Chris' HT2-TL-based home theater system

jsalk · « **on:** 19 Jan 2011, 10:47 pm »

Chris wanted a home theater system based on the Veracity HT2-TL's. But he had quite a few unique requirements. So we talked them over and worked up a system which should suit his needs very well.

Here is a picture of the speakers finished to date...

Here is a picture of his front-ported HT2-TL's...

You might notice that Chris selected SongSurround I's for surround duty. You may also notice that the center channel is a bit smaller than the HT2C center. It turns out he had about enough room for a SongCenter, but we wanted a speaker with drivers similar to the HT2-TL's. So we build a custom center with W15's rather than W18's. It is a bit deeper than the normal SongCenter, but the other dimensions are the same.

Here's a close-up...

Chris also has a matching custom-designed Rythmik subwoofer on the way (as soon as the Rythmik kit arrives). The sub was custom designed to fit the only place in the room where a sub made sense.

All in all, this should be a very nice home theater system to say the least.

Happy listening Chris!

- Jim

chrisw · « **Reply #1 on:** 20 Jan 2011, 12:01 am »

They look AMAZING! I can't wait till they get here.

Thanks, Jim and crew, for all of your hard work! We're really looking forward to them. Also, thanks to CC for sharing his home and letting us listen to his HT2s.

Nuance · « **Reply #2 on:** 20 Jan 2011, 12:09 am »

Wow - very nice. Congrats, Chris!

Saturn94 · « **Reply #3 on:** 20 Jan 2011, 12:24 am »

Congrats Chris.

That is one sweet looking speaker package.

I'm really looking forward to receiving my HT2-TLs as well.

Hopefully it won't take too long for Jim to receive his RAAL order.

Kinger · « **Reply #4 on:** 20 Jan 2011, 12:24 am »

I can only imagine how awesome this setup must sound. Congratulations!

ratso · « **Reply #5 on:** 20 Jan 2011, 12:52 am »

that will be one killer sounding room.

ccotenj · « **Reply #6 on:** 20 Jan 2011, 01:36 am »

that is NIIIIICE!!!

hey chris, how many minutes 'til they arrive?

although i thought you were posting mine when i clicked on the thread...

chrisw · « **Reply #7 on:** 20 Jan 2011, 02:54 am »

Quote from: ccotenj on 20 Jan 2011, 01:36 am

that is NIIIIICE!!! hey chris, how many minutes 'til they arrive?

About 8,100 minutes if they ship out tomorrow and make it here next Tuesday (I'm assuming Fedex Freight.)

That's how long I have to get the living room painted and reassembled.. this will be a sweet conclusion to remodeling the house which started over a year ago! The living room is the last room that needs painting. I bet you can guess what I'm doing for the next few nights.

Big Red Machine · « **Reply #8 on:** 20 Jan 2011, 03:04 am »

Would that center work for me? Or do I need the SS center?

JerryM · « **Reply #9 on:** 20 Jan 2011, 03:17 am »

Quote from: chrisw on 20 Jan 2011, 12:01 am

They look AMAZING! I can't wait till they get here.

Thanks, Jim and crew, for all of your hard work! We're really looking forward to them. Also, thanks to CC for sharing his home and letting us listen to his HT2s.

Congrats, Chris!

Very pretty!

What are you going to use to drive these beauties?

Have fun,
Jerry

DMurphy · « **Reply #10 on:** 20 Jan 2011, 04:16 am »

Quote from: Big Red Machine on 20 Jan 2011, 03:04 am

Would that center work for me? Or do I need the SS center?

I'm not sure what "work" means, exactly. I really liked the sound of the W15 MTM center, but all else equal a WMTW design is superior in a center channel application (though mainly if you have people sitting pretty far off axis). As for choice of drivers, and ignoring bass extension and power handling, I can't think of any reason why the W15 wouldn't be at least as good a mate for the SS10 or any Veracity line speakers as the Anarchy used in the center channel you decided wasn't your cup of tea.

CC · « **Reply #11 on:** 20 Jan 2011, 07:51 am »

Congrats Chris, that is very nice set-up you have there.

Cheers

Chris

fishinbob · « **Reply #12 on:** 20 Jan 2011, 03:46 pm »

Good choice Chris! Your in for a treat for sure

A bit about the center... Is it ported like the SongCenter or sealed like the HT2C? I don't care either way but am excited to see an offering in this line that will fit under my current display stand. Eight inches seems to be the max on most of them and my Songcenter just barely fits.

Oh yeah.....

been thinking alot about those HT2TLs.

taoggniklat · « **Reply #13 on:** 20 Jan 2011, 03:57 pm »

What finish are those?

chrisw · « **Reply #14 on:** 20 Jan 2011, 05:10 pm »

Quote from: JerryM on 20 Jan 2011, 03:17 am

What are you going to use to drive these beauties?

I'm going with an Onkyo 5008 to get things started.. my employer was offering an incredible discount on Onkyo gear last year and I couldn't pass it up ..this was following an unplanned upgrade of my TV. One thing leads to another, and here I am with an incredible system on the way.

I'm just thankful my wife is supportive and appreciates good audio.. we've both done major sound system upgrades in our cars, but this is my first dive into building a home setup. I've had some inspiration along the way too- a neighbor who was retired and into speaker building gave me a small taste of incredible sound that I've never forgotten. I don't consider myself to have a very trained ear, but we're looking forward to the Lone Star Audio Festival (it is local for us) and hopefully we'll make it to RMAF one day when we're ready.

Quote from: taoggniklat on 20 Jan 2011, 03:57 pm

What finish are those?

The finish is curly cherry, which is dyed to match the stain of our furniture, OCS-106 Acres. Jim uses an aniline dye process which I had never heard about, but it sounds like it doesn't mask the natural beauty of the wood like staining can. I can't wait to see the finish in-person, Jim tells me the pics don't do it justice!

At this point for me, ignorance is bliss, and I'd like to avoid upgraditis, but I have a question for you experts.. I'll be playing most music through a Mac mini with the Onkyo amp, and I'm going for lossless music formats when they're available. I've read about room treatments, speaker placement, DACs, tube gear, and a number of other things that I'm not very familiar with.. what has provided the best bang-for-the-buck improvement in your listening experience?

Kinger · « **Reply #15 on:** 20 Jan 2011, 05:34 pm »

Well speaker positioning is free so you can't beat that as far as bang for the buck being that there is no expenditure there

I'd say room treatments is the next best bang for the buck. It's really amazing how they can change the sound of your room.

chrisw · « **Reply #16 on:** 20 Jan 2011, 05:36 pm »

Quote from: fishinbob on 20 Jan 2011, 03:46 pm

A bit about the center... Is it ported like the SongCenter or sealed like the HT2C? I don't care either way but am excited to see an offering in this line that will fit under my current display stand. Eight inches seems to be the max on most of them and my Songcenter just barely fits.

The center is rear ported. The height should be 7 1/2" which is a little shorter than the SongCenter (8" height).. we'd searched and searched for TV stands that fit our application, and I went with a Z-Line Escalante 55" stand that has a front bar with a 7 3/8" clearance.. which isn't a big deal, but there's a support member that runs from front to back in the middle and limits us to 7 3/4" clearance.. this was my biggest dilemma, so I gave Jim a call and he suggested Seas made a 5" version of the W18s they use in the HT2-TLs, so that's what we went with.

I was almost willing to pick a different TV stand,.. even to the point of having a custom stand built to accommodate a HTC, but I couldn't really justify it when this was the only issue. Talking to Jim really helped.. the conversation reminded me of the phrase on the Salk homepage: "Customized to your heart's content."

ccotenj · « **Reply #17 on:** 20 Jan 2011, 07:38 pm »

Quote from: chrisw on 20 Jan 2011, 05:10 pm

room treatments, speaker placement,

these two things... as pointed out, speaker positioning is "free", and room treatments can be had reasonably inexpensively...

speakers and how they interact with your room make up better than 99% of what you "hear"... leaving tubes aside for the time being (since they can/will introduce their own distortion into the sound field), imo/ime, "competent" solid state equipment is essentially indistinguishable...

others will have different opinions on that, and that's ok... but i think everyone will agree that "step 1" is getting your speaker setup/room "right"...

chrisw · « **Reply #18 on:** 27 Jan 2011, 05:14 pm »

The speakers arrived Tuesday, all I can say is WOW! Incredible craftsmanship!

I can't wait to hear them.. I'm still tearing the room apart and recabling everything and I've got a question.. for the surround speakers, the speaker wire is right at 30 ft total. I have 20 gauge wire in the wall and after pulling back the baseboards and trying to pull 14 gauge wire along side the existing 20 gauge wire through the maze of studs in the wall (it's an outside wall, not accessible from the attic at all), I gave up and settled for pulling 14 gauge wire under the carpet all the way to the baseboards, and soldered that to the existing 20 gauge wire in the walls. The 20 gauge wire is no longer than 8 ft.

I'm considering trying again- the only thing I can think of trying is to pull the soldered wire up through the wall - I've got a 6" section of heat shrink tubing on the solder joints.. but the risk is, if the joints break, I'm stuck having to cut a slot in the wall and doing some minor drywall repair and repainting. We just finished remodeling, so I've got fresh paint.

I connected the SongSurround I to the total run and noticed an 0.2 ohm difference (this isn't a fancy high-precision multimeter, just one I picked up from Radioshack a few years ago) - the speaker measured right at 6.8 ohms direct at the terminals, but when measured from the other end of the wire, it measured 7.0 ohms. Everyone tells me the surround speakers don't matter nearly as much as the rest of the speakers, but as nice as these speakers are, I don't want to short change them by using too thin a gauge of wire.

Am I obsessing about something that won't matter, or should I go for it?

Nuance · « **Reply #19 on:** 27 Jan 2011, 06:16 pm »

Honestly, I'd try getting that 14 gauge run again.

This link should help you out regarding what gauges you'll need to run for specific distances and loads.

http://www.roger-russell.com/wire/wire.htm