buying a home theater setup.. need help

[Thor Von Clemson]

I need advice on buying a home theater setup. My parents spend $500 on a yamaha receiver/speaker system and it sounds very good. It also has am/fm capabilities, which I am not sure if most receivers have that or not... I know we need it.

Anyways, I am having a few problems deciding. I would like to spend around the same amount of money; if worse comes to worse and I can not find anything I may end up getting the same thing as my parents. I watch a lot of sports, anime, and music dvds. My fiance wants it so she can listen to the radio... Are there certain systems that are better than others?

Also I am having problems figuring out what to do about the unsightly running of the wires. I wish I would have built the speaker enclosures and ran the wires into the house when we were putting up the walls, but noooo. We have very high vaulted ceilings in the living room. The front speakers will be easy to position but I am not sure what to do about the back ones or how to run them. It will stick out like a sore thumb if I run it along the base trim... anyone have any suggestions? Would wireless be a bad idea? I am sure they cost more and I am not sure how well they sound..

[chrisgUK]

Its pretty easy to just run speaker wire underneath your carpets..
If you dont have carpets just nail cable grips to the skirting board and then put some of that plastic cable covers if you dont like the sight of cables!
$500 doesnt sound like much for a home theatre style sound system (although im used to the overpriced UK). If you were happy the one your parents bought then why not go for that if its just what you are after aswell.

[El_Kabong]

A receiver has a built in radio to 'recieve' radio signals. Without a tuner, it's an integrated power amp.

For your budget, I highly recommend Polk Audio. You would be very hard presses to find something as good for the money.

http://ecoustics.shopping.com/xFS?KW=Building%20a%20Home%20Theater%20System%20on%20a%20budget&NS=1&kworg=Building%20a%20Home%20Theater%20System%20on%20a%20budget&linkin_id=3057240&DMT=3&BEFID=0&VK=3057241

This is a killer deal on a respectable en try leve amp:

http://www.audioadvisor.com/store/productdetail.asp?sku=CAMB640AS&product_name=Azur%20640A%20Integrated%20Amplifier

In regard to the speaker cable dilema, are you using baseboards? If so, ream a channel out of the backside on a table saw and all you will notice is the tiny hole on the bottom where the speakers run into the wall.

[dannyr]

Last I heard, there still are not any good wireless systems that sound very good.

[mm2002]

If the house has carpeting, just stuff the rear speaker wires under the base trim. Works good, no disassembly required!

[Stinkbug]

I have a yamaha amp and I love it. I have a few friends that have yamaha amps as well and they like them too. I have heard mixed opinions about the speakers. I have all phase tech speakers and they are great. I read up quite a bit on this stuff before I bought it. There are many levels of quality, but if you are not a hard core audiophile you probably won't notice a major difference as long as you buy something decent. Check www.audioreview.com it is a pretty good reference site.

[nateb]

Also I am having problems figuring out what to do about the unsightly running of the wires. I wish I would have built the speaker enclosures and ran the wires into the house when we were putting up the walls, but noooo. We have very high vaulted ceilings in the living room. The front speakers will be easy to position but I am not sure what to do about the back ones or how to run them. It will stick out like a sore thumb if I run it along the base trim... anyone have any suggestions? Would wireless be a bad idea? I am sure they cost more and I am not sure how well they sound..

OK... This I will try to field because, I learned a really cool trick. What I would suggest is find a doorway to help you do this. First of all, stay the hell away from wireless speaker. They just suck. And if you are anybit of a audiophile, those 500.00 sets of speakers that you buy wont last long at all. Polk Audio does make some excellent speaker sets. Read reviews and listen to the differences between them. Don't rush the process or you will only waste money(like I did in the beginning).

So, if you have carpet, this solution works with the following situation. One, you have a door at the opposite side of the room that leads to the. Two, you have carpeted room. So, what you need is the following ::

-Your wire
-a long peice of PCV pipe
-a PCV cap.

Run the wire though the PCV tube when you reach the end, drill a hold just big enough though the end of the cap to allow you to fit both wires though. Place copious amounts of tape, or tie the end of the lines so the wires done come back out easy and attach the cap to the end of the PCV pipe.

Ok.. now the process...

At your doorway to outside, you will have a edge of carpet that you can lift. Go ahead and remove the the door kickplate and lift up the carpet. Slide the PCV tube under the carpet aiming to the opposite side of the room (ultimately where your receiver is)When you get the PCV pipe all the way to the opposite side of the room. Lift the carpet so you can get the cap and the other end of your wires from underneath the carpet.

Voila, you dont have to run your wires though your trim.

Couple of things ::

- Mark your Negitive leads.
- Make sure you have a healty enough gauge to support your rears.

Couple of downfalls ::

- This only works well with speakers that stand on floor stands(unless you want to run your lines up the wall from there.
- If you have a old pad under your carpet, the wires will show up as a little bit of a lump.

Hopefully this helps.

-Nate

[Chad]

I paid a carpenter to come in and fish wire through the walls. It was less than $100 and WELL worth it. He knew nothing about home theater, so I did my research on speaker placement and what-not. I merely let him do the "fishing".

As far as bargain speakers, I really like my Fluance speakers. Great bang for the buck. And I've got a $250 Onkyo 502 receiver driving them. I upgraded to a very expensive receiver for a short time but returned it because it just didn't offer that much over the Onkyo. An essential part of home theater is a quality sub. I absolutely LOVE my SVS 20-39PC+.

[Thor Von Clemson]

Chad, I agree with you whole heartidly.. a quality sub can add so much to a good setup.

I will definately do some research to see what I can find. I have heard Onkyo makes good stuff, a few of you have mentioned polk audio, and there is always the trusty yamaha setup that my parents have. I have messed with that thing for a few years and it works pretty well.

Here's another question.... where do buy this kind of stuff? The most obvious choice to me would be Best Buy or Circuit City.

[GWARGHOUL]

I've got a $320 Sony home theatre setup from wal-mart.

Sounds good enough to me. I will get soemthign better in the future, but for now it does well for my apartment.

[wulfe13]

Chad, I agree with you whole heartidly.. a quality sub can add so much to a good setup.

I will definately do some research to see what I can find. I have heard Onkyo makes good stuff, a few of you have mentioned polk audio, and there is always the trusty yamaha setup that my parents have. I have messed with that thing for a few years and it works pretty well.

Here's another question.... where do buy this kind of stuff? The most obvious choice to me would be Best Buy or Circuit City.

Do you have an Audio King or Ultimate Electronics near you? Check out Denon receivers or Yamaha receivers, Infinity speakers, Polk speakers, and Definitive Technologies speakers... all quality stuff and they have a very budget friendly line as well as a high end line.

[npacheco]

I'm a HUGE Bose fan. They are a little more cash than you are looking to spend, but my $1100 system sounds as good as a neighbors $5000 system. I have the Acoustimass 15 (5 satellite speakers and a sub) and I drive it with a $200 JVC receiver. What I like about this set-up, is I can watch a concert DVD, or an action packed movie, of listen to the radio or CD and it handles them all very well. You wouldn't believe how those little speakers can crank!

Like I said, the system I got is about $1300 including receiver. So if you're only looking to spend $500, ignore my post. Also, these were the prices about 7 years ago when I got the system. I haven't been in the market since then, so I have no idea if the same setup is even close to this price range anymore.

[Thor Von Clemson]

Wulfe- Ultimate Electronics. I know I can find one of those around here. I'll have to take my wife to check it out unless she gives me the holy "pick out whatever you want" line...

[Chad]

Unless things have changed, Bose won't even publish the frequency response of their speakers...that's a really bad sign IMO. I will say that Bose is great at marketing.

[wulfe13]

Unless things have changed, Bose won't even publish the frequency response of their speakers...that's a really bad sign IMO. I will say that Bose is great at marketing.

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