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Building me a home theater system

D

deanx0r

Senior member
I don't have a whole lot to spend on it, nor a lot of room. Sound and image don't have to be "big", and I don't want to spend 10 grand on some really high end components, I just want quality in a small package, something effective and of good value.

I went visiting a few shop in town today, BestBuy, Circuit City, Soundtrack and coudn't just figure out what was good or not, it all sounded good and extremely expensive as well :/

My current set up is Samsung 30 HDTV w/ a Yamaha HT in a box that I thought sounds just all right, I just need something better.

Display

I want a plasma screen, and I thought the quality and price was terrific for some 42in displays I saw. For only about $2500, which doesn't seem expensive at all compared to some CRT TV's or the price you had on those displays a few years back.

How does plasma stack versus other TV techs such as CRT, LCD or DLP? Voice your pick.

Audio

I narrowed down my list to the Onkyo SKS-HT240 6.1 speaker set and the Denon AVR 1804 receiver. I heard them at a friend's house, it just sounded fawking amazing. Not only the speakers sounded amazing, but looked very nice and slim, they would blend perfectly in my flat.

Plus after froogling them, they are pretty nicely price with both of them coming up at less than $700.

Also the Panasonic SA-XR50 doesn't sound bad either with it's full digital amplication.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bn...;sku=314995&is=REG
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bn...;sku=325891&is=REG
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bn...;sku=338245&is=REG

What do you guys have at home?
Any other inputs I should consider?
Discuss 🙂
 
you might wanna consider a projector for your screen. for around $800, you can pick up the infocus X1, which is one of the best entry level projectors out there. add $200 for a (nice) screen, or $30 for a cheap painted wall, and you can throw a 9 ft diagonal screen just about anywhere.

i'm not really in the know regarding plasma or RPTV's, so i'll leave that to somebody else.

audio wise, the panasonic receivers are great - awesome bang for the buck.

speakers are too individual to talk about - find something you like that fits your price range. Klipsch, JBL, Athena, and Energy are all good brands with solid reputations.

Do your research and audition as much as you can in person in a dedicated room.

Have fun!
 
Originally posted by: whoiswes
you might wanna consider a projector for your screen. for around $800, you can pick up the infocus X1, which is one of the best entry level projectors out there. add $200 for a (nice) screen, or $30 for a cheap painted wall, and you can throw a 9 ft diagonal screen just about anywhere.
Click to expand...

That's what I'm doing for our new house. Going to spend the saved money on

Theater Seating.
 
Plamas suffer from burn in issues. Plus, they look horrible in a theater application because theiy cannot display blacks as well as CRT or DLP. Dark scenes movies will look washed out and gray when you turn out the lights.

Your best bet is a DLP based rear projection display. Even a CRT based rear projection would be better than a plasma. While CRT based rear projection TVs look best in a theater application because they recreate black levels the best, they do suffer from burn in issues if the contrast is turned up too high. That flaw makes DLP the best choice.

Front projection is nice, but you need total light control in the room. You have to be able to make it absolutely dark in the room to watch anything.
 
Originally posted by: whoiswes
you might wanna consider a projector for your screen. for around $800, you can pick up the infocus X1, which is one of the best entry level projectors out there. add $200 for a (nice) screen, or $30 for a cheap painted wall, and you can throw a 9 ft diagonal screen just about anywhere.

i'm not really in the know regarding plasma or RPTV's, so i'll leave that to somebody else.

audio wise, the panasonic receivers are great - awesome bang for the buck.

speakers are too individual to talk about - find something you like that fits your price range. Klipsch, JBL, Athena, and Energy are all good brands with solid reputations.

Do your research and audition as much as you can in person in a dedicated room.

Have fun!
Click to expand...

Meh... I am not so fond on projector... won't be worth it unless I have the ultimate basement home theater room. It might just be too big.

Originally posted by: Johnnie
May I recommend the True Subwoofer EQ Signature
Click to expand...


$1600 sounds a little but expensive for the small package I am looking for.
I live in a flat too, can't afford to wake up the neighborhood 🙂
 
I would take a CRT over DLP, Plasma, LCD. The HD-ILA is interesting and I think the next few generations of DLP and LCD will be much better. The Sony QUALIA line is also very cool but very $$$.
 
With that kind of budget, figure in about $800 for a linux-based HDTV mythTV box.. or for $1000 or so, you could have 2 HDTV tuners in the same computer..

mythtv rocks..
 
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