Help on selecting compatible home theatre components (1 Viewer)

[zabs22]

Ill give a brief introduction of my room and decided components. I will have a dedicated theater room which is 18x 15 and I will black out the windows that are in the room. The ceilings are vaulted and are quite high. The centerpiece will be a 92" Mitsubishi DLP (tentative, haven't pressed the order button yet but I feel this is the biggest bang for my proverbial buck at 3000 dollars). I know very little about home theater and weve always had only integrated sound on our tvs at home as a child. This is my first time living alone in a new home. My budget for just the home theater components ( speakers, receiver, sub etc) is 4000 dollars. I am planning on picking up bass guitar so I'm curious if I could plug in to this setup somehow with that? I listen to music quite a bit and will be plugging in my computer quite frequently rather than just watching movies. The tv and stand will be at one end of the room ( 15 foot end opposite of windows) The chairs will be placed in the middle of the room and Ill have 4 recliners. I would like a 7.1 setup. What is a good speaker, subwoofer, receiver combo for my needs? I know a lot of it is arbitrary and not as well defined as other technologies so it is difficult more me to choose as most places in my city only have htiabox setups which I don't like the sound of. I've played the saxophone and Japanese harp before and I like a more gentler refined bass sound if that makes sense?

 

[schan1269]

I would go straight to British speakers. Easiest to find is KEF. If you want a leap of faith in trying to find any...Wharfedale. Mordaunt Short would also be a wise brand to seek out. As far as AVR goes, it would help to know your sources... Wii/PS3/Xbox? VCR? DVD/BD? Your guitar will be a challenge...but could be done with a mixer(so you can dial in the guitar) that has RCA outputs.

 

[zabs22]

Ill be going a bit over budget but how about 7 KEF Q900 8 inch standing speakers and 1 KEF cube1 150 watt subwoofer? I dont have an xbox or any other multimedia and I will be buying a 3d blueray player. At best Ill get an ps3. Also I decided to buy a standalone amp for the bass after consulting with some musician friends. So I need 6 speakers and one subwoofer and use the tv as a centre im assuming? Can I just buy 3 pairs of identical speakers and a subwoofer? Ill search for those speakers online.

 

[schan1269]

I would not use the TV as center(although I think Mits still offered "TV as center" as a feature) because asking the TV to "keep up" with a slew of Q900 would be a tall order. You can try it...if it works, for you, great. To do that you need an AVR with pre-outs...which the lowest price AVR are the Onkyo NR709 from last year and 717 this year.if not a fan of Onkyo, the Denon 3313(2113 might have pre-outs).

 

[TheGary]

Is there anywhere you could go listen? When spending this amount of money you usually want to select a set that pleases you. If you can't though, definitely look up reviews and see which speakers are "warm" or "bright" and which one suits you the most. If you want to stay within KEF, I would suggest these. Front L/R: KEF Q700 - $1500 (8" woofers are huge, 6.5" should be fine down to mid-bass, then have your sub(s) take care of the rest) Center: KEF Q600C - $650 Surrounds: Up to you. You can either use floorstanding or bookshelves on stands, keep in mind that you'll probably go overbudget. You need to get a receiver + amp with those speakers, so keep that in mind when you budget out. For high quality subs, people generally lean towards SVS and HSU. A couple SVS PB-1000 or PB-12 will probably be a good fit for you. If you can branch out to other brands, there are lots of other options. One option is the Polk RTi series and B&W 683. Keep in mind that the best option is to just go to a shop and demo different speakers, but you'll probably have to buy them there, don't be one of those guys go into stores and buys them online..

 

[TheGary]

Another option is the Definitive Technology 8060 fronts. At Crutchfield they are running a promo when you buy a pair of those ($2k) you get a free matched center and 2 surrounds ($1k value).