So I've always delayed and delayed on this. I have a 55 inch mitsubishi rear projection HD TV. It's about 5 years old, but it does a decent job. My house is prewired for surround sound. I have no speakers, no components, just an older DVD player. I don't need the best. I want something that I'd be happy with to watch sports and the occasional movie. I'm thinking I'd get speakers that mount into the ceiling/drywall, since I'm prewired. But I dunno if there are advantages/disadvantages, so I'm all ears. You experts out there, two questions: 1. if I were to give you a fictional $1,500 to $2,000, how would you allocate that money. I'd be very interested in specific product recommendations, including brands, for speakers, components, etc. 2. I'm not sure what that amount gets me. Is there a nearby price point at which I could enter a "next level" of quality that matters. Eg, would I be much happier if I went in for $2,500 because it gets mea bunch of bells and whistles, or just ups the overall quality. Or, perhaps I'm a few hundred over a price point where I could spend a few hundred less, but have a functional system. I appreciate the advice guys.
I am personally looking at either the Klipsch Quintet III system or the Polk Audio RM75 system. I have listened to the Klipsch system, and it is impressive. This is especially true in a smaller living room. You can probably get that with a subwoofer and a good receiver for about $1,000. Take the rest of the money and plunk it into a good Blu-Ray player.
are you planning on mounting these yourself or having the company mount them? if you're doing it yourself (seeing how the wire has already been run) that will certainly allow you more to spend towards a system. i've been pleased with polk audio, and a 6.1 or 7.1 setup will prob run you near or maybe just over $2000 depending on the amplifier and the size of speakers you go with.
Speakers: http://www.soundandvisionmag.com/sp...rocinema-800-home-theater-speaker-system.html Receiver: http://www.soundandvisionmag.com/receivers/2631/onkyo-tx-sr605-receiver.html DVD/Blu ray player: Hey does your TV have a DVI slot? I had an older tv before and I got an upconvert dvd player to work with a hmdi-dvi adapter. if you just have component, then you can still see bluray at 1080i/720p. the 480p output should still be very good for dvd. I recommend this one: http://reviews.cnet.com/video-players-and-recorders/panasonic-dmp-bd35/4505-6463_7-33248632.html (I ordered one this weekend ) Oh also get a logitech remote http://reviews.cnet.com/remote-controls/logitech-harmony-one/4505-7900_7-32825878.html
i heard these at circuit city. they are pretty good. http://www.audioholics.com/reviews/speakers/satellite/energy-take-classic-review also if you go to a circuit city that's going out of business, you can get a super discount on these speakers.
Do not buy any main speakers with a woofer less than 6 inches. There is no new magic in new speakers that makes them better if they are smaller. People just like them because they take up less room, but a bookshelf speaker is tiny. For my Cash it would be Reciever: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16882117251 Very good quality, high value and future proof reciever Subwoofer: http://www.svsound.com/products-sub-box-sb12plus.cfm or if you can deal with a bigger box http://www.svsound.com/products-sub-box-pb12nsd.cfm You didn't say how big your room is so if it is pretty large you might need a bigger sub that these. 5 of these eBay Harmon Audio Link They come from the outlet store of Harmon Kardon. Remote: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16880100771 Speaker mounts: http://www.crutchfield.com/p_121BT77B/B-Tech-BT77-Black.html?tp=2727 That should be about 1400 depending on how many speakers you want to mount to the wall. Also if you want 7.1 you can just buy 2 more speakers later. I will let other talk about BD players, I have a PS3.
General advice: The common sound bar center channel is made like that for space savings. It is not the ideal way to make a speaker. If you use a speaker mount you can save major cash by just using the exact same speaker as you left and right channels. It will also sound better. Do not fall into the trap of super small expensive speakers. You want the speakers to be able to get down to 60Hz or so with a flat frequency response so the sub can take over. Most "subwoofers" are actually just woofers that are making up for super small speakers that can only go to 150Hz or so. Since LCDs have become so popular people are thinking speakers should also be small. Thats just not how it works. Note the two subwoofers i linked. The smaller one is 100 bucks more yet it has less performance. The reason is they had to stuff into a much smaller box. Get a good sub. The one I linked is awesome. If you don't wanna buy on eBay let me know and I can suggest some other speakers, the ones I linked are freakin killer though for the price. Sold for 200 each originally.
Can anyone recommend the best home theater system w/ wireless speakers? Or does all the above mentioned have wireless speakers? My house isn't pre-wired for home theaters...
This is all true and I just wanted to back it up (although some of the higher end centers are designed to be horizontal or vertical and do a better job - not at this price range, though). And SVS do make great subs for the price. For the price, Pioneer makes good entry level receivers and I prefer their sound and setup to Onkyo. You could also look at the Marantz SR4003 to see what kind of deals are out there. For my money, Marantz makes the best receivers for a reasonable budget. nWo - wireless speakers are not great. You are compressing the signal a little bit to send wirelessly and in order to create the wattage you either have to use batteries (change all the time) or plug them into an outlet. So there will still be issues. You can't run wires long your baseboards or at the edge of carpeting or something?
yes. also two small kids. therefore, I don't get to watch movies or games cranked up a lot, which is why I don't want to spend a fortune just yet. question - how about those 5:1 or so systems they sell at best buy with a dvd player for 500 to 900 or so. are those any good?
you could do a lot better with very little research. You said 1500-2000 so thats what I did 1400 for. Do you want a 900 dollar solution? Just because you cannot afford 1500 does not mean you have to go Home theater in a box. If you want to go cheap I highly suggest just getting the Left/Center/Right speakers now. You can always add the surround speakers later. The L/C/R speakers are the once that really need to be "MATCHED" They are also the ones that 95% of your non-subwoofer output wil come from. Speaker quality is a must, those small packaged speakers will not deliver the goods so if you need to go cheaper let me know and I will suggest a cheaper reciever and you can just buy less speakers and less subwoofer to start.
I admit being a Pioneer fanboy but for the price the 1018 has a ton of features for the street price. It would have fit into a 1500-2000 budget like a glove. I have it myself and it is very nice, and future proof. The more expensive a speaker is the greater ability it has to overcome design "flaws" like small size or arrangement. To me that seems like sending the "square peg" off to NASA to get it perfectly turned down to fit the "round hole".
Home theatre question: What's the best connection to go from bluray player to home theatre system? Just the regular red/yellow component cables?
Should the home theatre system have an HDMI port? Mine doesn't. I can run HDMI to my tv, but the speakers on my tv suck. And I only have one HDMI out of the player.
Well I can't run three towers across my front so the horizontal center was my only option and it serves me. I ran a phantom center for a time and it was fine but I like to have the versatility of the center for range across the front and for 3 channel SACD music. With the receivers I should have clarified that Marantz is best for me for musicality and distortion. They only recently got up to speed with home theater but even then Pioneer will be more advanced. So, absolutely Pioneer is better for bells and whistles. Faos - you do need the HDMI connection to take advantage of Bluray's HD audio codecs. With your current setup the best you can do is HD picture and standard Dolby, DTS, and other surround mixes. If you want true HD sound you would have to update your processor.
