Home audio/home theater

[Obscured By Clouds]

Didn't see a thread, even did a search, but there has to be other audiophiles on here.

My current, but ever evolving, set up is:

Anthem MRX720 receiver
HSU Research VTF-2 MK5 subwoofer
Salk Sound Song Tower QWT mains, center and surrounds. If you are not familiar with Salk Sound, they are custom built speakers to order. Mine are in curly maple and went with them not being stained.
I also have Elac atmos modules on my main tower.

For streaming I have an Xbox One X and nVidia sheild.

TV is a Vizio M65 with all current HDR support and in 4k(couple model years old). I also purchased the software and hardware and took the time to calibrate the picture, and it is simply stunning what these M series Vizio's are picture quality wise at their price point once calibrated.

 

[Out of the Rafters at the Q]

Remind me to get back to this thread.

 

[The Human Q-Tip]

Didn't see a thread, even did a search, but there has to be other audiophiles on here.

My current, but ever evolving, set up is:

Anthem MRX720 receiver
HSU Research VTF-2 MK5 subwoofer
Salk Sound Song Tower QWT mains, center and surrounds. If you are not familiar with Salk Sound, they are custom built speakers to order. Mine are in curly maple and went with them not being stained.
I also have Elac atmos modules on my main tower.

For streaming I have an Xbox One X and nVidia sheild.

TV is a Vizio M65 with all current HDR support and in 4k(couple model years old). I also purchased the software and hardware and took the time to calibrate the picture, and it is simply stunning what these M series Vizio's are picture quality wise at their price point once calibrated.

I'm curious -- with high-end speakers/receiver/subwooker like that, what are your input devices? Do you only stream (and if so, which formats) or do you use anything else?

 

[Cavsfan1985]

I have invested into Sonos over the past few years. I know for the money you probably can buy stuff that sounds a little better, but the ease of use and ability to have everything sync up is amazing.

Living room - Playbar with sub and 2 sonos ones as rear speakers.
Office - Play 5
Kitchen - Play One with Alexa
Bedroom - Play 5
Outside Deck - Amp with Klipsch Outdoor Speakers
Garage - Amp hooked up to an older stereo system

The part I love the most is when you are having a party or people over to watch sports. You can have the same music playing in all the rooms and it syncs perfect, or for a sporting event, will often have it play the sound of the game on all of the speakers vs the tvs to keep everything in sync.

 

[Obscured By Clouds]

I'm curious -- with high-end speakers/receiver/subwooker like that, what are your input devices? Do you only stream (and if so, which formats) or do you use anything else?

XBox One S was for 4k/HDR blurays and 4k/HDR streaming. Added the nVidia shield for 4k/HDR streaming, but probably getting rid of it as the XBox supports all HDR formats and shield does not support Dolby Vision. I recently swapped out the Xbox One S for the X that I no longer use to game with and sold the S.

For audio, Anthem supports DTS Play-Fi, which I use with Spotify. I used to use a SqueezeBox Touch, before Logitech killed it and the second hand market exploded and I sold it for 3x what I bought it new for.

Had Audio-Technica had their warehouse sale last December, I would have added one of their turntables, and possibly one of their higher end cartridges if they had them. Currently up in the air between a few different turntables from A-T, Musical Hall and Pro-Ject.

 

[The Human Q-Tip]

XBox One S was for 4k/HDR blurays and 4k/HDR streaming. Added the nVidia shield for 4k/HDR streaming, but probably getting rid of it as the XBox supports all HDR formats and shield does not support Dolby Vision. I recently swapped out the Xbox One S for the X that I no longer use to game with and sold the S.

For audio, Anthem supports DTS Play-Fi, which I use with Spotify. I used to use a SqueezeBox Touch, before Logitech killed it and the second hand market exploded and I sold it for 3x what I bought it new for.

Had Audio-Technica had their warehouse sale last December, I would have added one of their turntables, and possibly one of their higher end cartridges if they had them. Currently up in the air between a few different turntables from A-T, Musical Hall and Pro-Ject.

Ah, got it. I was hoping you didn't have that great setup only to play MP3's.....

Kind of sad that so many people only hear music that compressed.

 

[Obscured By Clouds]

Ah, got it. I was hoping you didn't have that great setup only to play MP3's.....

Kind of sad that so many people only hear music that compressed.

I have all my old CD's ripped in lossless FLAC. Sadly, CD's are not really a thing anymore, so the best I can do is Spotify.

 

[Out of the Rafters at the Q]

Source: Plex server in attic. Currently all movies just got encoded to HEVC, now churning through TV--which will probably take close to a year and a half. Source files vary, with the lowest quality being 2GB yify 1080p encodes, the highest being 4k blu-ray remux (some TV shows and movies may be in lower quality if they haven't been released in HD). All audio encodes should be AAC.
10GB/s ethernet to a Cisco switch
Roku Ultra on each screen in the house
Movie Theater:
Integra receiver to
Video: Mitsubishi Projector
Audio: Rotel amp to 7.1 Martin Logan system

Main room:
Denon receiver to
Video: Vizio 65"
Audio: 2 Paradigm Mini Monitor V5's that I've just fallen in love with. I know I should go to full-standing speakers, a center channel, move these back to being surrounds, and get a woofer, but my wife doesn't want all that equipment in the family room, and I just really like the way these speakers sound.

 

[Obscured By Clouds]

Update to my setup: dropped Spotify for Tidal HiFi, and the quality is so good that all of my ripped FLAC CD's are, well, no longer needed. I'm just about ready to delete them.

I tried the Amazon Music Ulra HD, but the app sucks. It's just that simple.

Tidal app is very clean and user friendly.

Tidal will be more money than Amazon HD Ultra, but I'll pay up for the user interface

Also flipped out my nVidia Shield for the new model, as it supports all the HDR formats.

 

[Obscured By Clouds]

Source: Plex server in attic. Currently all movies just got encoded to HEVC, now churning through TV--which will probably take close to a year and a half. Source files vary, with the lowest quality being 2GB yify 1080p encodes, the highest being 4k blu-ray remux (some TV shows and movies may be in lower quality if they haven't been released in HD). All audio encodes should be AAC.
10GB/s ethernet to a Cisco switch
Roku Ultra on each screen in the house
Movie Theater:
Integra receiver to
Video: Mitsubishi Projector
Audio: Rotel amp to 7.1 Martin Logan system

Main room:
Denon receiver to
Video: Vizio 65"
Audio: 2 Paradigm Mini Monitor V5's that I've just fallen in love with. I know I should go to full-standing speakers, a center channel, move these back to being surrounds, and get a woofer, but my wife doesn't want all that equipment in the family room, and I just really like the way these speakers sound.

I have the Mini V.6's in my sun room(well, not now since winter). I have them hooked up to a Pioneer Elite integrated 2 channel stereo amp. Will be adding a Phorus PR5 Receiver come next spring for streaming with DTS Play-fi. Had I not gone the custom speaker route for my home system, Paradigm's would have been my choice.

BTW, in Canada, they discount Paradigm speakers and Anthem products. Here in the US you'd be lucky to get a few hundred off, up there, you can get the MRX1120($3,500 MSRP) for the price of a MRX720($2,500 MSRP).

 

[Out of the Rafters at the Q]

I have the Mini V.6's in my sun room(well, not now since winter). I have them hooked up to a Pioneer Elite integrated 2 channel stereo amp. Will be adding a Phorus PR5 Receiver come next spring for streaming with DTS Play-fi. Had I not gone the custom speaker route for my home system, Paradigm's would have been my choice.

BTW, in Canada, they discount Paradigm speakers and Anthem products. Here in the US you'd be lucky to get a few hundred off, up there, you can get the MRX1120($3,500 MSRP) for the price of a MRX720($2,500 MSRP).

Btw, all those HEVC conversions finished a couple months ago. I overestimated how long it would take. For some reason, one worker wouldn't max out the dual Xeons in my server, so I was able to run multiple encodes at once.

I've been on a little bit of a headphone kick lately, flipping back and forth between my HD 6XX's and the new Drop Panda THX. They're both awesome for what they are.

 

[Sebastian]

I have invested into Sonos over the past few years. I know for the money you probably can buy stuff that sounds a little better, but the ease of use and ability to have everything sync up is amazing.

Living room - Playbar with sub and 2 sonos ones as rear speakers.
Office - Play 5
Kitchen - Play One with Alexa
Bedroom - Play 5
Outside Deck - Amp with Klipsch Outdoor Speakers
Garage - Amp hooked up to an older stereo system

The part I love the most is when you are having a party or people over to watch sports. You can have the same music playing in all the rooms and it syncs perfect, or for a sporting event, will often have it play the sound of the game on all of the speakers vs the tvs to keep everything in sync.

We went Sonos. Bar and two Songs Ones. Sounds amazing. High quality.

Adding the subwoofer in early 2021.

 

[Cavsfan1985]

We went Sonos. Bar and two Songs Ones. Sounds amazing. High quality.

Adding the subwoofer in early 2021.

It is an amazing system. I have gone all in on Sonos. Waiting to hit get a commission check and want to upgrade to the Arc in my living room.
Current Set Up:
Living room:
PlayBar, Sub, 2 play 1’s for the rear speakers

Office:
Play 5
Bedroom:
Beam
Kitchen:
Sonos One wAlexa
Garage:
Sonos Move
Backyard:
(2) of the Amps connect to 4 speakers
Dinning Room
Sonos One

The part I love outside the sound quality is how easy it is to use, and how well it syncs. When we had guests over(pre Covid) being able to sync up music through out the house was awesome. Same when we would host for a big football game, being able to have the game sounds throughout the house.

 

[FiveThous]

Looking at getting a 4k tv this weekend, does a 4k hdmi cable really make that much if a difference?

 

[Out of the Rafters at the Q]

Looking at getting a 4k tv this weekend, does a 4k hdmi cable really make that much if a difference?

You need an HDMI cable that can carry the signal you want.

I believe if you want anything over 4K/60Hz, you need HDMI 2.1