New system with a healthy budget. HELP!!! (1 Viewer)

[VictorA]

I have recently been approved by the Dept. of Finance, (the wife), to make a system purchase. She approved 10K. We are building a new home in Austin TX., with a dedicated media room. The size will be 13x17. Currently I have an Harmon Kardon AVR220, a mid grade Toshiba DVD player, Panasonic 53" RPTV HD ready, and low end Jensen speaker system. I have some ideas but am relatively new to this. What would you guys build? Thanks for your time. Vic

 

[Michael Lomker]

Your question is too vague. What are you thinking of upgrading? I'm assuming the receiver and speakers will need to go but other than that, who knows.

If it were me I'd drop half your budget on a used Barco CRT projector and a 100" screen ... the rest would go for a nice Denon receiver and new speakers all around.

I'd sell the 53" TV and use the proceeds to buy some HT furniture or acoustical treatments for the new room. You might like your set, though! We need more info.

 

[Dustin B]

What Micheal said. 10K is a very nice budget for a system. But we need more info on what you are looking to accomplish with it. With some bargain hunting and a fair bit of work you could piece together an extremely nice system for that.

Are you planning to reuse any of the current equipment? If so, which equipment?

Are you more interested in video or audio quality, or do you want an even split?

Do you want to stick with RPTV, or do you want to venture into FPTV? If FPTV, do you think you can handle putting together a HTPC?

Will you mainly watch movies in this room or will there be a lot of 2ch music listening? Are you interested in being able to hit refernce level with movies or would 5-10dB below this be fine?

Does this budget include furnishing and acoustic treatments for the room?

Can you / are you willing to build some things yourself? Such as sub or speaker enclosures, screens, room treatments.

 

[Geoff McD]

ohhh...I love thinking up how to spend budgets!

Here's one option (and this is coming from an Audio kind of guy) - bulk up on the audio portion, and reuse the RPTV until you are ready for Phase II!!! This would get you:

Rotel 1095 THX Ultra amp (200 watts x 5)
(2) Klipsch RF-7 fronts
Klipsch RC-7 center
(2) Klipsch RS-7 surrounds
(2) (yes 2) Velodyne HGS-18 subwoofers (1250 watts each!!!)

Through my calculations (including some online prices) this should come in just a tad under 10,000.

So, with the above, you would use your exisitng H/K receiver for a Pre/Pro (I make a big assumption that it has DD 5.1 & DTS 5.1...I don't know that receiver). So with that monster of a THX Ultra amp, and your receiver acting as a pre/pro your half way to seperates!

That teamed to one of Klipsch's best home theater speaker systems, should produce some incredible sound! Throw in a pair of 18 inch servo controled woofers with a total of 2,500 watts behind them...and you can blow the walls apart!

Phase II:

Sharp 9000, or Marantz projector
Firehawk screen
Another Rotel THX Ultra amp (200 x 2)
Another pair of RS-7 surrounds
A decent pre/pro that does 6.1 and logic 7 and all that!

Phase III:

seating and stuff!

 

[Scott-C]

You may want to consider allocating some of that money to room treatments. The room will probably have the biggest impact on the way your system sounds, and you can improve it using some basic treatment techniques that are discussed here at HTF as well as in some other forums. For example, you might consider putting a sound absorption product such as Insulshield (from Johns-Mansville) below ear level, and cotton batting above ear level. Cover it all with acoustically transparent fabric.

If the room is treated pretty well, it will make your equipment sound much better, regardless of which products you decide to buy.

In addition to the room I happen to think speakers have the biggest influence on how a room sounds, so you may want to put some of the money into some that sound really good to you. In terms of video, you may want to think about a front projection system and a screen (again, the online forums have tons of info on this) for maximum impact.

Just some thoughts. Good luck!

 

[Dustin B]

Well I guess I could play too. $10k would come pretty close to getting what I eventually want to end up with.

I'd pick up two used Parasound HCA1203 amps or a single HCA1206 off Audiogon. Either way around $1000.

Get an Outlaw Audio 950 or Rotel Preamp $1000-$1500.

I get either 6 GR-Research AV1+ kits or 6 GR-Research AV3 kits or 6 Adire 281 kits. $300 or $329 or $300 (on a group buy) a pair. Add another $500-$750 for building and finishing materials (hopefully get stands out of this much too).

Two Adire Tempests in an IB configuration. Since you are building the house you could design the floor plan with this in mind. Powered with a Parasound HCA-1000A (used off audigon again) and eq with a Behringer Feedback Destroyer. This should run about $900.

Then I'd budget $3000-$4000 for a LCD or DLP front projector and another $100-$150 for a DIY screen.

Then I'd spend about a $750-$1000 building a HTPC.

$150 on a Home Theater Master MX500 remote.

Oops, that takes me a little past $10,000 and I still need to buy cabling and the stuff for some DIY room treatments.

Would be a lot of work, but a lot of fun also. The end result would be something to behold too.

 

[BobJ]

I have recently been approved by the Dept. of Finance, (the wife)

LOL
I was in the store drooling over a silver Rotel 1066, when my Dept. of Design walked over and said it was "pretty nice looking" and then actually proceeded to play with it for a couple of minutes-"it has a nice feel to it". I almost fell over in shock.

 

[Scott Oliver]

A couple of suggestions:

Give us more info as mentioned above.

Take your time 10K is not chump change and can get you some really nice stuff. Listen to it all before buying if at all possible. There are some pretty good dealers here in Austin, also there is a Home Theater Forum group, look in the Local Home Theater Meets, our next meeting is coming up in about three weeks. We are doing a processor shoot-out/party at Lake Austin for this next meet.

Know what you want out of the system. Do you listen to music much or will this be primarily a family movie watching spot? Make a list of your priorities. Also listening or watching a lot of differnet stuff may change your priorities from what you initially believe them to be.

 

[Jeff Engel]

I'll chime in since your budget is about the same as mine. Here's what I got:

Rotel RSP1066 pre/pro
Rotel RMB1075 120wX5 Amp
Rotel RMB1066 60wX6 Amp(Bridged for rear Surrounds)

B&W CDM9NT Front
B&W CDMCNT Center
B&W 602s3 Surrounds and Rear Surrounds(4)
SVS Dual16-46CS+ With the Sampson 1000 Amp

Accoustic Rearsearch Gold Cables for everything. Accesories4less.com for the cables.

All told I think the final bill was around 8k, I think I had everything included but I may have missed something as I had numerous invoices. I know that it cost less than 10k though and I'm pretty sure it was right around the 8k mark.

This is, of course, assuming you are going to keep the tv & dvd player. If you need a new tv also you could jump down the B&W line and get the CM series and save some money toward the video portion.

 

[rodneyH]

I like Jeffs set up, possibly a couple differences, get B&W 601s for the rears/surrounds, and 804 vs the CDM9NTs, and instead of DUAL SVS's (I have 1 and I can tell you it is PLENTY and with 804s it is much much more than enough) and use the $ you save there to get the HTM2 center

so to break it down

$1500-Rotel 1066 pre
$2000-Rotel RB-1090 (2X380-mains)
$600-Rotel RMB-1066 (bridged to 3X150-bi-amp center,+1 surround)
$600-Rotel RMB-1066 (bridged to 3X150-1 remaining surround and 2 side surrounds)

$3500 B&W 804 mains
$1000 B&W HTM2 center
$325 (?) B&W 600 rears
$325 (?) B&W 600 sides

$550 (?) SVS sub

this ends up being $10,400, but I am sure you would get at least 10% off if you bought it in a package deal.

some alterations could be made.

If you favor HT over music, get the CDM9 and CDMC and get better surrounds

 

[Lisa]

This thread is soooo funny! In my house the roles are reversed with a really nice twist. My Department of Finance has allowed me to run slightly amuck planning out the media room! What started out as a $12k budget for everything has ballooned into $15k and we haven't bought the speakers yet!

Good luck with your media room!

 

[Brian Burgoyne]

Keep the tv for now. Check into some room treatments like Scott said. Get a real nice receiver like the Pioneer Elite 49tx or some separates like the Rotel already mentioned or many other great choices. Speaker hunting can drive you crazy. There are so many great choices and it is such a matter of personal taste when you compare really good speaker brands. There are a fair number of places to audition equipment in Austin. There was even a thread back a few months ago. Search for that. There is a place called Sound Mind....something, can't remember. Look in the phone book. They have some JM Lab speakers you may want to audition. You must also audition Dynaudio speakers. Get some great Berkline home theater seating while you're at it. Let the wife help with speaker auditions and decorating.

Then, sometime next year....when the prices come down a little more....show her a plasma tv and say: "But honey, we didn't quite spend all of our money yet"

 

[John Garcia]

http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htfo...ghlight=austin
My fiance just bought a new house near south Austin, I will probably be there in a few months, pending work...which is not so easy when you aren't there.

 

[Scott Oliver]

If your living or moving to Austin, I would highly encourage you to check out the local HTF group. We currently have multiple threads going on the Local meets board and our next meeting is in a couple of weeks comparing HTPC's to various dVD players. We will also be building room treatments for thoses who want to particpate in that. Check it out, especially before going to spend 10K.