System #152 (Prodigy, Theater, Ascent, Script, Descent)

[Pcar928fan]

John,

You are down in North San Antonio while I am in Cedar Park (south Waco if you will! LOL!). The Odyssey are nice speakers too! The guys over at Audio Systems off Koenig lane always sold people the Odyssey speakers saying the Prodigy were not worth the extra $4k they cost. They are probably right when you factor cost into the equation! Nice guys up there though if you have not met them.

What other gear do you have in your system?

I am in the process of trying to sell my Elite Pro 510 (w/ the HD tuner module in the back) and the component rack with it as well as the old Pioneer Elite VSX49TX and Cinema center channel so I can upgrade to a 70"+ RPTV! Once I get that done, I'll let you know and we will have a little gathering up here at the house!

Look forward to meeting you!

Hi James,
You have a really nice system, would love to have a set of Prodigy's myself someday. Super nice speakers. Right now I have the Odyssey's and love them, have them setup in a theater and sure do get it done. What part of Austin are you in? I'm south off of Slaughter. We should get together sometime. Well hope you have a good new years!

Sincerely,
John

 

[JohnP]

Hey James,
Yeah, looks like we are both on opposite ends of Austin. You know how we Austinites are, the people who live south won't drive north and vice versa, we'll have to break that tradition soon! I've met those guys off Koeining(sp?), bought my Theater i and Scripts from them. Pretty nice guys. Haven't been by there for a while now though. I really need to get out more!

Most of my system should be in my signature now, I also have the ML Aeon's downstairs. Have a Mesa Boogie Baron tube amp as well, it is a MONSTER. I have hooked it up to my Odyssey's before and it drives them with ease! Darn thing sounds like it's a thousand watts per channel! It's just sitting though as I can't run it in my theater(no room). Anyway, we'll have to get together sometime, maybe I can bring the Baron and let you hook it up to your Prodigy's, then you'll really hear them babies sing!:rocker: Hope to meet you soon.

John

 

[Pcar928fan]

John,

Isn't that funny how we do that! I HATE going south of the river...I and I know all the south guys hate crossing it to the north!

You have a great system there! I would love to hear the tubes power the Prodigy! I bet it will sound AWESOME! You will probably ruin me and force me to go spend $$$$ on a new Tube amp and sell the Rotel 1090! I just sold my Aerius i that were in my formal living area last night. Kind of sad to see them go, but they hardly get used and when they do it is not for critical listening in ANY way. Just put some cheap old Radio Shack speakers out there that I have had FOREVER! They do an adequate job.

If you get the urge to head north I think I am around pretty much every day from now till the 2nd. Probably will take the 2nd off as well.

Hope to mee you soon!

Hey James,
Yeah, looks like we are both on opposite ends of Austin. You know how we Austinites are, the people who live south won't drive north and vice versa, we'll have to break that tradition soon! I've met those guys off Koeining(sp?), bought my Theater i and Scripts from them. Pretty nice guys. Haven't been by there for a while now though. I really need to get out more!

Most of my system should be in my signature now, I also have the ML Aeon's downstairs. Have a Mesa Boogie Baron tube amp as well, it is a MONSTER. I have hooked it up to my Odyssey's before and it drives them with ease! Darn thing sounds like it's a thousand watts per channel! It's just sitting though as I can't run it in my theater(no room). Anyway, we'll have to get together sometime, maybe I can bring the Baron and let you hook it up to your Prodigy's, then you'll really hear them babies sing!:rocker: Hope to meet you soon.

John

 

[JohnP]

Hi James,
Sorry, didn't see your post until today( Jan 2nd). Man let me tell you a story about this Mesa amp; I had been eyeballing that amp for quite sometime, just needed to save the $$ up for it. So finally in 2004 I have the $$ saved up and I give Mesa a call, imagine my shock when the dude says "Man, we stopped making that amp a couple of years ago"!! I couldn't believe it, told him my story and while we were chatting he's poking around in their computer when suddenly he says "Wow, my computer shows that we still have a couple somewhere in the warehouse". So I beg him to go check and he agree's and says he'll call me back later. About 15-20 minutes later my phone rings and it's him, he's shocked because he just found four of them still in the box sitting way back on a shelf!! He says he'll have it checked out and if all comes out ok then he will ship it to me with full warranty, the works. He called back a day or two later after they had checked them out and says that two of them have been opened and parts had been removed from them and they would rather not sell them and the remaining two have the WIMA caps(or whatever they're called) upgrade as well as the Tri-tube upgrade! I said I'll take it and they gave me a discount and shipped it out to me.

Man, when I hooked that baby up to my Odyssey's it was beautiful. I've never heard them sing like that before but alas, she sits in the box as it has such a full, huge sound that I can't get the mains to match the center and surrounds. Seriously, damn thing is so dynamic that while trying to match my speakers in the pre/pro I'm at -10(yes negative ten!) on the mains while the center and surrounds are at like 0 or even +1 or +2. I hadn't thought about that. :banghead: Oh well, ya live and learn.

We'll have to get together sometime and let you hear that beast on your Prodigy's but I'm warning ya right now, your going to fall in love. Hope to talk to ya soon.

John

 

[JohnP]

What other gear do you have in your system?

Oops, missed that one. In my HT I also have a Benq 8700+ projector shooting onto a Vutec 110" Silver Star screen, an Earthquake Supernova MK II as a second sub, Monster AVS 2000 Signature and Monster HTPS 7000(or is it 7500??), also have the Butt Kicker amp with two Butt Kicker LFE's mounted to our chair platform. System works and sounds pretty good but I know that the Odyssey's are capable of so much more but due to them having to do HT they can't run at their full potential. Oh well, sometimes you can't have the best of both worlds.

John

 

[Pcar928fan]

System works and sounds pretty good but I know that the Odyssey's are capable of so much more but due to them having to do HT they can't run at their full potential. Oh well, sometimes you can't have the best of both worlds.

John

Totally understand that! Mine is the same way!

 

[wink]

Hey James! You have a beautiful Prodigy system there....I always wanted to purchase the prodigy's and move the reQuests to my bedroom:rocker:

Have you ever thought of buying any Rotel equipment?lol :haha1: Just kidding.. Nice Rotel setup...how do you like sound and control of Rotel? I've heard a lot of Rotel components/amps, never with Logans, but Rotel has always impressed me...especially in the value vs performance catagory.

Anyway thanks for sharing your awesome system.:cheers:

Dan

 

[Pcar928fan]

how do you like sound and control of Rotel? I've heard a lot of Rotel components/amps, never with Logans, but Rotel has always impressed me...especially in the value vs performance catagory.

Anyway thanks for sharing your awesome system.:cheers:

Dan

Dan,

Thanks much...glad to have a place that feels like home w/ a bunch of other crazy ML folks to hang with.

I had come off of an equally crazy addiction to Pioneer Elite gear and the Rotel gear is a pretty big step up! The ML's really sing now! They were just to taxing for the Pioneer Elite VSX49TX to handle. That was the top of the line receiver too when I bought it about 5 years ago!

I think the lows are well controlled and not boomy in anyway...my descent handles most of the low end though and of course has its own power, so the Rotel gear does nothing for that. The highs were where I REALLY noticed the difference. I mean from the first note with the new gear all plugged in it was apparent!

I also LOVE the fact that I can keep my security cameras on the screen of the RSP1098 while I am watching anything else on the TV! That is a very cool feature of the processor. I wish it had HDMI but it does not...I would also prefer about 4 more sets of connections for A/V gear. It has a very average number of inputs, but for the money should be more over the top in my view. Of course if you are looking for something this musical you are probably not going to find it with even the number of A/V inputs that this Pre/Pro has!

It seems to do a better job with surround material too than the old Pioneer does. I think I could have tweaked on the Pioneer to make it better, but as I had it set up (I used the supplied mic and let it configure itself) it was not even close to the Rotel!

Hey, everyone I have a Cinema/Cinema i speaker cover from Martin Logan for sale...check out the classified section and let me know if you are interested. It was crazy expensive and they don't even make them anymore. I have sold my Cinema (and the Aerius i as well) and the new owner does not need the cover so you guys are first up to get it!

 

[wink]

Dan,

Thanks much...glad to have a place that feels like home w/ a bunch of other crazy ML folks to hang with.

Yeah I feel the same way.....but you know if you have this addictive hobby called "high-end", you're bound to have a few screws that need a little tightening.

I really do like the screen on the front of your RSP 1098. That would make setup of video really easy for HT's that have the equipment in another room or just out of sight.

Dan

 

[Pcar928fan]

Yeah I feel the same way.....but you know if you have this addictive hobby called "high-end", you're bound to have a few screws that need a little tightening.

I really do like the screen on the front of your RSP 1098. That would make setup of video really easy for HT's that have the equipment in another room or just out of sight.

Dan

I think the latter is the real point of it, but I prefer what I use it for!

Just look in my garage and you will see that I have more than a FEW screws loose! I have a LOT of them loose!

 

[STV]

Awesome setup James! Very nice Rotel gear all complimented by that amazing Martin Logan sound (love those Prodigy's). Now once you have that BIG Sony 70XBR2 in place, It's going to be mind blowing! Can't wait to see some pix with the new TV.


Seth

 

[Pcar928fan]

Awesome setup James! Very nice Rotel gear all complimented by that amazing Martin Logan sound (love those Prodigy's). Now once you have that BIG Sony 70XBR2 in place, It's going to be mind blowing! Can't wait to see some pix with the new TV.

The day is coming! I suspect 4-6 weeks and it will be all set up.

I just picked up my Sony DVD changer. I am going to order a video switcher in a week or so that automatically switches between 4 sources and it can handle component, S-video, composit, L/R audio, as well as Optical and coax digital audio! YEA BABY! That way I can take my lower res audio and video sources through that box into a single input into the Rotel...that might give me the freedom to also add a Rega Apollo CD player to the mix (or maybe something from MBL...yea, thats the ticket!). I can put my DVD and CD changers and iPod all through the switcher and just take up ONE connection on the 1098. Then I can add a HD-DVD/BRD player and the Apollo CD player for higher res direct input purposes!

I am also looking into a deal to get a pair of MBL amps! Either the 8011AM or the 9007...hoping for the latter. I have a good friend in the Army who is in Germany till he finished up and retires the middle of '08 and he can probably get it cheaper and NOT have to pay the VAT that they charge there. I have 220V lines in the house already in areas that would make it pretty easy to drop one down a wall for the amps too, so I could even get a EURO model vs. having to get a US model there in Germany... I'll keep you all posted. I have him on a mission with this MBL gear! He saw a whole set up on display at the GIANT department store in Berlin this past weekend. He said it was all roped off so you could not get to close to it! It was in the silver color...I prefer the black and gold...

I can't wait to put up pics of the TV set up when I finally get that!

 

[chris03053]

James,

Can't wait to see new HD.

Did you check on a video processor, instead of a switcher, to do your video switching?

That way you get the best of both worlds.


Chris

The day is coming! I suspect 4-6 weeks and it will be all set up.

I just picked up my Sony DVD changer. I am going to order a video switcher in a week or so that automatically switches between 4 sources and it can handle component, S-video, composit, L/R audio, as well as Optical and coax digital audio! YEA BABY! That way I can take my lower res audio and video sources through that box into a single input into the Rotel...that might give me the freedom to also add a Rega Apollo CD player to the mix (or maybe something from MBL...yea, thats the ticket!). I can put my DVD and CD changers and iPod all through the switcher and just take up ONE connection on the 1098. Then I can add a HD-DVD/BRD player and the Apollo CD player for higher res direct input purposes!

I am also looking into a deal to get a pair of MBL amps! Either the 8011AM or the 9007...hoping for the latter. I have a good friend in the Army who is in Germany till he finished up and retires the middle of '08 and he can probably get it cheaper and NOT have to pay the VAT that they charge there. I have 220V lines in the house already in areas that would make it pretty easy to drop one down a wall for the amps too, so I could even get a EURO model vs. having to get a US model there in Germany... I'll keep you all posted. I have him on a mission with this MBL gear! He saw a whole set up on display at the GIANT department store in Berlin this past weekend. He said it was all roped off so you could not get to close to it! It was in the silver color...I prefer the black and gold...

I can't wait to put up pics of the TV set up when I finally get that!

 

[STV]

Wow, MBL AMPS! I've never had the pleasure of listening to MBL, but man are those amps impressive looking (and sounding I'm sure). Many audiophiles swear by them. They are expensive, but if they sound as as good as they look, you may never want to leave the house That's too cool that your house has 220 wiring as you could then get the European model. It's great to have that option. It's also great to have friends in the military who are overseas that can get cool stuff for you Looking forward to some photos when you do get those MBL amps!

Yes a high grade audio/video switcher would definitely be the ultimate. Being able to have it all go though a single input on your Rotel Pre will be awesome. Right now I don't need to get one but at some future date It's probably something I will get.

Cool beans on the Sony DVD changer! How many DVD's can it hold? The addition of a Rega Apollo CDP would be great and an MBL CDP would be the ultimate. Either way you'll have killer sound.

And soon you'll be welcoming that big new Sony Oh don't you just love this hobby


Seth

 

[Pcar928fan]

Did you check on a video processor, instead of a switcher, to do your video switching?

Chirs,

Not specifically. I did look at one of the DVDO products, well a couple of them. They are really nice but way outside the current price range for what I am looking to do. They are scalers of course so you really make ALL your video better.

The switcher I am looking at is $219, so that is pretty cheap. The mid line DVDO is like $2k or maybe even more than that. YEOW!

 

[Pcar928fan]

Cool beans on the Sony DVD changer! How many DVD's can it hold? The addition of a Rega Apollo CDP would be great and an MBL CDP would be the ultimate. Either way you'll have killer sound.

Seth,

Remember all houses have 220V wiring. Your oven, dryer and probably A/C unit are ALL 220V... I had extra 220's put in various places. One at the built in desk where I thought I might put a big time ham radio transceiver that would be best served w/ 220V (that is the one I will cut into for the amps if I end up going that route), and I also did three more of them in the garage for Single Post (not those cheap four post) lifts! Because sometimes six garage spaces and a hanger are JUST NOT ENOUGH DANG IT! LOL!

Yea, the MBL stuff is gorgeous! I do prefer the 9007 and the 8011 and which are $13,300 each and $6600 each respectively and they are Stereo/Mono amps and I would use them in Mono mode one for each Prodigy! Never hurts to dream or plan!

 

[STV]

Remember all houses have 220V wiring. Your oven, dryer and probably A/C unit are ALL 220V

You're right James, all houses do have 220V wiring at some place in the house, but what I was referring to is that not every house (mine included) has extra 220V lines already in areas to make it pretty easy to drop one down a wall for amps etc. You are very fortunate to have lines that are more easily accessible for audio/video use. Looks like you have your bases covered pretty well, I'm jealous

Re the MBL stuff I'm sure you'll have those dream amps in place And once you get em' I'll be drooling over the pix :drool:


Seth

 

[Pcar928fan]

You are very fortunate to have lines that are more easily accessible for audio/video use. Looks like you have your bases covered pretty well, I'm jealous

Re the MBL stuff I'm sure you'll have those dream amps in place And once you get em' I'll be drooling over the pix :drool:

It is much easier when you plan and build your own house to your specs vs. what a builder wants to do because they are always just trying to save money! I really enjoy the planning and building process but I get very attached to my stuff and I HATE moving, so I expect I won't build again. I do however expect to add to this house. A workout room, a parlor and off the parlor a 12+ person theater (22'W x 33'L x 10' or 11' H)... It will be awhile but it IS coming! Already in the planning process...

Once the TV and MBL's are all in place or when the theater it done you might have to make a trip in from NM for a demo! :rocker:

 

[STV]

Once the TV and MBL's are all in place or when the theater it done you might have to make a trip in from NM for a demo!

Thanks bud, that would be fun!

 

[Pcar928fan]

Just updated the system tonight... I put on the Obsidian side rails that Jim Powers found for me in the ML warehouse! For those not familiar it is basically a slightly less expensive version of Piano Black! Also since all the system is moved out waiting for the new TV I was able to really clean off the sides of the speakers. Heck if everything had not been moved I would not have been able to install the rails, but I got it done!

They look STUNNING! I have wanted the Piano black since I got my Ascent's many years ago and wanted them for the Prodigy too, and now BOTH are done! They look great. I will get some pics of them before the new TV arrives and get them posted. Of course I will also get shots w/ the new TV and cabinetry in place too when it happens!

Oh, yea, they sound better like this too! :rocker: :haha1: