limpei's Room Entertainment System is finally complete! after staggered buys starting with the original PS3, it finally culminates with the purchase of a full audio system setup. to the untrained, what this means is that gaming can now be enjoyed in Full HD with TrueHD 5.1 surround audio. =)

pretty effin' sweet considering it took me a good 2.5 years to get the entire setup going..

this is the Marantz NR1501 audio video receiver, one of the first 'slimline' AVRs on the market. traditional AVRs from Onkyo, Denon, Yamaha etc have always been big chunky beasts around the size of a typical computer hard drive. this slimline version is not only aesthetically pleasing, but saves a hell a lot of space since its not much bigger than a standard DVD player.

basically, this is the heart of the entire audio setup. every mother son device gets jacked into this while it outputs to the HDTV and speakers. even more awesome that this AVR auto upconverts video signals into semi-HD signals, meaning for the first time in my life i can get clear pictures out of the standard starhub box on a HDTV.

as of now, the PS3, PS2, Gamecube, Saturn, SNES, DVD, Starhub and the speakers/woofer are all managed by this 1 device. sweet!

complementing the Marantz are a 5.1 set of Boston Acoustic speakers (front left, center, front right, rear left, rear right, subwoofer). i'm no audiophile so i can't make any intelligent comments about them other than they're made of wood (as opposed to plastic) which is supposed to be better and the subwoofer is so bloody powerful that its entire 14 kg body vibrates out of place about the floor whenever anything with deep bass gets played. the whole room seems to rumble as well..i think its this stupid physics term called 'resonance'

all in all, i'm pretty much satisfied with the final product and overall integration with all other devices. one gripe that really bugs the hell outta me though, is this bloody goddamn delay when outputting audio. on the PS3, the picture appears of the TV first followed by the audio another 1-2 secs later. low level research leads to me believe this is caused by the HDMI connections, since unlike the traditional composite/component signals, HDMI signals are like high class social escorts that need to be pampered first before they become the prostitutes they are. in simple terms, the delay is caused by HDMI transmission signals.

in any case, whoever wants to know the aural awesomness of surround sound japanese AV can apply through me. be warned though, the whole block would probably know what's being played =/

ROCK!!!!