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Originally posted by: JangoxFett
I what just wondering if you guys and gals here at the OT had a Home Theather, Big Screen or Projector with Sound System Setup?.

I am planning to get one to view my star wars films on. I want a 16x9 150" wall screen and Projector to add to my 5.1 Sound System.

so far I see that most "Good" projectors are Very Pricey. almost like a used car. I saw one for 1599.99.

I would love to see some pics of your set up for more ideas.

Thanks.

As a home theater enthusiast, I suggest you stay out of the hobby. It quickly becomes an obsession and will drain your wallet faster than any woman ever could

It all started back in junior high school when I dug an old stereo receiver and a pair of speakers out of my mom's attic. One of the tweeters didn't work, but I didn't even care back then. I used some summer job money to pick up a Technics CD player and became hooked on home audio.

The next year I picked up a cheap Magnavox stereo receiver (50W per channel I think), a Technics 5-disc carousel changer (I precariously perched the first one on top of a cardboard box and it fell victim to my jumping cat), and my mom bought me a pair of Bose Interaudio 4000 XL speakers for Christmas (now sitting inside my front door and heading toward the dumpster). I also bought a 19" Sony Trinitron around the same time since I had a bad gaming addiction.

Right before I graduated high school, I upgraded to an Onkyo Dolby Pro Logic receiver, but never could afford the speakers to complete the setup because I was heading into college and needed beer money. That receiver was a tank and, along with my trusty Trinitron, survived 4 years at Penn State (okay, 5 years

) and was just recently sold on ebay. 12 years altogether--a pretty good run, and 12 times longer than I could go now without upgrading.

After I graduated and moved to Jersey, I picked up another Onkyo--a 797 THX Select 6.1 receiver--and paired it with a Polk speaker setup. Picked up a 32" Sony Wega and was in heaven. The old Trinitron went to my nephew's bedroom and is still there. This, I thought, was the ultimate. It couldn't get any better. My neighbors hated me and I was in home theater nirvana.

Then I stumbled across the AVS Forum where I learned about front projection. This is where it gets really nasty.

I'm on my fifth digital projector in two years.

Sold the Onkyo 797 due to some glitches (which, it turns out, weren't glitches at all, just bad internet press and misinformed customers) and upgraded to a Rotel RSP-1066 preamp and RMB-1075/RB-1050 amps for a 7.1 setup. It sounded great, but now the Polks were the weak link in my system. They simply couldn't resolve the detailed sound of the Rotel gear.

In comes a complete M&K S-150 THX Ultra speaker system. The sub is larger than most people's TVs. This setup completely blows away the Polks. I keep the front Polk towers and subwoofer and hook them up to the college tank Onkyo (remember him?) in the office with the 32" Sony Wega. This is my gaming rig. Streets of Rage never looked or sounded so good. The rest of the Polks (two center channels, two bookshelf speakers, and two dipole surrounds) sit in my closet until I decide to put them up for sale. I originally wanted to use them for a 5.1 gaming rig, but space was too tight. Maybe when I buy a house.

After a few months, I decided the feature set of the 1066 was too limited, so I upgraded to an Anthem AVM 20. Unbelievable piece of equipment. Built like a tank and sounded amazing. I kept the Rotel amps because they were more than enough power for my small theater.

Just last week, I sold my AVM 20 and bought a Harman Kardon DPR 2005 receiver. Rather than traditional analog amplification, it uses a digital amplifier. This means anything sent to the receiver digitally (Dolby Digital, DTS, a CD player connected via optical or digital coaxial) stays digital until it's sent to the speakers. Let me tell you, these new digital amps are going to bring audiophile-quality sound to the masses.

In terms of price and feature set, this is a downgrade from the AVM 20, but in terms of sound quality, it's definitely an upgrade. This thing sounds better than the AVM 20/Rotel amps ever did, and is 1/3 the price. There is ZERO background noise and the dynamic range is incredible. The 2005 is a higher-end digital amp (about $1100 street), but that's because the power output is insane for a receiver (200W x 7 channels at 4 ohms). There are much less expensive models from companies like Panasonic and Kenwood that sound just as good but don't have the power to drive large, hungry speakers. If any of you are in the market for a receiver, I highly recommend trying one with a digital amp (SA-XR50 or SA-XR70 from Panasonic, some from Kenwood and Sony also). There are guys out there who are dumping thousands of dollars in gear and hooking up their $10K+ speakers to a $300 Panasonic digital amp because it sounds that good.

The M&K's are also on their way out. Upgrading to James Loudspeakers. This upgrade is bordering on sick, but I'm an American, and excess is a way of life for me.

Oh, my current projector is a Sharp XV-Z12000 DLP projected onto a 92" screen. I calibrated it with a colorimeter and special PC software. Looks like a giant reference monitor.

Hi. My name is Jay, and I'm a home theater addict.