dorm room audio/HT (1 Viewer)

[dylanST]

hello all.

im a college kid livin in a dorm. as of now i have a 15'' Sony Wega LCD Flat panel tv and a harman/kardon DVD 22 player. I want to add a receiver and some speakers but i dont have an extremely large budget. I want to get surround sound and have it be pretty classy. I was looking at the Onkyo TX-SR503 and thats about the price i want to spend on a receiver but I really havent got a specific idea on what I want. I liked that one because it got good reviews here at audioreview.com. I want to get speakers, not too small and not too big. I was looking at the Fluance SX-THB(?) and they looked too big and little too expensive. any replies are much appreciated. I have about 500 to spend and i dont want to go much over that. I have been told that the Pioneer 815 is a great receiver and for speakers i should look at something that specializes in speakers...such as Infiniti or Polk, Paradigm. I was looking to buy the receiver on eBay and mayb e the speakers but I guess i should hear the speakers first. Thanks

-dystrother

 

[Jack Briggs]

Dylan, since you seem to be asking for suggestions about speakers, your thread has been moved here to Speakers/Subs. The Basics area is strictly for general discussion at the beginner level. Best of luck, and welcome to Home Theater Forum.

 

[Jim Rakowiecki]

Dylan, I was in a similar position not too long ago and if your dorm room was anything like mine was you'll be better off going with a decent two channel set up that you can build on later. The acoustics are terrible and good speaker placement is impossible.
Get a surround reciever but stick with just two quality book shelf speakers that you will be able to convert to rear speakers when you have more room and money.
You may want to check out Boston, Paradigm, Polk or Def Tech. They all make fine book shelf speakers in the $200.00 $300.00 per pair range. If you try and do a 5.1 speaker set up on your budget you will probably be dissapointed in the results.
Remember you will get the biggest bang for your buck with speakers so if you have to make choices go with a less expensive reciever or you can find any number of sites that sell refurbished units that will help you stretch your budget.
Good luck and good hunting
Jim

 

[Rory Buszka]

My dorm room setup uses a Harman-Kardon AVR335, a 500W 12" powered DIY subwoofer using the AE Speakers AV12 woofer and dual 15" Passive Radiators, and two DIY main speakers that are similar to the Def Tech BP8B, but not bipolar. (Parts express had the BP8's drivers as a buyout product.) If you haven't been willing to do a TON of research and learning on the subject of DIY, then I wouldn't recommend trying it for this. What you probably want is a Harman/Kardon AVR235 and a pair of Def Tech PowerMonitor speakers, which are bookshelves with built in powered subwoofers. I heard them once at an Ovation store and they were admirable performers even at the high volume the salesperson played them at. I guess the salesman figured that since I was young, that I'd be into 'loud' music but I'm really not. Sometimes I do like to turn it up though.

I wouldn't mind having a big H/K stereo receiver and a pair of VMPS RM-2, though.

 

[Marty M]

My son took my pair of Paradigm Atoms for his dorm room and has been very pleased with them.

 

[mackie]

This thread brings back memories... It's been a long time since I lived in a dorm. Back then power drinking was over looked and smoking cigarettes was still allowed.

A couple rules of thumb back then. Put a towel on top of the speakers so they won't get cigarette burns or rings from beer cans on them. Only the person that owned them could control the volume, and at 10:00 p.m. the RA was going to tell you to turn it down...

 

[DarrenAlan]

Not to be an A-hole or anything, but I do have one tip that has nothing to do with music or HT -- employers want people who can read and write grammatical, typo-free sentences. So I might start by working on that.