I will not divulge all the steps in advance (the suspence will be unbearable) of my WHAT (Whole Home Advanced Theater).
Suffice to say that, this morning, I completed step 1:

STEP ONE (1): A TV in my writing room!

I moved by Panasonic 720p into the room, right under the M22s.
The old Yamaha receiver came out of the closet and is now in the little unit.
The whole thing is on wheels so I can move it around. The wall don't follow so I cannot go too far without having to disconnect the speakers!
The worst part is that I am back with 3 remotes. Step 4 will eventually take care of that... in 4-8 weeks!
Step 2 should come a bit later today...

What sort of beast do you have trapped behind there that you needed to barricade the door with all that?

How are you going to get any writing done?

That TV has only acces to bad shows...

WHAT's Up!

Sorry. I have teenagers.

Nice, Eric. You are a very crafty user of space.

Oh my, something's gonna fall...

What's WHAT.

Whole Home Advanced Theater

Horton Hears a WHAT?

Well... it took me a while longer to post the sequel... and I am too lazy to post pictures (so have all see a TV before!).
Of course, moving my old TV out pointed to a new one coming in. So friday I received my new 46" panasonic plama (it fits in my unit leaving only one inch on each side).

So far so good. My old one was one of the original Viera model. I can safely say they a few improvements since! The blacks are so black I can't distinguish them from the frames unless some back lights are causing the slightly glossy frames to shine (they should NOT have made them glossy at all at it detracts attention).

It's always fun to see what improves and what does not. Some upscaled shows are looking really good while others are worse as the poor quality of the transfer is more evident. Smoke, mists and clouds are much better (it was a complaint of mine about my old TV). I am currently re-watching 'planet Earth'. Even prettier than before.

The side advantages are that I now have a single-remote-button swap between my computer screen and my HT. I was getting a bit fed to have to get everytime my computer went "beep" because of an email from work that might prove urgent. Now, I am one button away to decide if it is worth bending to pickup my wireless mouse and keyboard to reply or not!

Well... now I have to wait a few more weeks for steps 3 and 4!

Fun days.....Fun Days!

Forgot to mention the improvement they made in anti-reflection. I have white back walls that are often directly illuminated by the sun. They barely appear in the new TV. That was one of my 'crossing-fingers' hopes!

Cables and then some more cables... with a few tie-wraps.
Most of them are for later, but I was missing a few now so I placed a big monoprice order!
I never received that many cables in one shot (60 pounds!).

Good thing I bought a bunch of hooks to create a "shopping mall" of cables inside one of my cabinets. Tomorrow! Now I need a beer!

Holy smokes that is alot of cable, I spy a couple of the low voltage dual gang outlet covers. I take it you are planning on hiding some of this in the walls.

Not exactly. But I will need to pass two HMDI, one 1/8" cable and nine RCA cables between the living room and the back room. There is a nice place where two holes will do the trick.

Did customs ding you on anything across the border, Eric? I've ordered from Mono before and didn't have to pay but the other day I did a "trial run" from parts express and they have the broker fees pop up right after you enter your address if you order more than $20 of merchandise.

Monoprice's stuff comes from China, so yes there is customs to pay (15% in this case). The shipping fees were 3 times higher than that (60 pounds)!

BTW, I like the Red Green inspired decor on the kitchen chair!

80 hooks installed in my storage cabinet. It's night and day. I have tripled the number of stuff in it and there is more "space" afterward! There are a few cables that will move to another armoire that contains the PC stuff (ink, keybords, mice, paper and so on) and it will empty a bit in a few weeks, but I have to admit I like the result.

The sub-storage unit (with plastic drawers) is an additiona from this morning.

It took me the whole day, but in my defense I had to go back to the hardware store (I had only bought 50 hooks), which means 2 round-trips = 8 miles = 2 hours walking. But I have to admit I thought I would be done by 12 this morning!

STORE IS OPEN! PLACE YOUR ORDERS!

Great organization!

Maybe one of those non-skid mats on the shelves to keep the tools from rolling/sliding off?

Well, next steps are getting much closer for undisclosed (yet interesting) reasons.
In order for the next two steps to go well (and to avoid a very large number of mistakes I made with my current setup that has too many devices for simple organisation to work), I have actuallty planned properly the future disposition of my equipment, how they will be linked with my new ...... (that's right!) and how and where to build the cable rails at the back of my entertainment unit to avoid the tangled cable mess I am currently in.

For example of smarter moves, one of the main change is that I now have picked the equipment so that the ones needing disk changing are outside the glass door. Pretty simple stuff, I know...

So here is a word document describing all the devices and how they will be connected (almost interesting). Then there will be a drawing of the intended final look of my equipment from the front. And lasrt but not least, a view from the rear with the three main rails of cables. Also note the "nail power bars" which should simplify quite a bit the plugging and unplugging of equipment.

If your not bored already, I have other topics that will do the trick for you!

[img]http://eric-falardeau.com/Kodaly/step_2d_01_connections.docx[/img]

That's cool to plan it all out like that.

I gotta stop spending so much time here so I can plan out stuff like that.

Good grief, Eric, shouldn't you be writing something?!?!

That is uber cool, though.

Yeah, I know... My current novel just need about 100-120 hours of post-initial-readers-comments to be finished... Just can't seem to get it done!

Due to a very bad case of BO problem (which apparently will take 2-3 weeks to get cured), I was forced to split step 3 into 2 (hence now 5 steps instead of 4!). After seeing all the pictures below, you will see why I spent many hours planning this re-building.

I am now on a break...

The BEFORE pictures. (there are more sections after first 5 pictures)
1. Old unit and equipment
2. View of the back from the left side
3. View of something in the middle quite visible by anyone in the living room
4. Vuew of the back from the right side
5. One pigeon hole in the cabinet.







Clearing the way.... (still more after next 3 pict)

1-3: Moved all the smaller furutes, ornaments, small devices to other rooms. Then squeezed the remaining furniture to be out of the way and eventually serve as temporary location for stuff.





Now the full horror... (last batch of pictures for now, I promise...).

1. Empty cabinet. The only things left are TV (pointless to move it) and the devices whose extension cords are either attached or were unreachable.
2. A few removed devices....
3. The Eric Horror Picture Show, part I: Yuk! What a mess!
4. The Eric Horror Picture Show, part II: Even worse...
5. The same pigeon hole as earlier. Without devices, it looks even worse!







Well, quick nap and then tackling the rebuilding, starting with the painful separation of cables and then power management.

Zip ties!!!

lol

Looks familiar

Not even zip ties helped me. Life is messy.

Good luck, Eric. Thanks for sharing your journey!

Wow, that looks like Charles's grocery bag.

Good luck Eric and thanks for sharing the painfull process. I have plans to set up the equipment in the new house much neater than I had in the old house, your journey is reinforcing the desire and how much it really should be done.

Pfff. Two hours later!

1. Recovered wires. There are about 25% more that are out of shot and those do not contain the speaker wires, the power chords and the power bars that were part of the tanged. 20-30% of these cables were "lost" because they could be recovered without pulling hard enough to break something.

2. The back of the unit... Aaaahhhh! (yes, I swept before taking the picture!) I also recoved a roll of pennies and a lottery ticket... that I checked and I did not win!

Now I have to eat something!
And then I start wiring and "unit-mounting" the power distribution components.

Hey! I didn't see a spot in your plan for the moose or the bust of the musical guy. Time to update the plan.

The "musical guy" is Mozart! The moose does look like Beethoven a bit...
They will be moved to the top of the M80s as I won't have space anymore on top.

Now that's a rats nest. I'll be having the same issues very shortly. Fortunately, I'm building a wiring rack in my garage so I can move a lot of the networking and some components there. I'm trying hard to stick w/ HDMI as my multi room connection to minimize the volume of cables. However, the main AV rack will have a wall plate consisting of 5x speaker wire, 8x RG6, 8x CAT6, and 2x HDMI. Some of those RG6's will be used for the sub and component video.

I'm sure Monoprice has an honourary picture of Eric hanging in their foyer.

Power! We have power!

I only have ONE 15-A circuit that is grounded and it is 30 feet from the unit. I use a 15-A grade "outdoor" extention. It plugs into a "wall mounted" power bar that has "ground" indicator (so I don't worry).

1. On the left of the picture, the wall-mounted bar. The orange cable (10A certified) goes back to feed the subwoofer. (the cable modem is there so I have Internet and the phone while I do this install!). On the right of the image, 3 "unit mounted" power bars. They are about 2.5 inches from the ground.

2. Two more power set of power outlets. The top one "rack mounted" ( ) is a belkin power conditioner that I use as "switched", "unswitched" and "delay" power outlets, if the need actually arises. The side-power-bar is there for temporary connections or "new equipment" in case the bottom ones are too hard to reach.

3. The left side of the unit (when viewed from the front) also has a "unit-mounted" power bar in case I need power from that sied, especially if it needs to be grounded.

4. The first few connections: powerbar to powerbar, the A1400 and the TV.

UPS just showed up with my free Win7 upgrade for this PC. I soooo feel like doing that right now.

Next step: temporary rig to bring 50feet component cable to back room so I can watch OK in my old TV in my writing room... Oh! And, yeah, maybe have a few beers while at it!

You do nice work, Eric. Come to my house next.

I have the will, but I wish I had the talents of likes of Mark and some others. They do such magnificent pieces (remeber Mark's Qs-8 plates!) .

Ha ha, that was actually my first thought when I saw the pictures.

P'shaw. He's just too cheap to buy a house built within the last 150 years, so he has to improvise.

Been up since 5 (until 7) preparing cables (testing layout and labelling).
My goal is to have every device connected in such a way that I can pulling out (or near enough) without have to unplug everything or pull hard on cables.

To be accomplished with sufficiently long cables and wire guides.

I am putting the cables where each device will end up being so I don't create a new mess just preparing!

Love the pix, Eric. You are an inspiration. But, I'm sure it will pass if I sit quietly.

And you sir, are truly an inspiration.

I admire your enthusiasm for the project Eric. All those cables are a reminder of why I want to consolidate down to as close to one device as possible.

Another 3 1/2 hours of work... Now that all the individual cables were selected, labelled and separated by device, it was time to assemble them in "trains" so that tomorrow or Friday I can put them in their "rails". Lots, lots, lots, lots of cable ties! Just the subwoofer+12v-trigger cable (25 feet) took 35 minutes!

1. Some mega-cables ready to be attached to the unit. That picture only shows 60% of the cables. Ethernet and the subwoofer are not there (it was already getting messy) and the HUGE 50' super-train to bring the good news to my writing room is not done yet (I anticipate a good 60-70 minutes).

2. The sub-woofer cable and its trigger. Note: it is not labelled... I figured I would remember what that green thing is for...

3. The floor after the last 3 cables... I had already swept three times already!

4. Reminder of the plan on where I will "attach" the cable trains to the unit!

BEER TIME!

Those are awesome. Gorgeous cable organization.

Pfff. Up at 5 (now 7)... Just finished the mother of all cables! 50 feet carrying 1xHDMI, 6-ch analog audio, 1 SPDIF + 2 spare coax, 1 1/8" stereo cable (12-v trig, IR-blast or future) and 1 ethernet cable so I can extend by 1G backbone to the back room.

It took TWO HOURS!!!! Just cutting the tips took 12 minutes!

I have now used between 300-400 cable ties and three full roll of labels.

Well, off to the office, now! Er... maybe I should shower first...

This is why we use velcro wraps in our data center. Another benefit is the lack of sharp pokey bits that can give you gashes in your hands when reaching for something.

Yeah, I had my share of sharp poking this PM. One more step done. The unit is "nailed".

1-2: Unit-mounting of ethernet switch and IR blaster

3. "Before" picture of the back

4. To avoid the huge mess of cables for 6-ch analog switch and component switch, I have decided to use the drawer for this sole purpose. A IR blaster is also in there to switch. Now I know why it was only 20$... the connectors are not equal. Some are tight, some are loose. I will have to use DuckTape to make sure it does not disconnect by itself.

5. The "atfer" of the before. Lots of cables! Lots of nails. Lots of cable ties. I have NOT yet, pass in the back and cut all the new wraps.

6. The top of the unit

7. The bottom right

8. A view from the other side. I may wall-mount the Wi-Fi access-point/GW.

9. The end point of everything! No matter as much organization, the mess ends up reaching the processor !

10. Where I will start either tomorrow or Sunday. Passing the mother of all cables, subwoofer cables and better hiding of speaker cables up to the back.

Now I don't even think I can get my old TV to work as I was using one of the cable from the mother of all cables and I am not sure it reaches the back without the future hole in the wall!

The cable reached (with plenty spare!).
No need for a processor. I built one myself. it doesn't up upscaling, but it will do just fine!

Eric good job, but those labels really should also have French translations shouldn't they

Some are! Speakers ID are hard to associate immediately for me in French. Note that they're not even in Canadian English as I use "Center" and not "Centre" (which would have worked for both French and English!).

Well, back to work! Next steps are (neighbors are sleeping so noisy stuff later):
1. Cleanup the wraps at the back of the unit
2. Pass the power cables for the rest of the devices and try out their placement.
3. IR blaster distribution (changed from plan as I discovered my cable box has IT in-out which will spare me a port of my blaster)

When the neighbors are gone
4. "Rail" speaker cables and subwoofer to the back
5. lay out the mother of all cables and start sobbing if it is too short!
6. "guide" the cables inside each pigeon hole. The one I did last night turned into a complete mess (I started with the worst one).

The maybe tomorrow if I don't have time (or the energy) today
7. Clean up the back and the top of the unit
8. Move the unit back half-way
9. Add the heavier equipment (center channels, 400 disk changer...)
10. Take all the left over cables and neatly store them in my "cable armoire"
11. Move the furniture back into place
12. Add the layer of guizmos (chargers, adapters, lamps and so on).
13. Sit on the couch and start being grumpy that my BO problem has made me a social outcast.

I forgot to insert a few "post pictures", but we could call that "implicit"!

Eric,

Very impressive!

Here is a guy who knows how to score MAJOR points with the wife!

Great job, Eric!

I have to get someone in here to do that for me. Heck, you're not that far away; is beer and pretty ladies convincing?

This is going to kill me... Probably only one more day! And then the wait for BO jumps one notch higher!

Did a lot of stuff except nailing. I had not really put the "cable tie holders" (glued stuff with holes) and they work marvellously well. Good thing as the neighbors were there sick and there are few things worse then being sick in the middle of noise.

I finished all the "non HT stuff" like passing the HDMI cables between my office and my living room and some audio cables too (later I will detail all the applications I will have access to and from where as I have to build a checklist of things to test prior to "closing" the setup) and took care of IR blasters.

1-2. In last post, I mentionned I had created a mess in one of my pigeon holes. Using two cable tie holders, I cleanly separated the cables for the A30, the HDX1000 and the SB-Receiver. That way, the A30 was able to slide to the back without resistance and the component cables for the HDX1000 were no longer springing to the point of disconnecting the HDMI on the A30. Picture 2 is how the 3 look together.



3-8. Equipement that is finished: 3. Cable Box and Cable Modem; 4. Belkin + VHS (the door broke as I started the work); 5. Oppo 980h; 6. Panasonic BD-30 7. Can't remember the name of that one; 8. New TV (fricking great!)








9. On the side, I have temporarily put my headphones. I don't know yet if I will need my headphone amp or not. Cables have been passed in case, but I will have to try. If I need it, then the headphones will be back on the right-side of my couch.

Note the cable dangling next to the headphone. There is a USB hub on top of my big bookshelve. It connects notably a wireless keyboard and mouse allowing me to control my secondary computer (called "Harpo") and also a serial adapter to connect to RS232 equipment. Since that computer is also connected on HDMI2 of my TV, I could connect to a "bass correcting device" and see the results in HD. Charles, are you jealous?



10-11. The back "sides" of the entertainment unit. The cables are tied in a way to fold correctly when I push back the entertainment unit without putting any kind of pressure on any connector (one of my main guiding principle for all the hookups I did this week). Note the wireless acess point; I might will mount it to increase the wi-fi range, but I am not certain.




12-13. Two areas needing completion. The orange power cable (from the back of the unit) will serve one or two power bars for equipment needing a ground such as the subwoofer.

Now GRRRRR. The sub-woofer cable is JUST fitting. I will have to move the sub a bit to avoid straining the connectors, especially when I will have forgotten it is so tight! I will order a 3' XLR extension, but not before a little while.

And now GRRRRRCCRRRRAAAPPPPPPPPPP. The mother of all cables is 3' short!! (it was originally calculated using the OLD positions of all the equipment). If properly installed, that is. For a while I will have to live with it on the floor. In any case, I don't have a hole in the wall to pass it yet, so...

Monoprice will learn my address real good!




Now that doorway links my office and the living room. I had some more cable to pass (second HDMI + stereo audio)) so I redid it a bit more neatly than the nailed-guides that frequently missed to hit a stud....



The bottom line is that as I get closer to complete this (two days later than I had calculated), the frustration that I will not be able to enjoy for possibly another two weeks is getting me cranky...

Rest, lunch and then I start testing every single connection! Need a checklist!!

I am absolutely shocked that you don't already HAVE a checklist.

I'm going to bookmark this thread as a reference.

I'm going to go get a glass of rum for reference ... I think you need one as well Eric.

Damn you east coast happy hour people!

It's 5:39 ... in the p.m. Tom, y'all are probably in the a.m. or is it still Thursday yet?

Yeah, Tom, but they have to get up at 3 AM.

That is true Ken, a lot of times I'll get on here prior to heading out the door at 4 in the morning for work and there will still be a couple (CV for sure) west coasters still hanging out.

So in Rick's case, he gets up at midnight.

Well... one bad cable... But not a hard one to replace. My living room is close to be like before and is now habitable... Now time will start to move slowly...
(tomorrow is Harmony 890 re-programming fun!)

I think we need to start referring to Eric as "The Cable Guy".

Close enough to the end. The only things left require intervention of external forces:

A. Landlord to come and make a big hole in one wall (I already talked to him)

B. USPS to bring me a few new cables... (1 15' HDMI cable to be appended to a 35' cable due to a gross computation error. and, 3x6' component cables to extend the mother of all cables that ended up too short after I decided to put the processor on the other side of the unit and on top, an 8' difference! and one other that I will mention a bit later in this post ).

C. The BO problem needs fixing as fast as QC can do it

In the meantime, for the rest, I'm all done!

Pictures (of course!).

1-2. That corner was a source of embarassement every time a visitor came. It's one thing to have a mess of cable at the back of a hard-to-reach entertainment unit. It is another to loose cables in a 9 sq-foot area next to your couch! All is clean now. Black power bar is grounded, white one is on regular (and old) house circuits.

Then we had the table that was there... it cannot get very close to the wall... I haven't put the headphone amp yet. But, as you can see, the cables are already there.





3. New back of the unit. Still a lot o cables, but I can see the floor! One of the reason I did this, among many, is that I was afraid to move the unit without endangering the A1400 with all sorts of loose connections and stuff that could create a big short!



4. One of the next steps: the hole in the wall. This is where the mother of all cables is currently terminated. It is not yet installed on the wall (to pass two doors) as I need it to bring component video and digital audio to my writing room until BO becomes OD.

Since the cables are not long enough, I will actually "terminate" the cables there, use connectors and pass the shorter cables in the holes. That way, if I ever need to split the signal for some other needs, I will have a convenient place to do it.



5. The new unit! I am very pleased with the new layout of equipment. Only two devices requiring physical interventions are inside the cabinet and they are the least used: VHS and HD-DVD. All the others are external (BD-20, Oppo 980, PS-3). The fact that I no longer need to use two HDMI swicthes also helps clean the inside of the unit. The component switch is very happy in its drawer. Very convenient to cross-connect so many wires! Pull the drawer and voilà !

There seems to be something missing on the top left corner, isn't there?



6. Axiom's crime against humanity! Now the ranting starts. As you can see on the picture, I have detected an incredible design oversight. 'They' have put the XLR connection WAY at the top right of the box. EVERYBODY knows that it MUST be on the lower left! Otherwise, people may pass cables that are 3 <i>inches</i> too short, confident that they were that they were interfacing with good designers. Tssk. I might write a letter about that!

A 3 feet XLR extension has been ordered as well... But not in the same order as the other cables as I realized the 'design flaw' too late...



And now for a bit of rest, at least physically. I still need to finish programming the remote control in advance. I will post at some other point what are the new possibilities of the new setup (what I can do and from where). BTW, I have already put my old QS8 stand in the back room... maybe in the not-too-distant future?

And I thought I was going to be able to spend the whole day writing! Spent a few hours between specs and manuals and realized I needed to pass a few more analog cables to get audio in all circumstances (including when content is flagged as "do not copy"). BUT, the good news is that I'm all ready (apart from the three items listed Yesterday); even my remote control is fully re-configured to manage all the equipment from all the places.

The pre/pro is also already configured (they have a PC program) and all I need to connect with a serial cable!

SO, as I 'promised' yesterday, here are the list of "zones" and their purpose.

LIVING ROOM: Powered by A1400-8 as "zone 3" (it's a '12v trigger' thing). In that area, all videos end up at 1080p and all audio formats are supported.

OFFICE: (audio) Zone 2 analog output is used to connect to Audiobytes. Only the audio of the PS3 requires me to configure/reconfigure 'multi-audio' out. All the others are supplying (through the source itself or the processor) a stereo version.

OFFICE: (video) A copy of the HDMI signal sent to the TV in the living room is also sent to an HDMI switch in my office connected to my secondary display (a 1080p LCP monitor). The monitor is not HDCP so no Blu-ray or HD-DVD in my office (which doesn't bother me). The important was to be able to watch sporting events while I write or work.

REVISION ROOM: (audio) M22s (eventually augmented by QS-8) powered by Onkyo 805. Two separate audio lines are coming in. An SPDIF from the "digital record" output of the processor carries the original source if the source was also SPDIF or a re-sampled 24/96 PCM if the source was analog (if the source is HDMI it cannot be used unless a source-downmixed stereo version or 6-channel analog is also present at the same time).

REVISION ROOM: (audio) The second audio line is actually the unbalanced pre-outs of the processor (active at the same time as the balanced ones). It is used to feed the Onkyo directly. If the source is 6-channel direct, then the revision room receives unprocessed analog output. This is for use with SACD changer and it also fully supports simulcast (watching something while listening to something else).

REVISION ROOM: (video) That room contains my good old 720p TV. It takes its input from the secondary HDMI output of the processor which can be configured independently from the first one (but showing the same thing).

Well, that's about it! There is heck of a lot more details then what I just mentioned, but it more or less sums it up.

I'll be back to bother you people when my pre/pro is no longer Back Order...

Sounds like on hell of a project. Hope you get to enjoy it for years to come!

Wow, Looks like it's really coming together. I'm going to have to go back and read the details when I get more time.

Yeah, it's coming together... except for the part that I am out of a sound system since last Monday and probably will be until 10-14 days!

I use to feel sorry for people having to send critical pieces of equipment back for repairs for weeks at a time... Now I feel even more empathy!

It will make the arrival of the pre/pro that much more exciting! Especially since I am SOOO ready (all configured, even the Harmony 890 for multi-room), it will be nearly plug-and-play... nearly.

12 days without sound system... There are times where I almost feel like getting a wife or something. A dog? My cat is totally useless in these situations...

A dog would at least lick your face while your on your back running cable. Yucky maybe but better than the cat who walks over you indifferently with his claws out just cause your in his way to his nap spot.

Wasn't one of the options a woman?

Yeah... But I should get my equipment within 10 days. I don't think I need to resort to that extreme...

Plus you can't just walk down to the corner and buy a woman. Er...

Well... I might be officially bored (not an easy thing to do). I just learned that my neighbors are gone for the weekend and I have nothing to take advantage of it! In the meantime, I just spent 80 minutes re-wiring my office. The result have adtonished me (especially given the little time and the HUGE mess it started with -- no pictures of 'before').

1. Deskmounted my main power supply and the GigE switch network node in my office (the gateway is in the living room as I now have cable internet)

2. Another mounted power bar serving the left-side of my desk

3. The space when I am supposed to put my feet. It had gotten some bad, I frequently disconnected stuff getting up or sitting down. Now I can gigue!

4. That used to be my main computer next to a huge pile of web of cables. By mounted the third power bar, using a cable guide and moving ethernet to the side, I have freed a big hole where my scanner will fit.

Well... In the meantime... I wait...

Powerbar.....$39.99


RCA connectors.....$2.50 each


HDMI cable.....$15.00


Eric's next electrical bill.....priceless....

Gesuntheit?

Pfff. 15th. Quickly running out of things to re-arrange. Today was my "hard drive farm" with my home server. And this time I remembered to take "before" pictures. I have been meaning to fix this a long time ago, but always failed to buy a unit for it... then a few days ago I realized I still had the first unit from my first sound system (24 years ago). Since it is open in the back, it was perfect to be placed under a window providing a lot of convexion for air flow.

1-2. "Before". Not only ugly, it was also a problem when I needed to move around that area and obviously not inviting when sweeping with a broom!

3. The back of the new setup. I unit-mounting power ever becomes an Olympic discipline, count me in!

4. A hiccup... The new unit with added power supplies do not pass around my office desk! I had to unplug a few things and close my eyes when I heard a few "crack"...

5 The final picture. Much, MUCH nicer, if you don't mind me saying so... Apart from the six hard-drives in the second bay that looks like a bunch of cylon riders!

I have been a good boy, cleaned up a lot, fixed stuff, even changed my cat's litter... Now why can't I get the call that my fricking D2 is in town!

What do you have on all that storage?!

I write a lot...

Seriously, everything is replicated so it is doubled.
1. 1TB of music (all legal)
2. 1TB of backups
3. 3.5TB of TVShows (I own the DVDs, but I like streaming for the shows that I watch on a regular basis).
4. 2.8TB free (1.4TB once replicated).

Your neighbors complain of brownouts from your electronics sucking up all the electricity?

I'd rather be handicapped than capable of sorting out a cluster f… of cables as you have done.

Don't get me wrong, I'm impressed with all the you have done, but your "before pictures" help to tighten the bond between my wheel chair and I.

No, but I'm about to complain about the missing hole in my wall! It is one of the three events that still need to happen for me to have a good week!

Now I know why my lights kept dimming this week.
I blamed it on the Haldron Collider but now I see the truth.

Old age?

And on the sixteenth day, The Lord said: "I AM GOING NUTS!".

Have you considered multi-bay HD enclosures...

Have a look at these:
http://www.supermicro.com/products/nfo/chassis_storage.cfm

We use the SC846 at work, with 16 out of 24 bays full of 1TB drives so far.

That sounds good... if only hard drives were my problem!

And on the seventeenth day The Lord complaineth: "I was sure to be done in six days!"

And on the eighteenth day, a quadriplegic said the lord, "why is there only a stairway to heaven? Where's the ramp?"

In the US, lawyers sued God to get a chair lift installed on the Stairway to Heaven, citing the Americans with Disabilities Act. I'm pretty sure you don't need to show an ID to use it.

And on the ninth day the Lord said, "I need to stop talking to myself before they stick me in the looney bin"!

Still stalled waiting for missing cables (11 days now, probably blocked somewhere celebrating thanksgiving...), pre/pro (18 days, might be delayed because thanksgiving) and my landlord is not returning my calls for the hole in my wall (but I just called twice so he is within specs!).
So I am getting slightly cranky...

You tell your landlord about holes in walls. I'm just gonna slap a couple of wall plates around my cable and pretend like its always been there.

"what? Didn't Rogers run this when they installed cable??"

I want him to CREATE a hole in my wall... I need to pass a thick bunch of cables through a wall between main room and back room.

But its so much more fun to create your own holes!

Making holes is fun. Plugging holes, even better!

Back to port filling again are we?

Uhhhh.... y - e - a - h

Well... at least got some updates. For some reason, my cables were "no where" for 8 days... They got scanned by USPS on the 24 and were actually shipped yesterday.

My pre/pro is shipping today and should arrive in town Monday or Tuesday, the latest. This means another weekend without sound system, but at least I got some news!

Now the landlord...

So, since I had 4-5 days yet to kill, I have decided to try out what step 5 (complete back room audio) will sound like by moving 2 Qs8 from the living room to the back room and using the 50 feet of spare speaker cables I had left... as is now a constant with me this month, 60 feet would actually have been better!

I already had 2 Qs stands. So, 1: QS-8 right, 2: QS-8 left and 3: M22s + old TV.

It sounds a lot more natural now! The final QS8 will get in probably late january or mid february. Hopefully, at that point I should also have a complete system in my living room!

Can you remind me what pre/pro you're getting?

Technically, I cannot "remind" you as I never actually mentionned it directly, at least in this thread (but I dropped hints here and there in other posts! can't stop being a plot-driven writer!)
I'm waiting for an R2D2... er... ASD2...v... (AKA Anthem Statement D2v)... and a new alarm system for my appt! (for real).

That's a beautiful unit. I can't wait to read your impressions of ARC.

Johanne?

Yes, Eric. You'll have a beautiful unit!

Oh oh! mark's been inspecting units again.

Eric, I know you will post pics of your unit when you get it.

I noticed a few of the hints you gave here and there, curious as to why you decided on the Anthem?

Ummm... cough, cough, hack, hack.... you're waiting on a $7500 dollar pre-pro to arrive??? NO WONDER YOU'RE CRANKY!!!!!!

The candidates were rather limited considering everything I needed to do (dual HDMI output for two TVs with different capabilitities, exceptional up-scaling, flexible re-mixing for multi-zone, lots and lots and lots of inputs of all kinds and source configuration -- the only one having all I needed, with one spare, and tons of little other details).

I had my eye for a while on the ever-up-coming Outlaw 997, but it was still a compromise and the wait was getting ridiculous. In the end, this is the culmination of a 3-year project to replace my previous 20+year-old sound system. After years of helping on installations and calibrations of all kinds, I had initially planned on: Paradigm (speakers), Bryston (Amp) and Lexicom (pre/pro) with a hefty budget...

After I discovered Axiom, I managed to do step 1&2 within the budget of 1 step... Now I am finishing the 3rd item. As far as I'm concerned, I end up with something equivalent (when not slightly better), but at 60% of the original budget!

Can't wait!

I keep expecting to hear they finally scrapped the Outlaw997.

That would be a shame because it is/was going to be good value proposition.

It's not all completly 100% negative... On top of re-doing my office (which was not planned), this morning I am cleaning walls and ceilings... I guess life had decided I needed to pay my dues a bit more...

Yippee! Landlord just come in. He's going to be back around 18h30 tonight to do my holes! Sounds like everything will fall into place one after the other!

::running away, snickering::

As should have been expected... Just got a call from landlord. His car broke down one hour from Montreal... Holes pushed to tomorrow... So now there's a race: what will arrive first, the cables, the D2v or the holes?
What suspense!

What an action packed day tomorrow will be!!!

Hopefully!

The day is long, but at least I received one of the two monoprice package I was expecting (the most urgent which is a 3' XLR extension). So now I have a subwoofer re-positioned properly and connected without stress on the connector.
Still waiting for the rest...

Salut Eric,

Can't wait for your impressions on the D2v.. I have owned the Anthem AVM20 for about 6 years now and I do love it.. but it does not support HDMI and the newer features of the day.. Given that I've paid $4500 for it about 6 years ago.. I think I'm going to have to wait a bit longer before replacing it with the Statement D2 or newer upcoming models. I am a big fan of the Anthem unit and I am sure you will be extremely pleased with yours..

Cheers,
Stephane

I can't wait for my impressions either!
Should be tomorrow... after 22 days without soundsystem...

Holes! Holes! Holes!
Actually, it's really just one virtual hole spread over two sides of a wall!
Getting close to completion!
1. I have had those cable ties and cable ties holder ready for the past two 2 weeks.
2. The hole from the living room... Yeah... I guess I missed a spot when washing those walls...
3. The hole as seen from the backroom. Facinating!
4. The cable train now passed properly!

It's arrived! It's arrived! It's arrived! It's arrived! It's arrived! It's arrived! It's arrived! It's arrived! It's arrived! It's arrived! It's arrived! It's arrived! It's arrived! It's arrived! It's arrived! It's arrived! It's arrived! It's arrived! It's arrived! It's arrived! It's arrived! It's arrived! It's arrived! It's arrived! It's arrived! It's arrived! It's arrived! It's arrived! It's arrived! It's arrived! It's arrived! It's arrived! It's arrived! It's arrived! It's arrived! It's arrived! It's arrived! It's arrived! It's arrived! It's arrived! It's arrived! It's arrived! It's arrived! It's arrived! It's arrived! It's arrived! It's arrived! It's arrived! It's arrived! It's arrived!

Just got the call, IT has arrived at my local dealer. AT LAST!
3 years ago, I decided to celebrate my 1-year non-smoking by allocating myself a multi-year budget to replace my 22-year old stereo system. So I put the money saved non-smoking and doubled it as an incentive. After 3 more years, I'm finally putting the final touch to my original plan (not with the exact same equipment, but equal, or better, and cheaper)!

So, my advice is: if you are a smoker, quit and get youself an EP800 or any piece of equipment you always dreamed of. If you don't smoke, than start smoking for 2-3 years, get used to the hole in your budget, then quit smoking and re-use that hole for something that sounds and looks better than coughing mucus.

Well, I'm talking, I'm talking... Should I go now to pick it up? I took the day off so maybe I should take advantage of it... Bah... maybe later... Just kidding! As your read this, I have been gone for already a few minutes as I have typed this post earlier today!

And I can only concluded with: It's arrived! It's arrived! It's arrived! It's arrived! It's arrived! It's arrived! It's arrived! It's arrived! It's arrived! It's arrived! It's arrived! It's arrived! It's arrived! It's arrived! It's arrived! It's arrived! It's arrived! It's arrived! It's arrived! It's arrived! It's arrived! It's arrived! It's arrived! It's arrived! It's arrived! It's arrived! It's arrived! It's arrived! It's arrived! It's arrived! It's arrived! It's arrived! It's arrived! It's arrived! It's arrived! It's arrived! It's arrived! It's arrived! It's arrived! It's arrived! It's arrived! It's arrived! It's arrived! It's arrived! It's arrived! It's arrived! It's arrived! It's arrived! It's arrived! It's arrived!

Happy Birthday, Jack!

Is it me or do you guys think Eric is a little bit excited his Anthem has arrived?

It's just you.

Aaahhhhh! The cab ride back home was LONG. Actually, the whole process proved to be long as my bank has recently set new lower limits on everything and I had not reacted! So I had trouble paying the remainder of the purchase. They will be receiving a call from me at some point... but not today!

Ok, got it out of the box. Took a few pictures. Painfully (and, I mean, PAINFULLY) connected all those wires. Pfff... Way too many. And most of them are just become HDCP is preventing a lot of digital operations and I have to have backup SPDIF or analog (depending on the device). Anywho...

The unit is still very cold so I am taking a break. I have to admit that the packaging is excellent. It was difficult to open and it feels like it can withstand all but the most destroy of carriers.

1. The new box
2. The new box partially open
3. The new box more open
4. The unit up front with the A1400 in the background
5. The unit with a close up
6. All them holes to fill!
7. The unit dominating the room
8. The holes and the plugs are courting...
9. View from the left, connected (missing one HDMI connection pending new cables shipped)
10. View from the back.
11. The "accessories". Note the two remotes for multi-zone (very nice touch as it is often the pricy items that neglects that sort of things are charge you even more!)

Now I have a few commands to teach my 890, upload the new remote config and I will be able to pass to the next phase: downloading the configuration through the serial port (another "high-tech box" that seems allergic to USB!).

Back in a little while!

Wow, that's pretty!

Just looking at that amp makes my wallet hurt.

That is one beautiful piece of technology.


And here I am with nothing but my 3808 and crappy 5.1 Panasonic HTiB set of speakers with another 1-2 months to go before the new home is done.

I feel your pain. 22 days with the speakers from the TV is long enough for my nerves!

Now my problem is to talk to the box.
BOTH my USB serial adapters comes with screw receptors instead of screws. How dumb? I broke one until I remembered that I had a very old db9 extension. Hope it still works. The drivers for the non-busted adapter is on a mini-disk that cannot hold its position in the computer attached to the D2. I am currently upload the files and another computer from which I will burn a CD... How pathethic!
In the meantime, I had time to "press the buttons" on the face plate. Pretty cool feeling. It is a "deluxe" feel you can from the volume and all the buttons.

The thing is: that's not an amp at all. That's a pre-amp/processor, it requires multiple channels of amps to be connected between it and the speakers.

That is dumb... mine was the same, so I took the pliers to them and ripped them off, now it has neither and I'm happy

Congreats on the processor, I'm tempted to take up smoking so I can have one!

AARRRGGGGH! I went to get a 3rd USB-serial. NONE installs on XP, Vista or Win7! Do China have something against using their products? Anyway, I'll setup by hand for now (I have everything ready on paper anyway), but for ARC, I will need a working serial port.

This is too ridiculous. Using a copied disk (not the original) on XP finally worked!!! That means I have to use my very old laptop, but hopefully the software will not mind!

The driver installation worked, but it cannot talk to the D2.
I'll go hunting for a good USB-serial (we have some at the office that I know works).
I did part of the config by hand (except for the names).
I have a HUGE amount of work ahead of me to make my Harmony 890 working properly with the D2 (mostly because the Harmony database contains about 10% of the commands required).
BTW, the D2 has the WORSE remote control ever devised. Mislabelling, "holding buttons 2 seconds" or "rapid double-click"..

Anyway, I could not really test much noise-wise as I wasted so much time trying to get the RS232 to work that the neigbors came back home.

Tonight I'll do testing for video scaling.

Quick first report as I watch the end of the hockey game in my office and my audiobytes (one of the new application my setup now supports). I focussed on two things tonight: 1. Support for my applications 2. Upscaling and 3. Headphones.

1. APPLICATION OFFICE
Everything that was supposed to work, works (non-HDCP video and everything as stereo). Sound is very good, althought I cannot say if there is an improvement (was not a goal). Strange issue: when my LittleDot Mk V (which I now use a gain for the audiobytes and switch between PC and soundsystem) is off, there is a ground loop in my audiobytes! I will eventually investigate.

1. APPLICATION BACKROOM
Video is not working, but I have not investigated. Possible culprits are a) 50' HDMI cable is not working, b) the secondary output of the d2 is not working or c) the d2 and my old tv don't like each other.

Audio is using the "digital out". It appears that for certain source (blu-ray, HD-DVD, notably), the audio is forbidden (works fine in my office). So I will have to also use a stereo output... Wait a minute! I already have 2 extra cables passed!

2. UPSCALING
My BD-30 is setup so that I have both an source-upscaled HDMI connection and a 480i component. It is not intented for testing, but it is very convenient! Tried with Shrek, LOTR and The Curse of the Jade Scorpion. That was a bit of a disapointment, at least at first. If there was a difference, it was superficial and not justifying a big processor like that.

BUT, that thing has a truck-load of parameters to control the upscaler... and each source can be configured differently. What I quickly discovered is that all the features are either disabled or set to minimum by default. I played with a few (I will need to read A LOT to go much further) settings and got noticeable improvements. The fun thing is that the settings are adjusted while the video is playing. That's pretty cool. Once I had an image I was liking better, I went back to compare and AH! the difference was much better. I then went to my media streamer and applied the same parameters (with some differences) and Star Wars, LOTR, Babylon V and even sitcoms started to look more natural.

The video processor does not repair crappy video and transfers (it may actually make them a bit worse by contrast), but it does remove "dancing pixels", edges around objects and makes all movement (camera panning, characters turning their heads) much crisper.

So far, so good. I was expecting more, but I am not done trying to understand each paramter and see if I can get even better. But there is already a welcome improvement.

3. HEADPHONE
Well, on that point, I can use strong statements. For the past 22 days, my HD650 headphones with my LittleDot Mk V were one of the few consolations I had. Well... I don't know what they have put in that processor, but it beat the crap out of my previous setup! Honestly, I was expecting something very good (based on comments on head-fi and some other Anthem product owner). Well, it is sensational.

It started bad. My SqzBOX was playing and the sound was not that good. It was frankly not just disapointing, it was bordering lame. BUT, it was not that good a CD. So I selected another CD that I know very well recorded. EVEN WORSE! Uh uh... Not good. Not good at all... Then I got up, pushed on the headphone plug and it clicked properly into place. I put then back on, POW! What dynamics! Anyway, I could talk a long longer about this, but I have to go back listening now that the Habs have been humuliated 3-0 by the Leafs.

Sounds more like they're the Hab-nots.

That's probably a common joke in Canada, so came off pretty lame, eh?

Believe it or not, but at 5AM I started to try and fix the problems between the 890 and the D2v (or rather, try to make the 890 comply with the peculiarities of the D2v). It is now 8 o'clock and I have about 2 more hours of work just to get back where I was.
I never really liked Harmony's config software, especially the part where simple devices change can cause it to "reset" its parameters and loose all your changes... without backup! It happened 3 times this mornings. It turned the D2v into a power amp and then... Too many stupid loss of config for me to continue. Let's just say that, when one of the weirdest remote meets a mediocre remote configurator, it is not entirely pleasant.

And I still have to go hunt for a good USB/serial adapter!

Bar that! I thought I had at least gotten them to talk. Nada. The remote cannot even power on!

EFalardeau, I think you may need an upgrade in the remote department... doesn't the Anthem deserve a little more then a Harmony? At least a Pronto or URC Crestron or AMX if you're feeling really adventerous, it would be great to leverage the RS232 and get some feedback to your remote.

Yeah, but my budget is now dedicated to other stuff for quite a while. I will have to tough it up for now. But it's worth it! Just spent an hour after the neighbors were gone. I just planned to skip through 2 dozens of test material... I did only 4 tracks as each time it was too good to stop there.
Well, now I go hunt for the darn USB/serial.

Connected! Another hour of effort, purchase of 80$ of USB/serial + serial cables and I managed to get a combination without silly pins on male connectors and that worked.
The funny this is that it shuts down the unit. For a second I was wondering what was going on!
Now for some serious business!

Done with Joan of Arc!

This is not going to be TOO long as I am emotionally tired.
After doing quite a bit of listening without ARC, I managed to make the serial port work and try it. The equipment is very nice. Every piece is of high quality (the least they can do for that kind of money!), including the microphone coming with a CD of calibration data.

Detailed information on ARC can be found on Anthem's site, but the things that are nice is that you once you measure, the data can be used to tweak a lot. For example, the default algo put my QS8 and centers to 125 and 135Hz and it sounded a bit weird (which prompted me to look at what it had done). But then, all I had to do is to go back to the software and just say nah! recompute everything with a x-over max 100hz. You can also pick the range of frequency to play with (it can be used for <200hz bass only) for someone wanting to minimize the impact.

You can also configure room gain and some other stuff that I did not even bother to look at. And then you can see (and by "you" I mean "I" and only "I") the graph for each speaker (old, ideal, final).

So far, so good. I watched Star Trek and listened to about two hours of music and I have not turned it off... but I did change the initial xover as it sounded hollow. But after changed twice the room gain (to check how much it affected), it might actually be better. The good thing with the d2 is that each source can be set to room eq on/off so I can program two sources with the same info and just room eq off.

But this is for much later!

Pictures...
1. The ARC comes in a nice separate box
2. The pieces on the couch
3. The microphone mounted (the base is under the pillows to make it at ear level). There's a nice clip to make it easy to have a straight-up mic

FINALLY!!! Figured out what was not working with my 890 and the circumvoluted way to make it work. After 4 more hours of work, I FINALLY have it working as I hoped!

Circumvoluted??

Eric, you really need to dumbie down your wording a little bit for us.

Well, it's almost done! I received my missing cables on Friday and now I have 3 rooms fully connected and processed.

Pict 1: Ugly cross-connect point between living room and back room. I alreaday have a table that was meant to be put in that cornet which will hide it completely.

Pict 2: The old 805 on the floor! Fully connected to the unbalanced pre-outs for direct 6-ch audio from the front, SPDIF for most of the rest and 2 channel stereo for copy protected material.

Pict 3-5: The three rooms with sound and picture. Note that the third one is showing something different. That is because, for legal reasons, the d2 has to mute the second video output! I will have to add a new HDMI splitter to circumnavigate that issue. Not a big deal, just something silly that will cost me another 30$!

Pict 6: The one remote to control them all, one remote to rule them all.

Pict 7: Beefed up security! (I'm not telling my code!)

What is still missing: need two HDMI splitters to have PC in every room with full audio and to get around the copy protection issue.

In the next few months I intend to add 2 QS8 to the back room.

Well, that's all folks!

Congratulations on your successfull quest. I think a visit with your insurance agent might be in order, just to be safe.

Wow, that was one major project. Glad to hear it's all working now. With a little tweaking, this could easily be a good article for an AV magazine.

This time it is done! I got the last two splitters (using 3 total) that I needed so my computer could be fully integrated too and so I could bypass "copy protection" by simply splitting the main video output. Those little 25$ Monoprice splitters are pretty good!



AND I received today my second SACD changer (the one on top!). It is limited to stereo now as I have a stereo switch, but not a 6 channel one. If I cannot find anything cheaper than the Zektor box (which I found for 100$ less than the MSRP with free shipping to Canada), I will take care of that next month!
My remote was already programmed with double activities so it was pretty plug-and-play!

I finally got a over-expensitve Zektor MAS7.1 for much cheaper (they are issuing a new HDMI1.3-compliant box and a store was getting rid of its last 1.2). Since I don't need the HDMI switch, the reduced price (250$US), while very steep, was more manageable than the 600$ MSRP!

Anyway...
I received it this morning. So now I have full 6-ch audio from both my SACD disk changer! The Zektor is pretty big and I had all sorts of problems fitting it (with the rigid cables) in the "cross-connect" drawer. I even had to put some stuff in front of the box to leave enough space for the IR blaster to do its job!

The slight ground loop I had with two channel music (I am using separate connections to allow the D2v to use PLII and Neo) is now gone!

The beast (you can see the size compared to the 890 remote!


The drawer where it has to fit.


The barely fitting (it took me three attempts before I managed to close the drawer without disconnecting anything!).


And I have room for a 3rd SACD disk changer! (not likely before QUITE a while)

I have to admit it is a nice feeling to be finally done with that part. Now, according to initial plan, all I need is a pair of QS8 for the back room and I'll be done. Coincidentally, the landlord has been working a lot in that room lately (construction work). He may be soundproofing it, which would be a great timing for me!

After that.... a TV and speakers for the bedroom?
Doubtful as I am aiming at a house in 18-24 months and need to pile up some cash!

I just realized it would have been more appropriate to show a picture of the final product!

I'm glad I upgraded my receiver before I invested in a Zektor, but happy to hear it solves your problem, and that you didn't have to pay full retail.

Yippee! Got confirmation today that the landlord is finishing soundproofing the back room! Sounds like I'll be adding some Qs8s in there pretty soon!
The bad news is that I probably won't be able to hear their alarm system being activated which used to tell me they are leaving the house...