New projector

[Gendo]

So finally got around to replacing our projector... it's about 7 years old, and for several months it's had an issue with a vertical green line showing up... apparently it's a somewhat common issue with LCD technology.

So this weekend got around to hooking up our new Sony 285es. Although it's a 4K projector; we don't know when we'll bother upgrading our blu-ray player to a 4K player, and movies in 4K are still way too expensive.

So I expected it to be a bit better just due to being newer, and perhaps some 4K upscaling... right after getting the basic setup adjusted, I turned on our blu-ray player, and was shocked at literally just the Oppo logo. Noticeably sharper and brighter. Amazed at the difference.

Haven't played around with too many features yet. I did confirm that I'll have to buy new 3D glasses for it, which is a shame. I really like that the zoom, focus, and lens shift are adjustable with the remote, though. On our old one (Epson 6010 Pro Cinema); I had to climb a ladder to physically adjust it on the projector itself. And I had to do this occasionally because the lens shift would sag downwards over time.

Also got a new Marantz AV receiver to support 4K when we get there. Hard to say if it's just my mind playing tricks on me, knowing that I replaced the receiver, but I think the sound was noticeably improved as well.

[Eva Yojimbo]

FWIW, if you want a 4k player you could probably fund it by selling your Oppo. Oppo recently went out of business and their players are going for 2x (or more) what they were selling for. This really sucked because I was going to buy a 205 and sell my 105, but now I'm thinking of selling my 105 and old Marantz AVR to fund a different 4k/SACD player and 4k Receiver--probably the Emotiva one because I like the Dirac Room Correction software it uses. My guestimate is that my Oppo and old Marantz should be enough to fund the 4k setup, but it would be close. What size screen do you have? Screen size and viewing distance will really dictate whether or not 4k will be worth it, but I have a 75" TV and I sit pretty close. I've already noticed a difference on some of the online 4K content I've seen, as well as the Spider-Man PS4 game in 4K (so detailed you can see the pores on the characters' faces during close-ups!).

Did you run Audyssey on the Marantz? If you did, that can make a huge difference in sound quality. There's something of an art to doing it right. I used to have some AVS Forum threads bookmarked that were really detailed about getting the most out of Audyssey. I always liked Audyssey for movies but never thought it sounded right for music; probably because of how differently the two are mixed (there's an industry standard for movies; not for music), and Audyssey seems targeted more towards movies. One reason I'd like to get the Emotiva with Dirac is that with Dirac you can specify your own house curve that the program will tune your speakers towards. This is especially useful if you have mixed speakers, or non-traditional (like dipole or bipole) speakers that would benefit from a unique curve.

[Gendo]

Hadn't heard about Oppo, that's interesting. Ours is just a BDP-93; haven't at all looked at options for 4K player or other way of getting 4K content.

We have a 120" screen, and sit a little closer to it than would be ideal, because of the limited length of the room.

I'll have to check out the Audyssey app; I've read some about it before but never got it. So I've just done the basic setup with the mic and walkthrough that's build into the Marantz.

[Eva Yojimbo]

Not sure how much the BDP-93 would be worth, but I know the 105 and 205 are going for about twice their original price. The 4k player I'm currently eyeing is the Sony UBP-X1000ES because it's one of the few I've found that also plays SACDs, and I have a buttload of multi-channel classical SACDs. If you don't care about that, there's plenty of other options and I'd just look for one that's cheap(ish) and reliable.

120" will be plenty big enough to get the benefit of 4k. I'm rather jealous since I'd once considered getting a projector setup but it would be really difficult to make work in my room as I have no back wall.

Which Marantz do you have? I thought they all came with Audyssey but I could be wrong. If you used the Marantz mic and the setup that has a series of chirps in each speaker, then that's probably Audyssey, unless your model came with some other room correction software. Here's two Audyssey guides I found with a quick online search: https://www.avsforum.com/forum/90-recei ... st14456895" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; and https://www.hometheatershack.com/forums ... guide.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Gendo]

Ah, I thought Audyssey was a separate app you had to get (I know they have an app for iPhone that's like $20). I know the app lets you do more fine-tuning. I have the SR-7012. So yeah, looks like the setup I did IS the Audyssey configuration. I just didn't get the extra app.

Me actually having a theater room with a projector is a big thing for me... about 12 or so years ago I was visiting a somewhat rich relative, and they had a theater room in their house... like one of those super nice ones; stadium seating and all that. I was already getting into movies as a hobby, so decided right then that someday when I owned a house, it would have a theater room.

When I was house-hunting about 8 years ago, I actually turned down a couple otherwise perfectly good homes because they didn't have a room that would work as a theater room. The one I finally found had an unfinished bonus room above the garage. 2 years later, after getting married, we had the room actually finished into a theater room. It's not one of those super nice ones with stadium seating and such... it's not quite big enough for that, and we didn't want to do anything that would make it so that the room could never be anything else. But it's just barely big enough.

[Eva Yojimbo]

Even if you've already ran Audyssey, I'd highly recommend reading those guides (at least the relevant parts) and running it a few more times and listening after each attempt. Small adjustments in where you place the mic can make big differences in the sound.

That's awesome that you managed to buy your own home and went into it knowing you wanted a good home theater. I rent from my parents so I've had to make due with what we have. Luckily my dad's into AV too so he let me turn the front room into a theater room that we share (yay for different sleep schedules!) and I have my own mini-theater to myself that I use mostly for music and PC and (recently) gaming.