Home Audio: Help, please!

[PowerTube]

Okay, I'm clearly behind the times. I feel like Rip Van Winkle waking up after 20 years to see that things have changed. I went shopping for a decent home audio system.

My wants are pretty simple, actually:

AM/FM/CD
Auxiliary Input
Four speakers in the living room

Really tough, huh? Actually, maybe it is. All I can find is home theater systems with surround sound, etc..., tiny little speakers, and so on.

All I want is to put four speakers on the wall in the living room and possibly a sub on the floor. I don't watch enough movies to care about surround sound or whatever. I just want a decent sound with some bass and headroom.

WTF??!! Even the dedicated "audio" stores are only selling home theater stuff. Is this the Twilight Zone?

[mm2002]

Re: Home Audio: Help, please!

Sounds like you're trying to find a complete package, and you'll probably only find the "theater" setups. Go the component route and you can get what you want. The "Best Buy" here has some good deals on stereo speakers (check out the Bose's), and you can pick out a nice receiver, and cd player to go with them. For the most "bang for the buck" shop around pawn shops for some nice older used gear.

[PowerTube]

Re: Home Audio: Help, please!

Thanks for the tip. I was looking at Circuit City's website and that looks promising. I usually despise that place, but if the price and quality are right....

[wulfe13]

Re: Home Audio: Help, please!

Wow, too bad you don't live closer to me. I've got all kinds of stuff that would work for you.

[Newc]

Re: Home Audio: Help, please!

Wulfe - they have these things called delivery services.... [img]/images/graemlins/poke.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

[SeventhSon]

Re: Home Audio: Help, please!

Sounds like you want a minimum of hassle. Check this article out...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...012800134.html

[PowerTube]

Re: Home Audio: Help, please!

I've decided to go ahead with a "home theater" type of setup, except I don't want those tiny little speakers. I'll get a surround receiver, four speakers for the walls, a sub, and a central speaker.

This way, it *should* sound good for music or TV.

[StukaJU87]

Re: Home Audio: Help, please!

Dude, I got one of those home theater all in one deals, and it does music pretty well through the little speakers and the sub. It has different settings. (concert, hall, theater.. etc)And movies? I watched Saving Private Ryan last night in surround. OMG...the windows were rattling.

[PowerTube]

Re: Home Audio: Help, please!

[ QUOTE ]
Dude, I got one of those home theater all in one deals, and it does music pretty well through the little speakers and the sub. It has different settings. (concert, hall, theater.. etc)And movies? I watched Saving Private Ryan last night in surround. OMG...the windows were rattling.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah, most of the ones I've heard sounded excellent, but.... how much wattage can they take? Don't get me wrong, I'm not talking about Metallica concert volume here, but I want it to sound like it has headroom. My concern is that the effect won't quite be there if the speakers are as far apart as I plan to put them.

[StukaJU87]

Re: Home Audio: Help, please!

Well, the speakers are 5 feet off the ground in the corners of the room and the center speaker is over the tv. The sub is in the corner. It basically fills the room with sound. It's hard to describe.

The one I have gets pretty loud and stays nice and clear. Mine is an RCA, all in on box deal. It came with amp w/tuner, dvd/cd player and all the speakers.

[SeventhSon]

Re: Home Audio: Help, please!

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Dude, I got one of those home theater all in one deals, and it does music pretty well through the little speakers and the sub. It has different settings. (concert, hall, theater.. etc)And movies? I watched Saving Private Ryan last night in surround. OMG...the windows were rattling.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah, most of the ones I've heard sounded excellent, but.... how much wattage can they take? Don't get me wrong, I'm not talking about Metallica concert volume here, but I want it to sound like it has headroom. My concern is that the effect won't quite be there if the speakers are as far apart as I plan to put them.

[/ QUOTE ]

The subwoofer is the main wattage draw, but guess what, you don't have to worry about it because it's self-powered. The AV receiver that you get should, if you plug in the subwoofer to the special output jack, has a crossover circuitry to send the bass signals to the powered subwoofer and the mid+high frequency signals to its own power section. Since that power section only has to deal with mid/high frequencies, you'll have plenty of headroom.

[PowerTube]

Re: Home Audio: Help, please!

UPDATE: I did it. I got an Onkyo 5.1 surround receiver with four satellite speakers (bookshelf types, but they're going on the walls), a powered sub, and a central speaker. All speakers are Polk Audio.

The receiver is only 50 watts per channel (total of 550 watts), but I'm thinking it'll be enough. I can't wait to hook it all up.
[img]/images/graemlins/cool.gif[/img]

[mm2002]

Re: Home Audio: Help, please!

My only problem with surround receivers is when listening to music, I can't ever get the rear speakers to sound worth a shit (even with the "simulated" surround modes). I ended up going with separate amps for the front and rear speakers, a pre-amp, a crossover, and two powered subs. Everyones ears are different though.

[metallicarocks]

Re: Home Audio: Help, please!

Some of the small speakers that are out there are fucking amazing. My roommate just got some for his computer and they sound terrific. Very clear; if you were blindfolded you never would have guessed it came from a speaker that small. He got those from a department store too.

Hope it works out well! Come back for updates!

[wulfe13]

Re: Home Audio: Help, please!

[ QUOTE ]
My only problem with surround receivers is when listening to music, I can't ever get the rear speakers to sound worth a shit (even with the "simulated" surround modes). I ended up going with separate amps for the front and rear speakers, a pre-amp, a crossover, and two powered subs. Everyones ears are different though.

[/ QUOTE ]

You need a receiver that has 5 channel stereo, like a Denon.


Newc, I meant that I have lots of stuff at my job.


Those all in one systems are mostly crap. There are a few quality peices out there but even those typically lack the capability to expand and add other components later. You can find a decent surround sound for around $1000, anything less is probably gonna be a disappointment.

Powertube, you're exactly right about those small systems sounding less than sweet when listening to music but they can sometimes hold their own when playing a movie. Glad to hear you went with a decent system. Onkyo is good stuff and Polk make some pretty sweet speakers. [img]/images/graemlins/headbang.gif[/img]


If the only thing you've ever heard was a clock radio, even a boom box would sound like the greatest thing in the world. It's all a matter of taste and not everyone is willing to spend $5000 on a surround sound system like I have. If you like it then who cares what anyone else thinks.... my $.02