My project to get the TV room upstairs furnished and made into a really fun place to hang out is now officially — in the sense that I am officiating — complete.
The final piece in the equipment puzzle was the replacement of our Rotel RSX-1550 AV receiver with a Sony STR-DA5400ES.
In the time we had the RSX-1550, we were plagued by problems:
No image over HDMI from our Sony BDP-S550 Blu-ray player.
Discoloured, yellow image from Nintendo Wii connected over component cables.
Discoloured, yellow image from the RSX-1550’s own configuration menu.
Inability to conbine component video input with analogue audio input (needed for our Nintendo Wii).
Clipping of the beginning of songs played over the Sonos, due to a slow relay that switched state when detecting the presence or absence of a signal.
In short, it wasn’t very good at audio or video. In fact, I’m hard-pressed to think of anything about it that I liked. Even the remote-control was awful. An AV receiver that can do neither A nor V isn’t much use, I’m sure you’ll agree.
The Sony, on the other hand, which arrived shortly before our departure to Tenerife, is a breath of fresh air. Everything just works as it’s supposed to and configuring the system is a breeze. Both the video and audio from it are excellent.
In particular, the Faroudja DCDi chip’s upscaling algorithms, used to transform lower resolution images, are very effective. DVDs look very crisp,a although some pixelation is obvious on still menus, and even our Nintendo Wii looks decent at 1080p.
We’re finally able to watch Blu-rays with a DTS-HD or Dolby True HD soundtrack, although our surround sound system is only 5.1, not 7.1. Nevertheless, the sound is fantastic.
The final piece in the project was the construction of a wooden panel to be placed vertically along the underside of the equipment cabinet. This deftly hides the tangle of cables on the other side, as it screens the area from the bottom of the TV cabinet to the floor, along the entire length of the cabinet. It’s attached with magnets, so it can be easily removed and is white, so it looks as if it’s part of the cabinet itself.
Polectro, the shop we’ve been dealing with, have been very good. There have been problems along the way, but the people we’ve been working with have never shied away from dealing with them and have always been tolerant of me when I (rightfully) barked at them for something that shouldn’t have been allowed to happen.
It goes without saying that any shop should provide good service, but it goes equally without saying that one can’t simply operate on the assumption that that’s how it will be in practice.
Polectro, to their credit, didn’t just deliver and install the equipment, but were prepared, when necessary, to modify it. This was the case when I wanted wireless KEF iQ50 loudspeakers without visible radio receiver units in the bedroom. They also arranged the manufacture of the aforementioned wooden panel, resoldered Eloïse’s broken lantern (much to her delight) and even helped me fix the dodgy power-supply of my MythTV PC.
In short, I’m happy to recommend Polectro if you’re in the area of Amsterdam and are looking for a partner for an AV project.