Members' Kit pics

[Viagara]

I just love it when you guys talk dirty! 

No FD, not dirty, they talk foreign to you

[MetalMilitia]

Thats a dream theatre you have there Windshear

Mind sharing what equipment you running?

[KenMasters]

So I finally got my new Panasonic V20. Set it up yesterday and am currently in the process of running it in before calibration.

The wife is super happy with it, I'm still mourning the loss of my old set and getting accustomed to the new one (some things it does better, some things not). Overall though, I'm very happy with the purchase.

Unfortunately I still don't have the 360 or my BD player hooked up yet as I'm still waiting for the cables I ordered online (much cheaper than the in store rip-offs), which hopefully should arrive today.



Panasonic 50" V20 (seated distance 2m) / Onkyo 705 Reciever / KEF IQ3 fronts, IQ6 centre, 3001 rears / 10" Velodyne SPL-Ultra / Onkyo ND-S1 i-Pod Dock / Sony S350 BDP / Samsung HD-PVR / Xbox 360

[oradba69]

Sun Solaris, AS/400 ... Now with a huge project in IBM AIX and Oracle as well.

As an oracle DBA always on the prowell, may I ask what company/project?

[Robert_E]

Nice Ken! When are you giving a full review of the screen ? 

[KenMasters]

Nice Ken! When are you giving a full review of the screen ? 

Only just got my cables this afternoon so still checking it out but I can give you my initial impressions.

I can say that, unllike the set I looked at in store, this set appears remarkably accurate out the box (I suppose someone in store must have tinkered with settings he shouldn't have). Brightness and contrast is spot on when reviewing with test patterns. I'm going to wait to let the set run in a bit before I calibrate with the metre so no decisive comment on gamma and greyscale but they look really good by eye. The picture is startlingly detailed and it genuinely does give the "looking through a window" impression.

On the negative I have to get used to flat panel technology. As amazing as it looks, there are things that my CRT just did better. Cable doesn't look quite as good, whereas the CRT, by it's nature, smoothed over the macroblocking on cable programming, the Panasonic is not very forgiving. There's also the occasional colour banding but nothing serious.

I must add the black level is great, really happy with that. Black level has been rock solid, I haven't witnessed any floating blacks (or flickering in bright scenes).

I've mentioned it before but just a reminder, the V20 available in SA is actually a G20 panel with V20 features, if you want the Infinte Black Pro panel you need to look at the VT20.

[oradba69]

prowell = prowl 

[dotVIBE]

Very nice screen, congrats.

Actually, Macross confirmed that his Panasonic TH-P42V20P is specced infinite black. New World Menlo's Panasonic  TH-P42V20M is described as deep black. I emailed Panafrique.co.za about their TH-P50V20P (R20.5k) and they confirmed a spec of infinite black.

[naughty]

okay - over this last week i managed to sell my computer HTIB receiver and speakers - so i went over to my dealer buddy to organize the replacement - so while we are waiting for the payment and collection of the old setup i decided which receiver i was going to replace it with - so soon i will pick up that receiver sometime next week - but in the meantime i was using the HTIB sub with the JVC Victor speakers - so i was also contemplating a temporary sub

in the meantime my buddy reckoned that since ive got his Martin Logan speakers and audioquest cabling over at my place i should also use one of his subs with that setup and just move my AR sub over to the PC setup - so in quick time heres what landed over on my lounge floor



the guy has two of these - and one was used as demo in his shop so just to run the other one in a bit im setting it up at my place - i will be using it for around a month or so cos his renovation is at the home stretch and his entire system will be basically soon be serving duty in his dedicated theatre room

so when you open up that carton - heres what you see first - a box which contains all the accessories for the sub - we shall see exactly whats in that box a bit later



opening the carton within a carton reveals this little fella



and i dont say little fella for nothing - heres the size of the velodyne DD10 as opposed to the 8" sub from the Sony HTIB pictured together



the Velodyne is around 5 times heavier than that Sony unit though and the Sony unit you could practically lift up by two fingers holding it by the port - if you tried that with the Velodyne you would not even lift it a few millimetres of the ground

so heres the sub with the grille removed



the rear connections look like this



the remote control for the sub - looks like a remote for a TV or amp



microphone for the autosetup set as close to where the position of my head would be while seated



sub in the corner behind one of the Martin Logan Vista's



running the autosetup - this sub hooks up to the TV and you can also do some manual settings if you like



i tried setting the thing manually - but lets just say that i cannot match the results achieved by the autosetup - the parametric equaliser would need hours of playing around with and i was getting itchy to listen to it - so i just gave up on the manual setup and did the autosetup - whatever i messed up with an hour of fiddling it managed to reset and improve in 2 minutes 

[naughty]

forgot to mention above that soundwise after the autosetup all you need to do is fiddle with the volume levels - and since this sub hasnt been played in months it will take some time to settle - for now i prefer the AR sub merely cos it was bigger and it sounded bigger in the room - but this sub has oodles of power and im sure with some fiddling around and playing with positioning etc it will sound pretty awesome with these speakers - i cant wait to hear the two daisy chained together and playing with the Martin Logans in a bigger room than mine and with some proper amplification driving the main speakers

[KenMasters]

Very nice screen, congrats.

Actually, Macross confirmed that his Panasonic TH-P42V20P is specced infinite black. New World Menlo's Panasonic  TH-P42V20M is described as deep black. I emailed Panafrique.co.za about their TH-P50V20P (R20.5k) and they confirmed a spec of infinite black.

Infinte Black is the G20 panel, Infinte Black PRO is the one featured on the Euro V/VT models.

[dotVIBE]

Infinte Black is the G20 panel, Infinte Black PRO is the one featured on the Euro V/VT models.

aaah crap. Those are going to R45k for the 50". WAY out of my budget. 

[KenMasters]

aaah crap. Those are going to R45k for the 50". WAY out of my budget. 

Yea, it's very confusing marketing speak and easy to mistake them. I compared both panels and they're honestly not that different. While the Infinte Black Pro panels do have that extra depth, it's all relative as they're not exactly completely black themselves either.

[Vaughan]

Hi Naughty,

Nice equipment. I would try repositioning the subwoofer and redo the frequency sweeps to try and knock down the big boost at 100 Hz. You are probably sitting in a null or the subwoofer is in a null position so I would either try repositioning the sub or changing your seated position and see if it makes a positive difference. For best results I strongly recommend you manually set filters on the SMS-1 as opposed to an automatic calibration procedure.

[Robert_E]

Hi Naughty,

Nice equipment. I would try repositioning the subwoofer and redo the frequency sweeps to try and knock down the big boost at 100 Hz. You are probably sitting in a null or the subwoofer is in a null position so I would either try repositioning the sub or changing your seated position and see if it makes a positive difference. For best results I strongly recommend you manually set filters on the SMS-1 as opposed to an automatic calibration procedure.

To me it looks like the biggest issue is rather the biggest cut from 25 to 40Hz. There is a huge peak there that gets removed by the EQ. This is probably caused by the fact that the couch is right back against the rear wall causing terrible boundary gain.

Also it's usually recommended you use a tripod with the mic pointed straight up. (Probably not that relevant for really low freq measurements but that table is just another hard surface for sound to bounce off of).