I started to build my setup about 7 years ago and it's gradually morphed over the years as personal tastes and budget allowances have grown. My first HD TV was a 37" 720P Olivia LCD. I think I paid about $650 and had it hooked up to a cheap off brand DVD player.
The next purchase was the Sony 52" KDL-52XBR4 LCD and a Onkyo HTiB 5.1 setup. The speakers were not that great, but it came with a decent entry level receiver during that period that could decode lossless codecs, an Onkyo TX-SR605. I had that audio setup for almost 1.5 years before I bought a pair of Definitive Technology BP7002 towers (Four 5.25" drivers per tower with a built in 12" 300 watt subwoofer) and a Definitive Technology SuperCube II subwoofer. I tried 3 different center channels, all Definitive Tech brands... CLR2300 with a built in woofer and 4.5" drivers, a CLR 2002 without the woofer and 5.25" drivers before finally settling on a CLR2000 with no woofer and 6.5" drivers. The dialogue sound the best and had good depth especially once you really turned it up
I started to get into high definition discs via HD DVD since it was close to the end of the "format war" between HD DVD and Blu-ray. I didn't have a preference one way or the other, but HD DVD was selling their players cheaper and offering more free promotional discs. Even after HD DVD lost, I continue to buy them for dirt cheap while finally getting a PS3 for Blu-rays. Not log after that bought a LG BH200 multi-region Blu-ray player that also plays HD DVDs, upgraded the receiver to a Yamaha RX-V3900 and replaced the side surrounds DT CLR2002s. This ended up being my setup for almost 2 years.
Realizing how much "fuller" sounding my center channel speaker was compared to all the previous center channels I had due to the larger drivers, I was convinced that bigger is better and did some research on an older pair of DT floor standing speakers which is no longer produced, the BP30s. They do not have the built in subwoofer, but the larger drivers (6.5") and larger cabinet allows the tower to hit into the low 20hz frequency range. Since they were no longer manufactured, I ended up buy various new and used parts, putting a pair together for about $700. Since the front sound stage is all 6.5" drivers, I bought two more CLR2000s which is the same speaker as my center channel, and replaced the CLR2002s with the 6.5" beasts. There is a total of fourteen 6.5" drivers in the living room and on occasion I can go overkill on a hobby, I also added an Emotiva XPA-3 external amplifier to drive the front soundstage with 200 watts each. The picture below still shows it with the BP7002s
Here's a picture to show the difference between the BP7002 and BP30s. You can see the larger driver cut outs in the cabinet.
Here's a photo of the Supercube II. It's quite small, 12" x 12" x 12", powered by a 1250 watt amp with an 8" woofer, pressure coupled to two 8” low bass radiators. It's not worth it at full retail price but I picked this up for under $300. It sounds pretty good for a compact sub and was a huge upgrade over my HTiB Onkyo sub.
And just recently, about 3 months ago my local Best Buy was closing so I took advantage of their clearance sales and picked up a demo model Elite PRO70X5FD along with a Pioneer Elite VSX-53 and another DT Supercube II subwoofer to make a 5.2 setup. Here a pic but the Pioneer receiver was not installed yet when I took this photo. I'm doing some house improvements so everything is a bit messy and will take new photos when things are done. There's only a couple more things I'd like to add into my setup, a HSU VTF15 subwoofer to replace the dual setup up I have now, and a video enhancer unit called Darbee Darblet.
Here's my bedroom setup, which is largely unchanged except that I no longer use the Samsung BDP2550 Blu-ray player. Got a great deal on a PS3 120GB slim during the last black friday sale. The TV is a Samsung 52" LN52A650 hooked up to my older Onkyo TX-SR605 and running 2 channel using the DT CLR2002 speakers. I still have one more CLR2002 in my garage so eventually I may also just make this setup a 5.1
The next purchase was the Sony 52" KDL-52XBR4 LCD and a Onkyo HTiB 5.1 setup. The speakers were not that great, but it came with a decent entry level receiver during that period that could decode lossless codecs, an Onkyo TX-SR605. I had that audio setup for almost 1.5 years before I bought a pair of Definitive Technology BP7002 towers (Four 5.25" drivers per tower with a built in 12" 300 watt subwoofer) and a Definitive Technology SuperCube II subwoofer. I tried 3 different center channels, all Definitive Tech brands... CLR2300 with a built in woofer and 4.5" drivers, a CLR 2002 without the woofer and 5.25" drivers before finally settling on a CLR2000 with no woofer and 6.5" drivers. The dialogue sound the best and had good depth especially once you really turned it up
I started to get into high definition discs via HD DVD since it was close to the end of the "format war" between HD DVD and Blu-ray. I didn't have a preference one way or the other, but HD DVD was selling their players cheaper and offering more free promotional discs. Even after HD DVD lost, I continue to buy them for dirt cheap while finally getting a PS3 for Blu-rays. Not log after that bought a LG BH200 multi-region Blu-ray player that also plays HD DVDs, upgraded the receiver to a Yamaha RX-V3900 and replaced the side surrounds DT CLR2002s. This ended up being my setup for almost 2 years.Realizing how much "fuller" sounding my center channel speaker was compared to all the previous center channels I had due to the larger drivers, I was convinced that bigger is better and did some research on an older pair of DT floor standing speakers which is no longer produced, the BP30s. They do not have the built in subwoofer, but the larger drivers (6.5") and larger cabinet allows the tower to hit into the low 20hz frequency range. Since they were no longer manufactured, I ended up buy various new and used parts, putting a pair together for about $700. Since the front sound stage is all 6.5" drivers, I bought two more CLR2000s which is the same speaker as my center channel, and replaced the CLR2002s with the 6.5" beasts. There is a total of fourteen 6.5" drivers in the living room and on occasion I can go overkill on a hobby, I also added an Emotiva XPA-3 external amplifier to drive the front soundstage with 200 watts each. The picture below still shows it with the BP7002s
Here's a picture to show the difference between the BP7002 and BP30s. You can see the larger driver cut outs in the cabinet.
Here's a photo of the Supercube II. It's quite small, 12" x 12" x 12", powered by a 1250 watt amp with an 8" woofer, pressure coupled to two 8” low bass radiators. It's not worth it at full retail price but I picked this up for under $300. It sounds pretty good for a compact sub and was a huge upgrade over my HTiB Onkyo sub.
And just recently, about 3 months ago my local Best Buy was closing so I took advantage of their clearance sales and picked up a demo model Elite PRO70X5FD along with a Pioneer Elite VSX-53 and another DT Supercube II subwoofer to make a 5.2 setup. Here a pic but the Pioneer receiver was not installed yet when I took this photo. I'm doing some house improvements so everything is a bit messy and will take new photos when things are done. There's only a couple more things I'd like to add into my setup, a HSU VTF15 subwoofer to replace the dual setup up I have now, and a video enhancer unit called Darbee Darblet.
Here's my bedroom setup, which is largely unchanged except that I no longer use the Samsung BDP2550 Blu-ray player. Got a great deal on a PS3 120GB slim during the last black friday sale. The TV is a Samsung 52" LN52A650 hooked up to my older Onkyo TX-SR605 and running 2 channel using the DT CLR2002 speakers. I still have one more CLR2002 in my garage so eventually I may also just make this setup a 5.1
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