The Warfields.com

Home Theater Equipment

Welcome to my nightmare!

This is the part that all the guys love to see, debate endlessly the merits of (with our without any good basis in personal knowledge), the part that costs the lion's share, and the part that causes the most pain by frequently not working quite right. For some reason, all of this gear inevitably gets to be some sort of measure of the male anatomical prowess. If it is an accurate measure, then I'm a very impressive fellow if I do say so myself! If only it was that easy, but then, I digress.

Yes Virginia, we are definitely on the bleeding edge here. Where to start...

Theater AMX/Panja Touch Panel

Let's begin at the beginning, of course. When you walk in the room, everything flows from the little AMX/Panja touch panel that's sitting right on the corner of the granite table. Unfortunately, you can't see anything here except the reflected flash and a ton of finger smudges. It is a touch panel, after all. If you could see it, you'd be looking at a pretty spiffy looking collection of icons that control everything. It has a rather unsophisticated look graphically which I believe is intended to be non-threatening to users. The graphics are VGA-quality, which isn't awesome, but it's adequate. Someday I want to change it to look like Star Trek Next Generation's panel look and feel.

Star Trek TNG Panel Look and Feel

If I get ambitious one day I may tackle this chore. The TNG look and feel most consists of a black background with the various window sections delineated by the brightly colored sweeping corner shapes. Pretty easily replicated, and it sure would look more spiffy than what I've got. But we digress...

By wielding this gizmo, you basically never have to touch the individual components except to load a DVD or CD manually. Given that I have installed jukebox systems for both, even this need not be the case except for rented media, or media brought by a friend. This is a good thing when you look at how many knobs and buttons there are in my equipment rack:

Lordy, ain't that panel purdy?

There is a lot of gear here. Let me hit the highlights:

  Furman lights at top. Cool extensible lights used by musicians in their equipment racks. Washes just the right amount of light down the panel front.

  DISHTV HDTV Satellite Tuner. Have you seen real HDTV on a device that can show full resolution? It's AWESOME!

  Lexicon MC-1 Surround Processor. Sounds great and is easily automatable. Replaced my old Proceed PAV+PDSD unit (now in library).

  Sony 7700 CD Player with special MSB Digital Scaling Card. Awesome image at a fraction of the cost of Faroudja. Many people think it looks better. All the scaling happens in the digital domain right off the DVD.

  Pioneer Elite Laserdisc Player. Because you can't get Star Wars on DVD. Yet. I still have a ton of Laserdiscs. The video is not as good as DVD, but it is very watchable and the sound rocks. Lots of the laserdiscs I own are unavailable as DVDs and may never be.

  Faroudja Line Quadrupler.

  Proceed AMP 5. We use this amp to provide the power to the surround channels. This system has 4 surround channels BTW, instead of the usual 2.

  S-VHS deck. Mostly used to show diving videos or learn to fly instructional material.

  Escient CD Jukebox Controller + 4 Denon jukeboxes.

  A gaggle of crossovers for subwoofers and parametric EQ's to tune out the system's sound.

For a projector, I use an Electrohome Marquee with 9" CRT's. This is probably the world's best projector in terms of image quality. It is almost infinitely adjustable and was the guts of the ill-fated Pininfarina bodied Vidikron projectors. They're available much cheaper without the whizzy plastic shell.

The speaker system used here is also formidable:

  Left & Right Channels: B&W Nautilus 801 full range speakers. These are Stereophile Class A rated speakers and boy do they sound sweet!

  B&W Center Channel

  4 x Triad Surround Channels with individual powered subwoofers embedded in the acoustic panels and hidden behind the cloth.

  2 x Bag End 18" Subwoofers.

The left, right, center, and subwoofer channels are all powered by Bryston 500 watt monoblock amplifiers, also rated Stereophile Class A. These are great-sounding amps that I have personally A/B tested against my Krell stereo amp and they sound identical. Interestingly, the Stereophile reviewers said the same when they reviewed the Bryston amps--sounds just like a Krell. They cost a heck of a lot less than Krell and come in a smaller package to boot. With 500 watts in individual chassis, there is a huge amount of headroom here too. The B&W speakers are also pretty efficient, so the system can really rock.

A B&W 801 Nautilus Speaker...

The Nautilus speakers are incredibly musical sounding and have gotten rave reviews. I love the Martin Logan Quest electrostatic speakers I have in my library, but these sound just as good to me. I was originally planning to go Martin Logan in the theater, but a friend beat me to the punch and after hearing his system, I decided it would be a mistake to go that route. The ML's are incredibly sensitive to room placement first of all, and I don't have enough room in the theater to really get them away from the walls well enough. Secondly, they are highly directional. There is really only 1 excellent seat in my friend's theater. He's happy to always sit there and the rest of the folks don't know what they are missing. These conventional speakers have a much broader sweet spot. I think you give up a little on the imaging compared to what happens in the ML sweet spot, but it ain't much, and now everybody gets to enjoy. The B&W's also have more dynamics, which is critical for explosions, chain guns, laser blasts, and all that sort of thing. Better yet, the styling on these puppies is really sympatico with the theater. You couldn't imagine a better fit!

On top of all this excellent equipment, I had Bob Hodas tweak the EQ's and provide some suggestions for various minor changes in layout. Hodas is an expert who has set up recording studios for labels like Abbey Road. He knows sound! Bob is a very nice fellow who comes over with a raft of fancy real time spectrum analysis gear you could not afford to buy on your own and wouldn't know how to operate if you did. It's amazing how sensitive this stuff is. He can tell exactly what's going on with a room and what needs to be tweaked so it sounds better.

If you want a less photogenic/more audiophiley discussion of the gear, try this.

- or -

If you like chain guns, I just have to tell you about my Chick Flick/Guy Flick button!

- or -

If ya wanna go behind the scenes and look at the guts, try here.

- or -

Continue the Tour in the Library...

- or -

Learn to Operate the Theater



		Home Theater Equipment *Welcome to my nightmare!* This is the part that all the guys love to see, debate endlessly the merits of (with our without any good basis in personal knowledge), the part that costs the lion's share, and the part that causes the most pain by frequently not working quite right. For some reason, all of this gear inevitably gets to be some sort of measure of the male anatomical prowess. If it is an accurate measure, then I'm a very impressive fellow if I do say so myself! If only it was that easy, but then, I digress. Yes Virginia, we are definitely on the bleeding edge here. Where to start... Theater AMX/Panja Touch Panel Let's begin at the beginning, of course. When you walk in the room, everything flows from the little AMX/Panja touch panel that's sitting right on the corner of the granite table. Unfortunately, you can't see anything here except the reflected flash and a ton of finger smudges. It is a touch panel, after all. If you could see it, you'd be looking at a pretty spiffy looking collection of icons that control everything. It has a rather unsophisticated look graphically which I believe is intended to be non-threatening to users. The graphics are VGA-quality, which isn't awesome, but it's adequate. Someday I want to change it to look like Star Trek Next Generation's panel look and feel. Star Trek TNG Panel Look and Feel If I get ambitious one day I may tackle this chore. The TNG look and feel most consists of a black background with the various window sections delineated by the brightly colored sweeping corner shapes. Pretty easily replicated, and it sure would look more spiffy than what I've got. But we digress... By wielding this gizmo, you basically never have to touch the individual components except to load a DVD or CD manually. Given that I have installed jukebox systems for both, even this need not be the case except for rented media, or media brought by a friend. This is a good thing when you look at how many knobs and buttons there are in my equipment rack: Lordy, ain't that panel purdy? There is a lot of gear here. Let me hit the highlights: Furman lights at top. Cool extensible lights used by musicians in their equipment racks. Washes just the right amount of light down the panel front. DISHTV HDTV Satellite Tuner. Have you seen real HDTV on a device that can show full resolution? It's AWESOME! Lexicon MC-1 Surround Processor. Sounds great and is easily automatable. Replaced my old Proceed PAV+PDSD unit (now in library). Sony 7700 CD Player with special MSB Digital Scaling Card. Awesome image at a fraction of the cost of Faroudja. Many people think it looks better. All the scaling happens in the digital domain right off the DVD. Pioneer Elite Laserdisc Player. Because you can't get Star Wars on DVD. Yet. I still have a ton of Laserdiscs. The video is not as good as DVD, but it is very watchable and the sound rocks. Lots of the laserdiscs I own are unavailable as DVDs and may never be. Faroudja Line Quadrupler. Proceed AMP 5. We use this amp to provide the power to the surround channels. This system has 4 surround channels BTW, instead of the usual 2. S-VHS deck. Mostly used to show diving videos or learn to fly instructional material. Escient CD Jukebox Controller + 4 Denon jukeboxes. A gaggle of crossovers for subwoofers and parametric EQ's to tune out the system's sound. For a projector, I use an Electrohome Marquee with 9" CRT's. This is probably the world's best projector in terms of image quality. It is almost infinitely adjustable and was the guts of the ill-fated Pininfarina bodied Vidikron projectors. They're available much cheaper without the whizzy plastic shell. The speaker system used here is also formidable: Left & Right Channels: B&W Nautilus 801 full range speakers. These are Stereophile Class A rated speakers and boy do they sound sweet! B&W Center Channel 4 x Triad Surround Channels with individual powered subwoofers embedded in the acoustic panels and hidden behind the cloth. 2 x Bag End 18" Subwoofers. The left, right, center, and subwoofer channels are all powered by Bryston 500 watt monoblock amplifiers, also rated Stereophile Class A. These are great-sounding amps that I have personally A/B tested against my Krell stereo amp and they sound identical. Interestingly, the Stereophile reviewers said the same when they reviewed the Bryston amps--sounds just like a Krell. They cost a heck of a lot less than Krell and come in a smaller package to boot. With 500 watts in individual chassis, there is a huge amount of headroom here too. The B&W speakers are also pretty efficient, so the system can really rock. A B&W 801 Nautilus Speaker... The Nautilus speakers are incredibly musical sounding and have gotten rave reviews. I love the Martin Logan Quest electrostatic speakers I have in my library, but these sound just as good to me. I was originally planning to go Martin Logan in the theater, but a friend beat me to the punch and after hearing his system, I decided it would be a mistake to go that route. The ML's are incredibly sensitive to room placement first of all, and I don't have enough room in the theater to really get them away from the walls well enough. Secondly, they are highly directional. There is really only 1 excellent seat in my friend's theater. He's happy to always sit there and the rest of the folks don't know what they are missing. These conventional speakers have a much broader sweet spot. I think you give up a little on the imaging compared to what happens in the ML sweet spot, but it ain't much, and now everybody gets to enjoy. The B&W's also have more dynamics, which is critical for explosions, chain guns, laser blasts, and all that sort of thing. Better yet, the styling on these puppies is really sympatico with the theater. You couldn't imagine a better fit! On top of all this excellent equipment, I had Bob Hodas tweak the EQ's and provide some suggestions for various minor changes in layout. Hodas is an expert who has set up recording studios for labels like Abbey Road. He knows sound! Bob is a very nice fellow who comes over with a raft of fancy real time spectrum analysis gear you could not afford to buy on your own and wouldn't know how to operate if you did. It's amazing how sensitive this stuff is. He can tell exactly what's going on with a room and what needs to be tweaked so it sounds better. If you want a less photogenic/more audiophiley discussion of the gear, try this. - or - If you like chain guns, I just have to tell you about my Chick Flick/Guy Flick button! - or - If ya wanna go behind the scenes and look at the guts, try here. - or - Continue the Tour in the Library... - or - Learn to Operate the Theater
		All material © 2001-2006, Robert W. Warfield.