoofers. Love the AV rack! I couldn't find what I needed for mine either ,so had a simple one made for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Synodontis Posted July 8, 2020 Author Share Posted July 8, 2020 How rude of me not to reply Jamieboco, sorry, think I took your advice tho lol. Well, seems I've been lurking around here for about 4yrs without saying to much. One day fades into the next & the years really do go fast, or I have no concept of time more like it lol. I'll prattle on in here for a min or two. A fair bit has changed on our TV wall in that time. Looking back when I started it looks so, blah. I'm happy were it is now for the moment but still things to dick around with I guess. I ended up sealing the window behind the TV, so that's gone & had a blank canvas so to speak. Although this is our lounge room I wanted a dark colour, just couldn't be black. Ended up picking a midish-dark grey. Came up OK but really highlighted the cream walls & ceiling. Picked a shade or 2 lighter & attacked said walls & ceiling. All I did was remove the window trim, frame out the hole allowing for the 10mm plaster sheet, add an extra piece of timber for the TV wall mount, filled the frame with 50mm, polystyrene, sheet, plaster & paint. If ever required it is easy enough to reverse, the window trim is is hidden in the window cavity behind the plaster lol. Pics tell a better story then me lol. These are old pics now from when I did the wee jobby. It is def a lot easier to watch movies now, speaker placement is a bit of a bugger with the shape of the place. Pics from today. Where I'm up to with bits & pieces since the last post 4yrs ago lol. The big bits... The LG TV crapped out so was replaced with a 75" 4K UHD blah blah blah Samsung Yamaha CX-A5100 pre-amp 7 Ch Elektra Theatre HD Balanced XLR - XLR Canare L-2E5 / Neutrik Yamaha BD-A1060 Blu-ray Sony UBP-X700 UHD Blu-ray player 2x Thor PS10 & board's Xbox 360 & Xbox One S - Waiting for the new Xbox to be released Sony CDP-CX260 linked to a Sony CDP-CX200 CD mega players The valve bits... Shanling MC-30 - used as pre, not the internal 3W amp Consonance Cyber 800 Mono-blocks - need to find something to put under them, off the carpet. Music Angel XD-800 MkIII integrated - has not been molested internally,,, yet. The loud bits... Main- Martin Logan Motion 60XT Center- Martin Logan Motion 50XT Rear- Martin Logan Motion 35XT Surround- Martin Logan Motion FX Sub- Martin Logan Balanced Force 210 Osborn Interlude's hooked up to the valves Speaker cables for the 60's 50 & Interludes is Osborn Data Link. So where to now? I'm happy with things & it sounds OK to me, but would really like some experienced ears to check things out & tell me where I've gone wrong. A lot of threads cover room correction, think that's what I will look at next. No idea where to start lol, once you guy's start talking frequency's & reflection points I start thinking about what the girl is cooking for dinner lol. I will put a few pics here of the while room from different angles so you can get the gist of the odd setup. Anyone with an idea about bass traps or panels feel free to yell out. Am I right in thinking that the ceiling is the first place to start? Seems bloody bare up there lol. Don't want to put curtains over the window, the windows are privacy tinted (helps with UV as well) & we have shutters. At work all day so movies & TV are 80% night viewing. Weekends the stereo is usually going while we potter around so light on the screen is not an issue. The water tank on the front lawn is for sale lol, not a perm fixture. That's enough prattle from me I think Take care & stay safe all 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jamiebosco Posted July 8, 2020 Share Posted July 8, 2020 Looking very nice in there mate Good choice on the Martin Logan speakers and sub, the Balanced Force 210 are nice units Am I correct in assuming the ML's are used for Home Theatre , and the Osborn Interlude's are for Stereo/2 chan only? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest deanB Posted July 8, 2020 Share Posted July 8, 2020 2 hours ago, Synodontis said: Consonance Cyber 800 Mono-blocks - need to find something to put under them, off the carpet. I used granite cutting boards under my Cybers. About $40ea for Cyber size. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Synodontis Posted July 8, 2020 Author Share Posted July 8, 2020 1 hour ago, jamiebosco said: Looking very nice in there mate Good choice on the Martin Logan speakers and sub, the Balanced Force 210 are nice units Am I correct in assuming the ML's are used for Home Theatre , and the Osborn Interlude's are for Stereo/2 chan only? Thanks Jamie, I'm real happy with the ML's, lot's of life in them. Yep correct, ML's are mainly for TV & movies. The Osborm's are only used with Cyber's. Depending on music & whats happening around the house. The osborns seem to be open, airy, a bit fairy sounding to me, light. They do have detail & bass but not like th 60's. If it's a Dragon Force metal type of day then I prefer them over the Osborns. The 60's just have more body & fill the house lol. 28 minutes ago, deanB said: I used granite cutting boards under my Cybers. About $40ea for Cyber size. Thanks Dean, I have 4 more day's of leave left so might go looking for them Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SeanMc Posted July 26, 2020 Share Posted July 26, 2020 Hey Synodontis, I have the same speaker setup and really struggled to love the 60xts for Stereo. But i recently upgreaded to better speaker cable from these guys https://www.nbspeakercables.com.au/ I cant believe the difference it made. Sound stage actually appeared. previously i didnt have any. I also changed my RV-A3060 to 4/6 ohms instead of 8. This also seems to have made a difference. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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