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Looking to purchase a home audio system.

A

antyler

Golden Member

just got thru briefly reading the home theater audio thread.

great info.

Im in the market for a system.

Correct me if im wrong, but there was not a any complete systems in the thread. Alot of individual speakers and subs and the like.

Now since im a newb and really dont know what im looking for im thinking it would be better to purchase a complete kit that contains maybe four speakers, a sub, a center, and maybe a reciever.

Im not wanting to spend a huge amount, im actually on a strict budget. I dont need anything extremely high performance either, just something that will sound good.

Is it better to go with a combo kit from maybe best buy or online somewhere, or is it of benefit to piece together a set?

any recommendations? or recent purchases you would like to share?

thanks guys,

tyler.

 
if you can swing it, its 99% of the time better to go with separate pieces, especially when thinking long term.


not only are the HTIB (home theater in a box) combo packages usually low quality, but if you want to upgrade in the future....throw it in the garbage. :\
 
There are some exceptions to the "throw it in the garbage" HTIB sets, although I would agree with out on a vast majority of the lower end HTIB units.

Could you assign us a dollar amount to your "strict budget"?

If you're talking less than $500-ish, then HTIB sets are a pretty viable solution as putting a set together from components on your own means buying a receiver and subwoofer separately which would pretty much eat up $300 or more of your budget right away even for entry level units not leaving you much of an option for speaker choices.
 
I would say 500 dollars or less is probably my option. Newly married and needing to purchase a vehicle for the wife severely limits my spending amount.

 
Originally posted by: Chapbass
if you can swing it, its 99% of the time better to go with separate pieces, especially when thinking long term.


not only are the HTIB (home theater in a box) combo packages usually low quality, but if you want to upgrade in the future....throw it in the garbage. :\
Click to expand...

I would probably want to upgrade in the future unless i can get some decent stuff right off the bat.

good to know that the kits are not really the best option.
 
If you plan to continue to put money into the system, then I'd recommend going with a 2.0 setup and spending your full budget now on a receiver and two speakers. That's what I did. Since then, I've filled it out to a 5.1 system. If I had spent $600 on a HTIB, then each upgrade would have just replaced the speakers, and I probably would've had to eventually replace the receiver as well. There's less waste if you buy individual quality pieces and simply add to those as you "upgrade" your system. I went from 2.0 to 2.1 to 3.1 to 5.1 over the course of a year and a half or so.

You might be able to glean some good info from this thread.
 
Originally posted by: kalrith
If you plan to continue to put money into the system, then I'd recommend going with a 2.0 setup and spending your full budget now on a receiver and two speakers. That's what I did. Since then, I've filled it out to a 5.1 system. If I had spent $600 on a HTIB, then each upgrade would have just replaced the speakers, and I probably would've had to eventually replace the receiver as well. There's less waste if you buy individual quality pieces and simply add to those as you "upgrade" your system. I went from 2.0 to 2.1 to 3.1 to 5.1 over the course of a year and a half or so.

You might be able to glean some good info from this thread.
Click to expand...

that sounds like good advice. I think i would be very happy with two speakers and a receiver to start out with and then work my way up in the future.

What is meant by 2.0 -5.1. is it referring to the amount of speakers or what in particular?

thanks
 
I'm just going to list it out in the order that people seem to go in...

2.0 means plain-jane stereo sound. Better than your TV speakers, but you won't have the surround effects you might be looking for.
2.1 is adding a subwoofer to the system - adds a lot to action movies and things like that.
3.1 adds a center channel in the front, which helps widen out the sound.
5.1 adds rear surround speakers - hear bullets whizzing by and whatnot. If you're doing the piece-by-piece path, at this point you'll probably be putting your old 2.0 speakers back here and upgrading the fronts.
6.1 and 7.1 add more rear speakers - you only really need them if you have a large room.

Good speakers can last you 15 years or more, so don't be afraid to spend a little more now and reuse them as the system gets better.
 
Check out the thread linked in a few posts back. People mention some forums where people sell used speakers. I got my speakers used on av123 for $495 shipped (vs $699 new).

I got a receiver and sub on ebay. Both were new, but I got a good deal and I had a specific receiver I wanted. If you are more flexible on what receiver and/or sub you want you can get a good deal used. Also, check Craigslist.
 
Thanks for the info guys. Ill definately use some of the advice. I think ill probably just go with a cheaper 2.0 system right now, maybe 2.1 if i can swing it.
 
If your initial budget is $500, then I wouldn't recommend fitting a sub into that. I spent $420 on my receiver and 2 main speakers to start (and $100 on a DVD player) and $270 on the center, surrounds, and sub later on. I was able to get really good deals on all of my speakers, which helped a ton. I could've spent double that by spending regular price on everything. I also bought my sub used, because it was such a good deal.

The idea to move your mains to your surrounds later on will work as long as your center will be timbre-matched to the upgraded mains. Usually this requires having all three front speakers not only the same brand but also in the same product line within that brand (i.e. my three front speakers are all in the Polk R series. If I had a center from the R series and mains fron the RTi series, then it wouldn't be timbre-matched even though they're all the same brand). Timbre-matched basically means that the sound of the speakers will blend together rather than having your center sound much brighter than your mains, for example. Only the front three speakers need to be timbre-matched. You can go with a completely different brand for your sub and surrounds.
 
So basically if i start out only getting two surround speakers and a receiver, no sub, i should make sure that there is a center that matches them for future purchase?
 
It's entirely up to you. Personally even though I have all my speakers from one manufacturer, they only make woofer-tweeter-woofer (MTM) center channels and I'd rather not have something with poor off-axis performance. I'm going with either the NHT Classic 3 or Rocket RSC200 for my center (although only if AV123 will do a full piano gloss finish).
 
didn't onkyo have some HTIB packages with the TXSR605 at a reasonable price. i remember seeing some on FW/SD but those come and go.

if you can't find one of those, you should really look into the Onkyo TX-SR605 as a minimum for a receiver as a base. it retails for just under $400 shipped on amazon. it's "future-proof" when it comes to audio decoding, upconversion & has 2 HDMI inputs. (some people may need more) check the reviews on this puppy.
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that's what i started with, and with a relatively small living room (16x14) this 5.1 speaker system sounds suprisingly good. the sub actually puts out some good bass.

those will put you just over the $500 limit, and should do the trick.

edit:
or join the onkyo club and get the downgraded 5.1 HT-SP904 package for $399 (refurb). but the HDMI is only passthrough on this receiver.
 
The Onkyo 908 set includes the 605.

I would recommend taking the upgrade path route though for a more balanced system.
 
It's EZ to recommend refurbs from shoponkyo for either an HTiB (especially for a more basic receiver) else just the receiver itself and sourcing the loudspeakers elsewhere -especially used gear locally via craigslist and such as, as said. Old "Hi-Fi" loudspeakers meant for music cannot be beat and indeed when sporting a nice assortment of drivers for full-range render the need for an discrete subwoofer a nicety rather than necessity.
 
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