VTHokie01
12-31-2002, 09:59 AM
As I drove home from work yesterday, I could only think of how quick and efficient I would be able to setup my first home theater system. The night before I connected all of the video connections and everything worked without a glitch, and of course, why should the speakers be any different? Little did I know that the little things add up.
First off, I laid everything out that was required: 80 ft. of Original Monster Speaker wire, 5 packs of banana and angled pin connectors, and wire cutters. My RM 6200s are mounted on Sanus speaker stands that allow you to run the wire through the pole and out of an opening at the top. As I glanced at the opening in the speaker stand, I thought to myself, “S%^t, the speaker wire isn’t going to fit”…and what would you know….I was right. The Original Monster Speaker wire was in no way shape or form going to fit into the opening of the speaker stands. This left me with a couple of options, return the speaker stands for ones that allow for larger wire, or return the Original Monster Speaker wire for Monster XP speaker wire. My decision? I went with the latter. So I called up Crutchfield told them what the deal was and then packaged up the Original Monster wire.
Now that I was switching to the Monster XP wire, all of the pin connectors I had purchased were of no use to me. So I drove up to Circuit City, returned 4 of 5 packs of connectors and exchanged it for 100 ft. of Monster XP speaker wire. I then had to return the last pack of pin connectors to Best Buy...so looked around for a DVD or CD to purchase, didn’t find anything that I was dying to purchase, so for the sake of time, I returned home hoping for some better luck.
So let’s try this again. Luckily, the Monster XP wire fit the opening in the speaker stands, though a touch snug, this prolonged the time it took to feed the amount of wire needed. I completed the first stand and connected the speaker wire to the sub and the speaker…first speaker complete. To make the process a little easier on the next speaker, I broke out the drill and enlarged the hole on the back of the speaker stand to make the feeding of the wire a bit easier. This worked great and I had no problems with the second speaker. Once the second speaker was complete, the rest was a breeze. The center speaker sits on top of my TV and connects directly to the receiver...no problems. Then had to run speaker wire from my receiver to the inputs on the sub...done.
Finally, all speaker wires were connected and I then ran through the speaker setup on the receiver. I ran the Tone Test and was not getting sound from the left/right speakers, only the center. After moving the left/right speaker wire from one set of outputs on the receiver to the set where the center speaker is connected, they worked perfectly. Finally…the setup was complete! (I can’t hook up the surrounds until my wife and I remove the Christmas tree, so technically…there’s still work to be done)
Once I finished placing the wires and cleaning up the scraps lying around, I gave the system a test. I played the opening scene to Gladiator and was blown away by the magnitude of the sound. These speakers sound great!! I could not believe the difference in the movie watching experience…it’s truly dramatic. Once the scene was finished, I gave the PS2 a try, now using optical audio, and the clarity of the sound was amazing. I can’t wait to try it out tonight!
All in all I'd say it was a success. I had some minor problems along the way but in the end, everything worked out just fine.
First off, I laid everything out that was required: 80 ft. of Original Monster Speaker wire, 5 packs of banana and angled pin connectors, and wire cutters. My RM 6200s are mounted on Sanus speaker stands that allow you to run the wire through the pole and out of an opening at the top. As I glanced at the opening in the speaker stand, I thought to myself, “S%^t, the speaker wire isn’t going to fit”…and what would you know….I was right. The Original Monster Speaker wire was in no way shape or form going to fit into the opening of the speaker stands. This left me with a couple of options, return the speaker stands for ones that allow for larger wire, or return the Original Monster Speaker wire for Monster XP speaker wire. My decision? I went with the latter. So I called up Crutchfield told them what the deal was and then packaged up the Original Monster wire.
Now that I was switching to the Monster XP wire, all of the pin connectors I had purchased were of no use to me. So I drove up to Circuit City, returned 4 of 5 packs of connectors and exchanged it for 100 ft. of Monster XP speaker wire. I then had to return the last pack of pin connectors to Best Buy...so looked around for a DVD or CD to purchase, didn’t find anything that I was dying to purchase, so for the sake of time, I returned home hoping for some better luck.
So let’s try this again. Luckily, the Monster XP wire fit the opening in the speaker stands, though a touch snug, this prolonged the time it took to feed the amount of wire needed. I completed the first stand and connected the speaker wire to the sub and the speaker…first speaker complete. To make the process a little easier on the next speaker, I broke out the drill and enlarged the hole on the back of the speaker stand to make the feeding of the wire a bit easier. This worked great and I had no problems with the second speaker. Once the second speaker was complete, the rest was a breeze. The center speaker sits on top of my TV and connects directly to the receiver...no problems. Then had to run speaker wire from my receiver to the inputs on the sub...done.
Finally, all speaker wires were connected and I then ran through the speaker setup on the receiver. I ran the Tone Test and was not getting sound from the left/right speakers, only the center. After moving the left/right speaker wire from one set of outputs on the receiver to the set where the center speaker is connected, they worked perfectly. Finally…the setup was complete! (I can’t hook up the surrounds until my wife and I remove the Christmas tree, so technically…there’s still work to be done)
Once I finished placing the wires and cleaning up the scraps lying around, I gave the system a test. I played the opening scene to Gladiator and was blown away by the magnitude of the sound. These speakers sound great!! I could not believe the difference in the movie watching experience…it’s truly dramatic. Once the scene was finished, I gave the PS2 a try, now using optical audio, and the clarity of the sound was amazing. I can’t wait to try it out tonight!
All in all I'd say it was a success. I had some minor problems along the way but in the end, everything worked out just fine.