Very nice setup. Are those Focal Arias and Rel sub? What’s your screen? It seems to have full motion masking. That’s pretty cool.

That is one hell of a home cinema set-up.

Thanks for posting the pictures.

incredible. That is so pure. It's non-compomising but not just a guy who's gone out with a bunch of money and bought all the latest gear. You've obviously built this up over years and years.

Where/how do you keep your media?

Excellent. Thank you for your reply. I have many live music LDs and would to maximise their rendering in sound and vision the way you can. Your journey sounds like mine, my goals and means have been less probably but I dunno, maybe this is my part 1. Maybe I'll get to your level one day.

I've been collecting Japanese HiFi VHS live recordings lately, have you got a lot of HiFi VHS? Can you make them sound as impressive as PCM from LD? I have yet to but there is some quality to VHS HiFi that I can't describe, probably because it's analogue, there are "smoother/rounder" edges to the highs, kinda like a well mastered cassette tape on a good deck. Have yet to get the same recording on LD and VHS HiFi for comparison but it's in my future plans.

Finally I was really fortunate in that I had already got the main basis of my HT in place before getting married otherwise there's no way I'd be where Iam now, it's all housed in a separate purpose designed building in our garden away from the house so at least I can still sneak in any new purchases (e.g. D-VHS VCR??)
without any wife knowledge (p.s. I seriously doubt it but I hope she doesn't join LDDB forum and read this )

Interesting that you mention the sound quality of VHS Hi-Fi tracks @forper as a few weeks back I decided to run some of my old pre- recorded music vid VHS + home recorded from early 90s TV broadcast S-VHS tapes (video still holds up well on these btw!) also some 25 year old audio only CD recordings made from my first LD player a Pioneer CLD-2950; in fact I was hooked for a whole evening enjoying a type of sound quality that you perfectly describe above, overall I wouldn't say it is on a par with the best LD PCM quality that's available but I'll stick my neck out and say I find it preferable to a lot of the audio (of any type) that DVD offers which to my ears nearly always sounds somehow uninvolving in a way I can't quite put my finger on.

The%20nearest%20LD%20to%20VHS%20comparison%20I%20could%20make%20is%20probably%20the%201987%20U2%20Rattle%20&%20Hum%20movie,%20the%20VHS%20always%20sounded%20very%20good%20although%20perhaps%20a%20little%20thin%20and%20congested%20in%20the%20mid%20range%20on%20certain%20tracks%20whilst%20others%20had%20open%20mid%20range%20with%20superb%20drum%20and%20impressive%20bass%20reproduction.%20The%20LD%20has%20the%20option%20of%20DD5.1%20or%20PCM%20audio%20but%20comparing%20the%20latter%20to%20the%20analog%20VHS%20Hi-Fi%20tracks%20the%20LD%20leaves%20it%20standing%20in%20nearly%20all%20ways%20and%20the%20whole%20recording%20just%20sounds%20more%20powerful%20and%20consistent%20throughout%20by%20comparison,%20to%20my%20ears%20at%20least.

When you posted the shots of your setup some time ago I was honestly very impressed by your kit and equally by the way you have it configured; it looks aesthetically perfect to my eyes and just the way I would want it e.g. plenty of breathing space around the front L+R speakers all the electronic along one side etc. I appreciate that not everyone has the space to achieve/or desire this but it just looks so right to me if it's possible, I'll bet you get quite satisfactory musical results?

Yeah so good man, I wish I kept more of my VHS from the '90s, and some of my tapes. I foolishy decided to "upgrade" wholesale to DVD at some point. I wasn't at the level then when I could dub from an LD player though. I had a lot of HiFi tapes though. Your story is a lesson to the youth. Go high end, and go high end early, don't look back! I wish I'd worked harder back then to acquire gear.

Interesting! Thanks for the comparison.



That is kind of you. I am often satisified when I can crank it but that is limited to Saturday nights and not too late as I live in an apartment complex and even then I worry I'll get complaints. I envy the back garden locale! My ideal home would be a farm I feel. No neighbors!!

Awesome set up GB, thats something special.

Video
Panasonic TH-50PX77U Plasma TV
Oppo UDP-203 4K blu-ray player
Toshiba BDX-1250 blu-ray player (modded for all-region)
Runco LJR II Laserdisc Player
Toshiba HD-XA2 HD-DVD Player
JVC HM-DH30000U D-VHS/D-Theatre VCR
Sony SL-HF2100 Super Betamax VCR

Audio
Pioneer Elite VSX-92TXH Receiver
Yamaha APD- RF Demodulator
Pioneer PL-990 Turntable
Onkyo X-N7 Hi-MD/CD Mini Unit
Yamaha KX-W321 Cassette Deck

Speakers
Polk Audio TL-1 Center Channel
Pioneer CS-99A Fronts
Optimus LX-5 Surrounds and Rear Center
Cerwin Vega! LW-15 Subwoofer

Really nice. You cover every major audio and video format except missing DAT from your audio spectrum. That Sony VCR is the HLD-X0 of all tape media players, even D-VHS units don’t compare.