A 2.1 setup is mildly acceptable in a small living room. However, for any professional setup we recommend that you never settle for this common “stereo” front speaker setup. 5.1 is definitely more acceptable and the most common setup as well. Most movies are completely setup for 5.1 surround sound. This is perfect for small to medium sized home theaters with a Front Right, Center, Front Left, Surround Right and Surround Left Speaker (plus subwoofer). A proper center channel will have any speech audio in your home theater. This allows for clear and distinct audio that won’t get muddied up in all the background noise. Your Front Right and Left speakers should blend together in audio quality creating a really nice “front stage” while your Rear Right and Left speakers will create that 3D projector effect in your audio. Proper placement of the rear speakers will be left to a little rear of the seating position to create that perfect effect.

A 7.1 setup similar to the 5.1 setup but adds an additional 2 speakers in the far rear. It used to be that a 7.1 setup was a fake. What do I mean by that? A 7.1 setup, until about 2 years ago was really a 6.1 audio signal that was sent to your stereo, which would then be split and duplicated to the two far rear speakers. However, with the creation of BluRay and newer technology movies are now being mastered in 7.1 and very soon a much anticipated 9.2 master.

A 9.2 system with Center, Front Right, Front Left, Surround Right, Surround Left, Rear Left, Rear Right, Upper Front Left and Upper Front Right is supposed to create a more seamless audio experience. The new speakers are “discreetly” placed above the two front speakers to create a much larger, more enveloping front stage. While this setup may make the audiophile drool, until a properly created 9.2 master is readily available to the public it’s best to just prewire for the future and wait.

We’ll cover subwoofers in the next article. They do much more than just add “boom”.

No matter what you have always remember you could expect to pay up to 10% on the cost of a remote. This is one area of your project that you never want to skimp on. If you can’t control your components then it doesn’t matter how much money you spend, your system will still be unusable. Remember that a good rule of thumb is to take your current system budget and set aside at least 10% for your control system. Control can cost anywhere from $300 to $300,000. There are practically no limits to what you are able to control with a professionally programmed unit. The only limits are your finances. I once knew a home owner in Los Angeles that wanted to watch the sunrise and the sunset….from the same bed…..and didn’t care about the cost.

So we rotated his house using a control system called Crestron. We arranged with the builder to control a rotating system that would slowly rotate the bedroom section of his home on a 24 hour clock.

Anything is possible, but without the proper control it’s impossible. Imagine picking up a $300 Logitech remote one day and it just decided not to work. That’s a very common problem with the batteries of the popular Logitech remotes and one of many reasons why professional audio/video distribution companies stopped carrying Logitech remotes.

The good thing is that same control company that rotated that home is now creating a consumer oriented control system called Crestron Prodigy. While it won’t be expandable into the multi-million dollar systems that Crestron is known for, Crestron Prodigy will be very much able to handle small lighting, HVAC, whole house audio and of course your home theater.

Your other options for professional remote control systems are RTI and Universal Remote. Both very credible systems with two very different ways of doing things. At 360 Home Cinema we program Crestron Prodigy, RTI and Universal Remote for your Atlanta, Buford or Alpharetta area home theater and would be more than happy to explain the differences in more detail if you’d like. Just give us a call at 866.645.9157.

-The 360 Team

http://www.audioholics.com/reviews/remote-controls/mx-980-universal-remote-control

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Universal Remote Control, Inc. released their MX-980 Remote Control today at CES in Las Vegas. A winner of this year’s CES Innovations Design and Engineering Awards, the MX-980 is a powerful wand-style custom control designed to advance the state of the art of Home Theater programming and integration.

The MX-980 has many highlights including a big, bright color LCD display, an open programming architecture, Narrow Band RF capability, and seamless integration with other control devices.

The MX-980’s display shares the vibrant color capabilities of URC’s popular MX-3000 Remote Control with an active matrix LCD that offers a 320×240 pixel window to any graphic an installer would like to provide, including BMP, JPEG, PNG, GIF and animated GIF files, all of which can be assigned to any of eight adjacent activity buttons.

The MX-980 is programmable by any Windows-compatible laptop or desktop PC with a USB port. The port provides access to a vast array of custom solutions, available free of charge using URC’s proprietary Complete Control Suite programming software, available online at the URC Control Room.

WATCH and LISTEN buttons on the MX-980 display activities users can control. When a user wants to watch something else (a DVD, a videotape or an HDTV broadcast), he or she simply presses the WATCH button and selects the new activity. When a user wants to listen to the radio or a CD, he or she touches LISTEN. Then, with the press of the button, the MX-980 automates the entire routine of turning on components, selecting inputs and favorites, even resetting the lights to the optimum scene for the selected activity.

The MX-980’s OpenArchitectureTM PC Editor provides professional installers with new solutions to the age-old problem of automating a central system as well as local TVs, cable or satellite receivers, and even local surround systems in secondary rooms like bedrooms and offices. Using the MX-980, installers can simply select an appropriate solution for each equipment location.

In the central system, for example, the MX-980 can trigger smart macros, RS232 and relay controls via a centrally installed MSC-400 Master Controller. At each local system location, the MX-980 addresses an RF Base Station, like URC’s new MRF-260, which extends the remote’s range to 50 to 100 feet, and eliminates the line-of-sight requirement. In any room with a projector, lighting switch or other IR-controlled device not connected to a central MSC-400 or local MRF, the MX-980’s built-in IR signal is effective at a range of 30 to 50 feet.

The MX-980 is packed with practical features for users as well as installers. These include a motion sensor that automatically turns on the display when the remote is picked up and refreshes when it’s moved, and automatic blue backlighting for all the buttons to ensure the remote can be used easily in dim or darkened rooms. A small integrated speaker optionally beeps in response to button pushes, indicating the MX-980 understands an instruction. A built-in time/date display, a low-battery alert, a rechargeable lithium ion battery, and a supplied USB programming cable further enhance its ease of use.

The MX-980 Remote Control is available now from authorized Universal Remote Control dealers at a suggested retail price of $599.

About Universal Remote Control, Inc.
Headquartered in Harrison, New York, Universal Remote Control, Inc. is a world leader in the design, engineering, manufacture and distribution of high-quality remote control devices. Since its establishment in 1991, the company has become highly regarded by consumers and professionals alike, and won numerous industry awards.  It supplies millions of remote controls each year to consumers around the world through four primary distribution channels: consumer retail, custom professional, subscription broadcast and OEM.

Universal Remote Control products are manufactured in Asia and North America in factories that meet rigorous CE, ISO 9001, ETTS, IQNET and TQM certification requirements. For additional technical information, please visit www.universalremote.com.

Among these new projectors coming to market is the LG CF3D. The LG CF3D is rated with full 1080p at 1920×1280 resolution, TruMotion 120Hz (a technology that previously was impossible to create on a projector), a brightness of 2,500 ANSI Lumens, ISF seal of approval and a massive 7,000:1 contrast ratio! And of course, full 3D capable. All this for a cool tag of $10k.

While researching 3D Projectors I found there were quite a few that were significantly less expensive than the LG CF3D. The Optoma GT360 and GT720 are two at $499 and $699 respectively. As an Audio/Video professional I could tell these things are cheap just by looking at them. Both claim to support a full “1080 HD input signal”. The problem with this is that the GT360 throws a resolution of 800×600 (4:3 ratio a.k.a NOT widescreen and NOT true HD) and the GT720 has a resolution of 1280×720, which may be widescreen 16:9 ratio but NOT 1080.

In short these two little projectors are for your kids playroom or a portable business meeting but by no means built for a full scale home theater. However, with hundreds of new movies coming out in 3D and dozens of old ones being remade (remember “Creature From the Black Lagoon”? Now it’s in 3D) the $10k price tag may be well worth the cost.

For a long list of new and old 3D movies click here.

Affordable.

Crestron has just announced it’s newest arrival, the Prodigy. Here’s what dealer, “Vincent Delpino”, had to say on popular website RemoteCentral.com:

“Crestron wants to compete with Control 4…with wizard based programming. This line will only be compatible with other products in the line and not any other Crestron gear….an idea of the pricing of the MLX-2 Prodigy model will retail for around $200-$300 with 2 way communication. They will also have a 4″ in wall touch panel for $700.”

Not only is this pricing in competition with low-end company, Control 4, but it’s also significantly less than popular Crestron competitor, RTI, whose lowest systems don’t compare at all when looking at the price point of the Prodigy. But it’s not just the price that people love about the new Prodigy.

Programming for Prodigy is a breeze with simple wizard style layout making it easy for installers to get in and out of a project quickly. Not only that but the client has the peace of mind knowing that at the back-end of this system is Crestron. This isn’t just a remote system that you purchase at Best Buy. This is the most reliable control company in the world, the same company that hospitals use to monitor their most valuable patients, controlling your home theater, living room, den or wherever. These systems just plain do not break down.

Of course there is one drawback to the Crestron Prodigy system. If you so decide in the future to want to upgrade to a larger more diversified system in your home…security, more extensive lighting, HVAC, monitoring, etc you’ll need to purchase a completely new Crestron system. That’s right, the ease of use comes at a price. Prodigy does not upgrade to a full Crestron system. While the useability of Prodigy is great, Prodigy will only work with Prodigy and thus, much more complicated systems will have to be worked out later.

If your in the Alpharetta, Buford or Atlanta area and you’re interested in Prodigy or would like to hear more about it contact us at 866.645.9157 and we’d be more than happy to answer any of your questions.

-The 360 Team

http://www.enjoythemusic.com/superioraudio/equipment/1009/klipsch_palladium_p_39f.htm

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Before Sony Walkmans, CD players, chip amplifiers, Woodstock and iPods, Klipsch built loudspeakers. They began in the U.S. in 1946. Today, big ole Klipsch horns are still renowned for their large, fully horn-loaded designs providing ultra-high sensitivity and extremely low distortion. Their Klipschorns are the only loudspeakers to be in continuous production for over six decades.  Klipsch now has several loudspeaker brands. They also own Mirage, Energy and Jamo speakers. The Palladiums are their top of the line models.

At first glance, the P-39Fs are not gorgeously impressive loudspeakers. Finished in Zebrawood veneer with a Merlot stain, they are narrow and tall columns, only foot wide and almost five feet tall. There isn’t much surface area to grab your eyes. Plastic squares on top form a gray face. Two horns form an eye and a mouth. The squares make the P-39Fs look like products off a Best Buy shelf. Yet they clearly mark the P-39Fs not only as Klipsch products, but also as something different in loudspeaker design. Wave-guides, looking like fat phase plugs, stare out of the mid and high end horns.

After closer inspection though, the Klipsch P-39F sculpture grows on you. Like the latest S class models of Mercedes Benz, the smooth curves of the P-39F belie their stiff construction, hefty weight and majestic performance. There is not one, not two, but three, smooth faced, silver 9-inch cones staring back at you. The wood stripes of the P-39Fs curve away like the boat tail on a classic Chris Craft. The stern, where you anchor the P-39Fs to the amplifiers, sports three fist-size woofer ports. As with any exquisite beauty, the P-39Fs look good from any angle. Yes, they are the best-looking Klipsch loudspeaker.

The Klipsch P-39F bass response is not surprisingly deep for such big beauties. It is a modest 39 Hz, a point easily accomplished by other full size, audiophile speakers, including many that don’t cost $20,000 per pair. (See Nel’s Salk Song Towers or the Newtronics Skates.) In fact, the P-39F frequency response and sensitivity is quite similar to the $1000 RF-82 loudspeakers that Klipsch describes as the “wheelhouse” of their line: the point at which the best value for the money revolves. The P-39F response however is an important +/-3 dB. None of these specs matter of course, if the loudspeaker doesn’t sound like the real thing. Power handling is a huge 1600 watts peak and sensitivity is a very high 99dB/W/m. This means the P-39Fs don’t need, but they can handle, a lot of power.

Their nominal impedance however, is a challenging 4 Ohm, meaning that the amplifier, small as it can be, had better be a capable of pushing the woofers around. Thankfully, the P-39Fs can be tri-wired or even tri-amplified, but to bi-amp them, you need to bridge two of the three connections on the back. I would love to hear them with a tube amplifier on the mid and high end. Maximum output of two P-39Fs in a room is rated at 126 dB; loud enough to reproduce the peaks of any musical instrument.

I heard the Palladium system in a home theater room at A Sound Decision. This is a full-service, high-end audio-visual store on the ocean side of Tampa Bay . Owners Terry and Natalie Moore have been in business eight years, but Terry has been in audio/video for 25 years. The Moores recently finished three HT rooms. Their main room seats 13 in comfy Bell’O theater chairs on staggered steps. The room has a 156-inch Stewart CineCurve screen and a JVC RS20 projector with Panamorph Anamorphic Lens to enhance the picture quality on the large screen. Custom Matinee Acoustics panels on the ceiling and walls cancel room reflections. There is no equalization in the audio chain. Theirs is one of only two Palladium HT displays in south Florida .

No speakers appear in the second room. Furnished as a dining room, surprisingly good sound comes from Stealth speakers hidden flush, and painted over, in the wall. Moore has a separate wire closet; a room with racks of A/V equipment and a 13-TB movie server. A Sound Decision is a test site for beta versions of new Sunfire and Élan Home Systems components. A Sunfire Theater Grand 7401 amplifier and processor supplied power for the Palladium room. The flagship of the Sunfire line puts out 400-watts into seven channels with less than 0.5% THD ! Like the very best solid-state amplifiers, wattage doubles into 4 Ohm loads. The amplifier has a “Vacuum Tube Emulation (Current Source)” mode, but I say, “ain’t no such thing” as a solid-state amplifier that sounds quite like tubes. The Blu-ray player was a Yamaha BD-S2900BL.

The basic Palladium HT system includes a massive P-312W sub. The sub is shaped like a truncated pyramid, weighs 95 pounds with three more of those silver woofer cones. The P-312W includes its own 2,500-watt amplifier and is capable of 18 Hz depth and 123 dB output. Moore ‘s set-up includes two of these chunky babies! Both of them are positioned along the front wall. One, he said was set for deep bass, the other for mid-bass. The Palladium system offers two bi-polar side channel speakers. Moore added two more of those also. He used custom cabling with a Monster power conditioner.

Complete with everything, Moore puts the value of the room at cool $180,000. Several thousand more reviews and I should be there! Hope Klipsch is around another six decades when I complete the task.

Music & Movies
The audition began with my beloved Stepping Out by Diana Krall. But “Jimmie” had too much tape hiss, making the CD sound sad and old. Yet the cello was among the best I ever have heard. Bass was plenty deep enough. The strong notes excited the room. Even with such simple music, powerful amplifiers are required. Headroom, my notes say, is crucial to allowing each instrument the freedom it needs to express itself. The Sunfire amplifier certainly provided that. Like the mighty Pass X250, nothing was too difficult for it. The Blu-ray disc of Chris Botti in Boston [Sony, B001R60 ESE] in stereo mode was next. The first impression was immediately favorable. This disc is nothing short of remarkable. It is smooth jazz trumpeter Chris Botti performing at the Boston Symphony Hall with the Boston Pops orchestra. Then wide-mouth rocker Steven Tyler suddenly appears, his trademark microphone stand draped with scarves.

“I was cryin’ when I met you,” he sings, surprising the audience with a powerfully smooth rendition of the Aerosmith classic “Crying. “Now I’m tryin’ to forget you.” When Tyler croons Nat King Cole’s classic “Smile,” my impression of the rocker changed. “Smile though your heart is aching,” Tyler croons to his father in the audience, “smile even though its breaking.” A friend whispered, “I would never go out if I had this at home.” Indeed the overall sound was liquid. My notes say, “like cruising in a Mercedes.”

Horns being horns, Botti’s horn on P-39Fs sounds like…well, a horn. It has blat. It has blare. What else did you expect from big ole horns? Then Sting appears to sing and play several of his songs. Together, the guest appearances transform Botti’s disc into a stunning recording of a spectacular night. Overall impression is that this is an excellent system, well balanced, with no obvious weaknesses. Combined with the 13 foot wide screen, the Palladium HT system seems to do everything right, if not a little bright. The P-39F speakers are easily in the same league as the very best dream systems I have heard, including those costing several times more. See Deprecating The Gifts Of The G-ds and Uptown Horns.

Like all horns, the P-39F soundstage is wide and deep, presenting an image much larger than their mere footprint. Properly pointed, the 3D sonic imaging of big ole horns can be spectacular, without the honkiness of which detractors so often complain. With oodles of power backing them up, vocals sounded effortless and very natural. With Sunfire power, the Palladiums have all the detail and resolution anybody would want, without the hard metallic edginess of some horns. They also have the energy and range to capture the full essence of dynamic instruments, such as drums and piano. The quick dynamics of big ole horns communicates the emotion of the notes. They get the real meaning of music. Palladiums have this ability too. They capture this quality without dampening the vibrancy and life out of the crucial mid-range.

Harshness on the recordings however, including Krall’s Stepping Out, is readily apparent. Flaws have no place to hide on this ruthlessly revealing system. They are not irritating, but you will hear them.

Next, we watched the Blu-ray of my all time favorite movies, Master & Commander, with Russell Crowe and Paul Bettany. I love this 2003 movie because it is a sailing adventure, with a great actor, wonderful dialogue and plot twists. Set in 1805, Master has incredible hand-to-hand, canon-to-canon battle scenes. Yet the raw violence is juxtaposition with Crowe maneuvering like a chess piece to outfox his rarely seen opponent, while he and a friend spend their evenings playing the violin and cello music of Mozart and J.S. Bach! Crowe did most of the violin playing on camera, but the cello playing is YoYo Ma’s work. The music is available from Decca [ASIN: B0000DG07D].

Eight hundred watts into 4 Ohms makes any bass note as thunk like a sledgehammer. The Sunfire and dual sub combination certainly makes Stings’ beguiling bass come alive. The bass is not only deep, but also tight; certainly tighter than my big ole horns. Yet when the first canon shot of Master fires out of a blue fog, the Palladium system puts you right there. Maybe my pants didn’t flap as they did with the awesome Krell monster sub chest ($28K), but the smoothly deep and powerful bass response is all anybody would want for musical accuracy. In my limited experience, only the massive Martin Logan subwoofer stack was appreciably better (Deprecating The Gifts Of The G-ds).

The P-39Fs with dual P-312W subs is bass that smacks you in the face, warps walls, massages your scalp, shakes cobwebs off corners and frightens small creatures. This is volcanic tremor, tsunami wave bass. It is ominous, portending of imminent danger. It is live and tangible. When the canons blast, your first instinct is to turn and flee. Great stereo systems do just that. They go beyond the auditory to add tactile and emotional information to the enjoyment of music and movies. They stir our souls at the very depths of our fears; sounding alarms when doors creak, awakening dormant instincts when bad guys loom near and tightening our nerves as the climax approaches. Match every extra large TV screen with a sound system of this caliber. This is clearly a dream HT system in a top of the line installation. Moore said after one Blu-ray Botti demonstration, a woman stood up and cheered. I don’t doubt it. My big ole square-riggers will have to do a lot of sly maneuvering to even come close to what Klipsch’s sleek new flagship does so easily.

By adding a modern transmission line of three woofers, the Palladiums are rightful heirs to the Klipsch crown. They retain Klipsch’s renown ultra high sensitivity and extra low distortion. The Palladiums eliminate the narrow dispersion that so often plagues big ole horns with a wide and square Tractrix eye and mouth. I am impressed with Klipsch, their P-39F and A Sound Decision. If you already have your sports car, if your new home has a room set aside for HT, if this is the league you shop in; seriously consider a Palladium system configuration like this one. It enjoys the music.

Specifications
Type: Fullrange floorstanding loudspeaker
Frequency Response: 39 Hz to 24 kHz (±3dB) 
Sensitivity: 99dB/W/m 
Nominal Impedance: 4 Ohms (2.9 Ohms min) 
Power Handling: 400W continuous / 1600W peak 
Recommended Amplifier Power: 50-1000W 
High Frequency Driver: 0.75″ (1.9cm) Titanium diaphragm
                       Compression driver mated to 90° x 60° Tractrix Horn 
HF Crossover Frequency: 3200Hz 
Mid-Frequency Drivers: 4.5-inch aluminum diaphragm
                      Compression driver mated to 90° x 60° Tractrix Horn 
MF Crossover Frequency: 500Hz
Woofers: Three 9-inch aluminum / Rohacell / Kevlar hybrid cone woofers 
Finishes: Zebrawood in Natural, Merlot or Espresso stain 
Enclosure: Bass-reflex via triple side-firing ports
                Cabinet made with constrained layer MDF (Medium-Density Fiberboard) 
Weight: 165 lbs. 
Height: 56 x 12 x 24.75 (HxWxD in inches)
Price: $20,000

Company Information
A Sound Decision
1810 South Pinellas Ave.
Suite K
Tarpon Springs, FL 34689

Voice: (727) 789-1121
Fax: (727) 942-7270 
Showroom by appointment only
E-mail: Info@asounddecision.com
Website: www.asounddecision.com