Way ahead of myself, but... (1 Viewer)

[Nathan_W]

I just got a new TV and DVD player and have it hooked up to a modest (especially by the standard here) shelf type system. I'll eventually get a receiver and mains, but what next? A sub or a center? I'll be using it for somewhere around 65/35 or 70/30 in favor of music.

Thanks

 

[Saurav]

I would recommend a sub, especially if your mains are bookshelves.

 

[Nathan_W]

Thanks for the reply. Yeah, I'll buy bookshelves for mains.

 

[Dan Hine]

Nathan,

While I'm not sure what type of "shelf system" you may have, I am willing to bet that a center channel will not gain you anything. A subwoofer might help but not necessarily. I had a shelf system once and added a subwoofer to it and it did not add much to the experience. Also, for the amount of cash you'll have to put down for a decent subwoofer you might consider saving a little cash and get a HTiB. Something from Kenwood would most likely be a huge upgrade and not cost too much more than a sub.

Dan Hine

 

[Martin Rendall]

I'd get the sub, for sure. Especially if you're not one of those audiophile snobs, and will run it for music - a good musical sub should blend in nicely with music, which is still your primary interest.

The HTIB idea is a good one too. I guess it depends on your wants, and how quickly (or slowly) you think you may upgrade in the future.

Martin.

 

[Jon_R]

I think you'll find that home theater is a wonderful, albeit pricey, hobby. You obviously have lots of options ahead of you concerning future purchases. Here is what I usually suggest.

Everyone is into a quick fix these days and will quickly recommend a HTiB or some other package deal. I think that to yield the very best performance/price ratio that one should build their setup piece by piece over time. The first step is the biggest requiring the purchase of a receiver AND some bookshelf mains. If the bookshelf mains are in the $300/pr range you will have some very excellent imaging, a wealth of options, and a stereo setup that will beat the pants of of any HTiB, with good reason. Of course you will only have 2 speakesr, but they are quality and a good start.

In an ABSOLUTE pinch, you could get a new receiver, use the speakers from the bookshelf setup as your mains for a short while and then upgrade. This is the cheapest intial option. Of course you'd have to be very careful about volume and what not but it can be done, I did it a long time ago.

So, assuming you bought a receiver and a set of bookshelf mains your next upgrade would have to be a center channel. At this point, you now have a good quality 3 channel setup with those 2 bookshelf speakers from before pulling surround duty.

See where this is going? Using this approach you can build a quality setup fairly quickly and it will definitely yield terrific results. You could go with the entry level B&W, Paradigm, PSB, Axiom or a host of others.

Personally, I would add a sub before replacing the surround speakers as a sub will add more impact but that is personal choice. I built my setup using these methods. Oh, if you can use Ebay to upgrade. I sold my Sony Str-DE445 for $150 and picked up a Denon avr-681 (functionally equivalent to the 1601) for $200. Thus the Denon was a $50 upgrade!

One last thing. My process is long and requires lots of dedication BUT if you know you will not be content with a HTiB then why bother with the intial outlay of cash? While a quality 2 ch. setup won't completely beat a HTiB, it will come closer than you think AND you did mention that your setup is primarily going to be used for music.

Good luck with whatever you choose.

 

[Dan Hine]

Everyone is into a quick fix these days and will quickly recommend a HTiB or some other package deal. I think that to yield the very best performance/price ratio that one should build their setup piece by piece over time.

Ultimately yes, this is true. But Kenwoods HTiB's use very good receivers for the price and could EASILY be used in a nice home theater when the money came in for better speakers. Seeing how any sub worth getting (not including the Sony wondersub) a decent subwoofer would probably run $300ish, spending money on what Kenwood has to offer would be a great way to go. And the speakers can be sold later on for at least a little bit of money while the receiver can last through a good number of upgrades.

Dan Hine

 

[Nathan_W]

Thanks everyone for more replies.
I think I'd rather get pretty good quality (budget, for the high-enders here) , so s..l..o..w..l..y piece-by-piece looks like my plan.
By the way, anyone know where to get brands like Denon, Paradigm, etc in Hawaii? Shipping's an arm and a leg for anything!