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The center of any audio setup is the receiver. It determines what possiblities can happen. It can also limit those possiblities. While searching for a receiver, it is important to know exactly what you want out of it now audio-wise and what you hope to get out of it in the near-future. At some point, some new piece of technology will come out and you will desire THAT. For outdoor theater a simple 2.0 speaker setup (front left and rights) are great for small groups. However bigger speakers are desired for bigger crowds and the receiver should handle either requests.
v.2.0. Receiver
Pioneer RX-HDMI was the biggest concern. Most new receivers (4 years old or newer), can already handle a wide variety of audio codecs (think of these as languages). Certain movies have the very very latest codecs but these are intended for an indoor (mostly), well controlled (light, sound, etc), and usually for 7.1 speaker setups (7 speakers plus a sub). for outside, costs prohibit a 7.1 system, even a 5.1 system is difficult for some. My ultimate design calls for a 5.1 system. This new receiver I've acquired handles up to 5.1 so it fit the bill. Bonus: was on sale from Newegg for cheap!
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| Not centered picture of new Pioneer receiver |
Audio 1.0
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in the beginning, money was the issue. older working electronics was not an issue so i used that! To be honest, the smallest amount of money you pay to start this hobby, the better you may enjoy it!
v.1.0. Receiver
Consisted of a an old Sony home audio receiver. It could pump out a lot of power but the speakers had seen their better days way back. All inputs were analog RCA type. It did provide a form of surround sound, but not any of the new digital versions. The worst part of using this receiver was trying to find the analog way to change my digital audio signals to get them to work on this. Most dvd players and game consoles still have analog audio outs. However I desired a simpler "hook-up" method as HDMI was already being used by all components.
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| Old Sony Receiver |
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| Ye olde receiver connections |
v.1.0. Speakers
Consisted of a pair of old Sony home speakers. These were from a early to mid 90's model of Sonys' home audio products. They stood waist high. One speaker in particular would buzz at random times during a showing. It would turn out that the cone was in fact falling apart. No pictures exist of the damage at that time but I do have this current picture. Speakers have not been touched in the last year and a half.
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| v.1.0. Receiver, Speakers, and Speaker wiring |
(insert pics of old brown speakers)
Theses were only used for 2 months because they were noticably underpowered. The receiver spat out a lot of power but these could only produce a quarter of that. Total sound distortion with any amount of bass. Reverted back to the sony speakers until the time was right.
v.1.0. Speaker Cabling
This makes a world of difference! At first, I literally scrounged around the house and pieced together 2 20' lengths of random gauge speaker cables. I was literally "Frankenstiening" together the audio. At the time I thought it was pretty cool. In effect we wanted movies outside and I MADE it happen. The nit-picking started about 5 minutes into the first movie :P. I did go about a month using this setup and to honest, the first upgrade I done to the Ciné-Tronn Theater was new audio cables. 16 gauge (kinda normal) at that.
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