Help me build a Best Buy home theater (1 Viewer)

[RyanO]

It's not as bad as it sounds. :wink:

I recently started working at Best Buy, and of course I'm in home theater. Since I get a huge discount, it would be stupid to buy my equipment somewhere else. I just want a few opinions as to what you guys would choose and why based on my limited options.

As far as a receiver, I'm looking at either a Kenwood vr-7070 or a Yamaha HTR-5660. The kenwood is thx certified, but would that alone put it above the yamaha on your list?

For my mains I'm looking at a pair of jbl n38-II's, or some klipsch SF-2's. I will be getting the matching center and rears for either set. What do u guys think? Any feedback and opinions would be great.

 

[Bill_Wil]

The JBL's and Klipsch's sound quite a bit different so you should choose which sound you like the best. When I compared the two I liked the JBL's better especially for movies. I prefferred the JBL Studio Series though but I dont think Best Buy carries them anymore. Spend some time listening to each brand and figure out which ones you like the best. As far as the receivers go I prefer the Yamaha but once again its all a matter of taste. If you like your speakers to have more pronounced highs then you might choose Klipsch. If you prefer more lows then you might like the JBL's.

 

[Jon_Welker]

For speakers, it might not hurt to check out the Athena's carried at BB also. I've done some informal listening to them and they sounded very good for the money. I would also recommend Yamaha for the receiver duties. I believer that's their top of the line HTR model, and I've read in other posts that it's extremely similar to either their RXV 630 or 730, can't remember which. As for THX, don't get too hung up on that. Just remember that manufacturers have to pay lucasfilms (or whoever runs that operation) a fee to get equipment THX certified. All this means is that the equipment meets a set of standards as laid forth by lucasfilms. Of course, these standards are very elusive, and I don't think anyone knows quite exactly what they are. Personally, I think it's a lot of smaoke and mirrors. Well, I digress at times. Anyway good luck.

 

[Jason Kleeberg]

Get the cool Celestion speakers they now carry.

 

[Bill_Wil]

I agree with Jon that you should check out the Athena speakers. I liked those the best. I liked the AS-F2 the best. I wasnt able to hear the center speaker though and I've heard that it's a little weak. Not sure though.

 

[RyanO]

I think I will check out those Athena speakers. I've also decided on the yamaha htr-5690 because I believe it is similar to another yamaha receiver, only branded differently.

 

[mike_frontier]

The Celestion speakers sound really nice. I mean WOW!!!

I hear the Athena,s, JBL's, Bose, Yamaha and Klipsch's.

And those Celestion's sounds really damn good. I researched them and they seem to be some classy speakers with a total different design then your ordinary bookshelves.
The center really delivers and the bookshelf’s has a 4" driver and 1" (I think) tweeter.

I was going to get them yesterday after about 5 times going back and forth on the speaker selection and I finally got an hold of an BB employee and asked if they had them in stock and he said "NO" .
I plan on buying these out of the other speakers. They just seem to bring a theater to life. Oh as for watts there max is 100 so that will drive allot of people away (maybe). But I am using an HK 125,,, so I will be blessed



Did anyone else hear these Celestion speakers from BestBuy? What do you think about them?

 

[Vincent_S]

Get a KLH setup! They ROCK!!












J/K

 

[Jon_Welker]

Also, for cables unless you get a very substantial discount on Monster stuff, I would save money and by the Acoustic Research carried at BB, or maybe try an online cable retailer.

 

[NicholasTS]

Don't go with anything less than the Monster XP! You can get 60% off.
If you're looking for a small designer system that wishes it were big and bad get the Celestions. I agree they do sound very bright. They'll sound nice for light home theater listening but they're a bit over priced for what they are.
Personally if I were looking for a small system I'd go for the Klipsch Quintet system with the KSW-10 subwoofer and the Yamaha HTR-5640. You'll be amazed at how much they kick Bose's... well anyway. The quintet is the only micro-system I've seen that can really pound out the sound. And for $360 plus a Yamaha receiver dirt cheap you can't go wrong. Give me an idea of what your budget is going to be and I'll steer you in the right direction. As far as Best Buy's audio department goes I'm one you might want to talk to. PM me if I can help you more.

 

[NicholasTS]

Best Buy doesn't offer the Yamaha HTR-5690 yet. The only one being stocked at the present time is the HTR-5590.
Just for your information...

 

[Drew_W]

The fact that you get a discount is excellent, however, don't let that steer you into compromising sound quality...I would suggest to you to compare the speakers you carry at Best Buy to other brands you don't, such as Paradigm, and see how they stand up...

That said, the Athenas are GREAT speakers and are hard to beat for the price. Check out the links at http://www.athena-speakers.com ...and the fact that I have an Athena system now in my basement doesn't make me biased at all

 

[kenny_c]

I actually work at BB too. I just ordered some JBL 4 n38-II and the 12" sub on JBL's accomadation site. I like how JBL sounds over the Klipsch.

 

[Mike_J_D]

Also check out Axiom, www.axiomaudio.com. They are another Canadian speaker like Paradigm. They are reasonably priced and win awards every year. If you do decide to buy at BB because of your dicount I would buy the Athenas or the Celestions. Klipsch would be a good choice if you do buy the Yamaha. The raw power of Yamaha is a great combo with the easily driven Klipsch. Also don't worry about max input power on speakers. In all my years doing this I have learned that that means zilch.

 

[MarshallSlate]

ATHENA