What can the average enthusiest do to get A+ HT?

Here is my 2 cents.

Im gearing up to start on my DYI HT project, gonna built all the speakers/amplifiers/cables

Ive had lots of experience with Mid-priced HT gear, with no single component breaking the 1,000MSRP mark. Been through many setups in many rooms, and over the years the experience i have gained determined my goals on construction.

1) Pre-Processor, no Reciever. The benefits of outboard amplification is obvious to all who have heard.

2) 150WPC, all 7 amplifiers will be monoblocks and identical in every fasion.

3) All speakers will be identical. No "center" channel, no Bipole surrounds, all 7 speakers will be exactly the same. Every time i did the sound level adjustments, even with "Voice matched" gear the FL/FR did not sound exactly the same as the center, nor did the LS/LR BL/BR. Normally the f/l and f/r had more depth which the center and surrounds lacked.

4) Being identical speakers, the center channel cannot be a "full sized" speaker therefore neither will any of the other speakers, they will all be Monitors.

5) Full Range, even though they will be monitor size, they will be larger monitors, and im going to to my best to make sure they can all reach down to 45Hz -3db, i want the center and surrounds to be as close to "full range" as possible. None of this "down to 100hz" crap. All 2 way speakers

6) Dual Subwoofers designed with the goal in mind of reaching down to 20hz with no more than a -6db loss.
250rms Amps to power them.

7) Projector is a must in this setup. I want a good 100" screen minimum.

8) No integrated 2 channel. This will be in a room dedicated for Home Theater, not for music. Therefore all considerations for 2 channel will be ignored, im going for a seperate 2 channel system in another room. The focus of this will be HT and HT only.

9) Room treatments.

If i were to just go out and buy this same setup rather than build it myself, the requirements would not change, except i might go for a 7channel amplifier rather than 7 monoblocks.

Will do Brainwater!

Buying a house in the next several months, right now it is still having the kitchen upgraded and hardwood(pergo) floors installed, that is one of the things that is kind of holding me back.

Im hoping to have my first set of speakers done in the next 3-4 months.

Will post pics of everything and keep an ongoing thread of my progress.

Something you all might want remember,

This thread was origionally asking about anA+ HT setup, as in HOME THEATER.

Personally i think multichannel music is way too finiky to do, i find the surround speakers annoying. Give me nmusic in 2ch, leave the surrounds for theater.

Building an A+ HOME THEATER is one thing, however, creating a satisfying MULTICHANNEL MUSIC system is an entirely different beast.

Personally, MY HT will be built with Theater in mind from the ground up, with no consideration for Multichannel music, that is alot more headache than i think it is worth.

My MUSIC system will be built for Music only. 2 channels, thats all.

Its kinda like those new cell phones. You CAN put a camera in a phone, but you will suffer performance on both aspects.

HT, MTA (multi channel audio) and 2CH all use the same basic elements. Speakers, Amplifiers, Source, Etc. But that is where the similarity ends.

Think of it like a car. a HUM-V costs about as much as a Dodge Viper. Two very high performance vehicals, but the performance and intended use of each design was vastly different.

Keep it all seperate, unless you dont mind blowing a crapload of cash, pulling out your hair, and have years of free time to get a system that can do all three equally as well

M2C

Brainwater, i saw that on yer pics, that is pretty slick dude.

I guess my point is this, Multichannel music is more of an audiophile thing than an every day joe thing.

HT is something designed for every day joes. The reason of the surrounds is to submerse you in the movie, and the point of the center is to basically for the most part, eliminate finicky speaker placement for imaging.

i dont know if im just sounding like an idiot here, but any idiot can make a surround sound setup sound better than the local cineplex.

It takes alot more effort and thought to pull off Multi-channel music, without making it sound annoying.

WIth Multichannel music, the focus is the music.

With HT the ocus is the movie, the surround sound gives a good "gee wiz" effect. With HT, you have basic "background music" and dialogue with some sound effects.

Yeah, you can spend a hoopla of cash on a HT system and make it good for everything, but when you are watching a movie the primary focus is visual, with audio a very close second, but second none the less.

Ive seen some pretty high cost HT setups, Nothing like Brainwaters, but close to the 80k mark. Ive seen alot of really crappy ones too, as well as plenyy of 10k HT setups.
My experience with DVD-A on the 10K and crappy HT rigs is a "neat effect" but nothing close to what you will get with a good 50K+ Surround setup.

I have a co-worker who is really into this stuff. Oddly enough he doesent like this website, i guess somone rubbed him the wrong way. Either way, his HT ran him about 6 times what my last HT rig cost me. We both used good setup, but his was way more expencive. For Movie performance his rig really diddnt sound better than mine. For 2 ch and DVD-A, you bet yer ass it sounded better than mine.

However, when movie performance comes in, the difference between the 50k setup and the 10k setupin my opinion is rather marginal, if not barely noticeable.

In the examples above, im talking about the audio aspect only, not video gear.

Af for the recording engineers job, for movies yer talking about different shots, different angles, changing angles, "gee wizz" effects, and visual bombardment. The sound must to the camera's perspective to create a realistic effect.

With Multichannel audio, they try to recreate the sence of being at a concert or a show, with a fixed point of focus, which is alot harder to pull off, because it is sustained and the illusion is far easier to shatter with bad engineering.

Just my thoughts on it. I think a HT can be real sweet, but if you dont care too farts about multichannel music, then creating a realistic surround experience is easier due to the chaotic nature of camera angles and quick effects.

A street magician can do a quick card trick and blow yer mind, but it takes a brilliant magician to pull off a trick that involves the audience giving prolonged focus of the matter at hand and still make it convincing.

Just my opinion. I dont claim to have golden ears, better than most, which is probably less than many on the gon, HT is just easier to make convincing than Multichannel audio. That is why i consider them different beasts.

same equipment, same ideas, but the difference in subject matter, and the difficulty to pull off mulitchannel compared to HT, just makes me think that they are different beasts.

Peace! :)