It's A New Audio/Video Age.... In The New Home

We have arrived!!! ....After all those years of reading Audio-Video Interiors, planning, building, and accumulating, I've finally built the home theater that's as good as it's going to get ......for me. Much of what we wanted in this particular house (other than the adjacent greenbelt), has to do with the space it affords us. While the previous house was all about the practicality aspect of home buying and having everything we needed with nothing that we didn't: this house was about not compromising. Well, at least in our solidly school teacher-middle income world anyway. At the core of this house, is a game/family/media room which is so big, that we had to cut it into a two-thirds/one-third split with a large cabinet/bookcase system that we're building in to the back section! As much of a audio-video nut (within reason) as I've been, I've never had a home-theater that wasn't a double-duty living room! However, that didn't stop me from accumulating all the equipment necessary to run a full-scale home theater. Let's just say that it was a little over-spec'd for the spaces it was operating in......

• The dual-tower cabinet that I designed and help build was over-sized.
• The B&W ASW675 was too much sub for every room it ever lived in.
• The KEF iQ5 tower speakers were too much speaker for a seated position less than 15' away from it.
• The fully self-powered 2nd-Zone system never came into play in the old house at all.
• Having 2 other secondary monitors was more conceptual than useful. 
• Even the 48" Vizio main monitor was too big for the space between the cabinet towers.

Then we moved this summer. If I hadn't said so in previous posts, this house is kind of a "fixer-upper". Not in the truest sense of the term, but in reality of constantly having something to work on, YES..... yes it is! In fact, I'm avoiding going to paint our previously orange-leaning Peach bathroom a more soothing light-blue, by writing this piece! But, as they say; "the bones are there". Actually, there's a little meat on them as well.

 Denon AVR-3802 A/V Receiver

B&W ASW600 Powered Subwoofer

B&W LM-1 5-Speaker Sets

Two sets of each of the above...... were left at the house......

Along with 7 sets of 6.5" in-ceiling speakers. I don't know that they are the B&W CM65s, but I wouldn't bet against it since all the other speakers were made by them and are of that vintage. Believe me, I know. Ironically, in the last couple of years before we moved out here to the Dallas area, I sold this exact equipment at the audio store I worked at in Lubbock! Those in-ceiling speakers are mounted in locations all over the house run through level controls in those spaces. One group terminates behind where my main system now resides upstairs and the other downstairs in what my wife calls the "living room" that adjoins the kitchen. It's really more "family room", but she's the boss!

Speaking of the wife.... things in the house were progressing..... slowly, but progressing till she couldn't handle the smell of the pet-stained carpet any more. First went the downstairs carpet about two months ago, the game/media room about a month ago, then we decided to speed up the process about two weeks ago and ordered new carpet. So the rest of the upstairs rooms got their carpet ripped out and we lived on sub-floor for a week. Saturday, the installers came and installed the carpet. At the same time, my father-in-law was working on the built-in in the back of the room.

 

It's been awhile since I've had my A/V equipment set up properly in a carpeted room with decent acoustics. Wow! It sounds great! 

Oh yeah: can't forget the new 55" Sony 4K TV as well. This is just a start. Yes, there's still stuff to do, and the room will actually sound better when we load the built-in with books and decorative items, so that end of the room will deaden down some more. For now; it's a pretty good start. 

An Update For the A/V System..... Finally

Yes; the Frugal Propellerhead household is entering the world of 4K! Actually, we (I) didn't set out to upgrade the video end of our system. Again, like most other things in our lives these days, it came as an outgrowth of the move to the new house. I might have mentioned that, in this new house, is a rather large "game/media room". It's fully twice the size of our previous living room. Not only that, but there's a completely separate living area that we didn't have before. Since this second living space is connected to the kitchen in an "open-plan", it's a likely location where our family and visitors would gather. It will be an ideal refuge from the noise generated by our teenage (and soon to be teenage) children and their friends that we're assuming will congregate upstairs! Why does this all this mean 4K?

Remember when I pointed out the size of the "game room"? The size of it pretty much swallows the not-so-old 48" TV. It's simply not big enough for the space...... making that one perfect for the downstairs "den". So, what would you do with a room that's roughly 20 by 30? If money was no object, I'd get either a 70" monitor and/or a front projector with 100" screen! We can probably afford to go out and get a 70" monitor, but technology rears it's ugly head! As you might have heard; 4K TVs are becoming fairly commonplace. The price has dropped to the point where 55"-60" units are available in our $1000 target range. Actually, "the boss" would prefer for it to be sub-$1000.... so, what's a good husband/Propellerhead to do? Stay in the $1K budget and get a regular HD 65"-70" TV.... break the bank and get a 60"-65" 4K TV, or stay in budget and get a 55" 4K TV. 

I'm sure that most of my regular readers can figure out how this came out. I'm a little obsessed with "future-proofing" and I like to keep my wife happy...... so I found a 4K for under (significantly) the budget. Yup.... Neither one of us thought that it'd be a good idea to buy old technology just to get a bigger screen. We had actually decided to wait awhile and see how the price of 4K would shake out after Black Friday. Then, about a week ago, we found ourselves with some extra time on our hands after dinner with the in-laws. My wife decided to take the daughter and go to the cloth-store, so I chose Best Buy across the way. That way, I could look at the over-priced stuff and models that I can't afford. I dutifully examined all the new models and made my way over to the "open-box" and clearance section where I found some interesting stuff, including a nice 55" Sharp 4K for about $800. Then I saw a Sony XBR-55X800b, hanging on the wall but notated as "open-box" for $800. The description card showed it as having a scratch (which I could see) and "no accessories missing". To shorten the story; we decided to buy it after negotiating another $40 off. THEN, they couldn't find ANY of the accessories.....no remote.....no instructions.....no box (opened or otherwise)......and critically.....NO STAND!!! I made myself look frustrated and ready to bolt, whereupon, they took off $100 and included a $70 Logitech Harmony 650 remote. 

I was even able to act like I had to think it over before jumping at it! So; 55" Sony 4K TV, and Harmony remote for $700. On eBay, I found the original remote for $10, followed by the stand for $60. Now I can start putting the game/media room together!