The Home Ownership Thread

[venividivicibj]

Nice tv but no projectors because?

they watch tv in the daytime too?

 

[beargonefishing]

I have a 7.2 setup, and refuse to get a soundbar because I want to feel better about my decision, and reaffirm that I am correct.

 

[greekgeek]

Does no one else still have several speakers? We have inwall left/right, inwall sound bar, remote sub, and in ceiling rear left/right

I upgraded the ol 5.1 speakers to JBL recently. Will probably upgrade to more if/when basement set up gets going but these already take up a good deal of space.

Tried soundbars and while they sound good, still no substitute IMO.

 

[otc]

Does no one else still have several speakers? We have inwall left/right, inwall sound bar, remote sub, and in ceiling rear left/right

When I moved to my current place, the layout wasn't conducive to the 5.1 setup (and rental, so not doing in-ceiling rears)...and I wanted to try a cleaner setup as I also didn't have a great spot for the floor standing fronts.

But I also have a good Denon receiver and most soundbars kinda suck when it comes to swapping around a bunch of inputs and managing input delay and other issues. (and they just suck in terms of quality because they are too thin and plastic)

So I tracked down a Def Tech "Passive Soundbar": https://hometheaterreview.com/definitive-technology-mythos-ssa-50-sound-bar/
It takes the 5.1 inputs from the receiver--true distinct center/left/right and fake bounced surround but has the form factor of a soundbar.
Unlike a normal soundbar, it uses legit high-end speaker drivers, and it has a decent amount of cabinet size to not sound tinny. Was an $1100 speaker when it was released in 2009 (which is like $1600 today) and none of that budget was spent on soundbar/HDMI electronics. But because of its larger size and the receiver requirement, I don't think they are popular today because they aren't thin enough to wall mount under an ultra-thin TV...so you can pick them up in good condition pretty cheap.

It fits in the "center channel/soundbar" shelf of my TV cabinet that you can sort of see here:

The front panel is a mesh backed with speaker cloth so it is audio-transparent and lets remote control signals through. Receiver, streaming box, HTPC, Nintendo, and router/modem all live in there too. There's a subwoofer on the other side of it to provide real bass.

I think it sounds pretty fantastic and I don't miss the bigger speakers at all for music or TV use. I suppose it would be nice to have true surround sound again, but honestly I don't care all that much and it is kind of nice to have nothing exposed in the living room.

And to @jbarwick's point, this preserves the ability to add a few dB boost to the center channel to bring out dialogue if necessary (or to use the fancy features some receivers have for "dialogue enhancement" or "midnight mode" sound levelling)

 

[gettoasty]

they watch tv in the daytime too?

I figured as much. Such luxury that me working folk don’t have 😆

 

[Omega Male]

Went through the AV enthusiast stage about a decade ago, with the basement theater, projector, giant floorstanding speakers and multiple subs. It was a hassle and -- after all the geeking out -- we didn't really use it that much. Now I just want simplicity and no cables and gear out in the room. Apple TV plus Sonos lets you control everything through the one little Apple remote and it takes less than a minute to pair up, after which it all "just works." Sound is good enough -- definitely spring for at least one wireless sub.

 

[otc]

Ease of use (or the so called "wife acceptance factor") is a major feature. Also if you have guests, not needing to leave them a 12 page manual for how to watch an episode of Emily in Paris.

I have my system to where it can *almost* be entirely controlled by the nvidia shield pro remote, including audio volume:

But it can't power the system on/off or switch inputs. In theory I think you can do that, but HDMI-CEC is a really flawed standard in practice and when things break it has hard to get everything fixed.

So you still have to use a normal remote to turn the TV and receiver on/off or change inputs (although that's pretty rare--the Shield does almost everything). Kind of annoying, but my wife gets it. Also sometimes it is nice having two remotes that can at least do some control (like volume)...one on either side of the couch.

 

[sugarbutch]

Went through the AV enthusiast stage about a decade ago, with the basement theater, projector, giant floorstanding speakers and multiple subs. It was a hassle and -- after all the geeking out -- we didn't really use it that much. Now I just want simplicity and no cables and gear out in the room. Apple TV plus Sonos lets you control everything through the one little Apple remote and it takes less than a minute to pair up, after which it all "just works." Sound is good enough -- definitely spring for at least one wireless sub.

My only gripe with my small-timer version of this setup is that sometimes the Apple TV doesn’t successfully send the power off signal via HDMI or IR to the television, so I have to find the TV remote to turn it off. It worked flawlessly initially, but now it’s a crapshoot.

 

[Texasmade]

My only gripe with my small-timer version of this setup is that sometimes the Apple TV doesn’t successfully send the power off signal via HDMI or IR to the television, so I have to find the TV remote to turn it off. It worked flawlessly initially, but now it’s a crapshoot.

The horrors of having to use 2 remotes!

 

[beargonefishing]

The good news for all you soundbar stans is that it won't affect the quality of all your Chumbawamba Playlists.

 

[Texasmade]

The good news for all you soundbar stans is that it won't affect the quality of all your Chumbawamba Playlists.

Kris Kross is awesome on the soundbar.

 

[otc]

I actually did have it down to a true single-remote setup back when my A/V setup was much more complicated. The benefit of running everything off an HTPC instead of some little walled-garden device was that it was fully customizable--you could even have the HTPC send signals to other devices (like smart lights or shades) on its own since ultimately it was just a computer.

The downsides were that the remote was slightly more complex to use than the things you get with a streaming device and that all of that customization took time and effort. Programming remotes is not a user-friendly task...especially if you want to add extreme levels of customization.

Logitech tried to make it user-friendly with the Harmony remotes, but I found they always struggled to keep track of the devices. Pro A/V installers probably did enough programming that it became second-nature, but even then it always seemed like high end custom installs started to fall apart and behave poorly after a couple years and people would revert to a stack of remotes.

The good news for all you soundbar stans is that it won't affect the quality of all your Chumbawamba Playlists.

You don't have this banger on all your playlists?

 

[HRoi]

The good news for all you soundbar stans is that it won't affect the quality of all your Chumbawamba Playlists.

Great. Now some fukker is gonna post Chumbawamba videos

Edit: too late!

 

[bicycleradical]

I actually did have it down to a true single-remote setup back when my A/V setup was much more complicated. The benefit of running everything off an HTPC instead of some little walled-garden device was that it was fully customizable--you could even have the HTPC send signals to other devices (like smart lights or shades) on its own since ultimately it was just a computer.

The downsides were that the remote was slightly more complex to use than the things you get with a streaming device and that all of that customization took time and effort. Programming remotes is not a user-friendly task...especially if you want to add extreme levels of customization.

Logitech tried to make it user-friendly with the Harmony remotes, but I found they always struggled to keep track of the devices. Pro A/V installers probably did enough programming that it became second-nature, but even then it always seemed like high end custom installs started to fall apart and behave poorly after a couple years and people would revert to a stack of remotes.


You don't have this banger on all your playlists?

I like this one better:

 

[beargonefishing]

Ngl I didn't realize cumbawamba had more than one song. I need a delousing.