home theatre / stereo help needed

[Gary Majchrzak]

you guys and gals were GREAT helping me choose a TV. My Samsung HDTV is fantastic! Now I need some help again. As you may well know... the speakers on flat TV's are generally lame. What's my least expensive option to get decent surround sound? I'll need a "sound bar" (center voice channel) as well as a left and right speaker, right? Probably need a sub-woofer, too.
Ultimately, I'm a musician and audiophile. I prefer running music to keeping a TV on... so at some point in the future I'll need a power amplifier and such to enjoy my music... but for right now I just wanna get the TV sound happening. Or should I do everything at once?
I know we have some people on this board that know a lot about these things :artist:

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

what the heck

what the heck

is the movie 'Avatar' available as a 3D blu-ray disc? I've searched and searched and it looks like it's only available in 2D? That doesn't make sense!

 

[brettinteriors]

Not yet, Panasonic(I recall) had a exclusive with avatar 3d bundled with their tv.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

Not yet, Panasonic(I recall) had a exclusive with avatar 3d bundled with their tv.

what the heck is with THAT arrangement? LOL!

Somebody made a lot of money off that sweet deal.

 

[josh.vince]

I can help you out here too, but I tend to think the feedback I want to give is more than I can type right now... or ever... there's a TON of opinion involved, not a lot of hard facts. Anyway - see my response to your other thread. If you end up borrowing some Blu-rays from me, we can chat in person, and then maybe figure out a good response to this and fill the rest of the crew in.

I have to get back to fixing my dishwasher and watering my orchids!

Well, I can say this real quick. Get a good receive (Onkyo, Pioneer, etc.) that has 6.1 or 7.1. You won't regret it. You can find "Home Theater" packages that come with the receiver and 6 or 7 speakers for true surround sound. OH! And make sure it supports HDMI 1.4 so you can run your 3D Blu-ray into your receiver and run HDMI from the receiver to the TV. You don't want to run separate sound from the 3D Blu-ray (to the receiver) and video from the 3D Blu-ray (to the TV) because then sound/video won't be in perfect sync. HDMI 1.4 supports 3D passthrough. I hope this makes sense...

For home theater combos - 6.1 comes with:
subwoofer
front left
front right
front center
surround left
surround right
surround back

7.1 comes with:
subwoofer
front left
front right
front center
surround left
surround right
surround back left
surround back right


Back to my chores!
Josh

you guys and gals were GREAT helping me choose a TV. My Samsung HDTV is fantastic! Now I need some help again. As you may well know... the speakers on flat TV's are generally lame. What's my least expensive option to get decent surround sound? I'll need a "sound bar" (center voice channel) as well as a left and right speaker, right? Probably need a sub-woofer, too.
Ultimately, I'm a musician and audiophile. I prefer running music to keeping a TV on... so at some point in the future I'll need a power amplifier and such to enjoy my music... but for right now I just wanna get the TV sound happening. Or should I do everything at once?
I know we have some people on this board that know a lot about these things :artist:

 

[josh.vince]

here's what I have and what I would recommend:

http://www.amazon.com/Onkyo-HT-S840...2HMU/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1329672359&sr=8-3

 

[NirvanaFan]

That combo that Josh suggested is pretty good.

I didn't have the money to go with a full package all at once, so I am still piecing together my system. I got a Pioneer receiver, and paired it with the junky 5 RCA speakers I already had. Anything you get will be better than the speakers that are on the back of your TV. You can try craigslist too. Sometimes you can find decent deals on electronics there.

I think I found the best deal on my Pioneer subwoofer at Frys.com. They are a great store, but don't have any retail locations around here. They have good deals at their online store though.

 

[dieseldaisy]

magnum audio

magnum audio

hey gary, I have a magnum audio system that will blow your mind. I found a brand new one on eBay right now for 275.00 the item number is Item #: 270897640033
type that in the search bar on eBay to pull it up. it's a great price I paid close to 500 for mine 6 months ago.

 

[josh.vince]

Gary - don't buy a magnum. I won't go into the reasons in a public forum. Just don't do it.

dieseldaisy - sorry, no offense meant.

 

[dieseldaisy]

magnum

magnum

im interested in hearing why u feel that way. mine is great

 

[jacksonpt]

A few things, if I understand your needs/wants correctly.

Chances are that anything you do "quickly" to get your TV sounding good is going to have to be redone/replaced if/when you go with better setup for you music. So you need to decide now if you want to do it once and do it right, or do something quick and dirty now, then replace/tweak as necessary down the road. From your initial post, I get the impression you are leaning towards the latter.

That said, I'd keep it simple. Go into a place like Best Buy and get a decent receiver from Marantz, Yamaha, Denon, HK, Onkyo (not sure what brands they carry). Pair that up with a decent sub/sat speaker package and enjoy (personally, I'd go with DCM Cinema series as it's a great buy).

Some other things to keep in mind...

• You'll see the most "improvement" in sound quality by buying better speakers, but don't cheap out on the amp
• A sub is almost required if you are going with small satellite speakers, but can be largely unnecessary (especially from a musical standpoint) if you end up with good cabinet speakers.
• Receivers now are generally either 5.1, 6.1 or 7.1. Very few movies right now are coded for 6.1, and even fewer for 7.1.
• Audio is almost entirely about personal preference - what I think sounds good you may hate, and vice versa, so take recommendations with a grain of salt. Buy what sounds good to you.
• Don't rule out the benefit of going to a home theater/audio store from the get go. You'll absolutely receiver better service, prices can be very similar depending on the shop, and who doesn't feel good supporting the local specialty guy?

I have a 7.1 setup, and while the handful of movies I have that are 7.1 are incredible, 99% of the movies I watch are still 5.1. If you are going quick and dirty, I wouldn't pay extra for more channels (personally).

 

[briangsxr1000]

I run klipshe speakers off a pioneer elite receiver. Now that will blow your mind. Lol i also suggest not buying speakers from best buy. They are all lower end stuff. But I guess it depends how deep your wallets are.

 

[Gravesj1s]

One thing to point out if you have an existing surround speaker package already.
Modern recievers have a dedicated "subout"whitch sends low frequency through the builtin crossover in the reciever and some of the older surround speaker packages like bose acousticmass are passive or nonactive (no amp built in) more uptodate subs whitch are active or meaning they have a preamp builtin.
Just a headsup so your aware of some compatibillity issues you might run into.
When looking at recievers be sure to mention what speakers your using if they are older.

 

[Gravesj1s]

Typed from my phone earlier and not really happy with how that last post reads.

I know you have a musical backround and think you know what I was trying to say.
I actually ran into that very issue when I upgraded my reciever last year with the intent of keeping the existing speaker setup.

For reciever I went with a denon AVR-791,with Idock.

Fwiw-Ive heard tons of good stuff about pioneer elite.Beyond that I cant add anything.

Speaker wise I kept my original acousticmass for C ,L & R fronts and sub then, bought a set of B&W 602's for the rear.
If I could change something it would undoubtedly be the Bose.Great in the day when they came out with the small cube speakers,and you nolonger had to have a speaker the size of a refridgerator,but everybody and their brother has duplicated it over the years.Decent for surround sound but not good music.I think there stuck in the late 80's.
Might own stock in consumer reports ,too.

 

[briangsxr1000]

When you figure out an idea of what you want let me know and I can prob get you a good price. My friend is a audio\video dealer. I just need to know what exactly you want and I can get prices. He also does custom installations if you are doing in wall speakers or something like that.

 

[agentdelaney]

i'm big on polk audio. i just finished off my system, and you can do it relitevly cheap too. I purchased an older yamaha receiver 5.1 to start for 150 bucks (i got really lucky because i'm not sure they new what they were selling) rated at 1000 watts. next picked up a pair of polk monitor 60's on new egg. Polk CS1 center channel and then polk monitor surrounds. i just ordered my sub a couple of days ago. the system kicks, and i barely have to turn it up over a quarter of the volume, everything is extremely definitive with sound and sounds so well rounded. newegg has been doing deals on a poioneer receiver for about 250 bucks that can be controlled by iphone/ipad. rated extremely well and i know quite a few people that have purchased them and are very happy. hope this helps!

 

[briangsxr1000]

^^^^ I agree with the new egg deals. If you want power and clarity without running a external amp, I highly suggest the Elite versions. The 1120\1121 model is not listed as an elite model, but used to be in the elite line. For some reason Pioneer dropped the lowest model elite and added this one to the regular line of receivers. If you are ever out in my area at ARC, you are more than welcome to demo my setup.

 

[RtReef]

Don't know what your budget is but Get a good receiver like Denon Onkyo or Yamaha. Yamaha has probably one of the best receiver's out on the market right now. I went with Denon because it's a damn good unit for the money. Make sure you get one with HDMI and 3D compatibility. My Denon has that and now all me menu and user features are displayed on my TV like big visual menu. 6.1 is a good unit to look for, unless you have a big room for 7.1, then it's overkill.

I personally like JL Audio, Polk Audio, Harmon Kardon, Sony for speakers. Subwoofer JL audio all the way, but it is quite pricey!

 

[jacksonpt]

Don't know what your budget is but Get a good receiver like Denon Onkyo or Yamaha. Yamaha has probably one of the best receiver's out on the market right now. I went with Denon because it's a damn good unit for the money. Make sure you get one with HDMI and 3D compatibility. My Denon has that and now all me menu and user features are displayed on my TV like big visual menu. 6.1 is a good unit to look for, unless you have a big room for 7.1, then it's overkill.

I personally like JL Audio, Polk Audio, Harmon Kardon, Sony for speakers. Subwoofer JL audio all the way, but it is quite pricey!

No disrespect, as I'm glad you have found stuff you like, but if you think that stuff sounds good or is quite pricey, you should spend a couple hours at an actual audio/home theater shop. Even the low end PSBs I have with my basic NAD receiver will blow that stuff out of the water.

 

[jdt0517]

I too have Polk audio through out the house and love it. Dealigg.com has a couple links to Polk speaker deals through Amazon. I have purchased Onkyo in the past and have had nothing but problems with it maybe it was me but I had everything from lower end Onkyo to $1400 units and all were replaced do to failure. I have Yamaha now and its been 6 years and its still going. Just make sure you buy something you can grow into in the future.