Help me assemble a Home Theatre System

[Aztech]

Well, I'm about assemble a system for my living room. The room is 15' x 20'. I've looked at TVs a lot, and I'll be getting a 50" Plasma. I don't know which one yet, but probably Panasonic with two HDMI connections. That's just a little info so you can help me choose a receiver. The things I'll have to hook up will include:
DVD player
Cable or Sattelite box
Maybe Xbox 360 or PS3
Nintendo Wii

For the audio portions, I've been looking into some receivers and speakers and also some HTIBs, probably would be an Onkyo set.

About receivers: Can someone explain connecting components using HDMI to the TV versus to the receiver? I'm wondering how many HDMI ports I need on a receiver, if any. Also, if someone could explain this using one HDMI cable to the TV thing for me that I read somewhere...Where everything is routed to the TV using a single HDMI cable. Is that called upconverting or switching or what? I need a little help in this area.

About speakers: I've seen Fluance speakers recommended around here. Is the 5 piece set pretty good? What sub would go good with it? I'd like to wall mount my surrounds, so I don't want anything too big back there. I'd also rather have small fronts, that I can wall mount next to the TV. That way the 2 year old can't tear them up... I wanted to link to one set and get opinions on it. It's a new Cerwin Vega 5.1 set. The review is good, but I wanted some opinions from here about it versus other options. Here's a link to the CNET review: Cerwin Vega 5.1

Thanks!

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

The Fluance sets aren't really anything special. They're decent for what they are (budget sets with floorstaners up front), but I think there are better alternatives out there. Polk R-series from outpost would be a strong alternative to them.

If you're looking at bookshelf speakers, then there wouldn't be a good reason to look at Fluance.

What are you thinking about spending?

There are some good general posts about HDMI at AVSforum.
Here are some at the top of the receivers area
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/forumdisplay.php?f=90

The biggest thing about HDMI being connected to a receiver is the ability to handle some of the new audio formats coming out for HD material. Not all HDMI receivers will handle these or even process audio over HDMI so the threads at AVSforum are a good way to see some of the differences.

 

[pennylane]

How much you're looking to spend is the most important thing.

Like YOyo said, the biggest advantage to hooking up HDMI to a receiver is to be able to use the newer "HD" audio formats (Dolby TrueHD, DTS Master Audio, 7.1 PCM) that you can't use with a regular optical/coax cable. The other advantage is so you only have to have 1 cable going to the TV instead of a bunch. I don't think that's a deal breaker, personally.

Receivers with HDMI that can handle newer audio formats tend to be more expensive, so depending on your budget, you may not want to bother with them.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Yeah, I would rather have higher quality speakers / sub than spending significantly more to get a receiver that does the newer audio formats.

The receiver is probably going to be the first component to really get outdated anyway as the other components are essentially going to only need to be replaced if you want to upgrade for quality vs. new formats / features.

Besides, getting a receiver to get the new audio formats doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me unless you have sufficiently nice speakers / sub to match. I haven't heard the new formats compared to older ones (just one or the other at a time), so I don't really have a good feeling on the difference in quality, but from what I have experienced, I think I'd rather have a higher quality speaker/sub package than sacrificing the speaker/sub budget in order to get the capability to get those new formats.

 

[Aztech]

I don't care about new audio formats. I just want to make sure I have enough of the high quality connections to connect everything. Of the devices I plan to connect, I think the following have an HDMI option:
DVD
Satellite DVR
XBOX 360 elite
PS3

So, that's more HDMI connections than the TV will have. So, I was just trying to get a receiver with more HDMI ports. I guess I can buy a switch to get more HDMI ports, is that right? But I do like the sound of one cable to the TV...

I don't know how much I can spend. I mean I'm not an audiophile or anything. What can I buy and get impressive sound for music and movies? Something that will blow away family and friends when they come over and listen. None of them have any kind of good sound. The best system is probably my brother's with a Bose system of small speakers.

Anyway, when you guys talk about good speakers, I guess it's gonna be towers, right? Is there anything I can hang on the wall next to the TV that's gonna be great? A Bose alternative? How about small bookshelf speakers that can be wall-mounted? Towers would be my last resort.

So, I think my TV will cost arount $2K. I guess I would spend another $1K on speakers and a receiver. But it's not a firm budget. I'll spend more if it'll get me a significant improvement. It's just the most I've ever spent on this stuff, so it is hard to do, but the bottom line is it's time for me to have the sound I want in my living room.

 

[pennylane]

Don't be afraid to use component connections also. Component doesn't necessarily look worse than HDMI, and pretty much any receiver should have multiple component inputs so you can use it as a switcher. You may also not have to use your DVD player. Either the 360 or the PS3 can upconvert DVD's and I think they both do a good job of it (well, I'm not sure about the PS3 since the feature just came out).

We should probably figure out what components you want first. Do you want surround sound? Do you want full 7.1? 5.1? 2.1?

As for speakers, bookshelves may be okay. They can't be as small as the Bose ones (you do know to avoid Bose, right?), though. I actually have bookshelves for my room (which is a little smaller than yours I admit at about 13' x 17') as my mains (Polk LSi's). I have them on stands though. That should also be a childproof option, as long as the stands are stable. Wallmounting is probably safest.

The "cheap" recommended solutions I've seen are:
Ascend CBM-170's
Onix X-Series

The Onix X-Series also comes in various packages, found in that link. I think the X-Sub (part of one of the X-Series packages) may be a bit small for your room, though, as it only has an 8" woofer. For your room, you could get a Bic H-100. At AVSForum (audio/video), the consensus is: for under $200 and more musical, get the X-Sub. For under $300 and more movie, get the Bic H-100.

Personally, I have an X-Sub and I like it. I kind of wish it went deeper and louder, but I live in an apartment building so I'd also get more nervous if it went deeper and louder' so I accept the compromise. It sounds like you have a house, so you don't have to worry about neighbors.

You can find a good receiver without HDMI for pretty cheap, like $200. You might be able to find good HDMI receivers for starting around $400, though I haven't been paying attention to the 2007 models so I'm a little out of the loop.

 

[SLCentral]

I'll leave the audio to other people, but for the video, think about the new Pioneer's. The PDP-5080 model is now shipping, and yes, it is significantly more expensive then the Panasonic, but preliminary reviews are saying that this is the best plasma ever made, and significantly better then any of the competition. Imagine looking at a black screen, and not knowing if the TV is on or off. That's how good the black levels are. Contrast is even better, or so I've heard.

Do not use your cable box with HDMI through your receiver. There's often HDCP handshake issues, and there is no real quality benefit with HDMI for a STB. Just grab a receiver that accepts component and up-converts to HDMI, so you can run component in for the cable box, plug everything else in through HDMI, and still only have one cable going to your TV. Only certain receivers will upconvert every input you plug in (composite, S-Video, component) to HDMI and whatever resolution your TV is. Others, the less expensive ones, will simply pass-through the HDMI signal right to the TV. No up-conversion, no conversion of other types of inputs.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

To impress the family and friends, I think pretty much anything will do honestly. Anything above integrated TV speakers will probably impress

I've probably gotten 10 times the number of comments about the video portion of my system vs. the audio portion even though I've spend about 5 times as much on the audio as the video.

Good speakers does not limit you to floorstanders by any means. You can get floorstanders that are great or really crappy and you can get bookshelf speakers that are great or really crappy. It's more about what brands and models you pick vs. the size of things.

That said, very small speakers like Bose have some serious shortcomings due to their design. There are some options of similar size that will get you better bang for your buck, but I would recommend trying to get a bookshelf speakers to run up front at least. Something with a tweeter and a driver in the 5"+ range. I'm not saying those are the only things you need to know to pick something out, but your best options will probably all have that in common.


Before you decide what you want to do about this, you might want to go out to some places and listen to some different options at different priceranges to give you an idea of what's out there and where your money is going if you spend more / less money on things.

Some people can spend $100-$400 on a HTIB system and be happy while someone else is constantly wanting to upgrade things and is willing to spend a lot of money to get slight improvements in things.

Do you want to get everything new, or is used/refurb an option too? I've bought a few things used and been very happy with the results and the savings I got going that way.

For this "significant improvement" part of things, I think that you have some strong options in the $200-$350 / pair range for bookshelf speakers.
Fanerman91 has some strong online options in this range.
Getting up to these sort of options is a good point to get to on a budget.
SVS and Axiom audio are a couple more options.
Listening to several of the online options and their competition from retail products, I think you get a lot more bang for your buck going with the online options.

Unfortunately, that means that getting to demo them can be more difficult. A lot of the online brands have very good demo periods that allow someone to try them in their home with either no risk or just the loss of shipping cost (1 or 2 ways).
Several of them also have online communities / forums where you can try to find someone in your area to demo the products to hear them for yourself.

The front three speakers are far more important than the surround / rear speakers in a HT system.
You might even consider keeping speakers from your current system to use to fill out a 5.1 / 7.1 system and just purchasing the front three speakers (and sub / receiver ) new. That would help you maximize your spending on the parts of the system that matter the most.
You'd also allow yourself an upgrade path down the road if that's important to you (buy new mains eventually and move the first set to surround duty, etc.)