Saturday, January 28, 2006

Home Theater - what an expensive hobby!


I'm getting back into the home theater "hobby" as I've grown a great interest in CRT projectors. I've been looking at a DLP InFocus 4805 projector, but at $900 my wallet won't allow it (right now at least). I very much like the price ranges of used CRT projectors. The laws of economics have enabled the new LCD/DLP projector craze to leave CRT projector resale values in the dust. It's a great benefit to me as I'm willing to deal with the disadvantages of a CRT and enjoy the advantages as well. Basically nobody wants to mess with the convergence and setup hassle that comes along with a CRT projector. They can be a pain in the ass to calibrate, but I enjoy tinkering around with electronics. It should be fun.

I've been searching the A/V Science Forums for members selling used projectors in the MN/ND/SD area. Someone down in Fargo, ND responded to my post and will be putting his Sony 1251Q up for sale. I will take a look at it and most likely make the purchase. This beast is huge - at 141 lbs. and 33 inches long for the projector alone, it'll be interesting to see how it fits into my Honda Civic. I've already made measurements to predict possible screen sizes. It looks like the projected image will be 80 inches wide in 16:9 mode. That's a pretty big image! Most certainly I will make my own DIY projection screen out of black out fabric and special light absorbing projector paint.

Now onto another purchase (which I already made): I'm very excited over my recent purchase of some new speakers. I bought some Energy Connoisseur C-3 speakers for a good price through AudioAdvisor.com. I currently have a good Energy speaker system I purchased December 2000. This is basically an upgrade for my front mains.

So here's my current hi-fi audio setup:

Energy e:XL-S10 (Subwoofer)
Energy Connoisseur C-3's (Front Mains)
Energy Take 2's (Rear Surrounds)
Yamaha RX-V493 Surround Receiver
Yamaha CDX-500U CD Player
Sennheiser HD-525 Headphones
Sennheiser PXC-250 Noise-Cancelling Headphones
Homemade Headphone Amp (made it from scratch!)
iPod Video 5G 60gig


Still to come: Energy C-C1 center channel speaker