New budget home theater (1 Viewer)

[Xoam]

Hello all.

I'm moving to my new appartment next month and I'm in the market to get myself a sort-of proper home theater setup.

This is a scetch of how the living room is going to be:
http://xoam.net/images/livingroom.jpg
the red dots represent the front speakers, the green ones the surround ones, and the brown ones the center and sub.

there's 2 gaming-pc tables on the top wall, with the tv being against the right wall and the couch around the middle of the room. The idea of the home theater is mainly to enjoy series and movies, but will be used for music as well while gaming.

My budget is around 2000-3000 euro excluding the TV (already have a 50"plasma). This budget is however only if that extra bit of cash really gives me worthy extra sound. I don't want to pay an extra 1000 to get marginally better sound. I set my eyes on the denon avr-x2000 avr after reading some reviews about it, and it has all the features that I want (including a zone 2 for our workout-room, that I'm gonna use 2 stereo speakers in that I already have, so that's irrelevant for this topic). I'm probably gonna be using a raspberry pi to stream the content from my NAS to the TV (and pass through the audio to the AVR. I heard the raspberry pi is unable to pass true DTS-MA and TrueHD, that it downscales it to DTS, but I assume that for this kind of budget that doesn't really give a noticable sound difference anyway)

I am unsure what kind of boxes I should get to get best bang-for-the-buck. I've been googling and reading reviews for countless of hours now, but I can't seem to figure it out.

I was looking at the polk Tsi300's as front speakers, with maybe tsi100's as surround speakers and I haven't decided on a sub yet. However the cheapest tsi300's I can find are 220 euro, while in review I keep reading that people buy them for 100 or less on sale, so I feel like I'm not really getting good value for my money there.

Does any of you have any advice on what speakers to get (available in Europe, Belgium more specifically). Also the 'dilemma' of tower speakers as front and/or back speakers. I assume I should get tower speakers for the front 2, but the back 2 might as well be smaller ones, preferably on a stand or should I just put them on the floor?

 

[schan1269]

Being "over there", you have access to Dali. I'd buy 1500 euro Dali over 1000 euro Polk each and every day.You should connect your Raspberry Pi to the Denon as well, as I doubt your plasma passes 5.1 HDMI>optical.

 

[Xoam]

Being "over there", you have access to Dali. I'd buy 1500 euro Dali over 1000 euro Polk each and every day.You should connect your Raspberry Pi to the Denon as well, as I doubt your plasma passes 5.1 HDMI>optical.

Thanks for the suggestion!And yes, I will connect the Raspberry Pi to the denon, but I forgot to mention it as I don't have the denon yet.I looked up some Dali reviews (hadn't heard of them before) and found this setup:http://www.whathifi.com/review/dali-zensor-5-51This is the combination that seems to be in my pricerange. Do you think this would be a good combination with my avr? in a 40 square meters (~430 square foot) room?edit: I see the denon has this power rating: 7x95, while the speakers are rated quite a bit higher. Should I be worried about this?

 

[schan1269]

Don't pay any attention to AVR power. It isn't really 7x95. It is rated 95 on two channels at a time, then they just "say the rest". Reality is 45x7(maybe 60x7).

Most speakers will make your ears bleed on 15-20 watts.

Those Zensor are plenty. Not sure what you have access to from companies that are "subwoofer dedicated"(such as Velodyne) as I'd probably(again, we don't have Dali over here...but have heard many a Dali on my trips over there) skip that sub for something from a dedicated subwoofer company.

But that all depends what that subwoofer gets for reviews...on its own merit.

 

[Xoam]

Thanks for the advice!

I have 'completed' my set as follows (the 5.1 set wasnt able to be shipped to my place anyway):

2x zensor 5: 2x 249 Euro2x zensor 1: 2x 129 Euro1x zensor vokal: 249 Euro1x Boston Acoustics ASW 250: 299 Euro1x denon avr-x2000: 569 Euro

I can't seem to find reviews or guides on advise for proper subs, but maybe I shouldn't worry too much about the sub due to living in an appartment where the sub has to be quite low most of the time anyway.

Does this combination seem good?

Also, as this is my first DIY 5.1 system, what kind of cabling should I get? I had a z5500 set before which came in a box with all the cables I needed. I will most likely need to get cables myself for this system as they're gonna have to be longer. This is the shop where I'll be ordering most likely:
http://www.besthomecinema.nl/accessoires.html

I can get the cables elsewhere if they're better or cheaper though. But I need to know what type of cables I should get first
I was also looking at speaker stands. Is there much difference in these? I saw these looking quite slick: http://www.av4home.co.uk/acatalog/BT608-B-Tech-Atlas-Home-Cinema-Speaker-Floor-Stands.html but the panel is only 125x125, while the speakers are quite a bit bigger. Can I 'attach' the speakers to the stand or will they simply stand on top of it (and possibly fall off when our cat tries to jump on top of it etc).

 

[schan1269]

You could use Velcro to attach the speakers to the stand. Or you could attach something else to the stand to make a bigger platform. I've gone to dollar stores (you probably have the same type of store there, basically "cheap stuff") and picked up really thin cutting boards. Cut those to match the bottom of the speakers. Attach those to the stands.Speaker wire could be bought in bulk at a hardware store. Do you have a hardware store close?Otherwise, HDMI needn't be expensive, but...you live where the word "inexpensive" probably doesn't translate to reality. Sent from my LG-P769 using HTF mobile app

 

[Selden Ball]

Make sure the HDMI cables are certified as "High Speed", especially if your receiver is going to be more than a meter from the TV. "Standard Speed" cables cause viewing problems (image glitches and/or "sparklies") when they're used to watch full HD (1080p) movies. You should not have to pay a lot more for High Speed cables.

 

[Xoam]

Decided to go for 4x dali zensor 5 instead of spending the extra money on the stands. Can get them for a good price so should be a good deal

Another question though. The store I'm ordering from has a marantz sr6007 for about the same price as the denon avr-x2000. Would this be a better deal? I can't find any reviews that compare the 2, but from what I can see, the marantz sr6007 is a higher priceclass AVR that dropped price a lot recently.

 

[schan1269]

The 6007 is last years(hence the price). The X series Denon were released about 30-45 days ago.Sent from my LG-P769 using HTF mobile app

 

[Xoam]

Well yes, but in terms of features I don't see the denon having anything significant that the marantz doesnt also have. I assume the sound quality of the marantz will be better as its a higher 'class' avr, or am I seeing that wrong?

 

[schan1269]

Depends if the 6007 has HDAM and negative current. I don't think it does, but regardless, if it still gas the features you want, by no means is it a slouch.Sent from my LG-P769 using HTF mobile app

 

[Xoam]

Hmm. I looked up denon avr-x2000 with hdam and can't find anything about it, so I assume thatone doesn't have that either? I have no idea what it really does (other than what wikipedia just told me). The same kind of goes for negative current, what is it and what is it for?

Apologies for my noobishness :x

 

[schan1269]

HDAM and negative current* are Marantz features.*To differentiate themselves and the negative current is a "so what" amplifier topology.Sent from my LG-P769 using HTF mobile app

 

[Xoam]

Ahh okay, I assumed it was something widely used. Thanks for all the info

 

[Xoam]

I have found the following products quite cheap on amazon.de for all the cabling.

http://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B000PKWBA2/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A3JWKAKR8XB7XFhttp://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B0084XB5QS/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A15OTCJB8NW8T1http://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B004HIEJ3U/ref=ox_sc_act_title_3?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A2AXDM4ZK4WSIG

Would this be good for this setup?

 

[pioneer_bd]

Can anyone point me in the right direction to get a good deal on Dali Zensor 5 towers? The prices I'm finding locally are all the same for this model.