This system has been slowly been getting bigger ever since I started it way back before home theater was just that, "home theater". I have gone through three recivers and this is the one I have now.
It's a Pioneer VSX-07TX. It has Dolby Digital AC-3 and of course all the usual stuff like Dolby pro-logic and six surround sound fields. Plus one more thing. THX processing that make home sound like a theater. Very cool.
It started with a little two channel reciver with fourty watts of power. I had a twenty inch tv and four speakers two of which I made myself. Then you add a MONO VCR and that was my first look at home theater. From then on I was hooked, nothing could diminish my pride in my system. Untill I saw and heard surround sound. That was what I wanted. For a while it was all that was on my mind. Then after adding a HI-FI VCR by JVC, I knew I was ready for surround, but one thing stopped me.... cost. They were just too expensive for me at the time.
Then the day came when I had enough money and I bought a Pioneer VSX-#### (I can't remember the exact numbers) but it was close to top of the line. About three away from there flagship, but that was great for me because I had Dolby Pro-Logic. Soon I went and bought a center speaker and I was set. Now I thought I knew it all by now but then I went into Audio King (An expencive place to bye anything). I asked alot of questions, and came to the conclusion that I knew nothing so I began to learn. Over about three years I learned alot.
One of the first things I found out about was timber matchingand then ther was bi-polar and di-polar surround speakers.
That's when I wanted new speakers so I went to Best Buy to look at some speakers. After listening to alot of different speakers like JBL, Bose (Which are nice but they resonate at extremely high frequencys and make an unpleasant sound for me.) Advent, and my favorite Infinity. Gee which one did I choose. Ok so I got the Infintiy SL tower speakers. They were the best sounding because of there bass. (down to a solid 30hz) Now that I had these big speakers but I was stuck in an apartment setting. Aaaaa I hated it, couldn't turn it up. (I'm one of the nice people. he he)Ok back to the story, now a few months afer that I needed a bigger TV. So I made up my mind and got a twenty seven inch RCA. Which is the set minimum on any home theater now. Why do I say that you say well if you watch a movie in widescreen the black bars at the top and bottom take up most of the picture if you don't have a big TV. Then it was time for a better sub woofer. I chose an M&K (Miller and Kresil) Because of the depth of field. (Down to a solid 18hz) I was grining from ear to ear. Next came the better surrounds by of course you guessed it Infinity. Now I was happy again, UNTIL dum dum dum.... AC-3 reared it's beauty on me. I was overwhelmed, and yet again it was way too expensive for me at the time. $2100 for a reciver I could not afford it, but I had to have it. Oh the heartache the pain the waiting........... I got fed up with waiting so I looked at ather ways of getting AC-3 and I came up with it. An add on AC-3 processor. I looked and called all over the Twin Cities and found one in Audio King made by Yamaha. It was what I was looking for but it had one shortcoming. No volume control. I plugged it in and it worked great but it was at FULL VOLUME!!!!!. Luckily the opening was fairly quiet. But that it what really got me hooked was the sheer quietness of it. there was no background hiss or humm and it was at full volume.That just blew my mind. So I returned it and they took it back with no problem. So I was on the hunt again for one that had volume control. Then I found it... A Marantz AC-3 processor which had a volume control. I got it home hooked it up and it was joyous. I watched Golden eye but then something happened. The sound cut out and came back on. I kept watching and then it happened again. Once every fifteen minutes or so. I felt the top of the processor and it was really hot.
So I tried to cool it off with a fan. It worked a little longer this time but the silly thing dropped out again and again. I brought it back the next day and exchanged it for a different one. Unpacked it, hooked it up and waited and sure enough it happened again. I was getting pissed. I called up the place and they didn't understand why the sound was dropping out like that. So I brought back that one and said that's it. But when I got there they had called their headquarters and found out that somewhere down the line a misscomunication had occured with the specs' all they had to do was add a small bag of parts to my processor to make it work. I declined and took my money elsewhere. Then the new line of what was called AC-3 now is called Dolby Digital came out and I wanted the best. So I went to Pioneer Elite. The one you saw at the top of the page.
Dolby Pro Logic starts out with regular stereo and through the use of mathamatics gets the surround channel and the center. Now I didn't misspell surround channel it is not ment to be plural. There is only one channel for the surround speakers. So we have a total of 4 channels.
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DOLBY DIGITAL
What is it well it's a type of surround encoding system.
First you have the two main speakers. The left and the right that gives you two channels. AKA stereo. Next you have the left and right surrounds. Now we have four channels. Then there is the center. Five channels and last but not least the sub woofer. for a total of 5.1 channels but wait there are six speakers. Why isn't there 6 channels? Well the front speakers and the center and the surrounds all get a full range of sound but the sub woofer can't. It is not possible for it to create any sound over about 180hz hence it is referred as the (.1) .
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Now what is (hz)? Ok fair enough question hz stands for hertz. Most people can hear between 20hz through 20,000hz. The 20hz being the boomy bass and the 20,000hz being the high pitch of a small bell or a triangle.
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Here is where it get's a little confusing. Timber matching means that the speakers emit the same resonance so there is less background noise. Most people can't tell if a pair of speakers let alone six speakers are timber matched. In some instances timber matching is the best thing to get but... I have found that differences in the speakers gives a better surround field.
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This is something where people get divided on.
On one hand some people want the diffuse sound of a Bipolar or Dipolar. It gives a better surround field. But that was before Dolby Digital. In DD I think you want to hear where the sound is coming from. Why else would they have split the one surround channel into two. So they can be diffuse and mix into one another? I don't think so.
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Same as Bipolar.
But what is the differance between Bi- and Di- polar? Well they are surround speakers and usually have two or more speakers in them facing away from each other. Some have a 45 degree angle and some have the speakers back to back. Let's start with the back to back configuration. Now picture two speakers with a bar connecting the cones together and pulling back and forth. That is a Bipolar speaker. Next picture the speakers again. Now the bar is gone and they push out at the same time. That is a Dipolar speaker.
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Widescreen is the best way to watch any movie. But you might say. "I don't like the black bars at the top and bottom of the screen. I'm losing part of the picture." But in acuality you are getting more picture for your dollar. The version people see on TV is called Pan and Scan. They Pan around on the wide screen and try to fit the most important things happening on the screen. Some times this is impossible because the director might want to shoot two people talking but at different sides of the screen so they cut back and forth between the two. But in the widescreen version there is no cutting. You just see two people talking. I like the latter much better.
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