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Well one of the perks of my job is that I get to see lots of hi-fi and home cinema dealers, lots of hi-fi and home cinema systems and sometimes home cinemas owned by the dealers themselves! I wrote about Erics system when I went to see him last year and this time its X3ELS (Elliot)s turn.
I first met Elliot at the launch of a crt brand in London. He was there with a work colleague and I was wandering around listening in to conversations and chatting to folk about the stuff on show. Many of the dealers there seemed to think the picture quality on display was good but Elliot and his friend seemed to disagree. They werent impressed. Well, neither was I and I was glad someone else agreed!
So about 6 months later Elliot contacted me as he was trying to source a good 9 CRT s/h for his own cinema. I happened to have just got a suitable device and the deal was struck. I drove down to Surrey and delivered the unit on one of my calibration trips. He showed me his garage, as it was then, and explained all about how he was going to build his dream cinema. It looked like a not insignificant undertaking and I left not knowing how long it would be till I had to come back to make the thing work. Turns out it was over 6 months I think.
During that period I stuck my head in to check on things and it was obvious that he was not mucking about with this project. In fact, it was looking very serious indeed. The quality of design and workmanship I saw was fantastic and I was pretty sure it was going to end up being something pretty great.
I really wanted to get down to see the Genelec guys doing the calibration of the speakers but in the end I had to be in Scotland on the only date they were going to be down. Once the audio had been sorted it was my turn. You might have noticed that Elliot has mentioned he is waiting on a Key Digital HD-Leeza (he was one of the first folk to order in UK..thanks!) As it seemed criminal to make him wait another 4 weeks to see his cinema I popped down this weekend to lend him a scaler to use until the big one turns up. After a morning and afternoon of tweaking we had a pretty great image on his PJ and we started to put it through its paces.
There are some really special things about this cinema that I am glad to say have made me re-consider some of my more forthright views. For a start I have never considered acoustically transparent screens to be that great an idea. The systems I have viewed that have such screens have either had poor sound or have had an obvious degradation in picture quality because of the choice of this screen type. Elliot has a Stewart micro-perf screen. Behind this screen sit his three identical active Genelecs, built in to a custom panelled wall. The panels being covered in black velvet and the wall itself being rock solid. The velvet soaks up all the light going through the perfs and the holes themselves are so small that they are not visible at the seating position. In the past I have noticed the holes on other screens, quite easily. The real test has to be audio though and I should report that the audio sounds pretty smashing too.
Everyone has discs they like to put on to show off a system or, in my case, to trip it up. Bits like the intro to Any Given Sunday where football players boot hits the ground and most sub-woofers immediately bottom out ..Or The Haunting where most subwoofers bottom out or everything in the room vibrates and rattles. We played both of these on Elliots. There were no rattles, there were no farts or clunks from bass units under stress. There was just an amazing sound and feeling of bass pressure. My new demo disc of Blue Crush went on and it was the same. The crashing waves sounded CRUSHING as they broke. Elliot played a Linkin Park DVD-a disc with a track called MY DCMBR. What a laugh! The dynamics of the system really have to be heard to be believed. I was impressed.
This system was designed as a cinema in a home. As such it could have suffered the problems that I have come to hear in most systems like this. Poor acoustics. Folk seem to either go mad with damping making the room completely dead, or they dont do anything leaving it as slap echo heaven. Elliots cunning design with his velvet panelled ceiling and walls to 2/3rd length with painted plaster walls at last 1/3rd and the bookcase and rack on rear wall breaking up the surface really seem to make this a nice room to be in. It isnt dead and it doesnt echo.
The air con is also the quietest Ive ever heard in an air conditioned theatre. He has even done clever things like put the hatch to get in to loft space right beside a ceiling spot. This means that if you look at the ceiling the light from the spot makes the black hatch completely invisible. You need to get up and walk to front of the screen to see its there. When lights go out you cant see anything..its dark!
Im not going to comment on the picture quality as its not the final article yet and its probably inappropriate seeing as its me thats going to be setting it up.
So there you are. Another forum member has done an exceptional job. It really is inspirational. Id like to thank Elliot for his hospitality and for making me re-appraise acoustic screens (well, Stewart ones anyway!)
Looking forward to coming down to install HD-Leeza next.
For more comments on the audio in this room look for further posts about the DIY Digital incon shootout we did while I was down.
Gordon
I first met Elliot at the launch of a crt brand in London. He was there with a work colleague and I was wandering around listening in to conversations and chatting to folk about the stuff on show. Many of the dealers there seemed to think the picture quality on display was good but Elliot and his friend seemed to disagree. They werent impressed. Well, neither was I and I was glad someone else agreed!
So about 6 months later Elliot contacted me as he was trying to source a good 9 CRT s/h for his own cinema. I happened to have just got a suitable device and the deal was struck. I drove down to Surrey and delivered the unit on one of my calibration trips. He showed me his garage, as it was then, and explained all about how he was going to build his dream cinema. It looked like a not insignificant undertaking and I left not knowing how long it would be till I had to come back to make the thing work. Turns out it was over 6 months I think.
During that period I stuck my head in to check on things and it was obvious that he was not mucking about with this project. In fact, it was looking very serious indeed. The quality of design and workmanship I saw was fantastic and I was pretty sure it was going to end up being something pretty great.
I really wanted to get down to see the Genelec guys doing the calibration of the speakers but in the end I had to be in Scotland on the only date they were going to be down. Once the audio had been sorted it was my turn. You might have noticed that Elliot has mentioned he is waiting on a Key Digital HD-Leeza (he was one of the first folk to order in UK..thanks!) As it seemed criminal to make him wait another 4 weeks to see his cinema I popped down this weekend to lend him a scaler to use until the big one turns up. After a morning and afternoon of tweaking we had a pretty great image on his PJ and we started to put it through its paces.
There are some really special things about this cinema that I am glad to say have made me re-consider some of my more forthright views. For a start I have never considered acoustically transparent screens to be that great an idea. The systems I have viewed that have such screens have either had poor sound or have had an obvious degradation in picture quality because of the choice of this screen type. Elliot has a Stewart micro-perf screen. Behind this screen sit his three identical active Genelecs, built in to a custom panelled wall. The panels being covered in black velvet and the wall itself being rock solid. The velvet soaks up all the light going through the perfs and the holes themselves are so small that they are not visible at the seating position. In the past I have noticed the holes on other screens, quite easily. The real test has to be audio though and I should report that the audio sounds pretty smashing too.
Everyone has discs they like to put on to show off a system or, in my case, to trip it up. Bits like the intro to Any Given Sunday where football players boot hits the ground and most sub-woofers immediately bottom out ..Or The Haunting where most subwoofers bottom out or everything in the room vibrates and rattles. We played both of these on Elliots. There were no rattles, there were no farts or clunks from bass units under stress. There was just an amazing sound and feeling of bass pressure. My new demo disc of Blue Crush went on and it was the same. The crashing waves sounded CRUSHING as they broke. Elliot played a Linkin Park DVD-a disc with a track called MY DCMBR. What a laugh! The dynamics of the system really have to be heard to be believed. I was impressed.
This system was designed as a cinema in a home. As such it could have suffered the problems that I have come to hear in most systems like this. Poor acoustics. Folk seem to either go mad with damping making the room completely dead, or they dont do anything leaving it as slap echo heaven. Elliots cunning design with his velvet panelled ceiling and walls to 2/3rd length with painted plaster walls at last 1/3rd and the bookcase and rack on rear wall breaking up the surface really seem to make this a nice room to be in. It isnt dead and it doesnt echo.
The air con is also the quietest Ive ever heard in an air conditioned theatre. He has even done clever things like put the hatch to get in to loft space right beside a ceiling spot. This means that if you look at the ceiling the light from the spot makes the black hatch completely invisible. You need to get up and walk to front of the screen to see its there. When lights go out you cant see anything..its dark!
Im not going to comment on the picture quality as its not the final article yet and its probably inappropriate seeing as its me thats going to be setting it up.
So there you are. Another forum member has done an exceptional job. It really is inspirational. Id like to thank Elliot for his hospitality and for making me re-appraise acoustic screens (well, Stewart ones anyway!)
Looking forward to coming down to install HD-Leeza next.
For more comments on the audio in this room look for further posts about the DIY Digital incon shootout we did while I was down.
Gordon