corradoboy

A few to drool over HERE

p1mark

I had the same problem, took me ages to find something i was happy with.
the stuff i bought is made by an italian company called arctic, and i ordered it through a place called fusion design in Birmingham. It's fantastic quality and looks superb but not cheap - mt 3 units came in at 2K+. I'm ure they do glass fronted stuff. Mine is glossy black with black glass tops.

scooby L

OMG...

Deep Singh

To be honest my 2 year old is very good, the 4 month old will be the same hopefully. Problem is if other peoples kids come aound, its difficult to be quite as strict with them as with your own kids. Also means you can't relax because you're watching them like hawks. Busting a £200 DVD player isn't the end of the world, but I have some pieces of kit that cost me £1000+, I'd be gutted if that was ruined.

I've thought about mounting everything up on shelves (see below) but wasn't sure if that would end up looking too fussy.

Stands unique - Product Range

corradoboy

We keep little fingers out by hiding everything behind glass now. I use one of these....

Deep Singh

Yup, I've got one of those in black, except I now have too much kit ie

Onkyo 875
Sky HD box
Denon DVD 1920
Panny Blu Ray player
Quad 909 power amp
Quad 99 CDP
Sonos (on order)

I suppose I could get another one and put them side by side, but there would still only barely be space and defo none left over for CD/DVD storage.

I need something about 2.5x the length of the Alpha and about 1.5x the height with glass doors and looks good

scooby L

Tried here?

Deep Singh

Thanks, I've applied on line for a brochure, it looks expensive

Don't see any glass doors, but not much on the website to look at. I just don't see the point without glass doors ie you get a fantastic minimilist look with the doors shut, but when you want to use the stuff you have to keep the doors open; ie really messy/untidy look!
My kitchen is like that ie glossy and minimilist, but it would defeat the object if I had to keep all the cabinet doors open whenever I wanted to use something

corradoboy

There are remote senders where you place a tiny discrete IR receiver somewhere and run a cable inside the cabinets where an IR transmitter can be placed in front of each unit.

I've scaled my equipment down to just a Sony DVD(R)/FV/HDD, an unused VCR, AV receiver, and a media HDD. I have Virgin CTV too, but will be getting rid come autumn, freeing up space for a PS3. I want to upgrade the AV receiver to a Yamaha RXV1800 so I can minimise cabling too, just feeding all audio and video into that and having one HDMI to the TV. I just need to convince the missuse that we need to upgrade the panel to a 1080p, which I'm sure she'll go for if I suggest a 58"+

Have you thought about making your own units out of kitchen cabinets. Lots of stylish black units with glass doors available. You could use wall units for that floating look, mounted 6" off the floor. Imagine 3x of the 300mm high by 1000mm wide units side-by-side Maybe 2x rows, top glazed for the remote stuff, bottom solid for non-remote and DVD storage

Deep Singh

Thanks. I know about the ir extender kits, but it would be quite nice to see the front of the display aswell.
The kitchen unit thing is a good idea which did occur to me. My room is semi open plan to my kitchen, so I could use the same units and it would flow.

SideShowBob

Wow, some amazing systems, soon as I finish getting everything in place Ill get a pic up, im going from having everything on a black glass stand to getting it wall mounted.

The thing that has prompted the move upwards was finding a seriously nice AV shelving solution, check this out: 3 Shelf Black glass AV wall shelving system for Sky DVD PS3

Has cable management built in, and ill mount it directly below the TV so only have to run power and speaker cable up from the floor (bought some of the cable management they sell as well, bit pricey at £45 but looks really nice).

Should look spot on once finished, my original plan was to build a floating wall to have the telly almost flush, but due to cost and amount of work to get it done Ill have to wait for that.

How do people generally check for cables in the wall before drilling? it'll be on the party wall on a new build, and not directly above any plugs, so would this usually be a cable free area of the wall? Have to drill in 80mm for the raw plugs for the tv wall mount.

CupraDave

iTrader: (1)

WOW some of you have thrown some serious money into your systems, they are awesome

Here is mine



42" Panasonic Viera
Panasonic HD DVD recorder
Samsung 5.1 surround sound
Sky +
PS3

Unfortunately cant wall mount as I have a late 1920's house and every wall is latin plaster, hanging a painting is bad enough let alone a big tv. May have them all redone eventually and think about wall mounting then but til then I am happy. One thing I do need to do though is get my finger out and spread my speakers properly to make the most of the surround sound

scooby L

6-8 foot between front channels.

Rears 3-4 foot above listning level.

scooby L

That shelf looks nice mate... But my amp wouldn't even fit on it... ... the 40kg could be an issuse if you ever want to bi-amp your fronts... tidy though..

Regs on new build require cables to go either horizonotally or vertaically only, so sounds safe... if you're worried you can buy cable detectorsfrom homebase etc.

StickyMicky

i have just bought some blue "mood lighting" strips to fit behind my system

looked awesome on the dummy build last night, just waiting for one more to arrive and i will hook it up properly

corradoboy

Do you mean LATH and plaster Like....



If so then you can bolt a wall bracket securely to a board (18mm MDF maybe) which is cut a bit smaller than the footprint of the TV and then fix that into the studs (timber uprights) which will be evenly spaced at about 18" IIRC. A 42" TV will be about 1m wide or so, allowing you to span at least 3 studs, with decent 3-4" wood screws spaced at maybe 4" vertically. Using the image above here's a mock-up, but obviously you will have plaster on your walls too....

scooby L

Get some pics up when it done...

I've replaced my spot lights with blue led's, and put 2 blue neon cubes behind the A/V rack... but I'm not 100% happy with it yet... might do what you're doing.

CupraDave

iTrader: (1)

sweet thanks for that



yeah thats it

cheers for that mate, will look into it, would mean rearranging the room though and I dunno how the wife would take to that seeing as it took her like a month to decide to have it the way it is now

corradoboy

Took a couple of new ones of mine. I'll do some of the whole room after we've laid the new oak floor and opened up the wall to the dining room with glass doors. The rest of the room is a mees right now as we store stuff in readiness, but here's my current install....

Soft lighting...



Dark movie lighting....



With harsh flash to show the detail....



Different colours from the LED's....

scooby L

Loving the last pic..purple neon....

I tihnk I'm going to get my local picture framing shop to make a "frame" for my panni... then battern it so it sits flush with the front face...and fit the strip neons on the rear of the frame..

kbsub

I bought one of these last year .. There a great amp but needs careful setting up IMO . The Ypao (auto setup ) isn't that great and nearly always sets up the sub to low . I ended up getting an Spl meter and doing a manual set up and the difference is amazing , The amp does pretty good with music as well.

Some very nice H.C. on here ... Lots of nice ideas that may cost me in the future

hux309

p1mark

I had a mess with coloured lighting, but it looked far to cheesy Blackpool Chav and i was fed up of people knocking on the door and asking my wife for sex when they were red, so i just put some white ones behind my panel.

.

.

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corradoboy

Thanks for the input. I used to have an old DSPA2070 which I loved with music. Not strictly hi-fi in the audiophile sense, but I used to love acoustic music on the 'Jazz Club' setting and classical in 'Church' Do the new Yam amps have these features as I haven't look at one in person yet ? When I moved to the Pioneer to get DD(EX) and DTS(ES) I was impressed with the new DVD surround formats but sorely let down with its musical abilities, which is why I'm aching for a Yam next time.

kbsub

I use mine through a PS3 and the new HD formats do sound really good , So good in-fact I hardly ever play SD DVD's now.

Yes it as all the usual settings for music have a look here Pretty sure the Canadian/US version is almost the same as the UK apart from the radio (no RDS over here ) There's also a massive thread here if your bored one night

Also a good link for manual set up ....

How To Calibrate Your Surround Sytem Using an SPL Meter (Page 1 of 2): TechLore

corradoboy

Thanks, I'll have a read at w*rk later

logiclee

Well upgraded a bit since my post on page 3.

Treated myself to an Onkyo TX-SR875 and Sony 52W4000 to make the most of HD-DVD and Blu-Ray 1080P High Def video and lossless audio.



Cheers
Lee

corradoboy

Like the DTS sign I don't think I'd be allowed that

What's the Onkyo like with music as the 606 gives the connectivity I'd like for £200 less than the Yam RXV1800, but I really want the DSP surround processing back for music listening ?

logiclee

The 875 has different power supplies, amplification and DAC's than the 606 so I can't really judge how the 606 will fair.
The 875 isn't as smooth as my old Denon 3803 (Both £1000 amps seperated by 5 years), it gives a more forward presentation but has more detail and more depth. All my speakers are full range and the Onkyo with it's THX Ultra2 certified amplification drives them all with ease even with 5.1 SACD music.

As for stereo CD, it's good. Excellent for party's, background music or playing the odd CD. As for sitting down to a night of music? I'd much rather drag my old Rotel stereo amp out for that duty but saying that for an AV amp the Onkyo 875 isn't half bad at music.

You may be able to track down one of the last 805's for just a bit more than the 606. The 805 has virtually the same audio as the 875 but doesn't have the 875's high def Reon scaler for Video.

Cheers
Lee

logiclee

The DTS and DD signs are originals from years ago. On ebay the DTS sign goes for well over £100 and there's a DD sign on now for £80. I'll hang onto them for now.

I've seen an illuminated DTS-HD Master Audio sign but the wife says no.

Cheers
Lee