Starting last weekend and for the most part of this weekend, I have been working on setting up the components, calibrating and tuning the audio system. I just got most of them working now. First, hooking up all the components to the brand new Denon 3806 receiver and making the HDMI switching work correctly proved to be a challenging task in itself. On the right side, you see the picture of the 'sound level meter' the key instrument that I used for tuning the system..
I could not believe my ears when I heard the first test scene after I finished tuning the system. My jaws dropped hearing to the opening scene from the movie "Godavari". I saw this movie twice in a theater in Belmont but I never heard the details before that I just heard in my theater. Ascend Acoustics 340SEs are producing amazingly tight sound stage. In the opening dream scene, I can hear the song "Chowdavika chand ho" crystal clearly from the Left front speaker, and heroine's clanking bangles sound is faithfully reproduced from the Center channel. And before she walks into the living room, there is "Bhaja Govindam" playing in the background from the Right Surround channel, and as she was stepping into the temple alongwith her mother, I now hear birds chirping and temple bells reverberating very clearly from the Left front, and a group singing a devotional song from the Right Front channel..wow! I am blown away by the clean, clear and quality sound that filled the entire room.. There was a natural warmth to the dialogs and even mere whispers are more intelligible than ever before.
Ofcourse, what can I say about the HSU sub and it's breathtaking impact? Wow! I never heard base so tight, so strong and so heavy. I always wondered about the controlled base one gets to experience in good movie theaters and never in any of the homes I know. In almost all good home theater setups I've heard so far, base always sounded so different from the one you experince in theaters. In a theater, base has a distinct heavy and controlled feel to it (and it is not about how 'loud' it sounds). In homes, it is always a loud, boomy, rattling and resonating experience. Not any more. I always wanted the base to sound the way it was in a theater, and finally I now have it!! Listening to the battle scene from chapter 37 of the "Lord of the Rings - Return of the King.. what can I say..I felt the elephants stomping straight down in the theater room. As they say - you got to hear it to believe it!!
Yes, finally I may dare say..the experience of watching the movie "Godavari" in the SriVij theater is way too better than watching it in a theater!!
I still have some more fine tuning left to do, but I am already loving (and finally relived about) how good this theater is sounding :)
Also, I worked on the automation this weekend. Since my contractor left me on the middle of the road a couple of weeks ago, I have taken up finishing the electrical wiring job also into my hands and made new wiring runs, installed the X10 switches, and installed the complete automation system as I described in this post earlier. All the components of the automation system are working as planned. Now I am able to control all my remotely hidden equipment from the theater room by pointing the amazing harmony remote at the micro IR sensor that I installed on top of the screen.
I could not believe my ears when I heard the first test scene after I finished tuning the system. My jaws dropped hearing to the opening scene from the movie "Godavari". I saw this movie twice in a theater in Belmont but I never heard the details before that I just heard in my theater. Ascend Acoustics 340SEs are producing amazingly tight sound stage. In the opening dream scene, I can hear the song "Chowdavika chand ho" crystal clearly from the Left front speaker, and heroine's clanking bangles sound is faithfully reproduced from the Center channel. And before she walks into the living room, there is "Bhaja Govindam" playing in the background from the Right Surround channel, and as she was stepping into the temple alongwith her mother, I now hear birds chirping and temple bells reverberating very clearly from the Left front, and a group singing a devotional song from the Right Front channel..wow! I am blown away by the clean, clear and quality sound that filled the entire room.. There was a natural warmth to the dialogs and even mere whispers are more intelligible than ever before.
Ofcourse, what can I say about the HSU sub and it's breathtaking impact? Wow! I never heard base so tight, so strong and so heavy. I always wondered about the controlled base one gets to experience in good movie theaters and never in any of the homes I know. In almost all good home theater setups I've heard so far, base always sounded so different from the one you experince in theaters. In a theater, base has a distinct heavy and controlled feel to it (and it is not about how 'loud' it sounds). In homes, it is always a loud, boomy, rattling and resonating experience. Not any more. I always wanted the base to sound the way it was in a theater, and finally I now have it!! Listening to the battle scene from chapter 37 of the "Lord of the Rings - Return of the King.. what can I say..I felt the elephants stomping straight down in the theater room. As they say - you got to hear it to believe it!!
Yes, finally I may dare say..the experience of watching the movie "Godavari" in the SriVij theater is way too better than watching it in a theater!!
I still have some more fine tuning left to do, but I am already loving (and finally relived about) how good this theater is sounding :)
Also, I worked on the automation this weekend. Since my contractor left me on the middle of the road a couple of weeks ago, I have taken up finishing the electrical wiring job also into my hands and made new wiring runs, installed the X10 switches, and installed the complete automation system as I described in this post earlier. All the components of the automation system are working as planned. Now I am able to control all my remotely hidden equipment from the theater room by pointing the amazing harmony remote at the micro IR sensor that I installed on top of the screen.
1 comment:
It was a fantastic experience watching a movie in your home theater. It is a far cry from the time we were freezing our b@#ts off huddling near a space heater in the basement a couple of years ago.
Perhaps the tears were worth it in the end...
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