What's up from Connecticut

[kaidomac]

Oh come on, I had to break from the usual "hi" and "hello" titles

I'm Dave and I am a big-time computer nerd who has gotten bored of computers lately. I recently switched to Macs and discovered that my computers don't have any more problems to fix, so I decided to jump into DIY Hi-Fi/Home Theater stuff. My first two projects were the Dayton BR-1s stereo speaker kit from Parts Express (2005) and the Dayton 10" Titanic MKIII subwoofer (2006). I'm currently building a pair of Goldenboys from a Parts Express design for use with my outdoor home theater (snagged a 12' Gremmy inflatable projector screen from Wal-mart recently). These will be my first 100% from-scratch audio project so I'm pretty excited! I have to admit that I'm not much of an audiophile, however. My Logitech speakers sound about as good to me as my Dayton BR-1s. AVS Forum can be a little overwhelming in that regard, so I'm excited to be a part of these forums now! I can tell the difference between "good" and "poor" quality but that's about it. I've demoed $18,500 speakers locally and I just can't tell much of a difference over my $150 Daytons other than they fill up the room better because they're 5 times as large. I get my fun in building, testing, and tweaking things and trying new designs and setups.

My current setup consists of a 27" Panasonic Tau CRT television and a Mitsubishi HD1000u projector, both of which I love immensely. I'm much pickier about video quality than audio quality; I don't like most plasmas or LCDs so I've stuck it out with CRTs in the past. I'm a really big fan of projectors and I consider my HD1000u perfect...no screen door effect, no ghosting, no rainbows, no weird problems, plays SD content well and HD looks great. For indoors I currently use a white wall for my projector screen, which looks great, but I recently decided to get a little fancy and ordered a 100" electric widescreen from Tiger Direct. I'm looking forward to having a bit of a more "finished" feel with it for my home theater! For audio I'm using an inexpensive Sherwood RD-6105 5.1 receiver (which is next on the upgrade list), a pair of Dayton BR-1s speakers from kits, a Fluance AV-SC center, a pair of Fluance AV-BP2 bipole satellites, and a Dayton 10" Titanic MKIII subwoofer. Sure beats paying $10 a ticket at the local movie theater!

My current project is a pair of outdoor stereo speakers (the Goldenboys) and I have a few more fun ones in the que for the next year or so, including an outdoor horn sub, an 18" sonotube, and a new pair of tower speakers. I'm excited to delve into DIY stuff and learn about building enclosures, designing crossovers, etc. I'm also a big technology nut and I'm constantly tweaking my network and computer-based video playback systems. I just started a blog to chronicle my projects, check it out sometime here:

http://www.orionmods.com/blog/

Anyway, looking forward to meeting you guys!

[Sonnie]

Hi kaidomac and welcome to the Shack!

We look forward to your participation...

[Basspig]

Hello kaidomac,

What part of Connecticut are you from?

[kaidomac]

Basspig wrote:

Hello kaidomac,

What part of Connecticut are you from?

Hartford area at the moment, looking for a new place to move actually (preferably without neighbors nearby for, ah, bass purposes)

[mechman]

Welcome to the Shack Dave! I'd like a review of that Tiger Direct screen in the screen forum when you get the chance!

mech

[nova]

Hello and welcome,.... I'm a bit of a computer nerd myself. I usually get bored with it after awhile, but always come back to them

[Mike P.]

Welcome to the Shack, Dave!

[kaidomac]

mechman wrote:

Welcome to the Shack Dave! I'd like a review of that Tiger Direct screen in the screen forum when you get the chance!

mech

Definitely! I've been looking for a good, inexpensive electric screen and this one had good reviews. I actually just canceled my order with Tiger Direct and ordered it from Provantage instead ($155.12 vs. $229.99). It came to $259.48 with shipping from Tiger Direct but only $194.62 shipped from Provantage, over $60 cheaper (I've had good experiences with Provantage in the past, in case you haven't heard of them). I thought an electric screen was a steal for under $300 shipped compared to everything else on the market, but for under $200 shipped it's red hot! Here's the link:

http://www.provantage.com/elite-elec...h~7ELSC01C.htm

It will probably be a few weeks until I get around to putting it up; I'm planning on having a big home theater project day on my Thanksgiving break

[kaidomac]

nova wrote:

Hello and welcome,.... I'm a bit of a computer nerd myself. I usually get bored with it after awhile, but always come back to them

Yeah ditto. There's always some new project to tinker with! I recently got my multimedia/computer backup NAS setup successfully and I'm waiting for the new Popcorn Hour machines to come out. Originally I was planning on an HD HTPC now that the HD-DVD/Blu-ray combo drives have dropped to under $300 shipped, but PowerDVD still hasn't integrated their software into Vista Media Center which is kind of annoying if you want a single GUI for things. So I'm hoping the Popcorn Hour machines work well and that the HD-DVD/Blu-ray standalone combo players drop to $199 pretty shortly

[kaidomac]

The screen showed up today. It's super long! I tested it out with the remote control just by holding it up. The screen drops very slowly. I'd say it takes around 60 seconds to drop. That doesn't sound like a long time but when you're holding it up with another person it's forever The motor is whisper quiet. Very very quiet, just mechanical noise and the soft purr of the motor. The screen looks good, can't wait to give it a try over Thanksgiving!

[Basspig]

kaidomac wrote:

Hartford area at the moment, looking for a new place to move actually (preferably without neighbors nearby for, ah, bass purposes)

Ah yes, the bass challenge: to find a place where no one would live, but is still within commuting distance of shopping malls and work.

Have you looked at the Sharon/Lakeville area? It's very nice out this way, with lots of farms and open space. Not many houses and developments, and plenty of room to build a big, spralling house.

[kaidomac]

Basspig wrote:

Ah yes, the bass challenge: to find a place where no one would live, but is still within commuting distance of shopping malls and work.

Have you looked at the Sharon/Lakeville area? It's very nice out this way, with lots of farms and open space. Not many houses and developments, and plenty of room to build a big, spralling house.

Nope, haven't looked out there yet. This past weekend I was in Coventry over near the Nathan Hale memorial area and it's looking pretty nice. The prices are still kinda high (typical of Connecticut) but not nearly as bad as the areas in and around the Hartford area, plus the mall is less than a 30-minute drive. I think we could get a pretty decent mortgage on a place since I qualify for the CT first-time home buyer's loan, plus the prices of apartments here are just shy of a monthly mortgage payment...it would probably be cheaper to get a house here than get an apartment due to the down payment/security deposit lol. I'll probably need to move soon tho...my other Thanksgiving break project is an 18" Sonosub