Another Newbie Looking for Guidance

Re: Another Newbie Looking for Guidance

No, the Onkyos have a separate (stereo only) B channel. So you can set yourself up as 7.1 for theater and still have the B channel for your other room.

On the other hand, at least with my older Onkyo, when you use the B channel the A channel is reduced to stereo also. So if you intend on running both rooms at the same time and want the theater to be pushing a theatrical mix you'll have to be creative. But I don't think that means chopping off two of the speakers, that would mean driving only the surround in the other room. I think you'll want to run the front channel with 4 speakers in series. But I'm out of my league on this, so if you go this route get more advice.


I'm a big fan of satellites for movies. But I don't think they do justice to music. If you are using the system mostly for music go this route very carefully.

Backtracking for a second, I have two satellite surrond systems: a main system and one in my computer room. I spent about $700 for some 5/1 Harman/Kardon speakers about 6 years ago and I *love* them for the movies. But for music they are just marginal. Now $700 isn't that much, but it's in the range you're looking. My second system I spent about $300 (on a lark) and they pretty much suck across the board. It's only a 10x12 room with a 23" screen, so I thought I could get away with it. Big mistake. My point here is only that speaker quality drops off quickly in this price range. For music in the computer room I hooked up 2 old college-era bookshelf speakers (on the B channel) and they are much better than the 5.1 satellites.

So, back to your system. If you didn't need to run sound into that other room my advice would be to get a decent 5.1/7.1 setup for theater viewing, and get a good pair of stereo speakers for music in the same room.

But since you have that other room, I'd say look for three matching front non-satellite speakers. You can use satellites for the other 2 or 4 surrounds. This approach makes the purchase a little more difficult as you have to get the speakers matched. For this reason you might want to go through a local audiophile store. I also think you'll have to up the budget for this set-up by maybe $500; but if you're listening to music it'll be well worth it.

If you want to get started now but stay on your budget, I'd say look to get the 3 front channel speakers now, add a subwoofer next, and then finally the surounds (which you can also do in pairs).

Re: Another Newbie Looking for Guidance

Considering your budget, I would go with the Onkyo HT-S9100 system, which would give you 7.1 sound in your main room, and stereo sound in a second room. The 9100 comes with 7 speakers and the subwoofer, is THX certified and has a mulitude of settings, inputs, outputs and decodes all of the newest Dolby and DTS formats found on Blu-Ray discs. You can purchase this system for around $800 or so, and can them purchase the extra 2 speakers for your other room. If you want to go with separates, I would still suggest and Onkyo receiver and the speakers of your choice.

Re: Another Newbie Looking for Guidance

With a $1500 budget, you can do WAY better than a HTiB like the 9100. Check out SVS complete packages for example - SVSound - Complete Systems