Home theater

[Mike M 4]

wrt the previous post about HT speakers. I am finally going to bite the bullet and purchase a HT system. I am on a limited budget as remod of the basement was a bit more than expected, you know how it goes. I need some advice on a HT system between 500 -1000 USD including the speakers and dvd cd player. any suggestions would be appreciated.



OBTW-great site

 

[Bob]

Hello Mike - You have several options within your price range. Most people are very satisfied with any number of HT box systems that can be purchased at Circuit City or Best Buy. The Yamaha, Sony, and Cambridge Soundworks units are popular and provide decent sound. Listen to a few and allow 500 to 800 dollars just for the speakers. For roughly the same price, check out some higher end stores and audition the Mirage, Paradigm or Definitive Technology sets. The Toshiba DVD players (particularly the 3960, 3950 and 3980) are very good for video and also play music CDs well. They sell new for less than $75.



If you want the best possible performance within your budget, the best choice would be to put together a component system from used equipment. Allow $200-$300 for a good a/v receiver, $500-$700 for speakers, and get the Toshiba DVD player. Pass on the Monster Cable and pick up some AR Pro or HT cables on the internet for your connectors. Video and audio equipment junkies are constantly upgrading their gear and selling off the old stuff. Do some internet research (there are scores of informative sites) and select the best and most affordable equipment. Ebay, Audiogon and Videogon are excellent shopping venues for quality used gear. PC World, AudioWeb, and eCost also offer excellent prices on new and refurbished quality equipment. Check for closeouts on discontinued items and research the many reviews before buying.

 

[John Mastrocco]

If you have an Ultimate Electronics around, try them.



And if you have as much as $1000 budgeted, expect to spend about $1300. It always happens.



:lol:

 

[Rich Stern]

I went with a Kenwood home-theatre-in-a-box system, and a Toshiba progressive scan DVD (back when progressive scan was not an entry level feature). If I recall, I spent a total of about $600 for both. It's been perfect for us. Nice, clean surround sound. The powered sub will rattle the windows if that's your thing.



You can spend way more, but unless you are a true audiophile, it's hard to appreciate the difference between $500 gear and $2000 gear. Most people don't hear that well, or the environment they are using isn't on par with what high end gear can do.



IMO, people overspend on wiring. Test after test show that the average consumer cannot tell the difference between electronc signals carried by Monster brand cables and those carried by plain old copper wiring (which also happens to be the stuff inside fancy Monster cable). Snake oil marketing. Maybe that's not quite fair...Monster cables do have good quality connectors and are generally durable. But awfully expensive for what it is.

 

[Thomas Rogers]

Funny story about speaker wire...



When I was selecing a wire to run for our home theater to power the rears I was in Home Depot and one of their guys recommended instead of speaker wire that I use power cord wire (black, two-plug cord wire). He said it's the same thing at 1/3 the price. He said the only difference between the two is that the speaker wire has a clear jacket.

 

[Rich Stern]

Tom, that's what I am talking about. Monster is pretty much a marketing entitty. They don't mine copper. They don't smelt copper. They don't extrude copper cable. They have other companies in the copper wiring manufacturing business do it for them. So, when they make, er, package, a really nice looking 12ga stranded cable, it doesn't really have much more going for it that the 12 gauge stranded that Home Depot carries. The connectors might be better. The sheathing might be thicker or more colorful. But it's still 12 gauge copper cable, with the same physical properties of any other 12 gauge copper cable.

 

[Mike M 4]

THe gage of the wire is the important thing, assuming it is copper and not copper clad aluminum. the smaller numbers the greater the size, for example 16 gage is not as thick as 14. When i put the wires in the walls I put in 14 gage wire from a bulk spool. Rich I agree with your opinion on the monster cable, any heavy gage wire with good, ususlly gold plated connectors will do nicely. Besides, they all get hidden behind the equipment so who cares who manufactures it. Ill check into the toshiba dvd/cd as well.



Thanks for the input.



anyone in ST land have a Dennon HT box unit?

 

[Bob]

An investment in a soldering iron and some silver solder will save you a bundle on connectors. Belden 89259 coax cable (sold by the foot at electrical supply houses) works very well as a speaker or audio i/c cable (Do a search on the name "Jon Risch" for instructions) The orange w/ black stripe Home Depot extension cord is a great value. Cardas crosslink (also sold by the foot) is my personal favorite for speaker wire and audio interconnects. I also like the Canare star quad for in-wall use and for bi-wiring speakers.



The AR HT and Pro series are very good component video cables. RAM audio makes some excellent DVI and HDMI connectors. Bluejeans cable is another good source for custom interconnects.



Check the link for some other suggestions on a $1000 system.

 

[scott r]

Run as fast as you can from any of the "budget Home Theater in a Box" setups. Sure, they look good, they're easy to set up and most importantly, they're CHEAP. They're also massively UNDERpowered and they have poor quality speakers, connections and components. Avoid at all costs.

I'd also recommend saving up more than $1000. You're probably going to spend that just on your receiver and front speakers alone. You can double that if you want a good sub, good surround speakers and good cabling. DON'T SKIMP ON THE CABLES!!! Everybody thinks "oh, it's just a cable, what difference can it make?"... It makes a MASSIVE difference.

You're better off to get the best you can possibly afford now to ensure you will be happy with it for years to come. I'm not saying you can't do this for $1000, I'm just saying it won't be easy to get really high-quality components for that particular budget.

Good Luck.

 

[Joseph Leisner 2]

You are correct on the cable. For a box home theater set or for speakers that will not be driven with high ampere; typical speaker cable should do the job #18 or #16 AWG conductors at the smallest. On high end speakers, B&W or Martin Logan for example, #12 AWG cable or larger is a must.



The cable length will also determine the cable size. A larger #12 cable can be installed in longer lengths than the #16 without power loss. The resistance of the cable will also increase with length, thus requiring larger cable. The main difference in cables will be the purity of copper, number of strands, and the insulation thickness and insulation material.



More wire strands will translate to a conductor that is rated to carry a higher amount of current. The number of twist in the copper also affects the amount of current. Insulation type and thickness will reduce cross talk effect between cables and electronics.



I would recommend installing speaker cable since it is different than power cable or black lamp cord. I am not saying lamp cord will not work, just that insulation types are different. For a less expensive HT set, stay away from Monster Cable, to overrated and pricey. There are higher quality cables at about the same price as monster, Tara Labs or Kimber cable. For your system, Acoustic Research cable in bulk at Best Buy will work fine. Also check Radio Shack, they used to sell cable by the foot and it was similar to the AR cable. Just soldier on some plug ends are you are ready to hook up.



Remember, wire concealed in a wall needs to be rated for such installation to meet local electrical codes or the national electrical code.



Check out www.audioreview.com for reviews on home theater systems and components. And also visit your local home theatre store (not the big chain stores). The people that work there will be able to help you out and answer your questions; they are the experts in HT. Most of these stores will carry both high end and out of the box systems.



Home theatre systems are like having a ST, once bitten by the bug; you will keep adding to and upgrading your system.

 

[Thomas Rogers]

Jeez JTL where were you 5 years ago when I was putting that lamp cord in my walls? Seriously, though, it does sound great!

 

[Pedro Hernandez]

You can go with separates and get a much more capable system than any HT in a box in that price range.



Onkyo Receiver $260.00

http://www.crutchfield.com/S-h9k6VB8GkLV/cgi-bin/ProdView.asp?g=10420&I=580TXS503S





Onkyo DVD player $200.00

http://www.crutchfield.com/S-h9k6VB8GkLV/cgi-bin/ProdView.asp?g=54400&I=580DVCP702



Mission Speakers $200.00

http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/pshowdetl.cfm?&DID=7&Partnumber=309-150&raid=25&rak=mission



TOTAL $660.00 leaves $ for wires and popcorn!





Or Velodyne Speakers $500.00

http://www.velodyne.com/velodyne/products/ob_product_detail.aspx?ID=DECO&sid=753b294t

http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/volume_9_3/product-roundup-small-speakers-velodyne-9-2002.html



TOTAL $960.00 $40.00 for wires or popcorn!

 

[Bill V]

Mike--I just did up the sound portion of our home theater. I got Infinity speakers (TSS 450, come in silver or black), and a Sony receiver (STR DE698)--and absolutely love the setup. The sound is wonderful, and I especially like that the receiver has full video inputs and outputs for all the devices. So when you select, say, DVD, on the receiver, it doesn't change just the audio to the DVD player, but the video as well. (So many of the receivers don't have this--forcing you to change the audio input to DVD on the receiver, then change the video input to DVD on the TV or some other device.) I spent about $550 total on the speakers and receiver, and about another $100 on wire, connectors, wall plates, recepticle boxes, fish tape, etc. (One nice touch--the speaker set includes all the speaker mounting brackets.) The receiver is technically a 7.1 system, but it can run in 5.1 or 6.1. I was unable to locate speakers in my room for either 6.1 or 7.1, so I just did the 5.1 setup. If you want 6.1 or 7.1, you'd need an additional speaker or two, sold separately (TSS-SAT450). I got all the components during one of the better CircuitCity.com sales this past spring, and all the other stuff came from various home improvement stores.



If you did this, it still leaves you about $350 to get a very nice DVD player...

 

[Mike M 4]

Thanks guys. I think the basics of what I am looking for are:

Heavy gage wire, copper, good connectors.

Reciever should be capable of handling a powered sub. Powered sub is a must.

Listen to the speakers, dont just pick by brand name.

Front and center channels are most important.

Assemble your own components-system for best bang for buck.

Individual inputs for cd,dvd,video etc. should all be handled through the reciever-ease of use.

Check out Sony, Dennon,Onkyo, Infinity.

What else am I forgetting?



Bill V. What do you think of the Al and Alma's yachts deal with our local football team?

 

[John Mastrocco]

 

[John Mastrocco]

When it comes to video through the receiver, you need to think about how long you are intending to keep this system, the type of TV you have and when you expect to go to whatever the next TV level will be for you.



If you don't have HDTV, you will have to consider what type of inputs you will use - Component ("RGB"), DVI or HDMI. S-Video will not do HD, so if the receiver only has S-Video when you upgrade the TV to HD you will not be able to use an HT receiver that only has RCA and/or S-Video inputs. The more felxibility you want for video, the pricier the receiver will be.



Personally, I don't send my video through the receiver. The more connections you make, the more chance you will introduce noise/signal loss. So I go directly into the TV with every input and use the shortest video cables possible, and the highest quality I can reasonably afford.



Besides, you can always get a remote that will do everything you need it to with a single button for around $100-200.



FYI: The new HD-DVD formats will only be able to do HD playback through the HDMI outputs. Keep that in mind when looking at HDTV's