Bought a house with speaker wiring already in place....need help! (1 Viewer)

[oslkirvaetrs]

First off, I apologize - I have NO knowledge when it comes to home theater setup, other than the basic idea that I need to get a tuner and some surround speakers.

We moved into a house this year, and the previous owner had the living room wired up for sound. There are four spots with faceplates a few feet high on the wall that look like the attached photo, and then there's some loose speaker wiring behind where we hooked up the TV.

Right now, we literally just use our Vizio Smart TV with nothing attached to it (other than a cable box and Blu-Ray player). I'd like to add a tuner and speakers at an affordable price. But the recommendation of brands, etc. is less important to me right now than getting a clearer picture of what is actually possible.

I want a setup that will work with the current TV, but also with a 4K when we buy one soon (if that even matters for this).

What do I need to do in order to determine:

1) What type of tuner is OK to buy? Any reason why the one below, or something similar, wouldn't work?

Yamaha tuner

2) What type of speakers are OK to buy? Does the example below seem OK?

Yamaha speakers

3) Any special considerations for hooking all this up? Again, I don't know anything about this, so any advice is greatly appreciated!

Thank you.

 

[Al.Anderson]

Those are basic speaker connections (and that's good for a quick setup; no external volume controls or such to worry about). Where do the other ends come out?

That Yamaha is fine, but a season or two old. Nothing wrong with that, but it should be cheaper (it's $350 on Amazon).

The speakers are fine for satellite speakers; especially for the general price. They will be much better than the TV and any home-theater-in-a-box (HTiB) setup. But they are a little limited in range. For TV/movies they'll be okay, but if you plan to listen to music I recommend going with bookshelf speakers (which really just means that the woofer size will be bigger, 4.5-5.5" instead of 2-3.5"). Bigger drivers move more air and can reproduce lower frequencies.

A lot of people like the Pioneer Andrew Jones speakers a a step up from a decent satellite ( https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00LBI88IQ/ref=twister_B00OU4KU02?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1 ). I have them for my HT system and they are not bad; not nearly in the same ballpark as my music system ( http://www.axiomaudio.com/epic-grand-master-175-home-theater-system ), but not bad.

Also, Yamaha has a few "packaged systems" that night save you a little money if you stay on your current path. Packaged systems are real components (not HTiB), but are sold together.

The only other basic advice is that everything should go to the receiver first (DVD/Bluray, etc), then to the TV. So make sure you get a receiver with enough inputs, and the right kind of inputs, for whatever peripherals you want to use.

 

[ArmSC]

What do I need to do in order to determine:
1) What type of tuner is OK to buy? Any reason why the one below, or something similar, wouldn't work? Yamaha tuner
2) What type of speakers are OK to buy? Does the example below seem OK? Yamaha speakers
3) Any special considerations for hooking all this up? Again, I don't know anything about this, so any advice is greatly appreciated!
Thank you.

First let me say welcome to the forum! Now let's see if we can get you in the right direction.

1. What type of tuner is OK to buy...well you're going to want some kind of AVR to power/control the system. Which one you get depends on your budget and features you're looking for. The example you linked is ok but I would go for the newer RX-V381 $280 as it has HDCP 2.2 on all the HDMI inputs vs 1. That means you can have more than one copywrite protected 4k source. A basic 5.1 like this would be the basic model that you need to get started. If you wanted a zone 2 or more inputs, networking, wireless ect you'll have to step up in the model line no matter the brand.

2. What type of speakers are OK? Well pretty much anything you can buy will work with your system. The quality is largely reflected in the price so the more you spend the better they will sound. This is especially relative in the budget arena. So again we are back to budget and also looks. If you're going to for smaller speakers look for the best you can get in your budget. Generally the larger the speakers the better they will sound but if the wife will only allow you to get sats no point in looking at towers. So what's your budget? The ones you linked will work just fine but they aren't going to be good for a larger room as they are quite small and inefficient. Great starter set though.

3. There shouldn't be any special considerations it's just speaker wire so you're looking at some basic connections normally. Normally it's pretty intuitive.


TLDR: You need an AVR to match features you want. You'll need some speakers to output sound from AVR. What you get depends on taste and budget.

 

[David Willow]

First let me say welcome to the forum! Now let's see if we can get you in the right direction.

1. What type of tuner is OK to buy...well you're going to want some kind of AVR to power/control the system. Which one you get depends on your budget and features you're looking for. The example you linked is ok but I would go for the newer RX-V381 $280 as it has HDCP 2.2 on all the HDMI inputs vs 1. That means you can have more than one copywrite protected 4k source. A basic 5.1 like this would be the basic model that you need to get started. If you wanted a zone 2 or more inputs, networking, wireless ect you'll have to step up in the model line no matter the brand.

2. What type of speakers are OK? Well pretty much anything you can buy will work with your system. The quality is largely reflected in the price so the more you spend the better they will sound. This is especially relative in the budget arena. So again we are back to budget and also looks. If you're going to for smaller speakers look for the best you can get in your budget. Generally the larger the speakers the better they will sound but if the wife will only allow you to get sats no point in looking at towers. So what's your budget? The ones you linked will work just fine but they aren't going to be good for a larger room as they are quite small and inefficient. Great starter set though.

3. There shouldn't be any special considerations it's just speaker wire so you're looking at some basic connections normally. Normally it's pretty intuitive.


TLDR: You need an AVR to match features you want. You'll need some speakers to output sound from AVR. What you get depends on taste and budget.

I don't agree with price being the determining factor on how speakers sound. Look at BO$E for example. They are way overpriced and can be easily beaten by speakers costing a fraction as much. And when I last purchased speakers I opted for the cheaper ones. I did like the more expensive ones but not enough to spend another $1000 on them (they were in my budget so that was not the determining factor).

 

[ArmSC]

I don't agree with price being the determining factor on how speakers sound. Look at BO$E for example. They are way overpriced and can be easily beaten by speakers costing a fraction as much. And when I last purchased speakers I opted for the cheaper ones. I did like the more expensive ones but not enough to spend another $1000 on them (they were in my budget so that was not the determining factor).

I certainly respect your option and agree with you but I was talking in very general ideas. You wouldn't expect a $100 pair of speakers to sound better than say a $300 pair of speaker as a general rule. I didn't even consider Bose because they are on a different planet.