Need help finishing my HT!!!! (1 Viewer)

[Alowe]

I am a bit new to this realm, as I am more of a PC guru so bear with me please...

So i took the dive and bought the Sammy 6187 after looking at what seemed like dozens of systems. The room I will be housing this beauty will be 25' wide by 15' deep. It will be sitting upon an oak stand I made (about 225 lbs of marvel), that will be holding all other electronics. At the other end of the 15' will be my couch, also where I will be. I will have a SA Explorer 8300HD DVR connected to it along with my XBOX 360 w/HD-DVD.

What I am looking for advice it amp and speakers. I would like a 7.1 amp but am looking for only 5.1 now with speakers. Amp I would like HDMI 1.3 but not a deal breaker for me. I have about 1200 to spend on the amp, and about 1500 on the speakers. The speakers are my main concern. I will be listening to movies and TV through them about 90% of the time, CD listening is not a big concern with this setup. I am looking for some suggestions with the budget and the size of this room.

Thanks in advance,

Andy

 

[Alowe]

Nobody?

 

[Bob McElfresh]

Hi Andrew.

We tend to discourage specific make/model recomendations here in the Basics section. So I will move your post to the Speakers fourm, since that is your main concern.

I will give you some 'generic' advice:

Home Theater (and games) dont need highly-accurate speakers. Music-quality speakers are nice but you can save a lot of money if you are mainly doing movies.

The subwoofer is critical. You might look into sets of speakers that come with great subwoofers like the ones from SVS or HSU. (I personally prefer the SVS subs myself).

(Now I am breaking my own rule). For Christmass - I bought a Dennon HTIB from BestBuy for about $700 for my daughters apartment. The receiver did HDMI & up-conversion. The speakers are decent, but not music quality. But again -its not needed for movies. The same set was later fetured in the Feb issue of Home Theater magazine where they showed how this HTIB could later be expanded with better speakers and subwoofer.

If it were me: I'd buy the Dennon HTIB, and upgrade the subwoofer with one from SVS if the included sub failed to impress. This puts you at a total of ~1,500 for the upgrade.

That gives you extra money for a nice universal remote and software.

Hope this helps.

 

[Alowe]

Appreciate the advice. I actually looked at the model you are speaking of (Denon). I am setup to listen to several models next week. I have been doing quite a bit of reading and plan on spending a bit on the sub, from reading the posts here it seams to be a pivitol part of the setup. I have decided on the Denon 2807 to go with my Sammy 6187. I have read quite some on the Axiom 50's.

I also just listened to the SVS PB12-NSD and thought is was amazing matched with a highend KEF surround. The bass was amazing, watched the pod race scene from Star Wars and the opening to Saving Private Ryan. Bass blew me away, so that may be my choice on the sub.

Really what I am looking for is this: with the size of my room (2177 cu ft), what is a good range in speakers for me? I have listened to speakers in the rooms at BB, CC, and Magnolia, am I know the accoustics are much greater that what I have. Some sound great, some sound a little more tinny?? if that makes sence. Just looking for a good guideline when purchasing. Looked in home theater mag, and others and really cant find a good list of things to look for.

Thanks for the help and a great site,

Andy

 

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

How the speakers sound – “tinny” etc. – has as much with size of the room and your distance from the speaker as it does the speaker’s design.

A couple rules of thumb: If the room your demoing in is larger than yours, the bass response of the speaker you’re listening to will probably increase when you get it home. If the demo room is smaller than yours, the speaker’s bass will decrease at your place. Note also that bass will also be affected by how close the speakers are to a wall or corner both in the demo room and yours, too. The further the speaker gets from walls and (especially) corners, the more bass decreases.

Your physical distance from the speakers matters, too, for treble response. The closer you are to the speaker, the brighter it will sound (i.e., more treble).

Keep in mind that basic tone control can be accomplished by the receiver, to make them sound “right” in your room

Since this is mainly for move and TV use, there is no good reason to get anything larger than good bookshelf speakers with woofers 6-1/2” or so (although 5-1/ 4” woofs would be okay too). Axiom has a good reputation (although I haven’t personally heard them). SVS now has a set of home theater speakers that have a lot in common with their subwoofers – excellent sound on the cheap. Those I have heard, and they sound amazing for the money.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

 

[Alowe]

Thanks for the reply. I was looking at the SVS complete and liked what I saw. Have not heard it yet. Was always wondering how much of a difference floorstanding and bookshelf there was. Reading it does not seem to be a huge difference to the "Basic, but educated consumer" like myself.

I also looked at the Ascend 340.

Here is something else I wanted to know. How if I was to ONLY get the two mains, a center, and a quality sub, with money going towards the sub. Then finish the 5.1 later on with the surrounds. I may have to scale back on the funds so maybe just those in the beginning or should I just get the whole package?

Thanks for all the responses,

Andy