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Home Theater/Surround Sound

Discussion in 'Lounge' started by Motion, Dec 12, 2007.

  1. Motion

    Motion New Member

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    So I'm looking for a surround sound system. Any Suggestions?
     
  2. Fin Fan In Cali

    Fin Fan In Cali Dolphin fan since 1970 Luxury Box

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    Bro I always like Yamaha myself. You can find them from like 299.00 and up. The come Home Theater system in a box. I paid 500.00 for mine in my garage 4-5 months ago, and the only thing that I replaced was the CD player. Still pumps out great sound, and you get great bass. The subwolfer that came with mine thumps. :ffic:
     
  3. Motion

    Motion New Member

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    Thanks for the advice bro.

    I was actually looking at a Yamaha system and a Pioneer system tonight at Best Buy.

    I'll probably wait til after Christmas to get one though.
     
  4. Desides

    Desides Well-Known Member

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    Four words: Stay away from Bose.

    Klipsch is an excellent brand. I would look into their systems.
     
  5. unifiedtheory

    unifiedtheory Sub Pending Luxury Box

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    Denon is the only name you need to know IMO.

    I used to be a Yamaha guy but there line from a few years back did nothing for me. I just finished converting fully to Denon components about a month ago.

    Make sure you buy Euro, American or Canadian speakers.
     
  6. unifiedtheory

    unifiedtheory Sub Pending Luxury Box

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    They make FANTASTIC speakers.
     
  7. Texphinphan

    Texphinphan Season Ticket Holder

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    Other than finheaven, the following is one of my favorite sites:
    http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htf/index.php
    Great place to start when looking for Home Theater.

    My 2 cents. I would stay away from bose as well, way overpriced for what you get. I would also stay away from the home theater in the box set ups. For a few dollars more, you can get a great set up. I really think that you get shortchanged on the speakers in the HTIB when good affordable speakers are available. It has been awhile but there are several Canadian companies like PSB that make excellent and affordable speaker systems.

    Check out these guys too: http://www.outlawaudio.com/

    When I bought my set up (8 years ago, sigh) I spent a lot of time with the Outlaw receiver and was impressed. I have not been in the market recently.

    Enjoy the hunt.
     
    Last edited: Dec 13, 2007
  8. Motion

    Motion New Member

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    Thanks for all the info guys.
     
  9. zackattack54

    zackattack54 New Member

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    Speakers are they key. It really depends on what you're trying to do. Is this system strictly for home theatre or will you be listening to music as well? What are the size limitations for your room?

    No Hi's No Lows - must be Bose. But for someone who doesn't want bigger speakers or have the space Bose is a nice choice if they're interested in home teatre ONLY.

    Are you running wires to the rears? Infinity makes a nice pair of wireless rear speakers.

    Just remember that you can drive the speakers with almost any of today's better receivers (Onkyo is my personal preference) but investing in a good set of speakers and a sub woofer (key for home theatre) is what you should be looking for.

    And for the record - depending on your budget, stay away from the all-in-one boxed sets. The reason - cheaper speakers.
     
  10. screamer

    screamer Premium Member Luxury Box

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    Bose knows! Have it. Love it! 5:1 right now.
     
  11. Motion

    Motion New Member

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    Thanks for the info.

    I have been looking at piecing together my own system. Not sure what route I'm gonna take just yet.

    The system will be used for a little bit of everything. It will be on the main TV in the house so it will be for regular TV watching, Movies, Gaming, and probably music too.

    I've seen plenty of stuff I'd like to have now I just gotta hope for a few gift cards for Christmas. :)
     
  12. Zippy

    Zippy The Man in Black. Club Member

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    I have a set of the Klipsch 5.1 speakers I bought for the PC a couple years ago. I also bought a controller/receiver box from creative to use them as a home theatre system. I was not real happy with the results. Does anyone know if there is a way to use the subwoofer with a standard receiver? ANy help would be appreciated.
     
  13. azfinfanmang

    azfinfanmang Premium Member Luxury Box

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    Speakers make it all happen bro. I am also on the JUST SAY NO TO BOSE bandwagon. Had some 501's once upon a time...bad choice that I made
    Klipsch are VERY nice as are Cerwin Vega's

    I have a friend that does home-installs for a living in Phoenix, its his entire lively hood.
    He says Yamaha and Sony used to be the only way to go..now he says Yamaha is 1 way to go, and Sony shouldnt be on the Market anymore. Also as stated, piece it together.
     
  14. Phin-o-rama

    Phin-o-rama Well-Known Member

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    onkyo makes the best HTIB's out there, imo

    the receivers are extremely good for the price, and will last through replacing the speakers with better ones..
     
  15. screamer

    screamer Premium Member Luxury Box

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    I hear you on the 501's. I believe they had 301's also. Those did suck. Their lifestyles hometheater rocks though. If you haven't tried it you should. Nice small cube spearkers with a kick butt sound. Thier new lifestyle(38 and up I think) media center now takes both blueray and hd/dvd. Also non HD videos are upconverted to the best picture automatically. Nice feature, but BIG BUCKS. You only come around once so what the hell!:thumbup:
     
  16. Dolphin1184

    Dolphin1184 Member

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    Sony, Panasonic, Pioneer are good. A family member of mine used to work with sound (and audio engineers) in a music studio seems to prefer Panasonic stuff. We have large Panasonic speakers in the living room and it sound like you are in a theater. I personally love the sound of my friend's Sony Bravia speaker set in his apartment. He got it for $499 on Sonystyle.com.

    Any good speaker can sound "good" when played loud. The key is to listen to the highs/middles/lows at normal volume. Do the highs distort? My family member got me Creative speakers for my computer christmas many years ago and they are the best speakers ever; so I trust her greatly.

    I agree about the avoid Bose idea. The brand seems way too expensive for what it is.
     
    Last edited: Dec 15, 2007
  17. DOLPHAN1

    DOLPHAN1 Premium Member Luxury Box

    :lol:

    all highs, all lows....must be Bose.
     
  18. DOLPHAN1

    DOLPHAN1 Premium Member Luxury Box

    it's really a combination of quality speakers and clean amplification. you can have the best speakers in the world( ex. Martin Logan ). but if you connect them to a noisey amplifier, then they are gonna sound like crap. the trick is to find the right combination that is gonna fit your needs, your room and your budget.

    in the upper mid level of amplifiers, found at places like Best Buy, Circuit City etc., i have found that Onkyo and Yamaha have the cleanest amps while maintaining true power. Pioneer is a work horse but not the cleanest and Sony makes a very complicated, clean sounding but very weak amp.

    in this range, there are two kinds of speakers; those made by speaker companies and those made by electronics companies. you can find value in both, but for the money, speaker companies are usually more reliable, better sounding.

    speaker companies, like Klipsch, Polk Audio, Paradigm, JBL, Cerwin Vega make a wide variety of quality speakers. Onkyo, Yamaha, Pioneer, Sony make several components including speakers and, though they can be decent over-all speakers, generally are not complete sounding and often leave gaps in frequency and may not handle true, clean power from a quality amp.

    there is value in home theater in a box or HTIB setups, but a few things should be kept in mind. when looking for these as your primary target, keep in mind that with the higher end brands they use recievers that are usually part of their component line. they can be purchased seperately. lower end units will usually be cheaper in every way imaginable. look for HTIB's that have powered sub woofers. there is a difference. with the powered sub, you will have more control of the cut-off on the cross-over resulting in a fine tune ability that will suite your room better.

    finally; Bose. love it-hate it. most people will bye Bose products based on the name. "oh look at my sound system. why yes. those are BOSE speakers...." please. some will bye them for their function. probably the all-time best, can't destroy 'em if you try speakers ever made were the Bose 901s. you can literally plug them into a 110 wall outlet and they will not blow. i have seen this as a demo by a Bose rep, so i know it is true. their speakers come in a multitude of sizes and styles, as well as prices..

    Bose speakers use a nearly 40 year old technology and except for speaker cabnets, they have not changed much since their inception. Bose use a deflecting technique to expand their sound. in the perfect room, they sound AWSOME. problem is most rooms are not ideal for this technology and often leave purchasers with one of two feelings: all highs all lows, must be Bose. or no highs no lows, must be Bose.

    finally, when planning to make a purchase, figure on spending 25% of your budget on connections. though it is important to get quality cables, it is not always necessary to purchase the most expensive cables( Monster, Audio Research, etc.) regardless what the sales person says. you should invest in power management, especially when a HD TV is purchased--yes, they do make a difference.

    hope that helps. if you have questions, let me know. :up:
     
  19. 2k5

    2k5 I miss Ted Ginn Jr.

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    I just got a couple of Klipsch F-2's at Best Buy on Black Friday. 50% off. I saved $350. Still haven't shipped though... My brother has them as well, and I would definitely recommend them. We also have a Harmon-Kardon receiver, and although I don't have anything to compare it with, it has done the job.

    Beautiful too
    [​IMG]
     
  20. NaboCane

    NaboCane Banned

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    go bose and you'll never regret it.

    i have a bose surround setup for my home theater; all it has is a subwoofer and two tiny little speakers - but those speakers throw sound behind you like you wouldn't believe.

    seriously, more than once i've paused a movie thinking that i heard something elsewhere in the house and it turned out to be a sound in the movie.

    oh, and the power...blow-your-windows-out power.
     
  21. Motion

    Motion New Member

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    I really like those. I was looking at them the other day. If I had known they were on sale on Black Friday I would have grabbed a pair. Very nice.
     
  22. Fin Fan In Cali

    Fin Fan In Cali Dolphin fan since 1970 Luxury Box

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    J&R.com are having a after Christmas electronics sale in case anyone is interested. They are having great deals on Home Theater, IPod speakers, and Cameras as well. Just thought I would pass it along.

    http://www.jr.com/
     
  23. Fin Fan In Cali

    Fin Fan In Cali Dolphin fan since 1970 Luxury Box

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  24. Dolphin1184

    Dolphin1184 Member

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    I just got a Samsung Home Theater system at best buy for my room and the speakers sound great! Funny thing is, my best buy didn't even have it on display. I had to look up at the top shelf on top of the TV's to find it. They happened to be on display but in the DLP HDTV's section. Tested them with a CD and they sound better than the other home theater systems not to mention a little bit lower price. All in all I am pleased.
     
  25. Motion

    Motion New Member

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    Well I got my system the other night. After much research and window shopping I ended up getting this Yamaha system.

    [​IMG]

    600 Watt system with a very nice Receiver with multiple HDMI inputs.

    I had actually been looking at the speaker set online and then ended up finding the same set with the really nice receiver for only $30 more. Haven't gotten it completely setup yet, need some longer HDMI cables and a Digital Optical cable and I should be set. Sounds great though from what I do have setup.

    Thanks to everyone for their input/advice.
     
  26. DOLPHAN1

    DOLPHAN1 Premium Member Luxury Box

    oooooo, i feel so dirty now for having been to that sight.......:glare:
     
  27. gofins

    gofins Active Member

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    Just out of curiosity, why would you need a digital optical cable if you are using HDMI?
     
  28. DOLPHAN1

    DOLPHAN1 Premium Member Luxury Box

    he may have a device that does not have HD, but uses a progressive (component) hook up with digital audio. something like a digital cable box.
     
  29. unifiedtheory

    unifiedtheory Sub Pending Luxury Box

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    If you have the option of using a digital output cable in companion with HDMI that is the way I would go. I did a home sample with my DVD player using just HDMI and then did one using both and the sound with the HDMI/optical cable combo was VASTLY superior.
     
  30. Stitches

    Stitches ThePhin's Biggest Killjoy Luxury Box

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    I bought a home theater in a box prior to getting my 42" tv, it's like a 1000watt Phillips unit (HTS3450). I use yipper cables with it now, and I think it sounds really good. I know it isn't top of the line, but for around $150, I couldn't beat it.
     
  31. dolphan117

    dolphan117 Premium Member Luxury Box

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    That seems kinda odd, what kind of DVD player are we talking about?

    The problem with that aproach though even if it works better is that stuff like Dolby True HD can only go out over HDMI if I remember correctly.
     
  32. bg34

    bg34 Junior Member

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    I bought an Onkyo 7.1 ch speaker system. You can't go wrong with this equipment for the price, $499. No HDMI inputs, but that's really overrated. There's no need to run video through the reciever. The optical audio cable is how you get 7.1 surround, iirc.
     
  33. unifiedtheory

    unifiedtheory Sub Pending Luxury Box

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    It's a Denon DVD player. When I connected it through just HDMI my amp was only reading analog but when I connected it with HDMI and the optical it would read digital and my amp would switch it's setting automatically to the optimum setting. I connected my PS3 the same way and it did the same thing.
     
  34. dolphan117

    dolphan117 Premium Member Luxury Box

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    Thats odd as all heck, you should have been getting highest quality possible digital from HDMI alone.
     
  35. DOLPHAN1

    DOLPHAN1 Premium Member Luxury Box

    that is truely odd. HDMI is digital. i wonder if your Denon receiver has a switch when HDMI is used to let i know to receive the signal correctly. the reason for HDMI is to iliminate multiple cables and send true digital audio/video signals. as to if it will send 7.1 audio, i am not certain of that, but it should be able to handle that.
     
  36. dolphan117

    dolphan117 Premium Member Luxury Box

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    HDMI will definitely send 7.1 as long as you have a player and receiver that can decode and transmit on both ends. Depending on your player receiver combination you can only get 5.1 out of Dolby True HD for instance, even on a 7.1 receiver. Not a HDMI issue though, just have to have the right stuff on both ends.
     
  37. bg34

    bg34 Junior Member

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    So HDMI will send 7.1? I was told the only way to get 7.1 was with the optical audio cable.
     
  38. DOLPHAN1

    DOLPHAN1 Premium Member Luxury Box

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HDMI

    "Both introduced in 2006, Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD offer new high-fidelity audio features that require HDMI for best results. Dolby Digital Plus (DD+), Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio use bitrates exceeding TOSLINK's capacity. "



    HDMI is the next gen for home theater/entertainment. it is digital. it is audio and video as well.
     
    Last edited: Dec 30, 2007

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