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How the stereo became a theater at home
It all started back in 1990 when I realized that happiness is a cool stereo. I decided to upgrade my Marantz system that was cool for a teenager (unfortunately, I wasn't one anymore) by getting a Denon POA-2800 power amp and a NAD something or other pre-amp, a decent CD player and keeping my semi-cheesy Jamo speakers. If you ignore the gold amp in the picture, you can see the fat Denon piece under the turntable and the NAD pre-amp under the gold piece (just above the stack of LP's). This is the first known picture of my earlier stereo components.
In 1994, I have worked long enough to be able to upgrade the system to a serious stereo system. This is really the foundation of my current system. I got the Infinity Kappa 8 speakers, the Avalanche A-10 mono blocks, the Sony TA-E80ES pre-amp and the Sony X202ES CD player. I have to say, nothing I have later added to the system has had the impact of this first step. It is obvious that a great stereo system blows the ears off a mediocre surround system. I can't believe I used to have a chrome ceiling fan and a plastic flower in my living room...
This system served me for years, with few upgrades - most notably the addition of a 32" Sony Widescreen TV in 1995/96. Fast forward to early 2000. It started innocently enough when I saw a black Infinity Kappa Video center channel speaker on ebay. I thought - "yeah, that one would perfectly match my black Infinity Kappa 8 speakers whenever I decide to get a surround system..." so I got the piece, and then all was quiet for a while. Then I stumbled on a couple of black Infinity Kappa 8.1's - these are essentially the newer version of my kappa 8's (although nowhere near as slick). Okay, kappa 8.1's for surround satellites would be overkill, but what the hell. No one ever died from overkilling so I got them too. Now that the gear started to come in, the momentum started to build up because I now had this beautiful speaker setup with five wonderful speakers, but still only a stereo preamp (I was still using the Sony TA-E80ES) with two Avalanche mono blocks. Something had to be done. So I got myself a 5 channel power amp to drive the center and the rear surround speakers. The amp of choice was an Adcom GFA-6000. It pumps out 3x100w and 2x60w, which should be plenty enough, since I'm only driving center and surround with it. My front speakers are still fed by the Avalanche mono blocks. Okay. One piece missing. I have 5 lovely speakers and plenty of power to spare, it was evident I needed a magnificent piece to drive the whole shebang. The system was in a state where I was really happy with the sound in 2 channel stereo, and if I added surround to it I didn't want it to degrade the 2 channel stereo experience. I researched long and hard to find a processor that I could be happy with, taking 2 channel stereo into account. Eventually I found what I wanted. I decided on a Sunfire Theater Grand II - Multi channel preamp with Dolby Digital/DTS. I'm pretty sure Sunfire designed this thing with me in mind - it's beautiful. Christmas time 2000. Now I had the sound of my dreams. And before I need to upgrade my sound system again I will have to grow Ferengi ears, because I can't hear better than this. So with the sound of my dreams, my 32" Sony widescreen TV felt... small... Don't get me wrong, I love my 32" Sony widescreen tube. It's a very nice tube - a Sony KV-W3213 if that'll tell you anything. 32" 16x9 high resolution HD-Trinitron tube, multi system (PAL, PALplus, NTSC) etc, etc. But still, something was missing. In comes a Sony VPL-VW10HT 16x9 High Definition LCD Projector, 106" diagonal 16x9 motor driven screen (Da-lite Cosmopolitan Electrol with High Power surface). Since all this is located in my living room and I still want the Sony tube for watching 'regular TV' I opted for the electric screen, and since I have limited control over ambient light I choose the High Power surface that with its high gain reproduces a fantastic bright beautiful image from the Sony projector. I could finally call this a home theater, or as my buddy Tomas expressed it: "Film e bäst pa bio. Hemma". (Movies are best in the theater. At home.). |
