just wanted to put in my two cents regarding the sony kvxbr800, which is what i use in my home theater. the quality of the picture is magical, and looks great with my HD cable tv or my denon 2900 dvd player. granted, this tv is not as cool as a plasma or lcd, but i bought it brand new for $1799! can't argue with the price, and the quality of the picture is top notch. i think this model has been replaced by a newer one, but the differences between the two are not that substantial.

skuras December 06, 2004 12:54

I've seen the Sony XBR on many ocassions and it is amaqzing, the best you can do aside from CRT front projection in my opinion. It's got the blackest blacks, and all the trimmings. Unfortunately this set is way out of my range. I've actually moved onto looking for 30" widescreens due to cost. Since this is audiogon and not videogon though lets get back to Audio...

I recently added an Outlaw Audio ICBM-1. The greatest help to theater since the pre/pro replaced my Denon receiver.

Anymore audio advice.

Thanks guys for the input,
Patrick

eclipse911t December 04, 2004 09:51

AS far as the TV, I'm in the same boat. I;ve got a 27" Philips tube, and get decent picture, but I want widescreen and HD.
My suggestion, at least the TV I am getting as soon as I can, is the Sony 34" XBR. I worked in a Circuit CIty with it and saw it every day, and I can easily say that when set up correctly, is about the finest picture you'll ever seel

Good luck.

Jon

breitlingdj December 03, 2004 00:28

System edited: I added some pictures today, finally. Thanks for the first feedback I've got. I'll look into some King Cobra for the sub, and definitely the Marantz, thanks. Patrick

eclipse911t November 16, 2004 23:42

Hi Patrick

nice home theater system. A few recommendations for your future endeavors from a music/home theater enthusiast:

1. the Marantz DV-8400 is an excellent unit for DVD/SACD/CD playback and I would highly recommend it over the DV-6400, especially since you want a new HDTV (make sure it has DVI input, the MARANTZ 8400 has this output, not so for the 8300). Both image and sound are excellent and you can find one used on audiogon or ebay for a good price. Upgrade the powercord, change the feet or find a granite slab, connect your Jaguars and off you go, believe me you won't be dissapointed. I use King Cobras in a 5.1 arrray from DVD player to preamp and another 5 King Cobras to the amp (subwoofer has it's own amp) and the sound is very clean and open ... no regrets here. I also use Audioquests VDM-5 coax cable for movies and it beats the King Cobras flat out for speed and low end punch, in this regard this DVD player has an outstanding transport.

2. I see you already have a good sub. Get rid of the monster sub cable you are using and get Audioquest's King Cobra sub cable ... BIG DIFFERENCE, almost as big as upgrading the power cord on my subwoofer. The Cobra tightens and cleans up the bass in a way I've never heard from another sub cable (I've tried top of the line from Monster and Tara Labs, again no match for the Cobra).

3. Get rid of your CV4 speaker cable. It is THE grainiest cable I've ever heard, makes high frequencies sound unbearably grainy and harsh. You can do much better for fewer dollars ... I now use a 12 awg OFC cable for my entire system made by Phoenix Cold (Quicksilver series) which sounded just as good as my Monster Sigma Retro Gold speaker cables (retail $2500) on my speakers, and the Sigmas were waaay better than the CV4's in a head to head comparison. I previously used a Monster Sigma Retro Gold cable for my center channel as well, but most center channels don't go below 60hz anyway so the accurate bass qualities of this cable are never used, why pay so much for a cable if you don't need all it's properties?

4. Don't plug your amps into that monster power strip, it limits them considerably, you'll get much better sound results if you plug them straight into the wall. I've upgraded to a Monster HTS-5100 and although it's better than the former HTS-1000 I used before, only the amps seem to benefit, power cleaning is not as good as I hoped it would be, I still have hissing present through my cone speakers.

5. If you evere have the time, consider auditioning a pair of Martin Logan Clarity speakers for fronts in your theater sytem, they beat Paradigm/Monitor Audio/Mordaunt Short/Mission/Nuance/Cerwin Vega/JBL/Tannoy cone speakers by a wide margin in my opinion. Ever since I heard electrostatic speakers, I knew that as soon as I would be able to afford them I would get them ... a move I never came to regret. The only drawback is that they are very revealing, so if you have a bright system that's exactly how it will sound, and so you'll start looking for better components and so on ... good things come with time.

anyways, better stop here.

Good luck.

amperidian November 09, 2004 19:13