I just got back into town this morning from Las Vegas. So please bear with me as this isn't going to be the most reasoned post in the world. Also, if you are under the age of consent for your various origins, please stop reading now.

Ok, now that THAT obviously didn't work.

Sunday Night, 10Pm Vegas time, Luxor Hotel.

Blue Man Group. Quite simply the BEST show I think that I have ever seen. I went into this with very high expectations based on other peoples comments. Those were blown out the door within the first 10 minutes. At 11 minutes, I KNEW I was buying the CD. (and as it turns out, the DVD).

The remainder of the show got exponentially better per five minute segment.

So, how does this relate to Empeg? The previously mentioned CD, which was ripped on my laptop on the plane trip back. It SO sucks that I couldn't upload directly into the empeg at the valet lot (plus, being 4am, I was a bit tired). But I digress.... more.

There are quite a bit of low freq. sections on this cd, that REALLY made me appreciate both the Empeg and my sound system. I knew I had put a good sub and amp system in place, but I was simply unprepared for the subsonics that came out of some of these tracks. I swear I can feel the sine wave around 20 hz crawl from the back of my neck down to my calves. Now, I'm admittedly a low Freq fanatic, (witness purchasing the hottest version of the 1812 simply for the cannon blasts... well, and it's a great piece ), but this was simply orgasmic.

Back to the point... In an earlier thread, someone mentioned wondering why you would have more than 2 channels in audio, ala Dolby Surround sound. The DVD I purchased is 5.1 DTS. I'm doing my damnest to figure out a GOOD way to get a DTS decoder and implement this for the car. If ever there was a need for this type of implementation in the empeg, I've found it.

ah.... Thanks for listening... Now, I'm off to 'impart' this madness to all my co-workers...

a) I agree with you that BMG rocks! We have a production here in Boston and I was blown away by it and purchases Audio soon afterwards.
b) DVD? What is on the DVD and what is it called?
c) You can actually impliment 5.1, 6.1, and 7.1 systems in your car if you have an ampliphier that supports it. I remember reading in one of the car audio magazines about installers setting up 5.1 and 6.1 systems for the DVD playback head units. If you look online I am sure you could find a schematic to set one up iun your car if you were so inclined.
d) My home theater system still has RCA jacks to support the 5.1 signal. I am not sure if MP3 as a format would save that low level or suround information in the channel but I would think that if it did, the empeg would shoot it out of it's RCA jacks. I don't know if it does tho. Thoughts?

Greg

In reply to:

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a) I agree with you that BMG rocks! We have a production here in Boston and I was blown away by it and purchases Audio soon afterwards.
b) DVD? What is on the DVD and what is it called?
c) You can actually impliment 5.1, 6.1, and 7.1 systems in your car if you have an ampliphier that supports it. I remember reading in one of the car audio magazines about installers setting up 5.1 and 6.1 systems for the DVD playback head units. If you look online I am sure you could find a schematic to set one up iun your car if you were so inclined.
d) My home theater system still has RCA jacks to support the 5.1 signal. I am not sure if MP3 as a format would save that low level or suround information in the channel but I would think that if it did, the empeg would shoot it out of it's RCA jacks. I don't know if it does tho. Thoughts?

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a) I was told that it did. I simply didn't know. I honestly don't think that it's possible to really know without experiencing it... 10 minutes into the show, I KNEW I was purchasing the disc.

b) The DVD is Audio as well. It's a dual sided disk, Side A is DVD-Video (format), Side B is DVD-Audio (which is impressive as the standard was JUST finished) The DVD-Video part of it is NOT a video, it's just the audio tracks from the CD, mastered into 5.1 DTS It also has an interview, and some promotional stuff, but the meat of it is the audio. While the music is playing, it appears that stills from the show are put on the screen as a sort of storyboard (very sketchy, however)

To Quote :
THIS IS NOT A VIDEO. This is a surround mix of Blue Man Group's CD, Audio. It is meant to be played on 5.1 Surround Sound DVD Entertainment Systems. Although it does contain photos and a small amount of interview footage, this DVD is meant to be used primarily as a listening experience. The music has been mixed to take full advantage of the 5.1 surround sound format.


It does have an additional track that's not on the CD.

c) Oh, I KNOW I CAN... But doing it well, that's another story... Plus the fact that my car isn't the most spacious (Acura Integra GSR), added with the customizations to get the sound that I have now... I only gave up my spare tire (road side assistance rocks) and about an inch of height space in the hatch, completely stealth install, minus the empeg, Adding the dvd parts would just about destroy the idea of stealth here, not to mention I'm not sure I've got the space, cooling, or power to run them (The GSR's battery is NOT much more than a motorcycle battery... and the Alt. ain't much better.)

d) MP3 would NOT save the information from a 5.1 source. I know that. The low levels, It certainly seems to. I thought that the format itself cut off at 20 Hz, but I'll be damned if I'm not getting lower than that... Maybe it's just the harmonics in the car.

I have no illusions of the Empeg being able to do this.... But damn it would be cool if it did.

Hugo appeared in that show during CES - he was pulled out of the audience to be covered in paint and swung by his feet against a large canvas (or so we are to believe...)

I also have the CD but I haven't encoded it yet - I guess I should do so! There was no DVD at the time, but next time I'm in Vegas I'll definitely get a copy.

Rob

Greetings!

Ashamed as I am to admit it, I learned about BMG through the Intel Pentium commercials, and found out who they were through the Intel web site... Well, whatever works...

I have ripped Audio as well, and it resides on my empeg as well. I remember stating a while back on this board that new speakers and a sub should be considered in any new installation. Being a newbie to car audio upgrades, I went with my stock speakers first and upgraded about two weeks later. There is NOTHING like hearing BMG with a nice sub in the trunk (boot, whatever)!!!

By the way, you can always order the CDs, DVDs, etc. at their web site. They do ship internationally, but you may need to contact them for more information.

Paul G.
SN# 090000587 (40GB soon to be 96GB Smoke)

The DVD (as I watched it last night at the house), is really nice. Material wise, there isn't much more than the CD, it's just mixed for 5.1, with an additional track. I don't regret buying the DVD, but I do admit that if I had been in a more sane frame of mind (not to mention had extra money to burn from the casinos), I would have grabed either or, not both.

The funny part about it, I uncovered some pretty bad flaws in my home setup, specifically the sub, that I didn't notice before. I've got some pretty large front speakers, with significant wattage, but my sub just ain't doing right. In the car, which is tuned very well now, everything sounds ... awesome. At the house, The mixing is great, but the abundance of low freq. is really overwhelming my (sob... anemic. sob) sub. And I never thought that I would say that. Normally when I listen to music, it's in the stereo format, so the main speakers and the sub work together. In this case, the .1 of the DTS signal was going all down to the sub, with no help from the mains. The results were not pleasing. I guess it's time to start looking for a new sub system.

Does anyone know of a reason why you couldn't use Car audio components (ala subs), get a dedicated amp, and build a box for the home? Obviously most car installations are meant to be hidden, versus the home system, but I really like my subs (Hsu Labs) from the car, and I know how to work with them. Combined with the fact that I have a retired father who loves woodworking (and is damn good at it to boot!), I'm thinking I could very easily (and cheaply) make a dual 15" "Coffee table"/"sitting bench" out of rosewood. With the drivers mounted underneath, in a sealed box, I really think it's got potential... Unless I'm just really missing something?

In reply to:

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Ashamed as I am to admit it, I learned about BMG through the Intel Pentium commercials, and found out who they were through the Intel web site... Well, whatever works...

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I heard about them earlier than the P3 commercials, but only saw them on the Intel commercials before this... So...... Knowing that I was going to the show, I went out and found about 4-6 AMD 386 chips, and took them with me, on the premise that if they sucked, I'd throw amd chips at them.....

Needless to say, I didn't.

Anyone want a REAL good deal on some 386 cpus?

Does anyone know of a reason why you couldn't use Car audio components (ala subs), get a dedicated amp, and build a box for the home?

I've known people to do that sort of thing. It works, it's just more of a hassle than simply buying a proper self-powered home subwoofer.

Really, the tough part is the 12-volt power supply. You need something very beefy to drive a car subwoofer amp. A little Radio Shack wall-wart isn't going to cut it.

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Tony Fabris

I hadn't planned on using car amps... should have been clearer.

I want to use the car audio sub, build a nice cabinet and then use a dedicated amp (AC). I'm thinking that the difference with my subs and enclosure should allow me to:
A: over engineer the construction versus commercial.
B: match the room.
and C: spend the difference on a higher current amp.

Hmm. As long as you get the impedance right (car and home components usually use two different amounts of impedance but you can get some that'll "go up to" or "go down to" the other), it should work.

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Tony Fabris

I could very easily (and cheaply) make a dual 15" "Coffee table"/"sitting bench" out of rosewood.

Just make sure you don't put coffee cups on that coffee table while it's on.

Borislav