OH MY GOD!!!
That's the short version, and it says it all. For anyone who's ever been wowed over the internet with descriptions and pictures of Steve's HT room... let me just tell you it's much, much more impressive than you can possibly imagine. I am completely humbled and honored to have been invited into such a lovely home, with such an increadible set-up! Steve could easily charge money to give such a tour and never have to work another day in his life, it's that spectacular!
The visit was cut a little short because of a few unexpected business problems that came up for my girlfriend and I. We arrived at Steve's home a little over an hour later than we had originally planned. But there was no let down, I assure you all of that. The hour and a half that we stayed there was quite possibly the most impressive hour and a half I've ever spent anywhere! I will post pictures soon, but there's just no way on earth that they will do his HT justice. I'm in love, truely in love with the room he's built, tweeked, and labored over. Oh to be one of his lucky kids (both of whom we were delighted to meet, as well as his lovely wife). They get to enjoy the music and movies when ever they want... oh God they're going to be SOOOO spoiled when it comes to HT systems later on in life. How will their first attempt EVER hope to compare to what dad had all those years? Ha ha ha, they are truely blessed let me tell you.
So we arrive, Steve greets us at the door and we introduce ourselves. Right away I knew we were in for a treat because the further we drove into Steve's neighborhood the nicer the houses seemed to get (when we pulled into the drive way my girlfriend exclaimed, "this is his house"?)... ha ha, Steve has a great house, and the 'secondary' entertainment space in the upstairs living room has a 65 inch DLP surrounded in a beautiful wood entertainment center... yes you heard me, this is his 'SECONDARY' entertainment area. We briefly walked through the upstairs and went down into his basement, this is a kingdom any man could be locked up in and never ever wish to escape. He has a full bar, a professional poker table, and of course, what we were there to see, his home theater room.
Now when he very first opened the double doors to his room it ALMOST seemed a bit on the small side. But this was mostly due to the dark colors and dim lights when we first went inside. Once we took a seat in the front row of his theater and he turned the lights up I can honestly say it seemed absolutely perfect in size. Steve will tell you he wishes it extended back another 6 feet or so, but I certainly couldn't find anything to complain about once I got situated in there. The screen is 106 inches, absolutely amazing. And although his projector is 3 generations behind the newest stuff out there, I was completely amazed by how great it looked! And the sound... good God almighty, how do I describe it? Ok, ok before I discribe the sound of his set-up let me just say that I can only imagine maybe 1% of all home owners in the world who have as nice a set up as Steve has. Oh I'm sure there are nicer rooms with better accoustics (his room is rather squarish, which he doesn't like), but if there is a list of things you could do to Steve's room to improve it, then it must be the worlds shortest list. Even before he played anything at all I could tell I was in for a treat. As soon as he closed the door it was like putting a pair of noise cancelling headphones on. It was dead quiet in there. We started off with a few songs he wanted me to hear to show me what 'poorly' recorded music sounded like through the M80's. And I'll be honest here, I really didn't think it sounded all that bad at all. I mean it was a bit 'thin' sounding, and wasn't very dynamic at all. But it wasn't harsh or hard to listen to at all in my opinion. Then he played a song off the same CD, only recorded a little better, and the dynamics leapt completely off the charts!!! Tight bass, open sound field, floating mids, crystal clear highs... oh my, I was sitting in heaven. I brought my Tom Cochrane CD and we listened to 'All the Kings Men'... it blew me away. I used to have a very high end car stereo system that I loved to listen to that song on, and the Axioms (we were listening to it in 5.1) took that song to a completely different level that I've never heard before... it was entransing.
Next up I wanted to hear some LFE, so he put 'Finding Nemo' in and we watched the 'aquarium' sceen... MY FUCKING GOD, I have never been in a theater with a sound system as awesome as this, her finger tapping the glass shook his concrete floor, I swear to God it did! The LFE coming out of his dual EP800's (be afraid, be VERY afraid) was out of this world. He moved us to the back of his theater and played it again for us to show us how much more bass there was in the back of the room. And indeed it was noticable, but not annoying in any way, shape of form. Back to the music I also brought along some Floyd and Great White. They both sounded increadible, but Great White's 'Rock Me' took top honors. I could have been in the front row of a Great White concert, the staging was more realistic than I ever knew was even possible out of a home stereo. If I closed my eyes the speakers completely disappeared and if you would have spun me around I never would have been able to point out where the speakers were sitting. There's no other words to decribe it other than it was as if we were in the room with the musicians while they were recording the CD. I've read about this experience many times, only now do I actually understand what they're talking about though. It's a life changing experience hearing a sound system of this quality, combined with a room of this caliber. Have I mentioned I am in love?
We rounded the demo off with a little Roy Orbison on Blue Ray. And he truely saved the best till last. I won't even attempt to put this experience into words, I'm not that eloquent. Let's just say it made an impression that will stick with me. It was like nothing else I've ever sat through. I want to be Steve's new best friend. I want to have sleep overs. I want to house sit for him. I want to hit the lotto and offer him double what ever he paid for his humble abode so that I can experience that AGAIN and AGAIN and AGAIN (etc into infinity)...
About 20 minutes after his kids returned home I wanted to let him get back to enjoying his family (Steve does a lot of traveling), so Amy and I thanked Steve for his generous hospitality and expressed how much we appreciated experiencing his pride and joy with him like that. It's not everyday you invite a couple total strangers into your digs like that and give them the run of the place. I felt very comfortable and right at home the entire visit which is a true testament to Steve and the way he treats his friends. He must make for a fantastic neighbor.
My fears about getting the M80's, in a word - gone. In fact my excitement is now 100 times what it EVER was before. I'm in complete understanding that I have a TON of work to do to get anywhere near the sound quality out of my room as Steve got out of his room, in fact I know my room will NEVER sound quite that great. But I know what they can sound like, I'll just have to work with what I have. I do enjoy a challenge, so I'm up for it.
Thank you so much for being such a gracious host Steve, I hope some day I may be able to return the favor in some way. If not, then I'll just always remember what an impression you made on us today. I was absolutely blown away completely beyond any measure I ever could have imagined.
Be jealous everyone!!!
Last edited by Micah; 03/07/09 06:33 AM.
