Name your gear!

[Richie]

Mains: CMT-340 L/R
Receiver: Harman Kardon HK3475
CD Player: Harman Kardon FL8380
Cables: Dayton
TV: Panasonic

[BradJudy]

Fronts and surrounds: 4 CBM-170's
Center: CMT340c
Sub: Hsu VTF-2
Receiver: Harman/Kardon AVR-520
DVD player: Pioneer DV-563A
Turntable: Rega P2

Second two-channel system:
Mains: Aurum Cantus L2SE
Integrated Amp: Onix A-120
Source: JVC XV-523 DVD player

Cabling for both:
Interconnects: Canare LV-77S coax w/ Canare RCAP-77 connectors
Speaker: Canare 4S8

New toy:
One For All 8811 remote (great deal)

[Ben_Wood]

Brad, what are your first impressions of your new Pioneer DV-563A universal player?

[curtis]

Brad, and your impressions of the Aurum Cantus L2SE's? Thanks!

-curtis

[BradJudy]

To be honest, I haven't had enough time to form good impressions of either. I have a ton of things going on personally and at work at the moment and don't even have the two channel system really set up yet.

I will say that the 563A is very nice so far - extremely difficult to beat at the price unless you had a very specific need (like DVI output, WMA or XVCD support). I've seen some people complaining because it isn't as good as other $500-1000 players and that's probably true, but it's a $175 player. It's my first SACD/DVD-A player, so I can't compare that part to anything. I haven't tried it myself, but it officially supports DVD-R/RW and others have reported using DVD+R/RW successfully. I've tried DVDs, CDs, VCD, jpg CDs, mp3 CDs, and SACD successfully.

As for the L2SEs, they look absolutely fabulous and sound quite good, but the vocals ranges seem a bit recessed and the bass a bit strong. I don't think the speaker takes advantage of the capabilities of its components fully. The sound is certainly worth what we paid in the group buy, and the looks are well beyond what we paid. I'm considering taking up Rick Craig on creating new crossovers for them - he's quite skilled and has made other designs using the G2 ribbon driver.

I'll try to give more impressions later. My current favorite item is the new remote (I've only had it for three days and it already handles everything well except my AVR-520 which will require some more advanced programming) if you're in the market and don't mind reading through a few web pages to get the most out of the remote, it's a great deal.

[Bighitter]

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Arial, Verdana, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by curtis
Harman/Kardon AVR525
Panasonic CP72
-curtis
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

Have you noticed any problems with pausing DTS material? I have the same DVD and Reciever and if I pause a DTS movie for more than 5 minutes (kids and pets can really interupt), soon as I hit play again I get a skipping/pausing effect to the audio. I havent figured out yet if this is the HK or Panny.

[curtis]

It is the HK. I have heard others with the problem too. And yes, I also have the problem. Changing the source or format for a second fixes it.

-curtis

[JohnnyCasaba]

CBM-170's fronts and surrounds
CMT-340c center
VTF-2 sub
NAD T752 AVR
Pioneer DV-C505 5 disc DVD/CD player

[ez-v]

CBM-170s front and surround
CMT-340c center
Adire Rava subwoofer
Rotel RSX-1055 receiver
Panasonic XP-30S DVD/CD player

[subfree]

CBM-170, mains
CMT- 340-center
HTM-200-rears
Sub-HSU-VTf-2
H/k-AVR-225
Denon,DVD-2900
H/k-DVD-50(Multidisc CD player only)
Mits WS55807 (Calibrated)
SA-4200HD Converter