Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Hallos & Denon in place (pic)

Here is a pic of the Halo's and the Denon in place for now. In the process of gettting the Mega players emptied, so they can be put on eBay. Thinking of exchanging the A51 for another A21 and two A23. This will put the four amps on the right side of the cabinet, and then the C1, Denon 2900, HDTV Tivo, PS2, Game Cube, and then the digital jukebox, will be housed in the left side.

The silver 2900 looks nice...as do the Halos!

Thanks curtis, its starting to get there, another two weeks maybe and it will done, and the cabinet all trimed out so its not noticeable as a roll out.

Damit I hate not comprehending what is going on… grrr..


Tharkun, what are you thinking about doing now, getting rid of the cd changers, in lue of what?... or ripping them all to mp3? (digital jukebox).... and now you want to get some more amps? What is an A51?....21, or 23 for that matter…. And what is a C1?... I know what the ps2 is… and a digital jukebox.. but you realize the quality of mp3’s are not quite as good as wav files… don't know if you care “that much” or not… at the rate you are going, you might want to consider a home theater pc?...that way you could have 3 or 4 of your devices you want all with in one box… and you said your computer literate. So you should be able to build one, no?...



You kow, Tharkun, you and me have pretty much the exact same personality, buy something, and with in a week or so, you have bought something that is better than the original purchase…and contemplating something even better… you just happen to have deeper pockets that i… , but then again, I'm only 26...

Sorry, I will make a post and hopefully it will be more clear as to what I'm doing. Also folks, another typo, I have the Halo C2 processor, not the more expensive C1.

Sorry if you did not understand my post, it was an update to the previous post, so see how one would not understand
the Halo model numbers having not read the other post, was not my intention to confuse any members.

My Axion purchase was going to be for a 7.1 channel system from the start but I had not made a decision on whcih sub, the EP500 or the 600. I did make a change to the origanl plan in the changing out of the VP150, to the current M80. Reason was I was not happy with the VP150 mounted at the heigth it had to be
placed, and since the new HDTV had already caused the need for a new cabinet, the decision was to change center speakers, and provide space for it in the new cabinet. Also as the picutre shows, becasue of the floor plan of my house, all of the HT sytem needs to be confined to that area.

My origianl decision for the processor and amp did not work out, and don't feel that was all my fault, so I needed to find replacements, and after talking to several experts whoms advice I respect, the decision was not to go with a single 7 channel amp, and to go with some arrangement of seperate uinits, which now
would take up more of the limited space I have. So elimanting the 3 mega players was now a definite thing, and I had thought for some time about doing something differant, it had just not been a priority till now.

For reasons I have expained in other posts, the final decision was to go with the Parasound Halos. Also with Parasound I had the commitment that if the combination of the A 51 (400watt@4ohm5 & A 21 (400watt@4ohmx2) was not to my liking, I could exchange amps and get the combination I felt was the best for my situation, the C12 processor will work with all amps, so it was a keeper no matter which amp combination I ended up with.

Now that I have had the Halo system for a couple of days and it has some heavy use, the A 51 does run rather warm at high volumes, yet, the A 21 runs way cooler than its big brother. So after having the amps here, in the cabinet, running the Axiom system, I have decided the better soultion would to be to exchange the A 51 for a second A 21, the two A 21's would each drive a pair of the M80's (the front and rears). One A 23 (200watt@4ohm x 2) will drive the QS8's, the second will be bi-wired to the center channel M80. After having the Halos to test with, I now know this combination will solve any heat issue, and will drive the five M80's at any volume level, for any lenght of time, this is what I have proved by running the Halos for 24/7 for 36 hours continous. Also as a side note, it will not cost be more with this combination of amps, actually will have almost a $400 refund from the original purchase price of the A 51 & A 21.

With the 4 amps taking up the right side of the cabinet, my undecided time to elimate the three mega players has now been decided. So the thought out plan I
have had for many months will now go into the works. Yes, I will purchase the hardware and assemble the digital juke box my self, just like the new pc I built a few months ago to replace the last one I built, it was 10 years old and time to upgrade. The jukebox is for the daytime listening, cd's play a majority of the day, and I can not be running to the system and changing them out when they end. When I sit down and relax, and want to listen to a CD, then I will use the Denon 2900. What little quality I may loose in the compression of the cd's to disk, the Halos and the Axiom will make up for, it nothing else in plain volume level. LOL

As for purchasing a HT pc, have you tried getting Direct TV to just sell you the service, and then connecting a HT pc to it, if not, give it a try if you want to waste several days finding someone that can even understand what you are refering to. The theater HT pc is a slight sore spot with I and one of my roomies, until EVRYTHING can be flawlessly conected to a PC, I'm not going to be involved, I have done things like that before, I just don't have the time or patience to tweak and expeirament with something that I use to sit and relax with.

Hope this helps clear up what I have been doing, and I would like to make it clear, I do not have unlimited funds, and like other memebers on this forum, I have to stay with in my spending limits, if not, I most likely would have not found Axiom speakers. I do not just go out and by something, only to get it home and decide on something better. If I had not had amp issues, I may not have been doing as much upgrading as I have, at least not in this short of a time frame, but it ended up being a cascading problem, one thing caused another problem.

SUUHHWEEET!

I was just wondering.Say you do run 2 A 21s for the front and rear M80s.Then you have a single A 23 @ 200 watts @ 4 ohm for the center M80 would you not be pushing the center channel amp quite a bit harder to try to keep up with the A 21s.Seems to me you would be running the A 23 rather hard and hence might not get rid of the heat issue,at least not for the center channel amp.

There is also a Halo mono amp as well!

Ya, one of my thoughts. Not sure which I will do right now, was just posting my thoughts. The Halos are driving the sytem great, and hearing things out of the 80's that I have not had before. Right now the existing interconnects are a bit short, and if I change that to longer, would improve the air, and I did some switching on whhich channels are running which speaker, and that has equaled the heat over the entirA 51, and in the past few hours, is running a bit cooler, so I just keep tweaking things. Thanks for the input.

If Halo has a mono amp it is not displayed on their website.

Ya, the JC-1 800watt@4ohm, and only a mere $3 grand retail.

Shoot I didn't consider that,You are certainly right Curtis.A whole rack of them babies would be a sweet thing to see and hear.

You pay for them, curtis and I go get them from my suppler and pre-test them here for ya, and then ship to you !!!!

geez...could you imagine 7 of those things?

Not sure, my curent test has been going for almost 3 hours, listening area ranging from 94db to 104db, and the new kids are keeping cool, as in I pace my hand any where and its not hot, as in it will burn you paw. LOL

Tharkun,

Re: digital jukeboxes, have you considered this option. (Or maybethis one)

Thanks for the links, yes, I have checked all of the units like that, and still want to build my own, all of those I have researched use stereo out left/right. I will have 5.1 signals out of the unit I build, it will cost me more for this, but
I hope to have the end results I'm looking for.

Tharkun:

This link might be of some help. I was a pretty involved member of BYOAC (build your own arcade cabinet) for a while, now they've expanded to the other BYO projects the webmaster's interested in.... BYO Personal Video Recorder, BYO Jukebox, etc...

Bren R.

Thanks BrenR, had not found that site yet, been to busy with other issues. Looks like there may be some helpful info.

Tharkun, have you though about a couple of cooling fans? mabe 2 or 3? that would be a cheep fix to the problem, but then again, if you do change out the amps and get 400$ back, that would be even more economical

Appreciation the fan idea, I have not resorted to fans yet, tying to avoid that simply because of space, the Halo's are 20" in depth, add interconnects, and they are close to filling the cabinet, and the cabinet does not have much clearance when in the wall recess. One option is I can put fans in the wall behind the cabinet, since the garage is on the other side, and would have cooler air supply from their, and I could filter that air, the house has an air filter treatment system, so need to consider that issue. Or....put the amps in the garage ! LOL

tharkun, nice setup!
Just wondering - did Std Pacific build your house? That stairway looks identical to mine.

Thanks for the compliment Mark, and the house was built in 2000 by Greystone homes, lesser of the evil builders. LOL
Standard Pacific has a bad rep in this area, so did not consider them when searching for a new house.

Cool. Looks like they use the same sub-contractors though.
Where are you at in soCal - I'm in Corona (actually unincorporated near Corona).

Actually a bit north of you, live in Tracy, about 60 miles east of SF, 30 miles south of Stockton. Will be in your area in June well down at Disneyland.

That's a fire rated area separation wall between the house and garage. It's a no-no to breach it with any kind of air flow pathway between the garage and house just in case you are serious.

Bring the Halos down in June....BigWill and I can babysit them for you....either at his place in Corona.....or if you want to visit the beach, my place here in Manhattan Beach.

LOL
A better plan is you house sit here, we have a pair of rather exotic Bengal cats that
don't really appreciate being left alone. Last year I hired a house/pet sitter, left her vets
name and gave her run of the house/spa/ht sytem. When returning she was over to get paid and leave the keys,
when entering the house was calling Mickey, I looked at her rather strange and reminded her
that the male Bengal's name was Mikey, she made the comment that maybe that is why he never came
when she called him the week we were gone. Not hiring her again. LOL

Thanks Mark, guess I should have went more into detail. The way the garage is, there is a 4' x 6' kinda of useless recessed area in the garage, whcih is behind the entertainment center, one thought was to put a wall in, with a fire rated door for access, and just make it part of the HT equipment area. But as I said, it was a thought. LOL

Monday morning decision, and hopefully the final one. Talked with techs at Parasound, and they arrived at the same decision after hearing the results of my 2.5 days of playing with the A 51 & A 21. Seems the best solution is to replace the A 51 with three of the A 21's. Several memebrs here had the same thought that Parasound techs, and that is the A 23 will most likley have a problem powering the Axioms.

So now waiting a call back from my dealer as she is contacting Parasound to see if they can get the cost of the fourth A 21 down to what I'm willing to pay.

Update, if any ones interested in the amp saga. The rep just ordered the three A 21's, they will be in tomorrow, so will be picking them up on Saturday most likely. These three will replace the A 51 (5 channel), so will have four A 21's, for the 7.1 system, with one channel unused till I order some Axiom speakers for the garage, then the 8th amp will handle that. Parasound did good at giving me a price break on the the third A 21, my cost was acually be under B grade online prices, so I'm very happy with there CS in this issue.

Why didn't you do that in the first place? It would have worked out with the Outlaw amps if you had went with a stack of their separate amps, too, right?

I think you did well going with the A 21s and not the A 23s.Let us know how the amps perform once things are up and running.

As I mentioned in the long post about the amp issue , I had asked about replacing the 770 with seven of the mono 200's blocks, seems they wanted to find the issue with the 770 first. All the time I dealt with Outlaw, I followed thier suggestions and tired all of the things they asked.

Outlaw and Parasound are also 2 totally different animals with the Parasound product in my opinion being far superior in every aspect.

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Outlaw and Parasound are also 2 totally different animals with the Parasound product in my opinion being far superior in every aspect

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10k vs. 2k i hope so

Another example of you get what you pay for. ....and given what they (Parasounds) can do, this is an apples to oranges comparison.

In defense of the amount I invested in the Halo's, I did a lot of researching on amps, and if one takes the specs of Halo amps, and prices for seperates, not multi 5 and 7 channel amps, and compare the cost of other well know brands, the Halos are not all that much more in cost. Also the Parsound company is only an hour from my location, so I have good support.
I looked at the Halo cost as a long term investment, I most likely will not me spending money on amps for the rest of my life. I purchased an expensive system in the mid 80's, I had it for 12 years, never had to send any one of the four pieces in for service, and when I sold the pieces on eBay in 1996, I regained about 70% of my original investment. It was all Tandberg, which is now basically not imported any more. Or I would have went with them this time, so I'll have to wait a few years to see if the Halos hold up as well as the reviews and all of the many users I have talked to report that they do.

You need not have to defend the amount you spent on your system.If you got what you wanted and don't mind the cost so be it.If I were able to do so I would do the same thing in a heartbeat.Of course I would have picked Rotel .Enjoy!

No kidding. Dennis there is no need to defend anything you have done. Last time I checked, moving up to quality gear was not a crime..............

A better word would have been explain the reasoning. Been a long day and I'm burned out. lol

Relax and let them Parasound's loose!

How about it.Those babies are gonna have the 80s a singing along.To bad I'm to far away to come to the BBQ,I would love to hear that set up.

hehe, they have been on since about 8am this morning, well I have spent the day getting all the CD's back into the jackets, have all three mega players sold and want to get them boxed and out of here. The dining room is filled with boxes, and have the Outlaw system ready to go out, next the mega players, then the old Sony amp, and a bunch of other stuff is going on eBay, get some money back for once instead of spending spending it.

M80's powered by Halo's

Hate you, was just drinking a frap, and don't think the keyboard liked it ! Thanks for the idea, like it.

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In defense of the amount I invested in the Halo's, I did a lot of researching on amps, and if one takes the specs of Halo amps, and prices for seperates, not multi 5 and 7 channel amps, and compare the cost of other well know brands, the Halos are not all that much more in cost. Also the Parsound company is only an hour from my location, so I have good support.

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Well, honestly, if anyone would give you grief about going too far in the hobby, it'd be me - I'm usually the "spoiler" and sober second thought around here. For me, it's not the way I'd spend money, but then again, I am notoriously frug... okay, okay... I'm cheap. I'm the guy that'll end up dying with 20 mill in the bank and living in a refrigerator box.

How much tube do you watch anyway? I always wonder what the return on investment is for people? I'm not a TV/movie guy myself... if I average 45 mins of tube a day I'm doing good.

Bren R.

I have always listened to music more than television, but since buying this house, and investing only a minium amount in the HT stuff, and a cheap out of the box 5.1 system, I have been spedning more time watching TV. Of course, well watching tv, I can not do much else. Now that I'm back to having a quality sound system, its average run time is 12 + hours, like today, its been on since 8am and still is. So now I can be any where in the house or back yard and be doing things, and have tunes. Also beacuse of the quality of sound, one tends to become more addicted.

Just for the record i was not being critical of the money you spent i was just putting the halo's are far superior comment in perspective. also i have to say im very disappointed about your cs issue with outlaw because from all accounts i had them ranked up there with axiom on cs. i was planning on going outlaw in the summer i still might but i will be looking around a lot at other forums to if there cs is falling off or if you are just one of the "lucky" ones.
Jake

Jake, don't let Dennis' bad experience with Outlaw swing the pendulum of opinion from one extreme all the way to the other. I know of several people who've had what they would call a "bad" experience with Axiom customer service. Because of my limited experience with them, I cannot vouch for Outlaw (my ICBM purchase was simple and flawless). But, my experience with Axiom is fairly extensive and I still don't have any trouble with saying Axiom's customer service is the best. NOBODY bats a thousand. While it won't be any consolation to Dennis, I'd wager incidents like his are the exception rather than the rule.

I would have to agree with you on this Jack.I would certainly still consider Outlaw.They do sell some really nice stuff for the $.Heck when I first bought a Rotel amp I had brought it home,hooked up and..............nothing it was dead.Ok so the dealer had to order another amp for me that's fine as he let me use one of his.Well the second amp finally came in I rushed over picked it up brought it home and got it hooked up.Ok everything was working fine...........for about 4 hours when the left side went out with a big bang.At this time I was sure I wanted my $ back but I let the dealer get me one more.I told him I would give it one more shot.

I have had the third amp up and running for about 18 months ........no problems and I am quite happy with it.I was told by the dealer that he had never had a Rotel amp go bad like that.I was the lucky one that had 2 bad amps from Rotel.Every company will put out a lemon here and there,I was just lucky to have really good support with my dealer.

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dying with 20 mill in the bank

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already this dillusional at 31?

you need to be seeing a team of professionals!!

bigjohn

Understand and did not take it personal.
Also, as I have said before, and I agree with Jack and Rick, I'm sure the issue I had was not the norm, and I don't think I ever said that Outlaw products are not good. My only issue was a CS one, had Outlaw at any point offered to send a replacement, I would have not refused, but after weeks of testing for them, to ask me to wait for a week or two,well they attempt to find the issue with this perticular amp, and not give me an exact date when I can expect to have my system working, and then have the same amp returned to me is not acceptable. Had this happend after months of use, I would have done the usual warranty thing, but like most customers, if I purcashe a new item, and it has a problem out of the box, I expect a replacment, not a repaired new one. This happened during the 30 day guarantee, and I could have requested to simply return for a refund when the problem started, I did not do that, I worked with the techs, in hope it was something stupid that I was doing here, but also, like most people, after a few weeks my patience ran out. I did receive the return shipping lables as promised, and the units will be dropped off at a UPS site on Saturday, unless UPS remembers to pick up before then. (ha!)

Found this the other day, this is more like what I have in the plan for the digital jukebox, but my cost will be no where the retail value of $5k lol

Fireball

You're living the life now.

All you have to do to make it perfect is take the apostrophes out of your signature.

Get a Wurlitzer! Those rule! Some are digital now too

Ya, the 1,000 digital CD box is suppose to retail for like $ 1,500, about twice the cost of my building one myself

lol so what do you do for a living? I aspire to be rich