Re: New and need HELP
Hi Jim.
Well - that room is a bit of an acoustic challenge. We have all tried to make combo living room and home theater rooms and while they do work, a dedicated HT in a spare bedroom usually works better.
If you buy modest but decent speakers - they travel. Never let someone try to up-sell you to high-end speakers because of your room. Even cheap speakers in a room with poor acoustics can still give you a good movie experience so we will keep it sane.
First - speakers and power: Since you surround your couch with an array of speakers, you do not need huge speakers and tons of power for this. In your case, smaller monitor-style speakers that do not create lots of side and back echo sounds might work better.
Second - its the subwoofer that needs to be higher end to fill an open space. I strongly recommend you look for "SVS Woofers" as this is an internet company started by two guys who have helped lots of people design and build their own subs, then amid pressure, created a company. SVS also sell speakers and one of their sets made the Editors Choice or Best of the Year in some review magazines in Jan. (hit your library for back issues to see this).
You must make the 5 speakers be from the same make/model so they tone match but the subwoofer can be from a different company.
The Onkyo is a fine choice and it also has been on "Best of the year" and "Editors Choice" in several magazines.
Some other things:
- buy a spool of 12 ga speaker wire from
Parts-Express.com - Speakers, Speaker Building, Home Audio and Video, Pro Audio, Electronic Parts & Accessories PARTS EXPRESS, Speakers, Speaker Parts, Guitar speakers, Bass speakers, Woofers, Drivers, speaker upgrades and replacement speakers. Emine and use it everywhere.
- plan your interconnects and buy them from
Blue Jeans Cable -- Broadcast-Quality Cables at Reasonable Prices. The owner is a member here and takes good care of us. My 'long' HDMI cable was $38.
- Go with a PS3 if you can to get a game and BluRay player. If not - look at some of the new Samsung BluRay players as they are running $180 and seem to perform well.
- plan on running network cable behind your equipment as many devices these days want internet access. Things like BDLive, Netflix, etc. are all becoming common and want internet access.
Once you get things setup - it will probably work fine.
There are things you can do with room acoustics like putting diffuser panels on walls to tame reflections. The tile floor -- this could be a little tough. You may want to find some thick rugs to tame early reflections.
Here is how you do this:
- Sit in the primary seat.
- Have a friend move a mirror tile along the wall until you can see the front speakers reflected. Mark this spot with a post-it. Repeat for the floor.
- Every spot you mark is a source of 'early reflections'. These are the places you put a sound panel or a thick rug.
Hope this helps.
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