Show off your entertainment system!

[Reese Riverson]

I might show mine too, although the look of it is pretty messy.

The price of mine is nowhere close to Hood's.

Yeah you wanted me to list how much things cost me.

[incognito]

I might show mine too, although the look of it is pretty messy.

Surprisingly, that's what she said.

[Pirez]

[Ambidextroid]

Is that an OoT logo I see on your N64? I don't think I've seen a Zelda edition before. I like that translucent controller too

[Pirez]

It's just a sticker. It was on it when I bought the console ^^

[Reese Riverson]

Oh nice setup there, Pirez! I see quite a few nice consoles there!

At least someone here also doesn't use TV speakers.

[Pirez]

At least someone here also doesn't use TV speakers.

At my 13th birthday I received a very cheap home cinema. The DVD player broke almost immediately but I've been using the speaker + bass ever since.

[PluMGMK]

I'm afraid I'm a pleb who uses TV speakers too. I took a picture today, but I won't be able to bring myself to post it till tomorrow!

[Reese Riverson]

I'm afraid I'm a pleb who uses TV speakers too. I took a picture today, but I won't be able to bring myself to post it till tomorrow!

Tomorrow has come and passed, dear PluM.

I ought to link to some people's builds at AVSForum, some of their setups are incredible as heck!

[PluMGMK]

And what sort of mod would I be if I double-posted?

Anyway…
Dammit, it seems the photo's blurry! How did I miss that? But ye get the idea, it doesn't look very impressive!

Well, at least I did ye the courtesy of getting all the newspapers out of the way before taking it…

That there is a humble desktop PC performing a multitude of functions. The thing hanging from the USB port is an IR receiver to allow it to be controlled by a remote. Through the blurriness, you may be able to make out a floppy drive. This was the last PC in the house capable of reading floppies, but now it's just for show.
Until recently it had a four-core processor from 2008 and 4 GB of RAM and ran Ubuntu 16.04, now it has a dual-core processor from 2013 and 12 GB of RAM, and runs CentOS 7! (RAM has proved itself more important than CPU!)
But I'm getting ahead of myself. What's going on here in terms of entertainment? Well, there's a television, with a computer connected to it. Somehow it didn't make its way into the photograph but there's also a signal amplifier, that takes the signal from the TV aerial and splits it into two. One goes straight to the TV, the other goes to a tuner card in the PC. Why? Well, I've never found a tuner card whose reliability I was really happy about, and anyway using the computer to watch telly is something that proved too complicated for my parents, even if it is controlled with a normal remote!
What purpose does the PC serve? On the entertainment side, primarily playing DVDs. It runs MythTV so it can also be used to record television. To be honest I still can't really get over the novelty of this! I can use a web interface, on my own server, for scheduling recordings, which are then saved as normal MPEG files on a Linux filesystem, and I can do whatever the hell I want with those files, without jumping through any extra hoops! Only problem is, again, the reliability of the tuner. But maybe the motherboard was to blame for that, in which case the problem may already be solved.
And then, apart from its television-related purposes, it's also a web server, git server, etc. I may have more to say on that in the Linux thread later.

So yeah, all in all, not terribly impressive!

[Reese Riverson]

And what sort of mod would I be if I double-posted?

Anyway…
[...]

But that edit button! Though if you had double posted, I'd blame Master for being a bad influence.


Sounds like you've done a lot there though!

As for me, I need to post pictures of the HTPC I recently built, since my goal for it was for gaming as well, yet silent peformance. Worked out pretty well, I'll list the specs later. Either on this post or a new one when responded to. Basically it runs Windows 8.1, though I had thought about running Linux on it too, at some point.


Future upgrades... And plans for my own entertainment system... The home theater system itself still can use some upgrades, even though the absolute best upgrade in my whole system was when I got the Othorns in, but they can definitely use more power. I'm thinking of getting a couple of Crest CC5500 amps, so I'm going from 2400/2500 watts of power each to 5,500 watts each. Which will yield a total headroom increase of 6.8dB of max output. Though if I really wanted, I could get the IPAL versions of the 21" B&C drivers, then a single SpeakerPower 12,000 watt class D amp (rather than two 5,500 watt class H amps)and gain about 4dB more on top of that previous figure of total output increase.

Unfortunately that is a lot more money, since the IPAL versions of my drivers are literally double the cost of each of my current drivers. I wish I hadn't missed the sale... Then of course the SpeakerPower amp would cost $2,650 by itself.

Though I feel more ready to upgrade the infrasonics of my system by adding that same amp paired with four 21" incriminator audio judge drivers, which would run $700 a piece, with a pair in a dual opposed configuration each,

Though currently I don't see that happening anytime soon.


What is more near future is my own acoustic panels, which two are made up which are on the back wall, using custom printed fabric with my character Reese on them. The panels that'll go up on the rest of the walls will just use black fabric. All with mineral wool in them. 3" thick up front.

[incognito]

I sure hope for your house that you don't put the volume of your amps on "max" cause I don't think anything would be able to withstand such a power.

That would be a good April fool's day joke now I come to think about it .

[Reese Riverson]

Nah, no possibility of a slight overload in the amplification like there was in Doc Brown's amp.

Anyway, I'm going through the Dolby Atmos installation manual: https://www.dolby.com/us/en/technologie ... elines.pdf

Since I'll be changing the surround sound portion a bit, I'm going to focus on proper placement. Mostly the rear backs are what's off. Since they were mounted up high on the back wall.

Currently the side surrounds are the Volt 10 coaxials, the rear back are Volt 6 coaxials, and then the top front and top rear height (atmos) channels are KEF HTS3001SE.

Plans are to get Volt 10s for rear backs, with the same ported enclosures of my existing pair, then get another pair of Volt 6 and change the KEFs out for the Volt 6. Should make for a really nice improvement for this portion.

Only major expense on future upgrades will be the subwoofer system. I've got a lead on some nice dual opposed enclosures for the 21" Incriminator Audio Judge drivers, which I would go for two enclosures. Four 21" subwoofers to go along with my current four 18" subwoofers. I could go eight 21s for infrasonics, but the expense is so great for little improvement. It'll be at least another $6,000 for probably a few dB increase.

Physics come into play when it comes to audio, and basically if you take one subwoofer, and simply add another with no additional power, it's a 3dB gain. If you add a second subwoofer with additional power, then it's a 6dB gain. You have to double up every time to gain 6dB. So 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, etc. There are various ways to achieve certain goals, and it's mostly what your target frequency is or what size setup you could fit.

Basically it's a matter of choosing vented vs sealed enclosures. Vented, you can tune to a particular frequency, though the lower the frequency, the bigger the enclosure must be. Though generally you could net 10 ~ 14dB higher around tuning frequency vs what the same driver could do sealed. Though you will need a highpass filter to prevent over excursion of the driver below tuning, because that's when it unloads and loses control quickly.

Just many advantages and disadvantages really, advantage of sealed is I will never need a highpass filter, but I can dig down into the single digits on the frequency range. Though to achieve a high output, one would need a lot of drivers and a lot of power.


Also that blasted Hunchman has failed to post his picture of his own entertainment system.

[incognito]

Hood, if I come around your area, remind me to bring a Star Wars or Matrix DVD to watch it with that sound.
I'll probably post my entertainment sytem later but the problem is that I have more than one.
3 to be accurate.

[Ray502]

My entertainment system is kinda lousy, especially when compared to Hood's.

Which reminds me, I need to post mine soon.

[Reese Riverson]

Which reminds me, I need to post mine soon.

Yes, or I'll name you as lazy as Hunchman is.

[Ambidextroid]

I've been thinking about getting a SNES which might encourage me to finish some of the games I've started in the past and forgotten about. Anyone got one here and know the general price of the console and games and the like?

[NyaNyaLily]

I've been thinking about getting a SNES which might encourage me to finish some of the games I've started in the past and forgotten about. Anyone got one here and know the general price of the console and games and the like?

I don't own one, but I know that they're pretty pricey in Europe; with one controller they cost around 60€ (and that's WITHOUT GAMES).

So if you want one:
[youtube]ULeDlxa3gyc[/youtube]

[Reese Riverson]

Volt 10 and 6 kits arrived today, so I've already began to assemble the cabinets with brad nailer and wood glue. So hopefully tomorrow I can begin using some filler to smooth out the edges, sand it, and have them done this weekend.

I really can't wait to get everything done and in place and re-calibrate the system with having the rear-back channels upgrades and the top front and top rear channels upgraded.

[Hunchman801]

Here's the photo.

Nowhere as cool as Hoodcom's or Pirez's, but there's a PS2, Wii, PS3, PS4, Apple TV and sound system (if you can call it that after seeing Hoodcom's). Everything's plugged in and ready for use.