HT Audition Trip: Amcorp Mall

A&L Audio today. Auditioned Marantz SR5003 and PSB Alpha Series. Watched and heard Transformer and Eric Clapton's Tears In Heaven.

Compared the front performance of LR and Alpha B1.

Alpha B1 sounded wider and richer.

Additional RM200 for I think a much fuller performance.

Overall, I am very satisfied how the PSB Alpha has performed.

System details

• Marantz SR5003 and PSB Alpha 5.1
• 2x Alpha B1 (or LR1)
• 1x Alpha CLR1
• 2x Alpha LR1 (srd spkrs)
• 1x SubSeries1

Full packaged price at RM5,700 (inclusive of installation, setup and all wiring - Audioquest) As before, Marantz was quoted at about RM2,700.

HT Audition Trip: Kepong

Today, we went to Desa Home Theatre in Kepong, always regarded as the HT haven for enthusiasts. Well, before that, we stopover for brunch at Nice Soup Gang. The sharkbone soup was nice, not great, just nice.

Anyway, Desa Home Theatre, located at Kompleks Desa, seems to be an old and tired building.

Desa had many variety of brands on offer, most importantly Marantz and Wharfedale which I wanted to hear. Unfortunately, the award-winning Diamond 9.1 was not on display.

Some other brands on display were: Pioneer, Denon, Onkyo and Yamaha. 

Speakers range include: Boston, Q Acoustics, PSB, Jamo, Wharfedale, JBL, Pioneer and Yamaha.

As you can see, this is like to HT supermarket, has great variety of systems.

I auditioned Marantz SR-4003  pushing a set of Wharfedale Vardus series. Sounded good, but since this was setup in the open shop front, I can hardly tell even if something was wrong.

They have rooms available, but was not configured with the right hardware.

Talked with Yee and he suggested that I visit them once my house is ready, as they may have sales at that time. Overall, Desa HT is worth checking out by pre-booking an appointment, stating the following facts for them, 

• Size of AV room
  
• Use of AV room, % movies, % games, % music (mine is 35:60:5).
  
• Sound Preference: Bright, Neutral, Warm 

After that, we took a detour to IKEA on the way back and bought a GORM shelf for RM129 and additional $ for accesories. In conclusion, after all the audition trips, Desa and A&L would be the main shops that I will be enquiring once the room is ready.

HT Audition Trip: Klang

We started off the daytrip to Klang with a side trip for BahKutTeh at Yeo's.

We asked the waiter, what do you recommend?

Answer was: "Uh....bak kut teh". That was original.

Next we arrived at AEON Bukit Tinggi Klang, and checked out 

Harvey Norman:

4 rooms with HT setup.

1.  Yamaha AVR and speakers (mainly 363, 463 and Yamaha branded loudspeakers)

2. Onkyo (506, 606) and Jamo speakers. 

Two other rooms under renovation. 

Other brands on offer are the typical HTIB from Pioneer, Philips, LG, Sony and Panasonic.

Overall, not well setup rooms on the day.

Verdict: The place is quite far, unless I changed my mind and decided togo for the specific brands on offer, I would not return here.

HT Audition Trip: Sunway Pyramid

We went to Sunway Pyramid and checked out Harvey Norman and SenQ.

HN: 

No dedicated room for HT.

SenQ: 4 rooms dedicated for HT

1. Onkyo THX system

2. Onkyo Jamo

3. Under renovation

4. Yamaha

Has Cambridge Audio and Tannoy speakers on packaged offer, not very interesting though.

SenQ seems ok with theire HT audition setup but product ranges on offer is limited.

Overall, I will not return to Sunway Pyramid for shopping unless I am buy

1. Onkyo or Yamaha AVR

2. Onkyo, Jamo or Yamaha speakers.

HT Audition Trip : KL

We made a trip to town today to visit several shops and audition some speakers. 

First stop was DESA HT LYP, seems to be packing up for renovation, everyone so busy. Skipped it and moved to the next shop.

Next, Tong Lee. Had a casual chat with Mr Yip. Suggested a Denon 1909 and KEF HT2005.2. No audition.

Next was A&L at Sg Wang. Hino showed me Marantz SR5003 using PSB Alpha speakers. Nice performance, competent speakers and filled the room, a little harsh at times while playing the scene from Dragon's Gate. 

Later, went over the HN Pavilion. Yamaha Room, RX-V663 all sold out. Then Onkyo/Jamo room. Adrian demoed TX-SR606 on Jamo 606 HCS3. Jamo 606 HCS3 sounded elegant, rounded and enough ooomph for my taste even though without the subwoofer. 

We discussed about the packages on offer. TX-SR506 with Jamo 606 HCS3 at RM3899 and TX-SR606 with similar Jamo at RM5299.

So far, I prefer Jamo over PSB. Will further audition Q Acoustics and Wharfedale.

As for AVR, Marantz SR5003 or SR6003 is so far leading the pack after what I learnt about the new models of Yammy 665 and Onkyo's 607 or 606. SR5003 (quoted at RM2700 - A&L).

So, the combination as of now is like 

1x Marantz AVR SR5003

1x Jamo S606 HCS3 

What's Next?

Planning to go to the following places:

• HiwayLaser SS2 or Jln Pasar one of the days to test out Q Acoustics with SR5003.  
  
• SenQ Sunway Pyramid
• HN Bkt Tinggi

Choosing a entry-level compact speaker system for Home Theater

Another day of research and shortlisting of speakers for the new AV setup.

Here are the results so far, not in order of preference.

Q Acoustics 1010i 5.1

• 4 x 1010i sat speakers
  
• 1 x 1000Ci Centre Channel Speaker 
  
• 1 x 1000Si Subwoofer
  

http://www.qacoustics.co.uk/

PSB Alpha B1

• 4 x Alpha B1 sat speakers
  
• 1 x Alpha C1 centre speaker
  
• 1 x SubSeries 5i Subwoofer
  

US RRP : Alpha B1 Monitor Speaker, $279/pair 

                  Alpha C1 Center-Channel Speaker, $229

                  SubSeries 5i Subwoofer, $549 

www.psbspeakers.com

Wharfedale Diamond Home Cinema Speakers

• 2 x Diamond 9.2  - Front speakers
  
• 2 x Diamond 9.SR - Rear speakers
  
• 1 x Diamond 9.CS - Center speaker
  
• 1 x SW150        - Subwoofer
  

http://www.wharfedale.co.uk/

Yamaha RX-V665...well maybe

I made a post a while back, about whether to get HTiB or component home theater.

More thoughts on it these days.

It is time to move up to component home theater, though only looking at mid-entry level systems.

The advantage of this approach enables me to progressively upgrade in future to better system components if desired. 

With this in mind, the task at hand is now to put together a component shopping list.

Given the rave reviews for Yamaha RX-V663, I am inclined to go with the next incarnation for the 2009 release, RX-V?65 range. Soon to be released here, it is still not known whether the lighter overall chassis affects its performance. So, here's the plan. We'll move in, take our time and select the system (AVR and speakers) that is the best value for our money, maximum spend of RM5,000. 

My list of requirements:

• 3 or more HDMI ports
  
• min 2 component inputs
  
• min 2 S-video input
  
• min 3 optical audio inputs
  
• video upscaling to 1080p
  
• support for TrueHD, DTS-HD
  

Well, actually, there are existing products from Yamaha and Pioneer that fits the bill.

But I do not have enough green bills to buy it. ;) 

Any other suggestions for other models?

One or two kitchens?

Is it necessary to have a wet and a dry kitchen? Can't we just have one kitchen? According to our estimation of the size of both areas, the wet kitchen is too small to be the one kitchen so if we choose to have just one kitchen, it would have to be in the dry kitchen area.



Options:
A. Have two separate kitchens: wet and dry.
B. Have just one kitchen in the dry kitchen area.
C. Have just one kitchen in the wet kitchen area.

Option A:
Pros:
1. No need to have wall cabinets for both kitchens because there is enough storage.
2. No need to install cooker hood because cooking is performed in the wet kitchen which is small and has a big window for ventilation.

Cons:
1. Expensive to install two kitchens.
2. No suitable place to put the washing machine.

Option B:
Pros:
1. The wet kitchen area can be used as the laundry room where the washing machine is placed.
2. One kitchen concept means we do not need to move between the wet and dry kitchen when cooking.
3. Cheaper to install just one kitchen.

Cons:
1. Need to install a cooker hood which adds to the budget and means an extra appliance to clean and take care of.
2. If a cooker hood is required, it would look nicer installed within the wall cabinets so which means wall cabinets are required.
3. The refrigerator may need to be placed in the dining area since more space is required for the one kitchen.
4. I may not have the heart to do any frying or shallow frying in the one kitchen for fear of making the whole area smell of oil so defeats the point of having a kitchen for cooking.

Option C:
Cons:
1. Do not think it is workable as the area is just too small to be the ONE kitchen.

Ceiling lights that made the cut

As part of the effort to keep the cost and renovation work required down to the minimum, fake plaster ceiling will not be installed therefore there will not be any recessed ceiling lights or downlights.

My requirements for lights are:
1. It needs to use energy saving light bulbs.
2. It needs to be easy to clean without having to climb ladders to reach the ceiling lights.
3. The light bulbs must be easy to be changed.

To buy or not to buy

Found out about Macy having these packages on offer until May 24, 2009. Went to have a look. It seems like value for money but I am not sure whether or not we should buy it now since we have not received the keys to the house yet and we do not need some of the items (the rug, table lamp, dining console) in the package. We are just considering the dining set and sofa set and not the bedroom set since we will be using our existing bedroom set.

There are three different sets each for the dining set, sofa set, and bedroom set. The posters below showed two sets each for the dining and sofa sets but the same bedroom set.




The third sofa set is as below. The look is not as modern as the other two sofa sets but it is the most comfortable and I prefer separate two and three seaters instead of just one L shaped sofa (as in one of the sofa set package).



The third dining set is as below. It includes a dining buffet (dining sideboard) which makes it the dining set that provides the most value for money. However, the reddish colour is a bit off putting.

All In a Box or Components

One of the items to look into, possibly after moving in is the upgrade to TrueHD home theater soundsystem. All in one eg. Sony HT-2300 or Pioneer HTZ-LX61 or go for individual components eg. Yamaha RX-V565 or Onkyo or Pioneer VSX-LX60 or VSX-LX70?
Components allows mix and match, has upgradeability and performance? It also provides additional functionality such as upscaling and DLNA support.

What about the speakers? So far, I have looked into Yamaha, Pioneer and Tannoy.
Yamaha NS-210 series and Pioneer's EURO 8 seems likely, Tannoy's Arena Lite, also a good option.



But again all this flexibility comes at a price, how will it compare to Sony's HTiB which can go as low to RM1599 and Pioneer's HTZ-LX61 which retails at RM2999?

I think the component-based system can easily be the region of RM4000-5000.

Something to ponder over....

Dining set looks

1. Hiro Dining Set


Sturdy and solid looking. Clean lines.
http://www.haikudesigns.com/dining-room-set-1.htm

2. Mission Oak Dining Set


Less sturdy looking. Three rows of wood for the back of the chair are a little too much. Would prefer max to be two. Do not need cushion for the bench.
http://www.warehousedirectusa.com/product/CR-101011?META=nextag-CR-101011


3. Double Teak Dining Bench


Too bulky and heavy looking although there are clean lines.
http://www.kaboodle.com/reviews/double-teak-dining-bench

4. Double Teak Dining Table



http://www.kaboodle.com/reviews/double-teak-dining-table

5. Minimalist Dining Table


Would prefer less reddish colour.
http://www.livingconcepts.co.uk/pages/product-detail.asp?sku=TA205

6. Sarros Dining Set


Too much like tables and chairs in primary schools' canteen?
http://www.starfurn.com/

Rubber wood dining set

A common rubber wood dining set that can be found in almost any local furniture shop but it is not cheap - between RM1000-RM1200.