Home Theater System

[tranman]

Have a question-

I'm thinking of buying a home theater system for my den. Not too expensive, no more than a few hundred dollars. I already have a 5 DVD changer, I'd like not have to purchase another. Is it better to buy the components separately (receiver/amp, speakers) or go for one of the package sets? Can anyone recommend brands/models? I heard that 500W is about right for a good system. Is that on target? I appreciate any advice since I'm new the premise.

tranman

[Panama Red]

Hopefully, you can get a response from Sonic Vanguard. He's the man for audio systems.

[jotto84]

you can get the combo systems from best buy from brands like sony for about $400-600. Those are plenty good, and they combine generally everything you neeed including the DVD player.

For higher quality, and upgradeable in the future, you should buy components... get the receiver ($200-300) and the speakers separate. It might cost a bit more, but it will be quality. and then get all the speakers for an extra $300(they would be lower quality)


if you dont want to spend much, a whole system from Sony that does everything: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?id=1056280871744&skuId=5693939&type=product&productCategoryId=cat03010 is $500.


if you would ever want to spend 2 grand, you can go and buy some high end audio speakers from klipsch, or many others, but the easiest safest most efficient audio comes from bose's cubes...


i would recommend spending 200 on a surround sound sony receiver which have all the features for cheap, and then spend about 300 on the front speakers, and then buy the rest of the speakers later.

[SonicVanguard]

A few hundred dollars??? Well.....:)

First consider this: what sounds good to me might not sound good to you. And what sounds good in the store, might not sound good in your home. So...always make sure you are comparing apples to apples. Don't listen to one system in the store's "home theater" room and then another system that's sitting on the shelf out in the sales floor. And if they won't let you listen to them side-by-side, leave.

As for power - it's all relative. 500W can sound HUGE, and it can sound small. Wattage is a direct reflection of the amplifier's headroom and the speakers efficiency. Let's say you've got two systems, both are 500Watts. I'll even keep their headroom (better know as s/n ratio) the same. But one set of speakers has a 96dB efficiency while the other one is 103dB. Both have the same power going to them...which one is louder and why. If the salesperson doesn't know, you might want to leave the store. But you'll know -- for ever 6dB increase, relative or convieved volume increases by 50% (in a perfect world). But it's more like 7-9dB in the real world. So the system with 103dB speakers 'should' sound 50% louder than the other system as the same level.

Now HTiB (Home Theater in a Box) versus seperate components. I always like seperate components. I can custom craft my system to my needs based on my ear and my budget. With the HTiB setup, you'll save money, but you're going to sacrifice something.

If you go with seperate components, KLH speakers are very good budget speakers. They aren't the more efficient in the world, but in the budget market, most aren't. But they really aren't bad. As for a head unit - Sony and Pioneer are very good, even their lower end budget stuff. Sony will give you more bells and whistles while Pioneer is more power. And of course you'll need cables. Son't buy the ultra thin, ultra cheap stuff, but you don't need monster cable either. I'm a big fan of Acoustic Research cable, good price, good product.

With a headunit, speakers and cables, I'd expect you to pay around $300 or so for a budget system. You might find a HTiB for less, but I doubt it would sound any better.

Just for comparisons, here's a HTiB (http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?id=1051826210248&skuId=5391471&type=product&productCategoryId=cat03010) from BestBuy. Price is $250.00. It's not a bad system, but the speakers could be better, and the cables that come with it are junk. Now for comparison, here's a Pioneer (http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?id=1051806315456&skuId=5367836&type=product&productCategoryId=cat03031) headunit for $179.99, and a KLH (http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?id=1051826208094&skuId=5376201&type=product&productCategoryId=cat03049) speaker package at $99.99. $20.00 difference (I'm considering that you would buy cables for both systems). I can all but assure you that you'll like the seperate system better. At some point, you could replace the two front channel speakers with somthing a bit more efficent as well.

HTH.

Dave.

[tranman]

Thanks for the advice. I'll definitely check out your recommendations.