Audio & Visual, My Home Theater Set Up

All this while I have only talked about my hifi. Now it's time to switch to my AV adventure. I started building my AV system at the end of 2018 and it has gone thru a few small but worthy upgrades since. I will start with an equipment roll call, which are based on items currently in used. Drum roll please! 

Starting with the most basic 4K compatible, 120 inch XY screen. Here is a China made screen that offers great bang for buck.

The XY screen features rigid aluminum frame with instructions for DIY mounting if required. I got the dealer to wall mount it for me. It has nice 80mm side frame finished in black velvet like material to frame in the projected picture.

The Optoma UHD 50 projector was chosen for it's ability to throw the biggest picture size at a reasonably short distance. In this case, it must achieve 120 inch screen size at a projection distance of just 11 feet or so. It's also cheap considering it's entry level status, but still comes with Sim 4K, i.e. up sampled 4K, non native. Picture quality is good with vivid, punchy colours and offers great contrast. Only let down is the greyish black quality, as expected from an entry level projector. Still if one doesn't compare, one will not notice. I tried to upgrade to a JVC projector, but the projection length doesn't fit my space constraint. 

Source is by default the Oppo UDP 203 4K disc player. I am glad I got this as Oppo announced they are stopping production of BD players. Very nice picture quality in up sampled 4K mode and certainly reliable too. 

As a 2nd option source in the system, I included an old Oppo UDP 95 Full HD BDP. This dinosaur BD player come from the Cinivia free period in time. I still get very decent picture quality from this player.

The back end of the Denon X-4400 H is certainly busy with lots of configuration options. I choose to set up a 5.2.4 Dolby Atmos surround system, which means 5 chanels including center, 2 sub woofers and 4 Atmos ceiling effect speakers.

When it comes to AV Receivers, my choice is always a toss between Marantz or Denon range. I chose Denon X-4400 H at the time due it's punchy sound quality. Due to the Denon's tendency to overheat when the whole 5.2.4 system is powered by it, I have decided to hook up a power amp to compliment the Denon. Hence when planning a HT system, make sure the AVR has some kind of a configurable pre-out, for the flexibility of  expanding to pre-power set up. The whole Denon X series AVRs have a tendency to overheat, from the X-1500 H to the X-4500 H, and now X-2600 H series onwards.

Little is known about this Cambridge Audio A120 4 channel power amp, except that it was a 1990's product. It pumps out a healthy 120 Watts per channel and doesn't seem to run very hot which is good.
 

I use this Cambridge Audio A120 amp for front & rear surround channel duties, taking the load off the main Denon AVR certainly helps in the sound quality and reliability of completing the whole movie. The Denon on it's own tends to overheat and trip in the middle of an average 90 minute movie! 

I managed to fulfill another childhood dream when I scored the used Bose 901 MK VI series speakers in piano gloss black. As a hifi speaker, this Bose will not meet my audiophile requirements anymore, no matter how much it inspired me during my much younger days. However as a HT main speaker. it's a great step up coming from my previous BOSE 301 MK II. The sound is lush, less direct and offers a more enveloping front effect to movie soundtracks. It also great for my occasional concert watch too! 

For my center speaker duty, I go for a single Bose 201 MK III series speaker. Tonally, it complements the Bose 901s and it's small size makes it easy to place below the screen, yet that 6 inch mid driver means I can set the center x-over point to 90 Hz for the full male vocal effect!

I use the Bose 101 series for wall mounted rear surround & Model 25 series for Atmos ceiling effect speakers. Both the Bose 101 & Model 23 series are just slightly different variations of the same speaker design. The 101 being for home in/out door use and Model 25 for pro/commercial use. The 101 has a built in passive high pass inside, while the Model 25 has a 16 ohm transformer inside, both of which I had by passed, sending audio signal direct to speaker driver, making whatever differences inside a non factor. These are great surround & Atmos speakers due to their easy wall/ceiling mounting brackets.
 

I am a self confessed bass freak and nothing can change that, so having multiple sub woofers in my HT set up can only satisfy me. This Bose Acoustimas 5 series sub woofer is used to augment the Bose 101 as part of rear surround solution. The built in x-over in the Acoustimas helps to protect the rear surround channel from being over loaded in the loudest soundtracks, yet also allows me to set my rear surround to 80 Hz high pass, for that full range surround effect! By the way it doesn't count as a sub woofer in my system, even though it is one by any physical means.

When it comes to sub woofers, the SVS PB 2000 is my main squeeze. I started with a single one, as a 5.1.2 Dobly Atmos system, but as I moved to 5.2.4, it just made sense to add another SVS PB 2000 as the single one was feeling somewhat lonely. Adding the extra sub woofer allowed to bass management response to be more linear, projects more even bass spread around the room and less clipping in high octane explosion movie scenes.

If there ever was a best value trophy component in my HT system in terms of functionality, this Weiduka AC 8.8 power conditioner takes it! These days LED lighting source rules and my HT room is filled with all kinds of soft glowing LED lights. LED lights however come with very noisy switching power supply. I starting having high pitched dee.....eeeeee sound when my HT was switched on together with the LED mood lights when I didn't want to watch movies in the dark. I then fitted this Weiduka device in, powering all my source, AVR & power amp, and poof! The dee.....eeeee high pitch noise was gone........... And that's no psycho acoustic effect either! I also power my HT system with a variety of power cords from Lapp, Gotham & Furutech.  

All low level audio signals are routed via Monster THX 400 RCA for HT, 2 pairs were used to connect between the Denon AVR & the Cambridge Audio power amp. love those rubberized soft touch, yet grippy RCA plugs for easy handling, especially once installed behind my HT equipment rack. 

 

And lastly speaker cables are all generic use budgetary roll. 3 rolls of 30 meters was used to complete my HT project.

 

I initially had 12 meters of pro grade HDMI cable installed between my source/AVR to beam visual signal to my projector. At point of planning & wiring the project room, 4K compliant cables were few & far in between. While most of my disc collections are Full HD BD, the few 4K source that I had were problematic. The picture would blink every now & then with 4K source. I check on the web indicated I needed this optical HDMI cable. And so I bought this 15 meter roll from FIBBR during one of my trips to Guangzhou back in 2019. 

As you can see, virtually all my chosen components for the HT system are either entry level, or well used items. I also don't want to spend too much $$$ on cables or accessories. Next, I will show the whole completed she bang in my HT room, measuring 17ft x 13ft x 9ft(W x L x H).