Subwoofer Q&A with ToastedPirate

I have to apologize for my lack of posting lately, things have just been hectic at home and work. I’ve seen several movies in that time, including a few good ones, so I’ll have to make a note to post those reviews later. I have been asked a few questions about the best bang-for-the-buck in both budget subwoofers and receivers that handle HDMI.

First off, the subwoofer…

There are three real options in the budget range, which I consider to be under-$300. These are:

• Acoustech BIC H100, $249
•  AV123 x-sub, $199
• Cadence X-Sub12, $199

Each have their pluses and minuses, so you’ll have to choose based on your exact budget and requirements. The AV123 option is a heavyweight 8″ sub with a 500-watt (150w RMS) amp, adjustable phase, gain and crossover. It’s rated down to 28Hz and is the punchiest of the three, mostly due to the size and design.

The BIC is a larger 12″ sub, with a  500-watt (150w RMS) amp, adjustable phase, gain and crossover. It’s rated down to 24Hz and provides a bit more “oomph” for the home theater environment. This is the particular sub that I own, and I can vouch for both the power and clarity behind it. Your walls and windows will likely begin to shake before the sub ever bottoms out – assuming you aren’t trying to fill a large room.

The Cadence is a fairly new offering, but it’s also a 12″ sub with a smaller amp. It has adjustable gain and crossover, but no phase control (to my knowledge). I have not heard this one before, so I can’t really comment on it – but as I understand it, the Cadence competes fairly well with the other two. I have also heard that it needs a little more tweaking that the others to really sound good.

Unfortunately, there just aren’t many good options at the big box stores without spending a lot of money. Both JBL, Polk and even Infinity offer some decent subs…but most of those start at around $500. For the best price/performance ratio, I would definitely recommend one of the three subwoofers above – with my biased opinion picking the BIC H100 as the top dog.

In my next post, I’ll be covering HDMI-based A/V receivers…

Theater Upgrade Complete!

My motorcycle sold on Friday evening, which means I officially had the funds to upgrade the theater!

I had already ordered the equipment (ready to return if the bike didn’t sell), so my Saturday afternoon was spent installing everything. The screen is a fairly large step-up from a size standpoint, and was a little bit of a pain to mount. The good thing about the new projector is that it doesn’t require mounting and can hit the screen from anywhere on the back wall – so at least exact measurements were kept to a minimum. The screen reeks heavily of new plastic though, so I’m going to have to leave a window open a few days this week.

The last piece of the equipment was a Toshiba HD-A30 HD DVD player that I got at a $100 discount from Best Buy. There were two things that drew me to this particular unit – the availability of HD discs and the great job it does with upscaling standard DVDs. I’ve been blown away by the quality of both, especially the high def stuff.

The only thing left to do is work out some tweaks here and there, and learn how to use all the features of the new stuff. The current list of equipment in the theater looks something like this:

Display:
Sanyo PLV-Z5 projector
Elite 92″ Matte White manual screen

Audio:
Polk Audio R300 front speakers
Polk Audio CS1 center channel
Onkyo SKB-520 surround speakers
Acoustech BIC H100 subwoofer

A/V Equipment:
Toshiba HD-A30 HD DVD player
Onkyo HT-R520 receiver

The A30 came with a copy of 300 and The Bourne Identity, but I really wanted to see what the unit could do, so I ordered a few more. Hopefully arriving by the end of the week will be – Batman Begins, Gods & Generals, The Bourne Supremacy, Serenity, Troy: Director’s Cut and Dawn of the Dead.

Pictures (and more movie reviews) will be posted soon!

New Projector in My Future?

Last week, I wrote a post detailing the HD-DVD vs. Blu-Ray war. I stated that in order to see any difference, I would need to upgrade my projector, as it is only an Enhanced Definition (848×480) display. While this works out great for DVDs , it is not going to show any detail in a higher resolution image like one of the HD formats supports.

While I had originally considered waiting until later in the year (or even early next year), I am seriously contemplating doing the upgrade soon.

Those that know me have seen me go through a few different modes of transportation in the last two years. Right now I have a car that I purchased last year and a motorcycle that I purchased in May (used). While I love the bike, it just hasn’t gotten the use that I thought it would. It seems to take longer to “gear up” than to ride to work or run a quick errand – I don’t live in a big town, so nothing is more than a few minutes away. Even on longer rides, it’s hard to find the time to just go out and ride the back roads. It could also be the 100+ degree weather this summer… Whatever it is, I’m disappointed to even ponder getting rid of it, but at the same time, it’s not very cost effective sitting in the garage

Anyway, IF I decide to sell the bike (and my older theater equipment), I have convinced myself that I would have the money to upgrade the theater now…plus still have a nice chunk of change to put away for savings. After all, I spend ridiculous amounts of time watching movies every week, I might as well get the best of it. Funny how we try to justify things we really don’t NEED.

I have researched several projectors and packages and have found a nice Sanyo PLV-Z5, which is a 720p 3LCD offering. The lens shift on this unit would keep me from having the alter my current mounting setup, and the zoom and bigger throw range would allow me to move from a 76″ screen to 92″ or even 100″(whoa!)

At the same time, I would likely purchase the Toshiba HD-A2 HD-DVD player, which can be found for less than $250 with several bundled movies. I would not normally purchase an HD player at this time, but it costs only slightly more than a good upconverting player (not the $40 WalMart junk) AND plays hi-def content at the same time.

Of course everything here is just a “thought” right now, and nothing is final. I’m actually perfectly happy with my current setup – but I’ve got that techno-geek urge that always wants the next best thing.

I’ll have to review my logic (and finances) in the coming days, but I guess anything is a possibility right now.

My Take on the Hi-Def Media Wars – 8/28/07

This could almost be a weekly article, as often as the HD-DVD (HD) vs. Blu-Ray (BD) front seems to change. Recent developments in studio support have thrown another wrench into the machine.

Last week, Paramount/Dreamworks announced their departure from exclusive BD support and moved to full HD support. This is a significant move, simply because of the titles it brings the HD-DVD format. This summer’s biggest blockbuster, “Transformers”, will now only be available in a hi-def format as an HD-DVD disc.

The current studio support is basically split 50/50 right now:

HD-DVD:
Universal
NBC Studios
Paramount
Dreamworks
Weinstein Company

Blu-Ray:
Sony
Columbia
MGM
Walt Disney
Pixar
20th Century Fox
Lionsgate

Three studios technically support BOTH formats:
Warner Brothers
New Line
HBO

However, it should be noted that high profile Warner Brothers titles (The Matrix Trilogy, Batman Begins, etc.) have only been released on HD-DVD.

So what does this mean as a consumer? I would suggest to anyone interested in one of the hi-def formats to look through the list of titles available and see which format has more of the movies you want to see. Once you’ve made a preference, take a look at the players and see if you can justify the price.

The cheapest HD-DVD players right now are the $179 Xbox 360 addon (for those that already own a 360) or the Toshiba HD-A2, which can be found online for ~$220 with 8 free HD-DVDs (3 instant, 5 mail-in). If you consider the fact that the movies are worth $20 each, the player itself comes out to about $60.

The cheapest Blu-Ray player right now is the Sony BDP-S300 at ~$450 or the Playstation 3 at $480. Both are available with 3 movies, plus 5 free movies via mail-in offer. Again, considering these movies are worth $20 each, it brings the cost of the players to $290 and $320 respectively. If you are also in the market for a new gaming system, the PS3 becomes a good deal for an all-around device.

The HD-DVD players have also been heralded as excellent DVD upconverting players (take standard DVDs and present them in a hi-def resolution). While the picture quality is not up to par with the HD formats, many folks have claimed it was much better than their standard DVD players.

I also believe that HD-DVD will be the first to drop below $200 and become a mainstream item. In the end, it won’t be the videophiles that pick the format, it will be Joe Six Pack at the local Walmart.

For these reasons, I would wholeheartedly recommend a HD-DVD player if you are in the market for a hi-def format right now. Even if the format happens to fall to Blu-Ray in a few years, you will have gotten excellent use out of it in the meantime and it will still work great as a DVD player. With the offer that Amazon currently has running, it’s hard to beat the HD-A2 and 8 movies for $220.

All that said, the DVD format is (and will be) very much alive. While they don’t have the clarity or fidelity of the new formats, they are still respective in the quality and feature department. After all, the move from DVD to HD will not be as significant as the move from VHS (analog) to DVD (digital)…especially with the features. Many folks will hold out on the next generation simply because, “why would I buy a $25 disc when I can buy this $15 disc?” Until more of the U.S. adopts HDTVs, people can’t see the difference anyway.

Honestly, I like the HD formats…and I’m strongly leaning toward supporting one before the year ends. My dilemma is much like the one I mentioned above – I watch movies on an enhanced definition (848×480) projector and would need to upgrade to a fully functional 720p device to benefit. Obviously, this adds another cost into the equation that I’m not prepared to pay right now.

With news dropping left and right from both sides, it’s still a very volatile market right now. The right studios switching sides at the right time could be enough to put one format over the edge. The same goes for the “neutral” studios of Warner and New Line – either of these turning format-exclusive would be a strong statement.

Why I’ve Stopped Buying DVDs

Okay, so the title was a little misleading, as I can’t say that I’ve completely written off buying DVDs just yet. However, I have set some stipulations that I may not have cared about in the past.

In the world of Netflix, Blockbuster Online and $4 rentals – cheap is king. I’m currently paying $18 a month to Blockbuster for 3 online rentals at a time, plus 5 in-store rentals, plus 2 other coupons that can be used for a movie or game. Considering that I sometimes go through 3 “mailing cycles” in a month, we’re talking about 15+ movies a month for that $18…or about $1.20/rental.

Now let’s compare that to the cost of buying a brand new movie. First, how many movies in your collection can you honestly say that you’ve watched multiple times? I know that probably half of my movies have been watched once and haven’t seen a DVD player since. The others have been seen 3-4 times at most. There are very few that I have even bothered watching the special features on. It’s kind of sad, really.

Assuming you bought the movie on the week it was released, you probably paid $15 or more. I personally would have to watch the movie 12 times just to get the same value out of it that I do from renting. With the quick turnarounds these days (and the in-store rentals), I can hardly justify buying anymore. Sure, it’s nice to have it on the shelf if you get spontaneous, but that rarely happens for me nowadays.

Secondly, the HD formats are already out and a new player will be on the horizon for many folks in the next 2-3 years. While upconverted DVDs don’t look bad, it’s hard to justify putting too much money into a format you may not be using in a few years. I have no doubt that DVD will be around for many years to come, but most geeks and home theater enthusiasts will have replaced their equipment long before it dies.

Like I mentioned, I don’t want to sound like I have completely written off buying DVDs, just that there are conditions now. If it’s a movie that I’m dying to see, but can’t find it to rent, I’ll drop the $15 – after all, it’s still cheaper than going to the theater. If I know that I’ll want to see the special features, or watch the movie multiple times, I’ll also buy.  Finally – if I can find the movie for $5 in one of the bargain bins or pre-viewed movies at a rental store, I’ll sometimes buy.

This isn’t to say that my habits won’t change when one of the HD formats emerges, but I am happy with renting for now.