Hey everyone,
I just wanted to drop in and note a few things. Board member Bray graciously allowed me into his house to listen to his system (Axiom M60tis, VP100, QS8s, Velodyne CHT-10). What a great sound. I played Billy Cobham's "Warning" tracks 1 & 8 and the system handled it nicely. Note: Track 8 has some real deep synth bass notes playing while Billy is destroying drumheads, I've listened to way too many systems that show a huge difference in volume in these notes since they around the crossover point.

I played Steve Morse "High Tension Wires", Brady showed me some excellent NickelCreek (sp?) blue grass and Alison Krauss. Everything was top notch. Nice transparent sound. Note: those of you who let others audition the Axioms should press for a "referral fee" from the company when we buy a system ;-)

As luck would have it, about 2 hours later I found myself about a mile from the "Home Theater Store" in Dallas. So I dropped in with "Warning" in hand. The sales guy took me to their stereo room to show off their B&W line. I listened to 4 models. The sound was way too mid-range-y for me with no bass. I asked "What Sub are you running?"
He replied "None" ... so off we went in search of the only 2 home theater setups they had with subs. (What is up with that?) Both system failed miserably on those low notes with a lot of fall-off between them. Maybe these guys should go listen to a real theater rather than spending time decorating the all the listening rooms. If they can't handle music, how the hell are they going to handle movies-that-guys-like? So as it stands in my book, Axiom: 1 B&W: 0

I'm about to dive into this head first to fill up a very empty 19x14 room. I'm thinking: InFocus 7205, Denon 3805, M80ti's, QS8's, VP150, SVS 20-39. Still haven't started looking at DVD/SACD player ...

Your inputs would be appreciated.

-Wyatt

PS: The wife-unit wants the system professionally installed (projector, amps, speakers, dvd player, hd box) so that no wires are showing, etc, etc, etc, Now I'm wondering if I can find someone in the area who does this for a living.

That sounds like a great setup. With a front projector you could use 3 M80s across the front and eschew the VP150. Wife unit probably wouldn't dig that though, huh?

Thanks BigWill,
Do you mean use an M80 sideways as a center? Cool idea, but I'd probably be explaining why I did that to the divorce lawyer :-)

Anyone: I'm concerned about using the inFocus 7205 with a 19 foot throw. From the http://www.projectorcentral.com/projection-calculator.cfm website, it looks like I'll have a 130+ inch picture at a minimum. While it sounds nice at first, won't that make the image too dim?

-Wyatt

I'm afraid I know nothing about FPs.

If you were to opt for three identical towers across the front you would deploy them all vertically. I have not tried this but conventional wisdom is that such a setup will give you a great, perfectly matched front soundstage. Some of these other guys may have some first hand experience with such setups - wait and see what they have to say.

You could always head over to Streem.com and get some of those beauties!

BigWill - you are SUCH a troublemaker!!!. I'm kind of hoping that whole Streem thing dies a slow, quiet and horrible death.

DITTO!

My guess is that the whole Streem thing IS dying a slow, quiet, horrible death - and that is why the guys behind that entreprenneurial effort are over here trying to generate some interest/activity.

Wouldn't it suck to lose your life savings investing in a dumb-ass idea like Streem Speakers? No wonder that guy was fighting so hard over there on that other thread.