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perisoft
Joined: 29 Aug 2007
Posts: 2920
Location: Ithaca, NY
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| Posted: Wed Aug 26, 2009 8:48 pm Post subject: failure defined in an HT |
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http://www.hifi4all.dk/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=74618
Something is rotten in the state of Denmark. Massive audio - and a white room, a wrinkled pull-down screen draped at an angle due to laziness, and (I kid you not) an 800x600 DLP projector.
That's right, ladies and gentlemen - he's rockin' many thousands of dollars of high end audio, and a wretched 2000:1 SVGA projector.
And a bluray player.
1080p downsampled to 800x340! Now that's some cinemascope ACTION!
So, there you go - the home theater equivalent of buying a $500 bottle of wine to go with a slice of solidified cooking grease you found in the McDonald's dumpster.
Yikes.
Anyway, does anyone here speak Denmarkish? If so, you need to post on there and tell him for chrissakes to sell one of his NADs and get a proper projector and screen. 
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Person99
Joined: 09 Mar 2006
Posts: 4899
Location: Flower Mound, TX
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| Posted: Wed Aug 26, 2009 9:30 pm Post subject: |
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Bet he is an "audio guy" that set this up awhile ago and decided "what the hell, I'll have a home theater too". The PJ was probably $6000 when he bought it.
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Dave
A train station is where the train stops. A bus station is where the bus stops. On my desk, I have a work station....
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perisoft
Joined: 29 Aug 2007
Posts: 2920
Location: Ithaca, NY
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| Posted: Thu Aug 27, 2009 10:23 am Post subject: |
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| Person99 wrote: | | Bet he is an "audio guy" that set this up awhile ago and decided "what the hell, I'll have a home theater too". The PJ was probably $6000 when he bought it. |
Yeah, but still - why brag about it? Just say, "Hey, I had a great bottle of wine", not, "I had a great bottle of wine, and I *ALSO* found some crap that was growing green hair in the back of my fridge!" 
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WanMan
Joined: 19 Mar 2006
Posts: 10270
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| Posted: Thu Aug 27, 2009 12:12 pm Post subject: |
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Its the money vs brains function at work.
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Curt Palme
CRT Tech
Joined: 08 Mar 2006
Posts: 24396
Location: Langley, BC
TV/Projector: All of them!
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| Posted: Thu Aug 27, 2009 2:23 pm Post subject: |
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I disagree with the 'thousands of $$ on high end audio'.
The NAD stuff is nice, but I wouldn't consider it high end. The CV fronts put out nice bass.... and that's about it. The projector is right on par with the rest of the installation with hardwood floors methinks.
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garyfritz
Joined: 08 Apr 2006
Posts: 12088
Location: Fort Collins, CO
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| Posted: Thu Aug 27, 2009 4:30 pm Post subject: |
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Don't let my brother the musician hear you say that. He's been a hard-core NAD fanatic for 30 years. 
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Curt Palme
CRT Tech
Joined: 08 Mar 2006
Posts: 24396
Location: Langley, BC
TV/Projector: All of them!
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| Posted: Thu Aug 27, 2009 4:32 pm Post subject: |
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Hey, to me an amp is an amp. With the exception of tube vs solid state and eliminating the super low end stuff, I don't think the average person is going to notice a huge difference between say a Technics, NAD, Bryston or esoteric audiophile 100 watt per channel amp.
I will say that in our repair shop in the 90s, NAD amps consistently had lower THD specs than other amps on the bench, but can you really hear the difference between 0.05 and 0.01% distortion?
Flame suit on!
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garyfritz
Joined: 08 Apr 2006
Posts: 12088
Location: Fort Collins, CO
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| Posted: Thu Aug 27, 2009 5:02 pm Post subject: |
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I think a lot of what he liked was that they DID have great performance -- e.g. your lower THD figures -- and for a much lower price than some of the hard-core audiophile brands. "Bang for the buck" is important when you're an underpaid high-school band teacher.
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Curt Palme
CRT Tech
Joined: 08 Mar 2006
Posts: 24396
Location: Langley, BC
TV/Projector: All of them!
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| Posted: Thu Aug 27, 2009 5:11 pm Post subject: |
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True. It's funny, I'm so used to getting my stereo stuff on trade/barter/throwaway that except for my HDFury and BR player, I can't remember when I've paid retail for something, so my frame of reference is somewhat different than most.
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MaximRecoil
Joined: 28 Nov 2008
Posts: 22
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| Posted: Thu Dec 03, 2009 3:49 am Post subject: |
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| Curt Palme wrote: | Hey, to me an amp is an amp. With the exception of tube vs solid state and eliminating the super low end stuff, I don't think the average person is going to notice a huge difference between say a Technics, NAD, Bryston or esoteric audiophile 100 watt per channel amp.
I will say that in our repair shop in the 90s, NAD amps consistently had lower THD specs than other amps on the bench, but can you really hear the difference between 0.05 and 0.01% distortion?
Flame suit on! |
As a rule of thumb, THD becomes noticeable at about 1%. However, there is more to having a lower THD specification than whether you can hear it or not.
For example, if you have an amp that is rated at 100W @ .01% THD, and another that is rated at 100W @ .05% THD, the former amp is more powerful than the latter amp. The former amp could be said to be "very underrated", while the latter amp might be said to be just "underrated". An amp that is rated at 1% THD is pretty much the standard, and is quite a bit less powerful than the underrated ones stating the same wattage. Some companies go in the opposite direction and rate an amp at say 100W @ 10% THD; which could be said to be "very overrated", because it is only making 100W at a level of distortion that no one wants to listen to. It would be making far less than 100W of power when turned down to an inaudible distortion level.
I guess it all comes down to how you want to market your amp. The exact same amplifier could be marketed as e.g., 100W @ .01% THD; 150W @ .05% THD; or 200W @ 1% THD; or 1100W @ 10% THD (those are just examples, I doubt the relationship is really perfectly linear to those specific degrees like that).
Have you ever seen the cheesy $20 "300 Watt EQ / Power Booster" units intended for car audio that they sell in e.g., the J.C. Whitney catalog? Well they aren't really lying with the "300 watt" claim, it is just that they cranked it up to an absurdly high level of THD to get such a rating (and probably used a 14.4V input on top of that). So yeah, it makes 300 watts, if you don't mind listening to music at a 50% THD level or whatever.
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whats6x7
Joined: 04 Oct 2006
Posts: 5924
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| Posted: Thu Dec 03, 2009 12:46 pm Post subject: Re: failure defined in an HT |
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| perisoft wrote: | | and a wretched 2000:1 SVGA projector. |
I think the all white room will bring the CR down to about 500:1. 
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perisoft
Joined: 29 Aug 2007
Posts: 2920
Location: Ithaca, NY
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| Posted: Thu Dec 03, 2009 12:52 pm Post subject: |
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| MaximRecoil wrote: |
Have you ever seen the cheesy $20 "300 Watt EQ / Power Booster" units intended for car audio that they sell in e.g., the J.C. Whitney catalog? Well they aren't really lying with the "300 watt" claim, it is just that they cranked it up to an absurdly high level of THD to get such a rating (and probably used a 14.4V input on top of that). So yeah, it makes 300 watts, if you don't mind listening to music at a 50% THD level or whatever. |
You see the same sh*t with speakers - a lot in car audio again. I was strolling around walmart a few weeks ago and took a look at the car subs they had - most were fairly normal; they'd say 200 watts RMS, 80 watts peak, or 800 watts RMS, 400 peak. Fine.
Then I saw a $30 12" sub. WTF? On the box, it's got, 400 WATTS! Of course 400 was the peak power... but RMS was 40! Now THERE'S some spin!
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