Home Cinema
I've been into home cinema for a few years now, managing to build up a reasonable level of hardware. The current setup is detailed below, it's undergone quite a few changes over the years.Current Setup
| Component | Purchased | Notes | |
| Television | Philips 42PFP5532D | Oct 2007 | A 42" Plasma screen, and my first foray into the world of HD. |
| Amplifier | Sony STR-DB940 | March 2001 | A reasonable 5.1ch DD/DTS Amp. The only thing it lacks is Prologic-II (it didn't exist when the Amp was released). |
| DVD | Pioneer DV-747A | October 2002 | A fantastic player. I picked it up towards the end of it's shelf-life with a 33% discount. It does everything I need at the moment, and more. It goes without saying that it's multi-region capable. Also used for SACD and DVD-A. |
| Blu-Ray | Sony PS3 | April 2008 | A very good Blu-Ray player, a good DVD player, and apparently it can be used to play games as well. |
| PVR | Thomson TiVo PVR10UK | June 2002 | TiVo. What can I say? It will change your life. |
| Video | Sony SLV-SE700 | April 2001 | A good but cheap NICAM video. Doesn't get much use other than recording things for friends, and occasionally playing a pre-recorded tape. |
| Digital TV | Pace 2500 Sky Digital decoder | April 2000 | It does the job. I can't get digital-terrestrial here, we can't even get Channel5 (this may be seen as a good thing), so Sky is the only real option. |
| CD Player | Yamaha CDX-496 | March 2001 | A reasonable player for the £80 I paid for it. At some point I'll replace it with something better. |
| MD Recorder | Sony MDS-JE470 | March 2002 | Mainly used to record MD's for my Sony MZ-R500 portable player. |
| Turntable | Dual CS 503-2 | April 2003 | Used to belong to my uncle, not used in anger yet. It's mainly to let me transfer some old vinyl to MD or CD (when I get a CD-R). |
| Games Console | Microsoft XBox | December 2003 | "Enhanced" with a Xecuter 2.3b Lite+ modchip and a 40GB HD instead of the stock 8GB. Used to play games and for AV playback through the tv and amp. |
| MP3 playback | Apple Airport Express | January 2008 | A replacement for an aging PC. |
| Speakers Left/Right |
Mission M74 | November 2002 | Bought second hand via ebay. Very pleased with them so far. Currently sat on granite plinths. |
| Speakers Centre |
Mission M7C2 | February 2003 | Bought secondhand to replace a Mission M7C1 as it is a better match for the M74's. It sounds much fuller than the M7C1, and that isn't just down to new-toy syndrome. Sat on Auralex MoPADS |
| Speakers Rear |
Mission 70 | March 2001 | Purchased as part of a Mission Cinema 6 pack. Small, reasonable performance. Fine for their role of rear speakers. These are mounted high on the side walls using the proper Mission M70 speaker brackets. |
| Speakers Sub |
Velodyne CHT-15 | January 2003 | Bought from Cinema Experience through the AV Forums Power buys. It's bloody massive, and bloody fantastic. It's possibly overkill for my room, a CHT-10 would have sufficed, however I can't see a need to ever replace it. Currently sat on two strips of Auralex PlatFoam.. |
| Speaker Cable | Cable Talk - Talk 3.1 (fronts and centre) | This came from Richersounds. A reasonably well reviewed cable, connected at the Amp end with Shark banana plugs, and at the speaker end with Gale BFA/Banana plugs. The cable is of a flat profile, and isn't the most flexible cable in the world, which makes it tricky to keep the banana plugs in place sometimes. | |
| Europa 2x2.5mm (rears) | November 2002 | Bought from Studiospares, this is a cheap, well made cable. Nice and flexible, and housed within a circular outer sheathing which makes it easy to route through the floor. It's connected at the Amp end with Shark Banana plugs, and with bare wire at the speaker end (they won't accept banana plugs). I'd certainly recommend this cable to people on a budget, especially as it works out at around 80p per meter delivered. | |
| Maplin hi-fi speaker cable | February 2003 | Made up in short (10cm ish) double-run lengths with Shark banana plugs and used to replace the jumper-bars on the bi-wirable Mission M74's and M7C2. | |
| Profigold PGV6035 (sub) | January 2003 | Bought with the Velodyne CHT-15, it's a single 5m RCA->RCA although I'm using a pair of them. | |
| Audio Interconnects | Cambridge Audio Pearl and Atlantic phono | Picked up in Richersounds. Atlantic is their basic interconnect, Pearl is the next level up. These are used for DVD (stereo and 5.1 channel), TiVo, Sky, and VHS. | |
| B-Tech XA23 phono | 5m long interconnects, one used for the CD, two used for the MD. | ||
| Cambridge Audio digital coax | I can't see the point in expensive digital coax cable (it's all 1's and 0's at the end of the day). This is a well made but reasonable cheap 70ohm cable used to connect the DVD to the Amp. | ||
| Cambridge Audio optical | Used to connect the CD directly to the MD for recording. | ||
| Video Interconnects | Canare V3-4CFB Component cable | January 2008 | Used to connect the DVD player to the TV to maximize performance. Purchase from Mark Grant Cables |
| B-Tech XV21R ribbon Scart | June 2002 | A flat ribbon SCART lead, used to connect the digibox to the TiVo, and the TiVo to the DVD. Chosen mainly for it's ease of connection to the TiVo as the cable is not offset, and the three TiVo sockets are a little cramped. | |
| Cambridge Audio Scart | A cheap gold-plated, fully-wired SCART lead, used to connect the video to the TiVo | ||
| Remote | Philips Pronto RU940 | November 2002 | A fantastic, fully programmable remote. This one unit replaces 8 previous remotes. It's not fully programmed yet, but does most things I need at the moment. |
Previous kit
| Component | Notes |
| Philips 32PW6506 | This was bought in Jan 2003 to replace my previous Thomson which was "written-off" due to an incurable picture rotation problem. The Philips is a flat-screen 32" widescreen. The first one was returned due to a pink tinge to the picture when fed an RGB signal from my DVD player, the replacement seems to be fine. |
| Samsung 709 DVD Player | Originally bought in Feb 2000 using the bonus I received for having to work New Years Eve 1999/2000. Replaced by the Pioneer DV-747A and given to my parents. I think my brother has it now. |
| Videologic Digitheatre | Replaced by the Sony STR-DB940 and the Mission Cinema 6 Pack. |
| Eltax C205 | Relegated to the spare room and connected to the comuter. |
| Mission Cinema 6 Pack | Originally I used all 5 Mission 70 speakers and the sub for all AV use, and used the Eltax C205's for music use. After a while I took the L&R Mission speakers out and used just the Eltax. I stuck with the 3 Missions and the Eltax for about a year before adding a second Mission 70 to the front-center channel. This stayed for a couple of months before both center speakers were replaced with a Mission M7C1 dedicated center. Two of the spare Mission 70's are with my parents, the other suffered gravity related damage. The sub was replaced with a Velodyne CHT-15 and now has a new home with my cousin after being swapped for a turntable. |
| Goodmans 28" 4:3 TV | A Daewoo GB2898ST rebranded as a Goodmans. Replaced by the 32" widescreen Thomson and sold to my parents to replace their TV which had just failed. |
| Thomson 32WR25UG | Written-off by Comet due to their inability to get the parts required to rotate the picture. I had it for seven months and got a full refund of the purchase cost from Comet. I took the opportunity to add another £200 or so and got a Philips 6506 flat-screen TV. |
| Mission M7C1 | Replaced by a Mission M7C2, but may well get used as a center rear if I move to a 6.1 setup. |
Most of the AV kit is held in an Ikea TV stand, the name of which eludes me at the moment, however it's not in the 2003 Ikea catalogue. The CD and MD are sat to one side on an AVF HF40 stand. Most of the kit sits on bodgetastic rubber feet to isolate from vibrations.
Current upgrade plans are undefined as I'm reasonably happy with the current setup. A more thorough upgrade is to move to active speakers such as Behringer Truths, Dynaudio BM6A's, or something from Genelec or Mackie. A 6.1 or 7.1 Amp is a possibility, although the move to active speakers would allow the use of a processor rather than an amp. 6.1 is more likely than 7.1 purely due to space constraints. Any rear speakers would have to be mounted above sliding doors, and hence very close to the ceiling, and also virtually directly above the normal seating position.
Currently I have something in the region of 260 DVD's and 60 VHS tapes. For the terminally bored, you can even see a list of them here.
How to access the Thomson 32WR25UG Service Menu
This may work for other Thomson TV's as well.- Turn the TV on
- Put the TV into standby using the remote control
- Press and hold PR- and VOL- on the front of the TV then press and hold the power button on the remote. The TV should turn on after about 3 seconds
- Bob's yer aunties live-in-lover