Pete's Write

This is my first venture back into projector after an initial period spent with an Infocus 4805 in 2005 in a small apartment in Westmead. It was loads of fun and proved size does matter, and I had dozens of people come by at our little gatherings to gawk at the image, which was simply projected into an empty white wall. It was the time of DVDs and component video, and no one was complaining about picture quality. It was simply too much fun to have a 100" image. Fast forward to 2011, and after getting a new HT pad, I decided to integrate a projector into the home theatre setup. I wasn't interested in 3D, and was not prepared to spend too much, and for a little under USD 1200 shipped, it was a small investment until I got a nice 70" flatscreen. First impressions:   I am up to the 30 th hour and I have some short notes on this unit.   -        brightness is pretty decent, you get to leave some lights on and you still get a ...

I haven't been writing as much - renovations for my HT pad just finished this week... But I managed to squeeze in an old show, which I had in my closet for a while: "10 Things I hate about you" starring the late Heath Ledger, and Julia Stiles. This show will showcase a few young stars and also propel them to great heights later on. Basely loosely on a Shakespeare play "The Taming of the Shrew", it's a wonderful throwback to days of old when we were young, and you see montages of yourself in many of those scenes depicted without stereotyping the nerds, jocks, smarties, and even the outcasts. Witty dialogue and a genuine chemistry between the leads propel this show far beyond others like Fast Times in Ridgemont High or other teenage high school hits. It also made me feel sad that we have lost a talented young actor in Heath. Highly recommended, although if you have the DVD, there isn't a great push to get the BR disc. Story 4/5 Action - duh Chick Factor - ...

Just putting up some basic info first on this new purchase, which will reach me sometime in mid Jan 2012, to replace an older SVS PB12+ Reviews:  http://www.audioholics.com/reviews/speakers/subwoofers/rythmik-fv15hp Specifications DS1510 driver + H600PEQ Amplifier Seamless aluminum cone with Santoprene edge “Direct-Servo” amp design allowing for micro-fine tuning of system  output independently of speaker's Thiele Small parameters Simple box construction & unobtrusive appearance Tip-Toe style mounts available & Nutserts included on bottom surface of enclosure (2) High flow, low distortion ports 18db/Octave Subsonic filter for loudspeaker and amplifier protection Selectable 12 or 24db/Octave Low Pass filtering “Q” adjustment for bass/room tuning and control Size: 25” deep x 18" wide x 24" high (without grille). Grille adds 1-1/2” Weight: 120 pounds  Amp controls: http://www.rythmikaudio.com/amplifier_controls.html How to ...

The dust is settling on my new place, and now I can get down to getting that whizzing bullets past me, and all the surround ambience I had in the old place, and reproducing that in my new and larger den. After a period of setting up and calibrating and speaker movement, I would to share some points. Firstly, ceiling speakers are an aesthetic compromise. They are fine if you just want some ambience, and effects. But if you want that bullet to fly from the rear backs to the surrounds to the fronts, or that fly past to really go from the back to the side and then to the front and back, you will need to adhere to the suggested placements of those rears. Simply put and summarised from the various websites, the surrounds need to be about 80 to 100cm above you, and slightly to the rear or close to your seated position for a 7.1 or more setup, and behind you in a 5.1 setup. The rear backs are lower, about 50-80cm above you and directed towards your seat. As for those attempting Audyssey...

  The ideal console design There are some fundamental points which will help you to get, design or custom make your ideal home theatre console. -        Function or form first? Firstly, you will need to decide, is this a high WAF “stylo” console or one dedicated to Home Theatre. One built for the latter has various design features which I will elaborate on, that is mainly functional, but doesn’t need to look utilitarian either. -        Budget? You can grab a simple console off Ikea, Vhive, and a few other off the shelf knock together consoles for less than $500. Or you can get a design one from Air Division that will cost $3-4000. Your carpenter can also make one for you and that can be basic – just a bunch of shelves, or be a more elaborate design that has veneer, laminate or even use real wood. I wanted the most solid material, so I got an Indonesian company to help me make one of my own design, that...

PN64D8000 Samsung plasma TV  Denon AVR 4311 – XT 32, 11.2 capable with nine amps inbuilt, twin sub out Emotiva XPA 3 – three times 200W power amp to drive the left, right and centre channels Oppo BR player BDP 95 Monitor Audio speakers: GS 10, LCR, Radius 90HD for height and wide channels PSB Image 10S Bipoles for rear back  Monitor Audio RXFX in dipole mode for surrounds Velodyne SPL 1000R + Rhythmic FV15HP QED XT 300 for front and centre speakers QED Micro speaker cable for all the rest Audioquest Cinnamon HDMI for amp to TV LHS and monoprice for the rest Audioquest subwoofer cables Assorted Xindak, PS Audio and other power cables MK wall power sockets Atacama stands Auralex subdude platform and under centre speaker Da lite screen I have no financial interest or other interests in any of the items / events I write about.

As our homes in Singapore shrink, and our government tells us we still have enough space (ha!), we face the prospects of having to put up with smaller interiors and changing our expectations of how we decorate or furnish our homes. Our eyes can be bigger than our living rooms, and we can run the risk of turning our new homes into a congested, untidy storeroom in our haste and enthusiasm to get all those cool and pretty pieces of furniture for our homes. So here are some points that I garnered during my own hunt: - measure your home properly This means more than merely taking out the tape and recording the dimensions. That's important to get right, but also simulate what you will place inside. For example, the width of my dining hall is about 3m, but when I placed a cardboard piece which represented the size of my table (130 by 85cm), it filled up this space amply. Throw in some chairs and the place starts to look very cramped. - ensure that there is flow and moving space Like what...

I read about the closure of Digital Audio Broadcasts (DAB) with great sadness. We are only given one-month notice before our equipment becomes redundant. This is a far cry from the initial fanfare on DAB, and all the promises of better signal quality, sound and hissless high fidelity music. Why the demise? Well, despite a promising start, there has been little focus, news or even marketing, and you will have to go out of your way to find people who know about the equipment and little expansion of the stations. With such little effort devoted to this, it is of no surprise to hear of its demise. What concerns audiophiles and even the man in the street is the ramifications for other media, like digital television. Digital television was also announced with much promise, and yet, more than four years after it’s introduction, transmission coverage around the island is still sporadic (you could be staying in the same neighborhood, and experience varying degrees of reception). We still o...