Dolby & THX here we come!
holy cow, I actually got the sound system hooked up yesterday!
: )
I hooked up the speakers on Sunday after we got home from the hotel - the contractor had run the speaker wires under the floor for me but the kids & I had to trace each line and determine L & R for each so that I could attach them to the receiver properly.
Monday, I sat down with all of the various schematics and tried to figure them out. What I couldn't understand (listen, I am *SO* not an audiophile. I haven't got a clue, other than common sense, how to do this) was (and here my common sense failed me briefly) why on earth were the Component cables & yellow RCA cables (all VIDEO btw!) supposed to go through the reciever and then on to the TV. Hello? Isn't the receiver supposed to be a piece of AUDIO equipment? So why do I have to run all of the video wires through it? Besides which, although the receiver sports a very impressive array of hook up possibilities in the back, I didn't want to have to lay out another $240 for a 2 meter piece of Monster Component Cable, my 1 meter piece only being long enough to reach the back of the TV (and that barely) and not over to the receiver. (why did they sell me an f-ing 1 meter cable when my tv is 42"??? Bastards. by the time I discovered it was too short it was too late to change it. But I digress.)
Anyway, I left the video hook ups as they were and just ran the audio through the receiver. Once the hook-ups were done (and cross fingers that it's right and nothing goes boom! when you turn it on) I did the speaker & receiver set up. This is where you tell the receiver how far from the listener each speaker is placed and stuff like that. And when it's all done the receiver does a Tone Test (very cool) where it sends a tone to each speaker in turn so that you can adjust the volume if necessary. dd#2 & I liked the sub woofer test the best.
: D
It sounded like the vibration from Niagara Falls. Without the noise. Or the wet.
And presto! it was done.
We tested some dvds on it. Serenity was fun - the entry into atmosphere at the very beginning was totally cool. Matrix was disappointing, I'll have to look into parts II & III to see if they sound any better. Lion King was really good. You can hear the thud of the elephant's feet (gotta love that sub woofer!) as they walk across the plain. But Master & Commander & Pirates of the Carribean were the best. You can hear the creak of the wood and when the cannons go boom... very cool.
tee-hee! Now that was fun!!
btw: I figured out why you would want to run the video cables through the receiver - we have a rogers cable clicker, a tv clicker (to change from cable to dvd etc.), a dvd clicker, a vcr clicker and now a receiver clicker. They're breeding. Running all the cables through the receiver would eliminate 3 clickers from the herd. Maybe later.
: )
I hooked up the speakers on Sunday after we got home from the hotel - the contractor had run the speaker wires under the floor for me but the kids & I had to trace each line and determine L & R for each so that I could attach them to the receiver properly.
Monday, I sat down with all of the various schematics and tried to figure them out. What I couldn't understand (listen, I am *SO* not an audiophile. I haven't got a clue, other than common sense, how to do this) was (and here my common sense failed me briefly) why on earth were the Component cables & yellow RCA cables (all VIDEO btw!) supposed to go through the reciever and then on to the TV. Hello? Isn't the receiver supposed to be a piece of AUDIO equipment? So why do I have to run all of the video wires through it? Besides which, although the receiver sports a very impressive array of hook up possibilities in the back, I didn't want to have to lay out another $240 for a 2 meter piece of Monster Component Cable, my 1 meter piece only being long enough to reach the back of the TV (and that barely) and not over to the receiver. (why did they sell me an f-ing 1 meter cable when my tv is 42"??? Bastards. by the time I discovered it was too short it was too late to change it. But I digress.)
Anyway, I left the video hook ups as they were and just ran the audio through the receiver. Once the hook-ups were done (and cross fingers that it's right and nothing goes boom! when you turn it on) I did the speaker & receiver set up. This is where you tell the receiver how far from the listener each speaker is placed and stuff like that. And when it's all done the receiver does a Tone Test (very cool) where it sends a tone to each speaker in turn so that you can adjust the volume if necessary. dd#2 & I liked the sub woofer test the best.
: D
It sounded like the vibration from Niagara Falls. Without the noise. Or the wet.
And presto! it was done.
We tested some dvds on it. Serenity was fun - the entry into atmosphere at the very beginning was totally cool. Matrix was disappointing, I'll have to look into parts II & III to see if they sound any better. Lion King was really good. You can hear the thud of the elephant's feet (gotta love that sub woofer!) as they walk across the plain. But Master & Commander & Pirates of the Carribean were the best. You can hear the creak of the wood and when the cannons go boom... very cool.
tee-hee! Now that was fun!!
btw: I figured out why you would want to run the video cables through the receiver - we have a rogers cable clicker, a tv clicker (to change from cable to dvd etc.), a dvd clicker, a vcr clicker and now a receiver clicker. They're breeding. Running all the cables through the receiver would eliminate 3 clickers from the herd. Maybe later.