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Q I am in the process of putting together a home theater system. I
read your website on a regular basis, and find the information very helpful. Can
you provide some guidelines on how my home theater budget should be spent?
Should I allocate 40% to speakers, 30% to display, and 30% to
receiver/processor/amp? What components would you recommend if my budget were
$5,000 or $10,000? Panasonic PT-L300U Digital Projector - $1,900 90" (diagonal) Wall Mounted Screen, 1.0 Gain - $1,000 Denon DVD-1600 DVD Player - $500 Onkyo TX-SR800 Surround Sound Receiver - $1,000 Outlaw Audio 770 Seven Channel (200 watts per channel) Power Amplifier - $1,800 Paradigm Monitor 5 Bookshelf Speakers - $1,000 (four) Paradigm CC-370 Center Channel Speaker - $350 Velodyne HGS-15 Subwoofer - $2,800 Total Price - $10,350 These are all list prices, so figure on being able to find most products for about 10% less than list. Tax and cables will make it about $10,000. T Q I have both a DVD-audio player and a SACD player, but my receiver only has one 5.1 input. Right now I have to switch the cables back and forth between the players depending upon what I want to listen to. How can I connect both at the same time? A You need a switcher, but 5.1 switchers are expensive. Get a set of three stereo switchers at Radio Shack and that will let you switch a total of six RCA inputs, which covers all the 5.1 connections. T
Q I am in the market for a
universal player and was disappointed the Denon 2900 did not do better in your
recent tests. Are you planning on testing any of the higher-end units like the
Lexicon RT-10? Maybe I should just bag multi-channel SACD and pick up a
two-channel SACD player instead. Your thoughts? T
Q I have a Yamaha Mini
Component System GX-70. Nothing happens when I touch the "change disc" button or
the "open drawer" button. The display says "Mecha Er", so what do I do? I
understand that means mechanical error, so what is the problem? T
Q I just bought a Samsung HLN 617 W DLP rear
projection TV. When I play a DVD movie with my Pioneer Elite DV-47Ai DVD player
I notice in the shadow areas there are posterization problems. I connect the TV
with the DVD player by component cables. Is this problem from the TV or from the
player? They are both brand new products.
MPEG compression artifacts may also be to blame. Also, when you input an analog
signal into a digital device, and it does A/D conversion, unless the 0 IRE and
100 IRE are correct at the player's output, and the A/D converter sees the same
levels as full black and full white, there's either going to be some clipping on
top or bottom (if the analog output from the player exceeds the range of the A/D
converter on either side) or a loss of video resolution. So, you're only getting
7 or even 6 bits of gray scale resolution (when the player's range doesn't meet
that accommodated by the A/D converter). Lastly, if you don't set brightness and contrast just right with a digital display, especially if the video decoder is 8 bit, you can get this problem (posterization). T
Q I have a Yamaha home
theater in a box system. I recently purchased a bigger subwoofer. The connection
for a subwoofer on the amplifier is only a positive and negative wire. The new
subwoofer has an input plug and four input and output wire connections. What is
the best way to connect the subwoofer to the amplifier? T
Q What is your opinion on LCD vs. plasma for flat
panel displays? T
Q Good grief, what is the problem with the new
universal player from Denon (2900)? It looks like a gem to me. I was just about
to buy it this weekend, until I saw that ambiguous bomb you dropped in the Q&A
about this player. I don't mean to pressure you, but I have to know if there is
a good reason not to buy this player. I thought for sure it would be killer with
my new 60" Sony GWII XBR.
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