# HK Sound Upgrade



## Terry Kennedy (Sep 21, 2002)

PM 325xiT said:


> [BWhat video equipment do you use, I might guess you have a seperate soung set up for music v. movies[/B]


NEC XG135LC projector to a 100" screen. Video sources are a Meridian 800 DVD, Pioneer DVL-91E DVD/Laserdisc, DirecTV HD satellite, VCR, and PC. There's a Faroudja NR in the loop as well. Audio is via a Meridian 861, the aforementioned DSP8000s, DSP5500HC, and DSP33's. There's also a turntable, cassette, and tuner. The 800, DVL-91E, and PC can all generate digital audio for the system - the 800 and DVL-91E play audio DVDs and CDs, while the PC accesses our library of approximately 1800 CDs, all stored digitally as full-bit-rate (not MP3) images on a RAID array.

I don't have any pictures of this posted yet, but here are some pictures of the "little" system in the bedroom (Meridian 504/568, another DVL-91E, VCR, DSP5000s, DSP5000C, and DSP33s, displaying on a 50" Sharp plasma panel:


























If you click here you can browse our CD collection (sorry, you can't play/download them).


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## Artslinger (Sep 2, 2002)

Wow awesome system Mr. Kennedy... can I come over to your house and watch some movies?


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## Artslinger (Sep 2, 2002)

Did you have someone set up your digital music library or did you do this yourself? I've been thinking of doing this, I have way to many CDs to keep track of, and would like to create compilation mixes. What music database software do you use?


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## Terry Kennedy (Sep 21, 2002)

Artslinger said:


> *Did you have someone set up your digital music library or did you do this yourself? I've been thinking of doing this, I have way to many CDs to keep track of, and would like to create compilation mixes. What music database software do you use? *


I did it myself. There's a brief description of what is involved here. The database is a homebrew app in Perl on a Unix system.


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## jgrgnt (Apr 27, 2002)

If you're partial to aftermarket sound upgrades, skip the H/K; you're much better off putting your money into a decent 3rd party system, even if it involves replacing only the speakers and amp. Plus, even a modest budget of $1000 will net you a respectable boost in sonic quality.

I was not impressed with the H/K, but I consider myself picky when it comes to audio.

Michael


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## Artslinger (Sep 2, 2002)

Terry Kennedy said:


> *I did it myself. There's a brief description of what is involved here. The database is a homebrew app in Perl on a Unix system. *


Very impressive.


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## Terry Kennedy (Sep 21, 2002)

Artslinger said:


> *Very impressive. *


I just updated the page (click here) to include some pictures of the hardware. You might want to take a look at it again.


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## dlloyd1975 (Sep 8, 2002)

Terry Kennedy said:


> *I just updated the page (click here) to include some pictures of the hardware. You might want to take a look at it again. *


Aw, man. I don't see anything with the magical spinning cube logo on it. How about one of these to go in the rack? 

Nice setup. Wiring my 90+year old house with Cat 5 was awfully fun, or, at least, an excercise in creativity and patience. Did you build your house new with the wiring or is that ex post facto? If I ever build a new house, I'm putting 3" conduit in the walls.


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## Terry Kennedy (Sep 21, 2002)

dlloyd1975 said:


> *Aw, man. I don't see anything with the magical spinning cube logo on it. How about one of these to go in the rack? *


I like BSD/OS on PC-type hardware for historical reasons - before BSD/OS was bought by WindRiver I used to write device drivers and similar stuff for them, and I still have a source license. I enjoy puttering with it, though I don't do drivers/support for it commercially any more. All of my media creation stuff is done on Windows. If I were doing it on Unix, I'd most likely have an SGI, though.


> *Nice setup. Wiring my 90+year old house with Cat 5 was awfully fun, or, at least, an excercise in creativity and patience. Did you build your house new with the wiring or is that ex post facto? If I ever build a new house, I'm putting 3" conduit in the walls. *


My house is going on 70 years old. There's a full basement below the rack, where a lot of the cables run. Right now, for the second floor I ran panduit raceway along the baseboards for data/phone/cable TV. I'm going to be renovating the house one floor at a time (it is a 3-story 2-family) and when I do that I'll have flex-duct in the walls.

When we had Amanda's Manhattan loft re-done, we spec'd 1" and 1.5" flex-duct in the walls, so all the cabling is concealed in the walls. You can find a bunch of large, un-cataloged photos of the job here. This is a picture of the phone/internet stuff concealed in one of the closets. We had the contractors install the ducts and pull lines during construction, as well as wood backing for the speaker and plasma panel mounting brackets behind the drywall. Then, when the job was turned over to us, I ran the cables and installed the wallplates, as well as the electronics in the phone closet.


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## cruztopless (Sep 23, 2002)

Wow Terry. I guess I'll just save myself a trip to AVS and HTF and just PM you!  

So, what receiver would you recommend to push my Maggies?? :dunno: 

Seriously, I'm glad to read your input on the HK system. I guess it won't take much to make me happy since I've been satisfied with the system in my Integra! :lmao: 

Looking forward to seeing pics of you main system.


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## Terry Kennedy (Sep 21, 2002)

cruztopless said:


> *So, what receiver would you recommend to push my Maggies?? :dunno: *


Actually, my recent experience is with the Meridian gear, which is all digital - the speakers connect to the processor via a 24/96 (or 24/192) data link and a RS-423 control link. The processor converts analog inputs to digital for the speakers and all adjustments are done digitally. This is the opposite from most high-end stuff, which treats digital signals as a disease that must be converted to analog ASAP.


> *Seriously, I'm glad to read your input on the HK system. I guess it won't take much to make me happy since I've been satisfied with the system in my Integra! :lmao: *


I'm told that the HK varies quite a bit between the various models. There is a large amount of bass available (particularly considering this is a car-manufacturer-supplied system) in my cargo area. In the non-wagons, if the subs emit directly into the passenger compartment, I'd expect there to be more bass than in my wagon.


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