Need help setting up surround sound in new house (1 Viewer)

[Mars1560]

Alright, here is my problem. My wife and I are moving into a house for the first time. We are renting it for a long time from someone, he is fixing it up. He was installing crown molding and wanted to know if we wanted surround sound. We said yes. We bought monster speaker wire from best buy, and he hid it behind the crown molding. It is a relatively big living room, the back speakers will be maybe 20-30 feet back. The problem is we are working with a limited budget and a credit card from best buy which means I am stuck to buying stuff from Best Buy and it should probably be around or under $350. I have been looking a lot at best buy but all the HTIB (home theaters in a box) with a DVD player or Blu-ray, have proprietary wiring, which I have heard is hard to hook standard cable wire up to. So I am wondering what options I have. Is it possible to have standard wire hooked to the proprietary wiring, if so how much is that and do I have to do that through the manufacturer. I am new to all of the terminology with this stuff, so if you could make it as basic as possible that would be great. I really appreciate any help anyone can offer. Thank you so much.

Scott

 

[Al.Anderson]

First things first - never, ever, pay good money for Monster cables. They are extrememly overpriced. It sounds like you used the wires already, if not, bring them back. You can get high quality wires from Bluejeanscable or Monoprice for about a third of the price you paid.


Next rear speakers are the 6th and 7th speakers in a 7.1 setup. You really don't need them, especially if you're on a budget. Skip the rears and go 5.1 (the surround speakers go on the side). If you're doing new construction, it does make sense to wire for the rear speakers. And you can get a 7.1 receiver to be ready to add the rear speakers later. (In the meantime, all receivers can be set to use fewer then the maximum.)


Last, I don't think you'll be happy with a low-end HTiB setup for a large living room. You could squeak by in a small bedroom or something, but it'll feel very thin in a large room. Your most likely bet it to go with an Onkyo HTiB. For all but the lowest line, the Onkyos simply bundle a regular receiver in with thier own speakers. The branded speakers are not the best, but they're not junk either. And the reciever will be a fully operational receiver with most of the entry level bells and whistles, and more importantly, all the connections you'll need. (Most HTiB receiver don;t offer suffficient connections to add things like external DVD players, Xboxs, etc.)

 

[zhgtkwyy]

The upstairs say very professional. Learn it.