UPDATES!!!

Been a very busy few months. With "Real" work and home stuff. I do have a lot to write about. Just so I will remember them all, I will try to enumerate it now, before it gets out of my head.

1. Sony PS3 Slim - finally got one. I have been writing this for the longest time and finally I took the plunge, and hell, it was well worth the wait! Bluray movies, Hi-def games, Online games. This machine can do it all. Two thumbs up!


2. Atlantic Technology THX Speakers - got this pre-owned again! I am lucky, this used to be $1,500 for the whole 5 speaker set. Got for a fraction of the cost. Now my system is fully THXed! From my receiver (Onkyo 806 THX) to my subwoofer (M&K V-125 THX) and these babies. Just switch on all THX and its good to go. Sound so good.


3. Monoprice Two-output HDMI Splitter - this component is heaven sent. Formerly, I can only watch my HDDVD & NMT on my PJ, my Pioneer DVD and KY Karaoke on my LCD panel. But with my new Sony PS3, I expect to play HD games on my LCD panel and watch Bluray movies on my PJ, don't want to go through the hassle of switching HDMI cables and this thing does it for me, just the size of a soap box, tucked just at the back of the set-up without people even knowing it exist. But it does its job well. Glad I bought one.


4. Macbook Pro - my wife decided to retire her old plain Macbook, after almost three years of great service she was ready for a change. Its also fitting to upgrade this time since, at three years, its also the best time to sell the old Macbook when we can get around 50% of its acquisition price. Well, the new aluminum unibody 13" Macbook Pro did not disappoint. Sleek in looks and packing a punch in features. It was an ideal home computing machine, in it is of course the world famous Mac OS X, now on its Snow Leopard run.


These are the updates I have for now, till the next article. I plan to write something different, something I just discovered, I have just tried out their service, hopefully its as advertised.

Pre-owned Hi-grade Audiophile Equipments

I have always dream of owning equipments made from top notch audio equipment manufacturers, but sad to say, with their prices too expensive to even contemplate of touching one! But for resourceful and patient people like me, going into the pre-owned market is one of the ways to get my hands on one.

Rotel, Classe, Theta and etc are just some brands that I need to sell one of my kidneys for me to even hope of owning one brand new, but with pre-owned the gap to actually taking one home is closer to reality.

This past months was a very lucky time for me, I was able to obtain not one but two pieces of award winning equipments to add to my diy audio project and HT room. They are the Rotel RCD-971 HDCD Player and M&K V125 THX Subwoofer. The Rotel cost $600-700 when it was introduced in 1999, while the M&K cost $1,000 when it was launched into the market in 2001 (not sure about the date). But by getting these pre-owned I only paid for them for a fraction of the original cost. Of course there are substantial risks in buying 2nd hand items, but just like buying anything pre-owed, there are certain rules to remember to make these transactions trouble free.

1. Make sure you buy from a reputable person or source. It helps that some of your friends have bought stuff from them in the past, as they can tell you if the owner knows how to take care of his stuff or not.

2. If buying online, make sure the seller has a high positive feedback rate. This at least will give us a sign that the seller has a lot of satisfied customers.

3. Research on the stuff you will buy, so that when you get the item or is in front of the equipment during audition time, you know what to expect from the item operationally.

But following these rules still won't guarantee 100% risk free transaction, as buying pre-owned equipment is really a mix bag of pros and cons, I don't even know how my own acquisitions will fair since its still too early to tell, but by following these general guidelines, it gives me a sense of insurance knowing that the gears I got are from reliable sources hence has a bigger chance of being in good or even in excellent condition. Here are some pictures of what I got....

Rotel RCD-971 HDCD Player



M&K V125THX Subwoofer

My DIY Audio Project!

I decided not to write about my Canon 1000D camera anymore since the new Canon 500D is out. I will now write about my new DIY Audio Project which came so suddenly and was finished in a short amount of time. I am not an audio person, I enjoy watching movies more, and even if I want to hear music, I don't only listen to it but also watch it via my home theater through all the concert videos that is readily available. So having a dedicated audio set up never cross my mind, until....


The picture above is a pair of bookshelf speakers that I bought from a DIY Master I met in Pinoy DVD, he had a chance to make this speaker that he copied from the specification of ProAc Response 1SC. This British brand is known to sound very natural and neutral, which suits audiophiles just right, but the damn thing costs around $1,700 a pair!!! Luckily with this "clones" I paid roughly 10-12% of the original's cost!!! It was an impulse purchase, I could not believe that it would sound so close to the original. But now, I am left with speakers that I don't need for the moment.

I went back to my favorite place on the Net to ask what's next in this audio journey that I just undertaken. In Pinoy DVD, I was advised to go hybrid with regards to getting my pre-amp and amp source, meaning, the pre-amp front end should be tube based, to get the renowned tube openness, warmness and details, then solid state for the amp end for more efficient power handling. But since the price for admission was a bit steep in going separates, I was lucky that another DIY Master of amps in Pinoy DVD offered to make me a Hybrid Tube Gainclone Integrated Amplifier, with its dual 6922 tubes as its front end and a solid state 75 watts per channel RMS driving power, which is more than enough to power the ProAc "clones".


And to round up the entry level system. I also got some other DIY stuff from some other Pinoy DVD DIYers. From powercords, to interconnects and bi-wire speaker cables. So the only stuff that is not DIY will be my sources. For my Ipod dock, I just utilized our old Teac Ipod dock that sounds terrible on its own, but using it with the set-up not only gave me a dock but also a radio tuner! Then for CD listening, since I ran out of moolah, I resurrected my extra Pioneer DV515 DVD player as my cd playing source, not ideal, but will do for the mean time. But a new dedicated entry level CD player in the near future will help complete the set-up.

I set these all up in our bedroom, and the sound that came out was surprisingly pleasing, mids was very clear and natural, highs was not screeching and bass.... bass was admittedly a mixed bag. For instrumentals, jazz and light rock, bass was just right, but for rock and heavy bass music, I felt bass was lacking. Although we can't expect much from bookshelves, I again admittedly still have to break-in the speakers and my placement was less than ideal (atop my cabinet, 7 feet high). But overall, I am very satisfied, I think with some tweaking, breaking in and new source, the set-up should sound wonderful. The sound of music will never be the same again.

Somethings to Talk About

It has been a busy couple of months for me. Busy with work of course, but still got time to get into my hobbies. As promise, will be writing about my newly installed "power" inside my HT Room. The Onkyo 806 is indeed a great piece of equipment. I will also touch on my newly renewed hobby of photography, having recently acquired my first Canon DSLR, the Rebel XS or 1000D for people from Asia. Also got a couple of cheap ass lenses to pair with this camera, and I can say things are indeed looking up. Lastly, I will also write on my family's first trip abroad together to Hong Kong, it was indeed an adventure, was really glad my two boys and wife enjoyed the trip immensely as I did myself.

Of course, all of this will take sometime to write. I am lazy as hell, but hopefully it will be done within the month of May, articles and pictures hopefully. Watch out for it.

The "NEW" Power!

I am in a writing mood right now, two articles in a day!

Anyway, I know I said a while back that my HT journey has ended in terms of hardware acquisitions. But sad to say its not, after a few weeks of thinking, and with my wife's blessing (very important point here!), I decided to change the heart of my HT Room, the Audio Video Receiver, what does this equipment do? It actually does pretty much everything for your HT Room to work effectively. It does video / audio switching, meaning all your sources like DVD players, CD players, Cable TV and some old equipments like Tape deck or even Turntable can be run through this machine. It also has a tuner wherein you can use the machine as your radio whether AM or FM listening and lastly, and the most important, it powers the sources' audio signal for it to output out of the speakers connected to it. That's why when I say heart of an HT Room, it really is!

I currently am using the Onkyo 604. Its basically a 2006 model but I bought it as a NOS (New Old Stock) in February of 2008. When I bought it, Onkyo just launched their 605 and in late 2008 launched their new 606, which were both award winners and at the same time best sellers for them having great value / feature for the money they are asking from consumers.



I don't want to upgrade to a 606 since doing so might not be a revolutionary change for me. I look at other brands too, and the Harman Kardon, Yamaha and Denon caught my eye. unfortunately the Harman has issues with its firmware with various user complaints all over the internet. The Denon was very good but pretty much out of my budget.

The Yamaha 663 model really got me thinking for a long time, its got hi-def audio decoding, its got pre-outs for added external amplifier for future upgrade, its hdmi 1.3a compliant, more than average amplification power and price very competitively. All these features are not present in my Onkyo 604, and also are the features I am looking for as an upgrade. BUT..... sadly in the end, I decided and went back to get an ONKYO. An Onkyo 806 specifically.

Front Panel

Back Panel with Audyssey MIC and Remote

Its $150 more expensive than the Yamaha 663, but I chose it over the Yamaha because mainly of several factors:

- Audyssey Multi EQ -
- THX Ultra 2 Plus Certification -
- Faroudja DCDi Cinema Video Processing -
- More Amplification Power -
- Five (5) HDMI 1.3a Inputs -

And all the features that the Yamaha 663 has, the Onkyo 806 have too. So, for a $150 premium, I felt like I am getting more value for money. So in the end, I think with this acquisition, my "NEW" power will last me atleast 5 years before I even think of changing to a newer model.

I am now waiting for my unit, it will take around a month before it arrives from the USA. Will post some actual pictures of unboxing and setting it up. So the waiting game starts....

Acoustic Treatment

This is a topic I am not very confident to talk about. I simply don't know enough, even after researching through the internet left more questions than answers. But at any rate, I started to acoustically treat my HT Room so as to maximize my equipment's capabilities.

The above photo shows the two acoustic panels I placed behind the two floorstanders. By putting these two panels, imaging vastly improved for both stereo music and home theater movies soundtrack. I could not believe the difference only two panels do! UNBELIEVABLE!

Next, I bought a pair of 5 foot triangular bass traps from the same supplier to be placed on my back room's corner, and what these two monsters do is to trap the bass and make it sound and "feel" better. What I can tell you is before these two, my bass was all over, and my room has some modal ringing wherein when there are explosions in the soundtrack, I can actually feel my windows and "kisame" shake and bake so to speak, which is not cool. Now, after the placement, bass is tight, no more ringing, and I feel the bass! And I am loving it! its like getting a new subwoofer!

Overall, I am very satisfied with these new acquisitions. Its less than the cost of a good pair of bookshelf speakers but the effect is huge! I have plans of getting two more acoustic panels on the back sides of the room and I feel that my HT Room is set.