Hi from Chicago

[rthomeint]

I have been listening to Conrad-johnson equipment since 1988. I got an MV50 that year after hearing a Premier 3 and a pair of Premier 5 driving a pair of Infinity IRS. I upgraded the MV50 to an MV52. I sold my MV52 and bought a Premier 11 I owned a PV12 and sold it. I currently have a DA2B, 2 MV52s and my Premier 11 all currently unused. Equipment I am currently using HD3 usb DAC MET150 5 channel power amp and a McCorrmack MAP1 6 channel preamp. I am running Martin Logan electromotion ESLs with the matching center channel and rears. I have the OPPO BDP-95 in six channel analog mode. I have a Sony projector on a 127 inch wide screen at a 2.35 aspect ratio. I also have a HD-DVD player and a LaserDisc player hooked up. I am in the process of put all of my music on a Mac Mini server that the HD3 is connected to. I am hopping to get a new CJ preamp soon if business picks up.

Rob

[admin]

Rob, welcome!

Ah, another fellow Martin Logan owner. I don't know what it is but a significant portion of us CJ owners use Martin Logan speakers. I guess they just naturally complement each other. I also see that you are a fellow "projectionist." I myself use a Epson PowerLite Home Cinema 8700UB Projector. I love the huge screen, there really is no substitute, it makes it like I'm at the movies! Although admittedly you need complete lighting control in the viewing environment.

I would love to see pics of your setup, maybe a posting in the Member Systems Gallery would be cool.

Once again, awesome system, welcome to CJO!

[rthomeint]

Here are some pictures of my room.

[admin]

Very nice. Clearly the CJ is my favorite, but the entire theater looks great! I see that your using a 2.35:1 projector screen. Are you using an external lens for the projector to get the non-16:9 ration? Also, I think I spot an Onkyo receiver in the upper right? If so which model? I use their TX-sr875 model for movies.

[rthomeint]

I am just zooming my Sony projector to fill the screen. My sony is 7 years old and does have an anamorphic setting. I am going get a new JVC projector after I see the models that will be shown at CEDIA next month. I will likely get a panamorph lens for that. I have an Onkyp TXSR805 for HDMI switching. I use the pre out using six analog cables going to Map 1 second six channel input for HD-DVD, OTA tuner, DVHS and LaserDisc(and Laserdisc look terrible on a screen that size I just have it hooked up because I can.). The first six channel input has the six channel output of the OPPO BDP-95. For Blu-Ray the analog output of the OPPO sounds better than the HDMI sound from the Onkyo.

[admin]

I'm a huge laserdisc fan! I have about 800 movies and I regularly watch about 2 a week. You mention that the laserdiscs look "terrible". Do you mean they are not as good as Blu-ray (obviously they can't compete with that) or do you think that perhaps the setup is not idea. Having a good scaler is critically important with laserdisc, likewise the player is very important. I find that laserdisc is much more heavily effected by player and scaler than other similar quality input such as DVD. Also, laserdisc is mastered with a different standard brightness level than DVD/Blu-ray so it requires a separate calibration setting on the Projector.

[rthomeint]

I owner 3 LaserDisc players, A Pioneer LD660( the last of the gas laser players I bought in 1986), a Panasonic LX1000( the has the best picture of the 3) and a Pioneer CLD 705 which is in the system now. I find that the low resolution and noise levels on a screen that size are annoying. In it's day it was state of the art but I would rather watch Star Wars on Blu-ray than the 3 other copies I have on Laserdisc. My Sony projector has a very good scaler this was a $10000.00 projector when new. I have a Faroujda Line doubler I hook up as well with Laserdisc, it still looked bad. I've been tempted to power up my NEC XG75A CRT projector to see what this looks like there. I have not looked at VHS,Beta,8mm or CED in my Home theater yet.

[admin]

Well, it sounds like you have really good hardware so most likely it's just a limitation of the format. I still enjoy them myself. My expectations from LD are very different than Blu-ray. I think if you compare the technical merits of blu-ray and LD anybody is going to be disappointed with LD (it's a 35 year old format after all). I enjoy the nostalgic analog look of the video and many of the soundtracks are very good. Another reason I enjoy laserdisc is the pure collection of them. They have beautiful packaging. I am with you concerning the other formats, I do have a VHS player in the room but I never hooked it up and have no interest in playing vhs, beta, ced, etc.

You have a great setup regardless, congrats!

[rthomeint]

I still have some of the original Discovision disc from the late 70s. I played the CAV version of Jaws last month. The disc played fine but I suspect there is son aging of the disc in some way. there was a lot of noise in the picture. I also play the best looking disc in my collection, the Panasonic demo disc. That was a lot better.I've recorded everything from tape to DVD. I've been working on a way to record from D-VHS to Blu-ray for the stuff I have there. I've had an HD display before broadcast started and I have some of the early archived on D-VHS. I find even some of these tapes look bad on a screen this size.

[admin]

It sounds like the Jaws disc is getting something called "Laser Rot". It happens to many discs, and often arises from improper manufacturing of the disk. It will develop over time and can cause discoloration of the disc itself (but not always). This was a common phenomena of many American manufactured disks but also happens with the higher quality foreign plant made discs. Unfortunately, there is not much you can do about this and the disk will most likely degrade even further with time until it's unplayable.

[rthomeint]

I not sure it's Laser rot I've seen it in other discs before. It doesn't look like the oxidation that happens to aluminum substrate. It looks like the polycoarbonate is breaking down in some way This is one of the oldest disc manufactured. May it's natural aging. No body really know how long disc will last before they start natural aging.

[admin]

Very true. Well, I hope you get a few more years out of it!

By the way, is it the boxed edition (with the audio CD and novel)? I have two copies of that.

[rthomeint]

No it's the first release in a 3 disc box set.

[admin]

That's cool. I have two versions, Jaws (1975) [41086] and Jaws: Limited Edition (1975) [42583]. Jaws is one of those classic movies that's always fun to watch. I hear it's coming out on blu-ray soon.