Jamie Peters
Agent
- Joined
- Jan 14, 2004
- Messages
- 38
MODERATORS: I looked thru the main menu and I didn't see where I should place this topic, so I figured the receiver/Separates/Amps section would be good since this is where I got most of my information. If this is the wrong place, I am sorry and you may move to the appropriate forum....
First of all, I want to give some thanks and credit here... This forum is an awesome resource for non-audiophiles to learn about HT equipment when researching their first system. I read for about 2-weeks before doing any buying. That is the smartest thing I have done in a while. Thanks HTF for providing a great site. Secondly, two HTF members, Phil "Mr. JBL" Iturralde and CHADLB, helped me off-line on several items, spending great time and efforts to make sure I knew what was going on and to help me layout my new hardware....
After buying my new Hitachi 51S500, I definitely needed some sound to go with it. I had a $1000 budget and wanted more than I felt I could get in a HTiB unit. I knew with this budget constraint, I could not go "top shelf" on all my equipment but wanted to buy a good base system that could be expanded/upgraded at a later date. After much thought and research, I ended up buying the following:
Receiver: Onkyo 701. Since this is the "heart" of a HT set-up, I felt like I needed to purchase a little more than entry if I ever wanted to upgrade. I got a really good buy on this at bestpriceaudiovideo.com $599 with free shipping.
Sub: HSU STF-2. After all the research, I found that everyone agreed that for a mid priced sub, this one would be hard to beat. I ordered this from HSU at $399 and free shipping. I will also say that I am impressed with the delivery time. It came from California to my door in Tennessee in 4 days (did I mention it was FREE shipping!)
Speakers: This is the place where I was looking to get entry level performance/price. After much research, reading reviews, and listening to local set-up's, I decided on the JBL NSP1 Home Theater system. The size was right and with the 4" drivers they were a little better than true satellites. These were purchased at Bestpriceaudiovideo.com at $205. Since I bought these the same time I bought the receiver which had free shipping, these were also shipped for free. Wanting to do a 6.1 system, I needed one extra N24II speaker. I could not find one on ebay or here in the classifieds, so I ended up buying a new pair from buy.com for $79. With shipping this came to $94. I got a on-line rebate for $20 so when this get redeemed by mail, I will only have $74 in them.
Cables/Wires: Because I did not know how I would route everything, I decided to wait and buy locally. I know I could have gotten better cables at a better price on line, but did not want to wait. I ended up buying 2 Monster Optical Audio Cables, a Monster 12ft Sub Cable, and a 250ft spool of WOODS brand 12ga speaker wire. All together I had $110 in cables. I already had the Component cables for my DVD and HD Cable box.
So, for those of you keeping score... For the audio portion of my system, I spent right at $1400. Over budget, but I felt spending extra on my receiver and sub merited the overage.
Wiring it all up: The installation went slow, but I did not have any major problems. Doing this for the first time could be intimidating, but with a little thought and much patience, it is a snap. Running the surround and rear channel speaker wires was the most time consuming. Since I had the extra N24II, I now have two rear channel speakers. Even though I have only one powered output on the ONKYO, I wired these in series. It worked fine.
SET-UP: The set-up menu on the ONKYO was very straight forward. Setting the inputs, speaker sizes, speaker distances, and crossover takes about 5 minutes. After that, using a SPL meter and the DVE disk took me about 1-hour of tweaking, but never the less, was very straight forward.
RESULTS:
In one word "AWESOME". After the calibration, I put in the Pearl Harbor DVD and went straight to the attack scene. That HSU sub kicks butt. It hits so hard (even below reference levels) I had to pick some of the room decorations up off the floor. It is very clear and crisp. I guess the biggest surprise in the whole system is the JBL N24's all the way around and the N-center. The front and rear sound stage is seamless. The imaging is also remarkable for speakers that I thought would be entry level. The cross over is set at 80hz. I have listened to several pieces of music that I know well and I can not detect any holes at all. To say the least, I am very happy with my choice to purchase these speakers. Although reported by several people, the N-center sits directly on top of the Hitachi RPTV and I DO NOT have any shielding problems.
What I learned:
1. You don't necessarily get what you pay for....sometimes you get more as in the case of the JBL's.
2. Don't forget the cables/wires! I was shocked on how much they cost.
3. Your room does not have to be symmetric if your receiver has the capability of setting distances and you have the power in the receiver to compensate.
4. There is no substitute for research when buying electronics.
5. You CAN HAVE good quality audio, even on a budget.
Sorry this was so long, but I just wanted to share what I learned and what I did. Maybe, this will help others who are starting from ignorance as I did about 2 months ago....
Jamie
First of all, I want to give some thanks and credit here... This forum is an awesome resource for non-audiophiles to learn about HT equipment when researching their first system. I read for about 2-weeks before doing any buying. That is the smartest thing I have done in a while. Thanks HTF for providing a great site. Secondly, two HTF members, Phil "Mr. JBL" Iturralde and CHADLB, helped me off-line on several items, spending great time and efforts to make sure I knew what was going on and to help me layout my new hardware....
After buying my new Hitachi 51S500, I definitely needed some sound to go with it. I had a $1000 budget and wanted more than I felt I could get in a HTiB unit. I knew with this budget constraint, I could not go "top shelf" on all my equipment but wanted to buy a good base system that could be expanded/upgraded at a later date. After much thought and research, I ended up buying the following:
Receiver: Onkyo 701. Since this is the "heart" of a HT set-up, I felt like I needed to purchase a little more than entry if I ever wanted to upgrade. I got a really good buy on this at bestpriceaudiovideo.com $599 with free shipping.
Sub: HSU STF-2. After all the research, I found that everyone agreed that for a mid priced sub, this one would be hard to beat. I ordered this from HSU at $399 and free shipping. I will also say that I am impressed with the delivery time. It came from California to my door in Tennessee in 4 days (did I mention it was FREE shipping!)
Speakers: This is the place where I was looking to get entry level performance/price. After much research, reading reviews, and listening to local set-up's, I decided on the JBL NSP1 Home Theater system. The size was right and with the 4" drivers they were a little better than true satellites. These were purchased at Bestpriceaudiovideo.com at $205. Since I bought these the same time I bought the receiver which had free shipping, these were also shipped for free. Wanting to do a 6.1 system, I needed one extra N24II speaker. I could not find one on ebay or here in the classifieds, so I ended up buying a new pair from buy.com for $79. With shipping this came to $94. I got a on-line rebate for $20 so when this get redeemed by mail, I will only have $74 in them.
Cables/Wires: Because I did not know how I would route everything, I decided to wait and buy locally. I know I could have gotten better cables at a better price on line, but did not want to wait. I ended up buying 2 Monster Optical Audio Cables, a Monster 12ft Sub Cable, and a 250ft spool of WOODS brand 12ga speaker wire. All together I had $110 in cables. I already had the Component cables for my DVD and HD Cable box.
So, for those of you keeping score... For the audio portion of my system, I spent right at $1400. Over budget, but I felt spending extra on my receiver and sub merited the overage.
Wiring it all up: The installation went slow, but I did not have any major problems. Doing this for the first time could be intimidating, but with a little thought and much patience, it is a snap. Running the surround and rear channel speaker wires was the most time consuming. Since I had the extra N24II, I now have two rear channel speakers. Even though I have only one powered output on the ONKYO, I wired these in series. It worked fine.
SET-UP: The set-up menu on the ONKYO was very straight forward. Setting the inputs, speaker sizes, speaker distances, and crossover takes about 5 minutes. After that, using a SPL meter and the DVE disk took me about 1-hour of tweaking, but never the less, was very straight forward.
RESULTS:
In one word "AWESOME". After the calibration, I put in the Pearl Harbor DVD and went straight to the attack scene. That HSU sub kicks butt. It hits so hard (even below reference levels) I had to pick some of the room decorations up off the floor. It is very clear and crisp. I guess the biggest surprise in the whole system is the JBL N24's all the way around and the N-center. The front and rear sound stage is seamless. The imaging is also remarkable for speakers that I thought would be entry level. The cross over is set at 80hz. I have listened to several pieces of music that I know well and I can not detect any holes at all. To say the least, I am very happy with my choice to purchase these speakers. Although reported by several people, the N-center sits directly on top of the Hitachi RPTV and I DO NOT have any shielding problems.
What I learned:
1. You don't necessarily get what you pay for....sometimes you get more as in the case of the JBL's.
2. Don't forget the cables/wires! I was shocked on how much they cost.
3. Your room does not have to be symmetric if your receiver has the capability of setting distances and you have the power in the receiver to compensate.
4. There is no substitute for research when buying electronics.
5. You CAN HAVE good quality audio, even on a budget.
Sorry this was so long, but I just wanted to share what I learned and what I did. Maybe, this will help others who are starting from ignorance as I did about 2 months ago....
Jamie