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Over 35 years of experience with Home Theater, Audio and related gear plus time spent working in music sales.
I may cover a variety of topics including Home Theater, Movies, Music, Gaming, Scale Model Builds in addition to related DIY projects.
I will be honest and blunt regarding the products I cover on this channel. I refuse to do any fluff pieces. If I love something or hate something, I will let you know!
I'm interested in working with companies for product reviews or other exposure that stand behind their products, please contact me. Currently items in the related categories of: A/V equipment, theater seating, speakers, TV's, projectors, DAC's, Turntables/Vinyl Records, scale models and more.
Hi Recently bought Onkyo TX RZ50 receiver replacing my old Harman Kardon AVR 3600. I used chromecast hooked up projecting from 1080p projector BenQ HT 3050 an amazon prime movie. through the onkyo receiver I find that images are not as crisp as seen while using the Harman Kardon which are very crisp. I also find that sound through Onkyo Receiver diesn't dynamically adjust volume to maintain same volume over dialogues and background music loudness. any ide why images are not as crisp as what Onkyo should have dleivered? and why sounds are not balanced well between dialogues and background music ?
How come you didn't just use a third tower for your center channel and have a matched LCR? This would have created a seamless front stage and is an advantage of using an AT screen. Other than that, your build is looking fantastic.
One bit of info I meant to include in the video but forgot till it was too late was the backstory on how I ended up with that configuration. I did in fact order 3 identical FR7 II towers on sale but the seller was sold out and offered me the upgraded RF7 III combo I ended up with at no extra charge and free shipping so I took it. There... the mystery of why I didn't do three towers has now been solved.
Great work. I particularly like how you used the wall plates in your rack room to connect all your cables. Much cleaner than a wad of cable coming through the wall. I have this planned in my own build.
Great job and quite an impressive feat doing this all yourself! I've loved seeing the process. One suggestion, with an AT screen you really don't need a traditional center speaker. You could put a third tower back there for better matching and dispersion across the front stage.
One bit of info I meant to include in the video but forgot till it was too late was the backstory on how I ended up with that configuration. I did in fact order 3 identical FR7 II towers on sale but the seller was sold out and offered me the upgraded RF7 III combo I ended up with at no extra charge and free shipping so I took it. There... the mystery of why I didn't do three towers has now been solved.
Congratulations on actually finishing such a huge project by yourself. It looks amazing, and I'm pretty sure 90% of the pleasure of using it must be all the work you put down to get there. Such an achievement!
Simply amazing. Extremely well done. Are you using any DSP on your subs? Something that nice I would make sure you are maximizing your investment. Keep up the good work 🍺
That's what I hate about the new home theater receivers and technology today you have to read all this b******* rhetoric just to listen to your music and your movies
wow you know your stuff cool deal , so im looking at upgrading my android box i been using nivvid sheild but there box is not working good, so i have a simular setup you have except im using onyko tx 6100 so will this box work with dobly dtsx on like streaming movies ? i have Klipsch 5.1.2 with my system.
Hi how are you doing tonight? Right now I have 4 RuiPro 8K HDMI2.1 cables. 3 green and 1 black. And every single one of them has died on me except the black 50 foot one.
Cool, I enjoyed watching the series on your dedicated space. Couple of questions, these may be answered in Part 4, you did not mention any acoustical treatments...are you acoustically treating the area behind the screen with absorption? Also a mixture of absorption and diffusion to treat and control the main theater room? It really pains me to see other dedicated builds and they not they do not add any acoustical treatments to reduce echos and bring rooms reverberation time down. EDIT: I just scrolled down and see some videos on home built absorption panels so I guess you did.....
There is not much any cleaning machine can do if your vinyl is physically damaged - which is probably the case with your fantasia record. As someone pointed out, not all clicks and pops are from dirt….
Cool video, how do I go about finding Dynamic Range like you did for some of my CDs? (I work in a recording studio now and then and am curious how our mastering compares).
Very interesting comparison. I bought a Spin Clean for like $60 during Amazon's Prime Day and it think it's a great bang for the buck. Those ultrasonic cleaners are too expensive for me. It appears the Spin Clean did the job. Your before and afters were very revealing. I was expecting more from that $3K cleaner but it didn't happen. One thing I've learned is with any record cleaner is you can't expect miracles. I have some 40+ year old records that have never been cleaned outside of those brushes and hand-held cleaners. On a number of records it made a big improvement. On others, the differences were more subtle. If your record has scratches (which a few of mine do), no record cleaner is gonna fix that. I have noticed after cleaning the record is quieter (but not perfect) and over all fidelity is better, the especially on the high end.
This unit has al kinds of features but its build quality is terrible. Unit just stops working from time to time. Remote stopped working. Support from Korean manufacturer is terrible. Would not buy this manufacturer ever again.
I've been using it regularly since I first posted the video. True, it is not built like a tank and I consider it more of an economy level device. I've had lots of success with it. I'm sure you've done factory resets and stay up to date with the latest firmware's.
It just doesn’t play the song that I am streaming. It appears to be on the unit with the time running. It does this all the time and it’s impossible to work with. I have done it all the updates. The remote is another story. It almost seems like the electronics inside are poor quality. It’s not the wifi that’s the issue. I have connected both with hard wired also. It even halts when I am playing a ripped cd on the internal hard drive ! It is poor quality build. The features are great but the hardware doesn’t support it seems.
Mark I. There was no Mark II at the time and therefore no need to reference this as a Mark I. Please review my Mark II video here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-vbXbgCWZ08M.html
I have a 5.1.4 ALL Klipsch: RP 280 F (Front Left & Right) RP 250 S (Surround Rear Left & Right) RP 500SA II (Front Left & Right Height) CDT-5800-C II (Rear in-ceiling Left & Right) RP 450C (Center) R 120SW (Subwoofer) Onkyo TX RZ50 AV Receiver Took me a couple years to budget and buy, but well worth it. Watching Atmos movies is a brand new mind blowing experience!
I know that the Degritter has a drying cycle you can use. But on the ultrasonic cleaners that do not have this drying cycle, how long should one wait after wiping excess water off the LP and putting it in a rack to dry further? I noticed that a few hours does not seem to be enough time and there must still be water in the grooves. I've come back 24 hours later and it seems that the records have always dried by then. But I'm just curious what people think on how long we should leave the records drying after their ultrasonic cleaning? I'm legally blind so it really makes it more difficult for me to be able to look in the grooves and see if there's any water or moisture still. Thanks for any help! Brian in Fort Worth 🎶
Unless humidity is a severe problem in your home, drying should never take more than 20 min. Wash your record, place it flat on a microfiber cloth found here: ( amzn.to/3zORtuu ) place another cloth on top like a sandwich then pat it down gently. Then use the top cloth to wipe the record face a few rotations then repeat for the other side. Place the record in the rack and let it sit. If you are doing batches, swap out the rags every 5 or 6 LP's to keep things dry. You can use a fan or whatever you have around on a low setting to keep the air moving. I have a ceiling fan in the room where I clean records and that helps the drying time. I show this process in another one of my videos. I have played records within the same evening this way with perfect results. Letting them sit out for 24 hours to accumulate dust and other airborne particles in not recommended. Always use distilled water in the final rinse cycle and let the cloths air dry, do not put in the washing machine. I've done it this way for hundreds of records using the dual spin clean system and as long as the record is pressed properly, (many are not) you will really be blown away by what's in those tiny grooves.
@@MancaveCentral1 Thank you for the feedback! And that is something I did recently with a low-powered fan. I put it on the countertop and let it blow on low and assist in drying the records. I was thinking the same thing that you mentioned also. You don't want to leave them sitting out for 24 hours because they'll just pick up dust and dirt again 🙂 I use the ultrasonic cleaner to do the cleaning with distilled water of course and then I use the SpinClean I had initially bought to rinse the surfactant off of the recently cleaned records. And of course I do that with distilled water as well. Thanks for the help and advice!
About your comparative video concerning record cleaners, three very different products same disappointing result: money very very well spent...unless you're sponsorized.
No machine, no manual cleaning will restore a scratched beaten up record. Record cleaning, any record ckeaning, is for removing dust, oils from fingerprints, residues from mishandling and storage, mold, and other conditions that relate to residues on the surface and grooves. Your testing with scrap records does not qualify as cleaning. You want to restore records and that is nearly impossible no matter which method you use. I have acquired a VPI Cyclone machine, a Degritter Mark II, and a KLAUDIO ultrasonic cleaning machine. I do follow a very thorough cleaning process and can attest to the performance of these machines. But I know that records that are scratched or beaten will never sound well no matter how much effort I put on them.
I'm sure you know that 'clicks and pops' are not all from dirt. Many are from physical damage on the vinyl, which unlimited use of the world's best cleaners can't fix.
Isn't this the same as a spin clean but just automatic and not manual? I use a spin care which is similar and I have seen positive differences. But vinyl can still be annoying when it sounds bad. I have plenty of bad sounding records but many many good sounding ones made better from the cleaner.
I have an X45 and all of a sudden the remote has stopped working. Trying to reach Novatron - no response. I am also constantly getting 'Tidal Media is loading slowly' when I am running Roon - and once that happens - I have to restart the X45. It was great at the start when i bought the unit - now it's bothersome ! Wonder if you have any experience with this kind of issue ? I have a very fast 1GB Fibre connection at home and I dont think it's the internet thats an issue as even if I play a ripped CD from the Internal drive - it just stops playing !
Thank you for the cleaning videos. In 2016, I was advised to get the Disco Antistat cleaner. I would advise you to do the same, it transformed my collection. I always felt that my cleaner was just a cheap fix and that ultrasonic was the way to go, but looking at the results of your tests I am happier with it. Unlike the spin clean model you have in the video, it uses brushes of very fine hair instaed of the velvet pads. These get into the grooves and clear a lot of dirt. It also has a different type of spinning system, where you effectively put a bar through the record and it spins on that axis. I use a battery powered drill to turn it so I don't have to touch the record. The latest edition has replacement brushes and a handle to turn the records. The only drawback is the cleaning solution provided, it leaves a film on the disc so I would suggest making your own. I would also suggest that maybe you should stop buying new American pressings. I have never heard so many new records sounding so bad.
I always look for the original vintage pressings first. However, I recently bought a few new titles that sound fantastic with little to no background noise at all. Modern pressings can be great depending on the pressing plant I suppose. It will be and always has been hit or miss with records.
You don't have to. It's there if you want to fine tune things but you are still free to manually adjust your levels the quick and easy way. In fact, there are so many AVR options in the market right now you can do anything.
@@MancaveCentral1 Dude, thank you so much. This is just overwhelming probably because I guess I am just getting old. I wired my basement with two Atmos speakers and now trying to decipher height speakers, presence speakers, and all that. I think I jumped in too deep. Ha!
Nice to see a realistic build for a change! They’re usually being done in a fully equipped workshop with benchsaws, thicknessers and mills!! I mean who’s got that stuff in the garage?? But a set square, a circular saw and a pencil I can deal with!! Refreshing to hear about the warped wood, imperfections and mistakes too! Turned out great, man. I’m gonna do it, slightly modded and with manual nailing 😂
There's a ton of projects that I wish I could do and never will because I don't have the space or the equipment. I have cheap harbor freights tools, plastic junkie saw horses and a tight 2 car middle class garage. A lot can be accomplished if you try. It takes more concentration a steady hand and some talent to pull off a finished build from nearly nothing as opposed to running everything through several thousands of dollars in professional tools and a workshop.
I have only one criticism of this. The spin clean system relies upon brushes that the vinyl is spun through. My concern over this system is if there are objects, in particular, hard objects, like pieces of vinyl not completely washed off of the vinyl, such a system can cause its own scratches. One of the nice aspects to an ultra sonic cleaner is nothing touches the vinyl except bubbles. In the end, while this test appears to show no noticeable improvements that can possibly justify the difference in cost, what we don't know, is if some of the clicks and pops were actually caused by Spin Clean, where if Spin Clean was never used and only the ultra sonic cleaner was, may not even be there to begin with.
I am certain that nothing was introduced into the sound from using the Spin Clean system. I have been listening to dozens of amazing sounding records recently with little to no noise that are always run through the dual spin clean system before playing. A properly washed record that is pressed with care from a quality master can exhibit all the audiophile traits of dynamic range and spatial sound along with the near zero noise floor that digital brings.
