How did you get into Home Cinema?

chudleighpaul

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My first experience was in about 1974.

I had a Sony 22" mono TV. JVC brought out a stereo VCR which was also re-badged as Ferguson. I had the Ferguson, and started looking for stereo tapes to play. At that time any stereo tapes had a second sound track at the edge of the tape, similar in quality to a compact cassette tape.

I placed a pair of speakers either side of the TV and hooked them up to a Sanyo music centre. The next problem was to find some stereo tapes. Just a few had been released and the first time I played them I was hooked.

The next step up was a HIFi stereo VCR (JVC) I bought a Marantz stereo amp and a pair of Kef floor standing speakers. I love these speakers and still use them today. The improvement was awesome. I had to have more! The next puchase was a Marantz processor that processed the sound into four channels two front and two rear. It was very cumbersome as it was necessary to adjust the volume on the processor at the same time as the amp. But I now had surround sound!

Next came a Kenwood pro logic receiver which meant adding a centre speaker. At this point I did not consider a sub as the Kefs would shake the room and you could feel the bass in your stomach.

I then moved house and the accoustics of the new location meant buying a sub as the bass was nowhere near what it had been in the previous flat.

By this time I had a 27" Sony 4:3 TV. Next came a DVD player, and I was blown away by the improvement in pic and sound quality.

I decided that the next upgrade was the amp, and this was changed for a Yamaha with DD and DTS. Wow what a difference. The TV then had to go and was replaced by a 40" Sony LCD W2000, which I still have. The Yamaha was changed for a Yamaha receiver with built in DAB in order to reduce the number of boxes under the TV. Sky HD was added and DVD replaced by Bluray.

How did you guys get started?[:)]
 

Vimeous

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Easy.

It was the first time I heard Nicam Sterio from a VCR - the film was From Dusk Till Dawn - I was hooked.
Despite being a 1st year student my first proper paycheck vanished on my lovely Arcam / B&W combination (who needs food?!). Though no TV yet.

As soon as I became an ex-student I sourced a Yamaha DSP-E492 processor on ebay, 32" ex-rental TV, mini-system centre speaker (blue-tacked on-top of said TV) and a pair of cast-off Tannoy 603's for the rear.

I was totally smitten and it's only in the last few years I've managed to up-date the weakest bits. I plan on adding a sub this month but having seen the dual-sub setup at last years Sound and Vision Expo I really want 2 ..... and a more isolated house ..... and very considerate neighbours!
 

Frank Harvey

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I'm similar to you Vimeous!

My first 'home cinema' was buying a Panasonic NVF70 Nicam stereo video (had mono ones before that) I heard demonstrated at Wires in Birmingham Pavillions with Top Gun - wow! Dolby Surround! I initially had it plugged in through my hi-fi and a Sony Profeel 27" monitor. I always remember a new lease of life to the Friday 13th movies! Wow! Left and right effect!!

Eventually I picked up a Yamaha DSPE580 to add surround sound to my hi-fi system - then it was downhill from there!!

Aaah, the good old days
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aliEnRIK

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I plugged my panasonic VCR into my (then) kenwood amp whilst watching 'Fist Of The North Star'

I was hooked :p

I stuck with 2 channel until I saw the WHF review of the Yamaha 800 processor. That BLEW me away when I first watched 'Gladiator' in DTS (In fact I was mega impressed just listening to Eastenders (Which I now hate by the way), as all of a sudden I could hear footsteps and people talking in the background and just more of everything. I was mesmerised)
 
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Anonymous

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My farther used to sit me down, on a Wednesday night, I think, to watch Miami Vice. I think it was first ran on the BBC, I was very young at the time. I cant remember the exact set up he had, but he ran it through a stereo amplifier and 2 massive floor standers. I can't remember the make but they where awesome.

He used to dim the lights and nobody was allowed to talk, I was hooked, and ever since I could afford too, I have always had some sort of system.
 

john1000000boy

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Started for me as a student in Edinburgh when friends started buying proper hifi seperates. Used to go round to their flat and mix a pair of cd players with a synergy mixer and make compilation tapes... The Speakers were monster Wharfedale Valdus 500s with a couple of Tannoys at the back(it was a stereo amp) The sound was brilliant!!

This made me catch the bug so...

Went to Richer Sounds and bought a Sherwood R125RDS Pro Logic amp. A Wharfedale force 3??? A very odd looking centre speaker in 3 "modules".

To an independent shop and bought a pair of Mission 752s 2nd hand- Amazing!!

Then my other friend was giving Richer Sounds some business and i managed to get the Technics slpg 580a for £30 new!!

My flatmate then went and bought a set of Kef Coda 9s which went to the rear.

The flat had a sony 4:3 wood effect tv in it. Hooked that up to the amp.....N64(Goldeneye!!)

My flatmate walked past a 2nd hand shop and picked up a Bang & Olufsson VCR deck for £40

This was the home cinema!!

Moved out the flat and back to parents house where my bro and i had an upstairs sitting room.....

Bought an Aiwa active sub from a friend and a pair of Eltax ht2 Bipolars and HT Centre from RS.

Then bought a Nicam VCR Aiwa hxv 4500. My own complete Home Cinema!!

Took the step into dvd with a Sony dvp 3600. The biggest step ever!!

Then bought a Sony str db 1080 from hifi shop in Dundee. 5.1 was incredible!!

The sony broke down so used a ps2 for dvd for a while until i was given the Denon dvd 1920 as a present from my girlfriend. (now wife)

Moved out of the house with my brother and i moved in with my now wife...

She bought me my much beloved Pioneer Plasma...

HD succesfull!!

All the above kit was being used until the Sunday of the Open last year....

Then went and picked up my MA Rx av12 and Pio amp from James Morrow in Edinburgh.

Have bought the Pio br player from ebay.

Still have all the above kit and other eqpt also. Its in its boxes in the loft... Need to have a sale i think....

So that is my AV habit from roughly '98 to now.

Love every bit of it!!
 
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Anonymous

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Watching independance day on DVD on my 32" sony CRT hooked upto a sony dolby pro-logic HI-FI. Had to keep pulling the couch up and place the pyrimid like rear speakers on the back of the couch!!! I remember thinking that it was the best thing ever!!

I then bought a cheap Sony reciever in a sale, hooked up the speakers from the HI-FI (didn't know about speaker Ohms then). A couple of months later I added my mission rears which i fixed to the wall instead of on the back of the sofa!!!

It then all went quiet as i split with my then girlfriend and moved back with my parents.

Once i moved in to my new house i bought my current mission fronts and center, that didnt last long as my reciever packed in but hooked the speakers upto an all in one i recieved off a friend at work. I didnt really enjoy this and i think thats when i started to think about upgrading.

So then came my Samsung LCD about 3 years ago now, then my Yamaha amp late 2009 and my sub last year, and now im hooked big style again.

So next on the list is some new fronts and center hopefully very soon, and i know that wont be the end of it!!
 

strapped for cash

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I was visiting a friend of a friend, who had a Pioneer Laserdisc player hooked-up to a pro-logic amplifier and five speakers (I think they were B&Ws). He proudly showcased his kit by playing Twister. The film was predictably formulaic, but I recall enjoying the sound-effects steering (as cows, swept up in a tornado, mooed from speaker-to-speaker). I wasn't a fan of blockbuster films then (and I'm not now), so I can't say why I felt compelled to invest in home cinema; but I resolved to do so, nevertheless.

Within a year I'd purchased one the first 16:9 televions (a 28" Sony Trinitron CRT); a Pioneer CLD925 Laserdisc player; an all-in-one Sony pro-logic system, with floorstanding fronts, integrated amplifier and built-in subs (it actually looked quite sexy); and amassed a reasonable collection films on Laserdisc.

Then came a DVD player, Yamaha receiver, and B&W speakers; all of which served me fantastically. Only in the last couple of years have I felt the itch to upgrade and make the transition to HD...
 

sonycentre

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when my dad brought home a 32 inch crt tv and akai nicam stereo vcr and we sat down and watched robocop and top gun through a crown amp and b&w speakers,then my dad brought me a awia hifi with an toshiba stereo vcr and i was hooked,then sadly in 1990 my dad passed away,and i moved and got a job working at tandy in skegness where i saved up for an awia dolby pro logic hifi and akai stereo vcr and watched aliens wow,Then time passed met a girl and moved to mansfield then took a 6 week holiday from tandy to be trained as an assistent manager at nottingham so used the time to sort a house out and purchased a toshiba 32" crt dolby pro logic tv and matching vcr the lion king on vcr sounded amazing back then and braveheart.We invited mates round for movie nights.Tandy went bankrupt and sold to the carphone werehouse Doh.so threw myself into djing..and in 2002 landed a job at the sony centre,still there 8 years later,and then really got the sony bug....dvds,hd,blu-ray,sky hd and now 3d...im proud of the system ive built up now.
 

cwalduck

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Started home cinema in 1979 I made up a cable to attach the headphone out on a portable TV through a Marantz HiFi amp with AR18LS speakers is was amazed how much bass there was in the mono analogue signal. I later invested in a Panasonic stereo TV and HiFi VCR (not nicam still £800 though) to play pre recorded stereo video's . My first surround processor was a Marantz SP50 (I still have it in the original box) it supported pro-logic and powered only the rear speakers. At the time their was no such thing a rear speakers so I resulted to using some speakers from radio shack (I still have these running in the kitchen). Eventually centre speakers started to appear on the market so I bought a Monitor Audio CC200 (I still have this too, as you can now deduce I am a bit of a hoarder) to go with my MA700 main speakers an used a NAD amp to drive the centre channel as the SP50 only had pre outs for the centre channel.

I could go on.... But ill stop now!
 
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Anonymous

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It must of been late 80s/ early 90s. My Dad handed down his Technics 'stack system' when I was a kid. And then 1 birthday, I was a lucky boy and got a Ferguson Nicam VCR!! When I rushed upstairs to set it up, I noticed the phono out and thought to myself 'I wonder if I..........'

Set it up, popped in my copy of Robocop, ff to the ED209 scene, whacked up the amp and the rest is history!! I can still hear the screams 'turn that down!!' from my parents as if it happened yesturday, 1 of my fondest memories of 'Home Cinema'!!
 

chudleighpaul

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lduck:

Started home cinema in 1979 I made up a cable to attach the headphone out on a portable TV through a Marantz HiFi amp with AR18LS speakers is was amazed how much bass there was in the mono analogue signal. I later invested in a Panasonic stereo TV and HiFi VCR (not nicam still £800 though) to play pre recorded stereo video's . My first surround processor was a Marantz SP50 (I still have it in the original box) it supported pro-logic and powered only the rear speakers. At the time their was no such thing a rear speakers so I resulted to using some speakers from radio shack (I still have these running in the kitchen). Eventually centre speakers started to appear on the market so I bought a Monitor Audio CC200 (I still have this too, as you can now deduce I am a bit of a hoarder) to go with my MA700 main speakers an used a NAD amp to drive the centre channel as the SP50 only had pre outs for the centre channel.

I could go on.... But ill stop now!

Thats 2 of us that had the Marantz processor, it was awkward to use but it was one of the first devices to give cinema surround sound ie Pro Logic. If I remember correctly it was connected to the tape monitor loop of a stereo amp.
 

cwalduck

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chudleighpaul:lduck:

Started home cinema in 1979 I made up a cable to attach the headphone out on a portable TV through a Marantz HiFi amp with AR18LS speakers is was amazed how much bass there was in the mono analogue signal. I later invested in a Panasonic stereo TV and HiFi VCR (not nicam still £800 though) to play pre recorded stereo video's . My first surround processor was a Marantz SP50 (I still have it in the original box) it supported pro-logic and powered only the rear speakers. At the time their was no such thing a rear speakers so I resulted to using some speakers from radio shack (I still have these running in the kitchen). Eventually centre speakers started to appear on the market so I bought a Monitor Audio CC200 (I still have this too, as you can now deduce I am a bit of a hoarder) to go with my MA700 main speakers an used a NAD amp to drive the centre channel as the SP50 only had pre outs for the centre channel.

I could go on.... But ill stop now!

Thats 2 of us that had the Marantz processor, it was awkward to use but it was one of the first devices to give cinema surround sound ie Pro Logic. If I remember correctly it was connected to the tape monitor loop of a stereo amp.

Thats the one, showing our age now......
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audioaffair

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I used to yearn after a Laserdisc player and read Home Cinema Choice. Couldn't afford the former at the time but ended up getting a Toshiba 29" tv and Sony Nicam VCR (big step up from a 22" 70s JVC telly!) - even the Dolby Surround on that tv was a "wow" ! Used to only buy widescreen videos and 2.35:1 movies looked a little more watchable on a 29" rather than a 22"!

Then came DVD and bought some of the first releases when some of the more popular online stores were still partially mail order and produced a catalog still.

Then onto Blu Ray (a little late to the party) when we started selling Pioneer with PDP6090 and full 7.1 set-up which was my first proper longer term test of higher end home cinema kit - truly breathtaking.

Onward and upward now with 3D screen and 3D blu ray!
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iainl2005

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What made me get into home cinema.... "Fat people... eating too much popcorn... for the entire length of the film... kicking the back of my chair... with screaming kids... oh and overpriced rubbish food!"
 

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