Haywood's Completed Family Room System

[Haywood]

I finally got the subwoofers and surround speakers set up in the first floor family room and am pretty happy with the results. The automatic room calibration in the Yamaha is really great, though I did have to manually balance the subs first, so that they were more or less the same level. The gear list is as follows:

50 inch 120hz 1080p Toshiba HDTV
Yamaha RX-V3777 Receiver
Sony PS3 (First Generation)
Squeezebox 3
Roku 3
5 Insignia Two-Way Bookshelf Speakers
12-inch Energy EPS-150 Subwoofer
10-inch Polk Subwoofer

Seating is a Lovesac City Sac (red) and a Lovesac Pillow Sac (brown). The rest of the furniture is Ikea (No, you do not want to know how long it took).

One thing that really amazed me was just how much better the 19 year-old Energy sub is than the basically brand new Polk. Granted, the Polk is a cheap sub, but the difference between the two is pretty staggering. That Energy is still a very decent subwoofer, despite being old enough to be a college student.

 

[jomari]

nice room! i still love my energy subwoofer as well, and despite having a er... cheaper step up one, i still like the output and the mids of my current one, thus stacking it for ill effect.

very nice and organized room.

 

[Haywood]

nice room! i still love my energy subwoofer as well, and despite having a er... cheaper step up one, i still like the output and the mids of my current one, thus stacking it for ill effect.

very nice and organized room.

The back half of the room is still stacked with boxes until I finish getting some flooring down in the attic, but I like the front half a lot. I hardly ever go down there though. The family room is mainly the domain of the kids. I put this system together for them to play games and watch movies with their friends, so Lisa and I can watch what we want on the main system. We have a lot of little stuff left to unpack and organize, so the shelves and cabinets are a bit empty and messy. The drawers and the boxes along the top house our entire collection of Blu-Rays and DVDs.

 

[Yesfan70]

Very nice Haywood!

 

[Barney]

Nice room. I remember being impressed with Energy & their prices were great.

 

[heeman]

:text-bravo:

 

[Randy]

Nice...

Now sit back in them sacks and enjoy it.

 

[Haywood]

Nice room. I remember being impressed with Energy & their prices were great.

I bought this subwoofer in 1996 when I lived in Seoul for around $800. When I got back to the States, I called Energy to find out what it would cost me to get a 120v amp and they really impressed me by simply swapping it out for me at no cost. All I had to do was take the amp out of the sub and send it to them. I used it in my main system from the end of 1996 until I got my SVS in 2007, at which point it migrated to my master bedroom. It has been collecting dust for a couple of years, so it is nice to have it back in use.

 

[jomari]

nice room! i still love my energy subwoofer as well, and despite having a er... cheaper step up one, i still like the output and the mids of my current one, thus stacking it for ill effect.

very nice and organized room.

The back half of the room is still stacked with boxes until I finish getting some flooring down in the attic, but I like the front half a lot. I hardly ever go down there though. The family room is mainly the domain of the kids. I put this system together for them to play games and watch movies with their friends, so Lisa and I can watch what we want on the main system. We have a lot of little stuff left to unpack and organize, so the shelves and cabinets are a bit empty and messy. The drawers and the boxes along the top house our entire collection of Blu-Rays and DVDs.

hehehe. and a smart skilled photographer too!

kidding aside, moving never is done, not even after a year or so of living surrounded by boxes. it aint easy i tell ya. our stuff still is in the garage, we havent even displayed our er... doll collection as she calls it.

i mentioned the sub stacked was due to my limitations, i also knew that as much as everyone has preferences, it doesnt always assimilate into our real world living inside the box realism.

Nice room. I remember being impressed with Energy & their prices were great.

I bought this subwoofer in 1996 when I lived in Seoul for around $800. When I got back to the States, I called Energy to find out what it would cost me to get a 120v amp and they really impressed me by simply swapping it out for me at no cost. All I had to do was take the amp out of the sub and send it to them. I used it in my main system from the end of 1996 until I got my SVS in 2007, at which point it migrated to my master bedroom. It has been collecting dust for a couple of years, so it is nice to have it back in use.

man, i didnt know you lived in korea! how was that? and during the age of great cinema back then too. their second revolution of movies started around 2005, but thats also if im not mistaken around the time they started being more 'liberal' about movies.

did you enjoy living in seol?

oh, lastly, i knew someting was off, this is a secondary unit. *sigh*

can we take a peek into the main room someday?

 

[Haywood]

nice room! i still love my energy subwoofer as well, and despite having a er... cheaper step up one, i still like the output and the mids of my current one, thus stacking it for ill effect.

very nice and organized room.

The back half of the room is still stacked with boxes until I finish getting some flooring down in the attic, but I like the front half a lot. I hardly ever go down there though. The family room is mainly the domain of the kids. I put this system together for them to play games and watch movies with their friends, so Lisa and I can watch what we want on the main system. We have a lot of little stuff left to unpack and organize, so the shelves and cabinets are a bit empty and messy. The drawers and the boxes along the top house our entire collection of Blu-Rays and DVDs.

hehehe. and a smart skilled photographer too!

kidding aside, moving never is done, not even after a year or so of living surrounded by boxes. it aint easy i tell ya. our stuff still is in the garage, we havent even displayed our er... doll collection as she calls it.

i mentioned the sub stacked was due to my limitations, i also knew that as much as everyone has preferences, it doesnt always assimilate into our real world living inside the box realism.

Nice room. I remember being impressed with Energy & their prices were great.

I bought this subwoofer in 1996 when I lived in Seoul for around $800. When I got back to the States, I called Energy to find out what it would cost me to get a 120v amp and they really impressed me by simply swapping it out for me at no cost. All I had to do was take the amp out of the sub and send it to them. I used it in my main system from the end of 1996 until I got my SVS in 2007, at which point it migrated to my master bedroom. It has been collecting dust for a couple of years, so it is nice to have it back in use.

man, i didnt know you lived in korea! how was that? and during the age of great cinema back then too. their second revolution of movies started around 2005, but thats also if im not mistaken around the time they started being more 'liberal' about movies.

did you enjoy living in seol?

oh, lastly, i knew someting was off, this is a secondary unit. *sigh*

can we take a peek into the main room someday?

My wife and I got married right after college and spent a year teaching ESL in Jiangxi Provence, China. We came back to the States for about ten months while she finished up some degree work, then we spent almost two years in Korea (March 1996-December 1997). We absolutely LOVED Seoul. It remains one of my all-time favorite places we've lived. It is a truly fantastic city and they have done so much since we left. I really want to go back and visit. I'd also like to go back to China, which is now completely different. Lisa and I remain huge fans of Asian art and culture. She is addicted to K-Pop and Korean Drama (she also watches shows from Taiwan, Japan and other places). We have a decent collection of Asian movies and Anime, though we are getting a bit behind and have several years of newer releases to catch up on. We have a ton of Chinese and Korean art in our home, as well as a bit of Japanese and Thai art. Right now, we are struggling with where to put it all in this house. We really need a home that is at least 500 square feet bigger, but that's just life.

I will get some pictures of the main system up as soon as I'm done fiddling and get the living room back together.

 

[jomari]

i appreciate you sharing that with us, and see that you are well rounded on the eastern side of the world. not that many have that opportunity and outlook, and for that i thank you.

one of the places i hope to visit someday, with three cities in particular id specifically want to see...

Xinyu, fuzhou and ganzhou.

all beautiful in both history and in the geographic sense.

i wish i could also visit korea, as you could tell i have a soft spot for them which interestingly started from my hong kong movie watching, and started to bloom into their culture afterwards.

one key thing that i remember with korean dining is you never serve your own wine or drink, it is almost always the other person to do so for you. interesting no?

my wife is taiwanese, and yet her parents roots are in china. its difficult to be a bit opinionated on both mainland china and japanese cultures, as they have strong opinions on both. plus having a military background doesnt help either.

thank you again for your sharing.

back on track, home theater wise, how big is the main room compared to this one? this shows about 9x12 or so? viewing area/distance?

 

[Razz]

Great looking room you've got there Haywood!!!

 

[Haywood]

i appreciate you sharing that with us, and see that you are well rounded on the eastern side of the world. not that many have that opportunity and outlook, and for that i thank you.

one of the places i hope to visit someday, with three cities in particular id specifically want to see...

Xinyu, fuzhou and ganzhou.

all beautiful in both history and in the geographic sense.

i wish i could also visit korea, as you could tell i have a soft spot for them which interestingly started from my hong kong movie watching, and started to bloom into their culture afterwards.

one key thing that i remember with korean dining is you never serve your own wine or drink, it is almost always the other person to do so for you. interesting no?

my wife is taiwanese, and yet her parents roots are in china. its difficult to be a bit opinionated on both mainland china and japanese cultures, as they have strong opinions on both. plus having a military background doesnt help either.

thank you again for your sharing.

back on track, home theater wise, how big is the main room compared to this one? this shows about 9x12 or so? viewing area/distance?

I loved Hong Kong. We spent a total of about five weeks there. We also visited Hangzhou, Suzhou, Ningbo, Shanghai and Nanjing in addition to some travel around Jiangxi. We lived in a small town in the middle of nowhere called Fuzhou (nothing like its more famous namesake on the coast). It was about a hundred kilometers from Nanchang, where we did some shopping once in awhile. We also took a trip to Lushan, though the mountain was fogged in the entire time we were there.

 

[jomari]

i appreciate you sharing that with us, and see that you are well rounded on the eastern side of the world. not that many have that opportunity and outlook, and for that i thank you.

one of the places i hope to visit someday, with three cities in particular id specifically want to see...

Xinyu, fuzhou and ganzhou.

all beautiful in both history and in the geographic sense.

i wish i could also visit korea, as you could tell i have a soft spot for them which interestingly started from my hong kong movie watching, and started to bloom into their culture afterwards.

one key thing that i remember with korean dining is you never serve your own wine or drink, it is almost always the other person to do so for you. interesting no?

my wife is taiwanese, and yet her parents roots are in china. its difficult to be a bit opinionated on both mainland china and japanese cultures, as they have strong opinions on both. plus having a military background doesnt help either.

thank you again for your sharing.

back on track, home theater wise, how big is the main room compared to this one? this shows about 9x12 or so? viewing area/distance?

I loved Hong Kong. We spent a total of about five weeks there. We also visited Hangzhou, Suzhou, Ningbo, Shanghai and Nanjing in addition to some travel around Jiangxi. We lived in a small town in the middle of nowhere called Fuzhou (nothing like its more famous namesake on the coast). It was about a hundred kilometers from Nanchang, where we did some shopping once in awhile. We also took a trip to Lushan, though the mountain was fogged in the entire time we were there.

man i wish i could do that.

 

[Bote]

My wife and I got married right after college and spent a year teaching ESL in Jiangxi Provence, China. We came back to the States for about ten months while she finished up some degree work, then we spent almost two years in Korea (March 1996-December 1997). We absolutely LOVED Seoul. It remains one of my all-time favorite places we've lived. It is a truly fantastic city and they have done so much since we left. I really want to go back and visit. I'd also like to go back to China, which is now completely different. Lisa and I remain huge fans of Asian art and culture. She is addicted to K-Pop and Korean Drama (she also watches shows from Taiwan, Japan and other places). We have a decent collection of Asian movies and Anime, though we are getting a bit behind and have several years of newer releases to catch up on. We have a ton of Chinese and Korean art in our home, as well as a bit of Japanese and Thai art. Right now, we are struggling with where to put it all in this house. We really need a home that is at least 500 square feet bigger, but that's just life.

I will get some pictures of the main system up as soon as I'm done fiddling and get the living room back together.

Wow! If only we were neighbors my wife and yours could watch a lot of Korean movies in your beautiful set up. My wife loves korean movies a lot too and she watches them till the wee hours of the morning daily.

 

[Dentman]

Nice secondary system, perfect for the kids hangout. Enjoy your time with them, they will be out of the house before you know it.

 

[Haywood]

Nice secondary system, perfect for the kids hangout. Enjoy your time with them, they will be out of the house before you know it.

Tell me about it! My oldest is going to be 20 in February and my youngest just turned 13.

The room worked out exactly as intended. Both girls use it to hang out with their friends, play video games or just escape the parents to watch whatever they want (the oldest used it to binge on The Walking Dead). My wife and I are hardly ever down there, but it gets used for at least a few hours almost every day. It only cost me about $800 for the HT, because I already had everything except the TV and receiver. The wall unit and seating probably worked out to a couple grand and about 8000 hours of Ikea assembly.

 

[jomari]

can we see the main room?

 

[Haywood]

These pictures are all old, but not much has changed other than some wall art and some of the gear inside the cabinet.

 

[Haywood]

Living Room System

• Sony XBR75940C UHD HDR Display
• Marantz SR6010 Receiver
• Marantz MM9000 Amplifier
• Roku Ultra
• Wetek Hub running the embedded version of the OpenPHT Plex client
• Harmony Ultimate One with Harmony Hub
• Paradigm Studio/40 v.2 Mains
• Paradigm Studio/CC Center
• Paradigm ADP-370 Surround
• Infinity (forget what model) Surround Back
• SVS PB12-Plus/2 Subwoofer