Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Fred's (hopefully) excellent HT adventure

Newf, were they refurbs from Epson?

I have heard if you ask for a replacement you may get a factory restored unit back.

I can say that the 3 units I have hands on experience with all had slight picture differences due to the 3LCD pixel alignment. It adds softness to the image and is typical of all 3LCD projectors afaik. Never had the other issues.

These differences were only really visible at 1' from the screen, and I had to point out the issue before it was even noticed. From the seating position it wasn't noticable.

Fred, if you can, I suggest buying at a brick and mortar so you can swap out to a new boxed unit in the unlikely event with whatever you buy. I will say that the 8350 was a massively successful projector and sold tons of units. Its not unreasonable that there were issues along the way in some units. Whenever I read about a user that swaps out a unit more than once (or several) my questions shift away from the units themselves. I think once you are bitten with a lemon, they all will have some imperfection that drives that user nuts.

OK, picture time



Get rid of the blue lines and you see my current setup. I have the display sitting on a coffee table 7' out from the back wall. My fronts are either side of the diaplay and about 16" off the outside walls. This seemed the best layout for speakers given the awkward hallway layout for the livingroom. I was trying for similar reflection points on the left and right walls for stereo imaging. In the end, the couch against the wall blocks a significant portion of the reflections off the left wall and my soundstage is not great anyway.

The grey box is where my HTPC and receiver are. Game boxes are under the display The big downside of this layout is all the cabling out in the middle of the room. Its butt ugly. All three potential layouts will see most of the electronics to the side of the room and will clean up the cabling a lot.

While the main objective of this is to get me a gloriously huge image for movies, there are two other things I want to do:

1. Upgrade the mancave to something more respectable
2. Improve the soundstage for music.

Back to the drawing. The blue lines represent the three potential display placements. The aquarium rack against the back wall goes no matter what layout I go to.

Some questions about the screen on the back wall (3).

How far off the screen can I put my mains without it affecting sound 'on the screen'?

As I see it, I have two choices: where they are now or with the front of the speaker 4' off the wall. If I put them any closer to the wall the front entrance hall is hopelessly blocked.

I'm thinking I could actually put a sliding door in front of the hall on the left to create reflection points for the left speaker.

The reason I like #2 better is because of less light reflections from the balcony windows.

You could have couch against Kitchen wall, then 2 love seats on the sides, but angled (easier on the neck), with the ends against the couch and the other ends pulled back.

Is installing doors at both hallways an option?

That's just way too much work for a rental apartment.

Pretty picture for option 3:

The scale of the drawing is off a little. I've come to realize that no matter what layout I use, the second couch will interfere with one speaker.

Option #2 represents the least amount of work.

How sensitive is a painted screen to fingery paws? Option 3 puts the screen in front of a higher traffic area.

So,whereisalltheadvice?Whereisistwhereisit?Huh,huh?Whereisit?

Just to totally 180 your train of thought.

Can the screen pull down in front of your balcony window? Fixed frame is a bad idea personally. It will dominate your small space when you arent using it. This is not a dedicated space. It will look extremely "bachelor" in there otherwise.

The mains will flank the screen and you have 2 juicy walls for surrounds. The center channel will have to be mounted above the pulldown frame aiming at the listening position. When not watching a movie you are listening to tunes gazing out your balcony. Could be cool.