Hello cinema maniacs,

welcome to my Home-Cinema page

Hi there, and thanks for visiting. This page contains:


Words of wisdom:

The honest truth is: Do I really need new equipment like I need open-hart bypass surgery ? Certainly not. So what the hell is it ? Is there a massive void in my life which can only be filled by the senseless purchase of needless hardware; is it a constant fear of being left with obsolete kit; or do I simply like spending money ?

If someone know the answers og these questions, please send me the answers. The answers to a couple of life greatest mysteries....

Why home-cinema ?

It has taken a while for the concent of surround sound to infiltrate the collective consumer consciousness. No wonder, because very few cinemas have the equipment necessary to bring out those surround effects, which often nails you to your cinema seat, creating a much more entertaining movie experience. Many people, in fact, do not even know what it is, so if someone stairs at you in a rather fanny way, while explaining Dolby Digital advantages over Dolby Prologic, do not be alarmed.
So why wait for the local cinema to upgrade theire equipment ? Chances are they never do !
So come on, and join the home cinema wave ! I promise you, the result will be staggering. Experience the scary array of full-on effects and music which engulfs you with an intensity that is mindblowing to the max.

The local-cinema:

Allthough I live in a fairly big place the local cinema does not reflect that at all. With equipment bought in the early eighties, the movies shown here are bound to be dull. Why ?
The poor quality speakers delivers a fluffy and a no-entertaining sound. Both volume and clarity suffer from bad amplification, failing to involve the audience completely.

And since there are no bass and surround effects at all, you will soon miss that oomph and wraparound effect which is vital in surround movie viewing. In addition to this the chairs are rock hard, so if you didn't take with you your favorite sofa from home (you can't, off course), you are very likely to get a nice back-injurie while seated. What to wear during your visit to Ultsein Cinema is a gamble. With no ventilation and air conditioning at all, it has to be.

So the movie you were looking forward to see, whether it is a groundshaker or a wam-bam free drama, is turned into a rather ordinary and dreary experience. As it would have been on your 25 in. mono television.
So the answer is simple.
I can understand that a few have qualms against turning their livingroom in to black-box-city: I will advice you to choose a route to surround heaven carefully, it doesn't have to be that bad.

The home-cinema system:

There are five diffrent routs you can follow to get to surround heaven. Each of them indiffrent in the amount of dosh required as well as aural performance:
My Home Cinema System
See a picture here
A/V receiver
Source 1:
Source 2:
Front main speakers
Center speaker
Surround speakers
Sub woofers
Power amplifier for subs
Remote Control
Television
Interconnects
Cables 		Harman/Kardon AVR 80 THX
Nicam VHS: Sony SLV 710
Satellite receiver: Tandberg TSR 620
Kirksaeter Amadeus 200 Tower
Bower & Wilkinson CC6
Bower & Wilkinson DM 602
Home made with 12" Peerless elements
About to purchase/build a new one
Marantz RC2000
Sony KV-29K1E Nicam 100 Hz.
Monster
Cable Talk 3.1 and Tara Labs

The home-cinema setup:

The aural action which this system can generate, and you are about to experience, comes only after a substansional amount of fiddling. You have to set it up properly, you see.
With an ordinary hi-fi system it is easy: Plug your CD-player into your amp, hook in some speakers and Presto ! You are up and going. Anyone can grasp that.
But throw in a picture signal and surly, there are many out there which starts to look a little pale. The backside of a big a/v amp often reveal some amazing socketry. This is socket-city resulting in connecting hell...you think. But fear not ! All you have to do is to carefully read the (often impenetrable) manual. Then you will soon be in total control of all those outs and ins. If further help is needed, take a peak at this .
If even more help is required, consulting a home-cinema nut is the only choice.

The next thing is to position your speakers, and tuning their playing level (if your amp has that feature). Are you finished ? You have now home-cinemaed up !

The home-cinema Experience:

Long, cold, dark winterknights: A perfect reason to settle down to a bit of serious movie watching. Whether pushing the limits of your sofa with big thrills action movies or teasing out the enclosed acoustics in tear-dropping dramas, this is the real thing. But we roll of calmly.

Whatch a ordinary tv-show like Chicago Hope or X-Files, something diffrent happens. The oodles of sound surrounding you makes all the difference. The X-files takes your sofa into extraordinarily well-crafted soundscapes infused with a musical tension which can have alarming effect on your bedtime.

Put a copy of the Oscar award winning The hunt for the Red Ocotber in the Sony's waiting jaws. It features a claustrophobic blend of ambient details and a underlying low, menacing engine noise-thrum. Torpedoes scream around the room, intense enough to be stripping the very wallpaper of, and as you'd hope, it all ends in a satisfying bang.

This is when it is starting to elicit lots of 'oohs' and aahs' from the assembled audience, but ignore this. It is time to move on:

A real groundshaker like Judgement Day blast bursts of energy around your head right from the off. The rear effects are both persuasive and startling, and the city-destroying scene kicks in with tons of blast. It can generate a massive soundfield. Laser canons spit fire, explosion whump through the floor and alien crafts explode behind your head superbly.
See the dogfight between Will Smith and the alien bad guy and experience even more: The alien ship rips trough the room in a huge, threedimentional soundstage, plastering the walls with screaming jets and pulsating laser blasts. Enough to put your sofa into orbit.

But wait, there is more: Feed a good system with in-yer-face special effects from Eraser and it can raise the roof with crunching frontal impact and razor sharp effects that will make you slacked-jawed. The Peerless elements in the subwoofers deliver bass a-plenty while you are submerged in a maelstrom of mighty blasts from Arnold's particle rail gun. The twin DSP processsors lurking within the Harman/Kardon is now really working overtime. The room is erupting as each burst hit home, the impact ripping the air asunder and each explosive detonation is another nail in your sofa's coffin. All this while sucking a cool 800 watts from your main socket.

Twister is another movie with great sound. You are whisked straight to tornado central, the sound of debris hurtling around he room delivered in stunning fashion, thanks to 'em remarkable steering of the movies awesome soundtrack. The sense of swirling all-encompassing power is enough to blow you away. And yet all the electronics teers the action with reliable accuracy even in the midst of on-screen mayhem.

A session with Speed (the movie, not the illict substance) revealing terrific ambience, esspecially during discharges when you really feel you are in the thick of the action. It produce dynamic slam fit to shatter the self-esteem of any ordinary system, or the local cinema for that matter. Take your pick from the eye-watering gorefest of Braveheart's battle of stirling bridge. The scene-setting back-ground transports you directly to the Scottish highlands with terrific ambiance, places you firmly between the heather and the haggis.
A great movie has been lifted even more, simply by extracting the soundtrack to a maximum degree.

This is thrills your ears just have to experience.

The home-cinema Sub 'o' Mania Project:

Soon to come.......

The nerd's corner:


Marantz RC 2000
Everybody knows the fact that remote controlls tend to disappear at will. Mine, er, 8 frequently did. Which is all the more reason to dispose as many of the darn things as you can. Get a universal, you know it make ferfect sense.
The Marantz RC2000 offers superb functionallity with it's smart macro functions which enables you to start the hole shebang at the touch of a single button.
And then there is the light. You will grin like an idiot every time it is turned on and fades perfect away....
The table below shows all my remotes from 1987 until today. Hopefully there will be more !
My complete remote control history
. LCD-
display ?		 Button-
count		 Illuminated ?
 Infra red-
transmission ?		 Easy to use ?
Hitachi mono VHS
Sony portable CD player
JVC CD-player
Sanyo TV
JVC mono VHS
JVC equalizer
JVC CD player
Sony Nicam Stereo VHS
Phillips, mono TV
Harman/Kardon A/V amp
Tandberg Satelite receiver
Light switch remote 1
Marantz RC 2000
Light switch remote 2
Sony portable MD player
Sony Nicam Television
Blaupunkt in-car CD player
Yes
No
No
No
Yes
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
Yes
No
Yes
No
No
?
4
?
51
?
29
30
50
38
64
28
1
59
4
9
46
9
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
Yes
No
No
No
No
Yes
No, wire
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
No, wire
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
No
Not at all
No
Average
Yes
Only for a nerd
Superb
A little fiddly
Yes
How hard can it be?
Superb
Yes
Superb
Yes
Superb

Some useful hi-fi links:
Last updated: October 22th 2000 These_pages_are_protected_by_copyright_laws Knut Kleiven