Choosing the Best Home Theater Equipment for Home Theater Installations:
Picking the best home theater equipment for your home is often an arduous task. I think the main problem is that there are so many good products on the market and also many that are a gimmick and waste of time/money. Knowing the difference between the two is sometimes difficult.Sadly, many reviews are written in order to increase ad revenue for the home theater magazine. If they write a good review that manufacturing company will probably advertise with more ads bringing more money in for the magazine. It seems that often a product must be pretty terrible before a reviewer will ever make a negative comment about a product. Home Theater Equipment and Reviews click here - Best home theater systems. Where to get Home Theater Equipment, Supplies, and Speaker Parts:This is obviously a shameless plug. We buy speaker driver, amplifiers, and all speaker cable parts form Parts Express. They have Unmatched sale prices on all your A/V needsList of Materials for your HTPChow to build a digital crossover and HTPC - DIY home theater speaker.Home Theater Equipment that we use:This is just a short list and obviously not a full review but these products we have used and note their performance from our experiences.Power AmplifiersBryston amplifiers (any)Odyssey amplifiers B&K Components Inc. amplifiers Ref 2140, Ref 2220, Ref 2220 M Crown K1 or K2 amplifiers (for bass drivers) Pre-Amplifiers (multi-channel)Bryston SP2, SP3McCormack MAP 1 multichannel preamp Audio Research MP1 B&K Reference 30, Ref 50, and Ref 70 Firewire Interface (and soundcards)M-Audio Fire-wire 410: I used this DAC for a period of two years and did so because it was affordable. I knew that many consumers were buying it and thought that I should check it out to see if it was worth its salt. I lived with it and tried to coax every ounce of performance from it in those two years.Initially, I had trouble with my old computer using the M-audio Firewire 410 so I bought a new computer and firewire card. The unit worked okay for a while but I began to have trouble with this unit too. Finally, I found a way to get it to work (most of the time). If you unplug the power and the firewire cable every single time you shut down the computer it seems to work better. When you start it back up it works most of the time. Overall, this is a poorly performing unit. The performance is fine when it will operate but the drivers are very unstable and prone to multiple failures. I never had any dropouts or pops and clicks. The problem I had was that it would not recognize the device on start up. Eventually, I learned the unplug everything on shut down trick. But we shouldn't have to unplug and shut down our components in perfect order to keep them working. I found this task annoying and eventually replaced the unit with one from Echo. I don't recommend that anyone should purchase the M-audio Firewire 410. These things are far too 'buggy' to be of any use. There are better options only slightly more expensive without all the bugs and with better performance to boot. The Echo Audiofire 8 1. Echo Audiofire 8 2. RME Multiface 2 3. RME fireface 800 4. Dave Lavry Blue -multichannel DAC Speaker Drivers that I like: (There are more on the Speaker Drivers Page)1.2. Usher 8945a and 8945p DIY drivers 3. Peerless drivers 4. Fountek DIY drivers 5. MB Quart sub-woofers (budget) 6. Bohlender Graebener Neo 3 PDR, Neo 8 PDR Great ribbon drivers from BG. These are a blast work with, very transparent and clear. I love these drive units. For Drivers see Parts Express: Speaker Building - Build your perfect speaker with our parts and supplies from crossover components to full kits. To see our speaker drivers and combination's click here. Source components and Misc. Home Theater EquipmentOppo BDP83 Blue Ray Player Inday Digital Switching devices
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Check out the new Mini Cube 2 speaker! Better home theatre surround sound systems, high performance, small size!
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Customer Testimonials:
"Peter, I just wanted to drop you a quick note and say how impressed I am with these speakers. They are EXACTLY what I was looking for..very very small with big sound.
My wife loves them as well. They look great, and you hardly notice them at all sitting on the shelf. They integrate perfectly as surrounds. I have them crossed over at 150 as you recommended...simply fantastic. I only have about 15 hours on them so far, so I know they will only get better. You really have something here. Kelly ~ Montana USA
"I found these speakers by accident and after reading all the available info and after several emails back and forth with the company owner I decided I had nothing to lose, so I ordered a set of 5 mini cube speakers.
Peter was very helpful and patient and always responded to my emails within hours.
I have had the speakers set up for a couple of days and they sound great; they are everything described on the web site.
The sound from these small speakers truly is awesome.
I replaced a set of very high quality but also very large speakers and have not been disappointed... and the wife loves not having four large speakers in the living room.
The sound from these speakers really does fill the entire house, I was concerned about the small size of the speakers due to the fact I like to listen to music and movies at volumes most would consider loud.
These speakers are more than capable of playing at volume levels louder than I ever need while also maintaining very high quality sound. ~by; William (Corinth,TX)
"I ordered these speakers in the hope of bringing some life to my entertainment system... I didn’t think it would bring room filling sound to my entire house. These speakers not only fill my den with crystal clear sound, but radiate great sound throughout the house. Thanks for such a great product!" Celia ~Malasia IP#110.159.58.99
"these speakers breathed new life back into my music, I had no idea such small surround sound speakers could perform so well." John from US IP# 24.177.193.45
"how you got so much performance out of these speakers I have no idea -Great product!" Andrew from Denmark IP# 130.225.22.254
"nice speakers, nice finish, blended in with my room well and the wife is happy too. Great sound presentation! Now I just wish you guys made a subwoofer." Kyle from US IP# 98.233.53.244
"These surround sound speakers are amazing! After running them in for a couple days, I decided to play some tunes, and they never once sounded distorted or strained...
While I know they should be paired with a good sub-woofer bass system, I think they sound good enough that I can wait until I have the money to buy a really nice sub." Fred US IP#76.208.13.182
"Wow, what a great set of speakers. I really understand what you mean by a large sound-stage." Sandy from US IP# 137.100.121.30
"Recently I came to realize that my HDTV was better than my sound system... So, I decided to piece together a better sound system. Running across your site (and these speakers) was the best thing that has happened to my home theater.
My current system is; an older receiver, a home theater PC with a blue-ray player drive, and one pair of your Mini-Cubes. (for now; I plan to buy 3 more speakers soon)" Kevin US IP#98.179.199.26
"Purchasing a new set of surround sound speakers was a must for me. My old system looked awful and sounded even worse. The quality and look of your Mini-Cube speaker were a perfect fit.
Once I reviewed the ratings and tests I knew they would be perfect. I will be sure to look for more information and products from you. I can't believe the performance of these surround sound speakers for the modest price. I would recommend these speakers to anyone!" Mike US IP#172.16.2.142
"The overall quality and dynamic capacity of these speakers really took me by surprise. Their imaging is distinct, tonality is crystal clear, and oh yeah... they pump out some serious volume!
I feel like I have stolen speakers that I can't afford. People that spend more are Suckers!!" Micah US #Ohio