Home Theatre and Audio system

Video Monitor:

Video Sources:

Audio signal sources:

Preamp:

Amps: [2 - 4 watts per channel is available in this configuration]

Speakers: [high efficiency required, 90 dB/1W/1M or greater]

How to configure a simple SE/DHT amplified 5.1 HT system

The concept behind my SE/DHT amp based home theatre system grew out from my appreciation of classic movies and their glorious soundtracks. Many of those soundtrack composers' works, like music by Korngold and Rosza, have become standard classical music repertoire. Even Prokofiev and Copland did stints in Hollywood as film composers.

My taste in film range from silent movies, B&W talkies to widescreen technicolor from the golden age of Hollywood with a dose of the art and craft of European cinema made on comparatively lower budget. Every time I see Western Electric or RCA Photophone logos at the end credits of classic movies, I often wondered if it was possible to recreate part of the atmosphere of being in a movie house during the 30s-50s with WE, RCA or Altec horns driven by tube amps. I've been in the audio hobby for more than 20 years and never dabbled in home theatre until recently when DVDs, DVD players and HDTV monitors became more affordable.

When I decided to build my home theatre I made sure the use of digital and solid state equipment be minimized. An audio/video receiver with built-in sound processors, multiple power amp channels and dancing lights was beyond consideration even if all the functions can be controlled by a single remote control. Even if at best classic movie soundtracks were recorded in 3-channel, there is something about Dolby/DTS 5.1 encoding coupled with fine resolution moving images that I also find quite appealing. Audio purists may shun this approach however in reality we have to live with 5.1 encoded DVD software in the same way we have been forced to accept the 16 bit/44khz audio CD standard. SE/DHT amps play good music and should be equally up to the task for sound effects. With my collection of flea power SE amps and speakers that are at least 90 dB or greater efficiency, all I needed was a DVD player with built-in Dolby/DTS 5.1 decoder to build an HT system.

Set up is relatively simple. The main left and right outputs from the 5.1 decoder are connected to a pair of line level inputs on my preamp which is driving a stereo amp for the front L and R pair of speakers and the center channel output from the 5.1 decoder is connected directly to another stereo amp [using a Y connector] driving the center channel speakers with one channel for each set of drivers. If you use a single center channel speaker, you will have to figure out how to bridge the outputs of a stereo amp or just use a mono amp. Likewise, the L and R surround output from the decoder is connected to another stereo amp driving the rear surround speakers. I compromised a bit for low frequency effects since there is not much music down there, so I got a cheap 50W Sony powered 8" subwoofer connected from the LFE output of the decoder.

Every DVD player with a 5.1 decoder has a pink noise test tone to calibrate levels. Consult your manual regarding the set up menu for 5.1 surround sound and follow the intructions. I set my preamp at "typical" volume level setting as the master or reference level and then fiddle around with the level controls on the center, surround and subwoofer channel power amps until they all sound equal at my listening/viewing position. As you may have realized, the power amps should have input level controls for this to work. After set up and calibration I sit back and enjoy my favorite movie with the convenience of a remote control for the DVD player. During the winter I am comforted by the heat emanating from the glow of Class A running tubes but a good AC system is required in the summer. When I decide to upgrade to an ATSC tuner and subscribe to HDTV channels, I will figure out a switching scheme for the 5.1 system so stay tuned.

In my opinion digital technology has advanced video reproduction farther than audio. The nice thing about video is, we do not need to come up with a jargon of adjectives as we do in describing sound; the image is either good or bad. There might be videophiles who split hairs about gray scale, color saturation, edge definiton and etc. but I do not want to go there. I am just convinced that for the time being, direct view Cathode Ray Tube [a direct descendant of vacuum tube technology] screens still produce the best image overall.

This HT system is an interesting mix of what I view as the best audio technology had to offer from the early part of the 20th century and state of the art video technology in the new millenium.

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