5.1 surround sound suggestions

[whizmsm]

Hi everyone; I'm a 19 year old college student, and im looking to upgrade my sound system. When i was in 7th grade i received my first receiver/5.1 surround sound speaker setup for my birthday, and have pretty much kept the same system since then. I have some KLH speakers that are, well... put it this way, last time i saw them for sale, they were giving them away free with the purchase of a 200 dollar receiver. Anyways, i went through a couple receivers relatively quickly and ended up keeping the one i have now, a sony str-de575. I think it's ok for now, but will probably upgrade it later. I went through the "bose phase" and actually almost came quite close to buying one of their lifestyle systems; I saw their little presentation in their acoustically engineered room, and was pretty impressed by it, but then luckily i decided to try my own test. I burned a cd just to see what music sounds like on it, and well, sometimes my free klh speakers sound better then that system. So i was back to square one, doing research, looking through this forum, reading many reviews and such. The primary use for my system will be to listen to music and movies, so I'm trying to decide whether i should buy individual speakers and create my own mix of speakers (possibly bookshelf speakers for the left and right channels, as well as a nice center channel) so that I could listen to music better, or if it would be better to get a ht speaker kit. I would appreciate any suggestions. I have anywhere from 300 to 1000 dollars to spend on speakers and cables. The speakers that i was looking at were these:

Hsu Research VT-12

Onkyo SKS-HT240

[Walt B]

I just installed an Infinity TSS-1100 5.1 speaker system for my home theatre system, which includes a formidable sub-woofer. The cost was right at $700. I'm using a Panasonic SA-XR70 AV Receiver and a Panasonic DVD S-77, along with Monster Cable 14/2 speaker wire which I obtained at a good Internet price. The sound quality is quite impressive. For a good review, of the 1100's, see:
http://www.soundandvisionmag.com/article.asp?section_id=3&article_id=739&page_number=1

[Mr Peabody]

One thing to remember when buying speakers for HT use is that they should match for best results. Meaning if you go with speakers that are not in a package, highly recommended, buy the same series and brand in all 5 speakers, L,R,C & rear. The sub isn't critical to match the other speakers.

There are many brands out there. You'll have to go out and do some listening to see what you like. That's the most fun anyway other than having the ones that thrill you in your own room. In mass market brands I'd say listen to Polk Audio. Athena seems to get good comments for a budget speaker. I like Acoustic Energy, they are very good for the money. I am not a big fan personally but B&W I think offers speakers in your range and are highly regarded by many on the forum. I used to be a big Infinity fan but they lost me in recent years with the stuff they had on the market. I found them overly bright and fatigueing. I haven't heard the 1100's.

[EdwardGein]

I recommend, if you know what you're doing, buying say a quality $2,500 used system in very good or better condition on Ebay for $1,000 or under from a reputable seller with excellent feedback than getting a $1,000 system new. But if you don't feel comfortable doing that, that's all that matters.

[Woochifer]

If you're tight budgetwise, you should focus on finding the front two main speakers that match your preferences, and add the matching center speaker as soon as you can afford it. Don't bother with accounting for the cabling in the budget. If you got a spool of bulk cable lying around, use that. Matching the front three is critical because any mismatches will disrupt the continuity in the front soundstage. Since you already have a pair of KLH speakers, you can use those for the surrounds on a temporary basis. The ultimate goal should be to build a timbre matched system eventually.

With your budget, you got much better options by aiming for the first two bookshelf speakers, and building gradually. These all-in-one speaker packages all present major sonic compromises for music especially, and with home theater you don't need to buy the whole thing at the same time. Patience will eventually reward you with a better sounding system once you're done. Impatience will put you on an upgrade treadmill.

[Siper2]

I'd definitely build something up, if I were you. Bookshelves all around, or even some inexpensive towers up front and bookshelves everywhere else, would sound a lot better (typically) than an HTiB setup.

But...

Some HTiBs are pretty great for the money. I'm a big Boston Acoustics nut (my system is CR95 fronts, CR75 rears (2), and a CRC7 center), and one of their old DT6000 or DT7000 systems from a few years ago would do you well, I think. There's often one or two on eBay. BA has their Micro series systems, as well as the new(ish) Bravo speakers... but a speaker package from them may exceed the budget. Check www.bostonacoustics.com

Onkyo's HTiB sets are pretty great, too. They also come with a nice receiver, and I think all you should really do with the setup is upgrade the speaker wire to 12-ga or maybe 14 if 12's too thick for whatever posts they have. (I'm sure the "stock" cable/wiring is very thin, like an 18 or so.) I was dead-set on an Onkyo set before I decided to piece together what I've got.

Circuit City sells the Onkyos, as do several others. www.crutchfield.com may, but I'm not sure. You might also want to try one of the Axiom or Paradigm packages...
They're popular for the web purchasers, and Axioms seem very cool in that there's a lot of choice in cabinet color, style, combinations, etc.

=S2=

[prash]

of the ones u'vr listed the Ventriloquists will absolutely kill the onkyos.

their critical and user reviews put them in a class by themselves.

if u are really serious then u can also go for the Ascend acoustics CBM 170s for (www.ascendacoustics.com) and buy a HSU or SVS sub later.

As a happy user for the past 4 years I can personally vouch for the Ascends, as can scores of users on this and other audio forums.

-prashanth


Hi everyone; I'm a 19 year old college student, and im looking to upgrade my sound system. When i was in 7th grade i received my first receiver/5.1 surround sound speaker setup for my birthday, and have pretty much kept the same system since then. I have some KLH speakers that are, well... put it this way, last time i saw them for sale, they were giving them away free with the purchase of a 200 dollar receiver. Anyways, i went through a couple receivers relatively quickly and ended up keeping the one i have now, a sony str-de575. I think it's ok for now, but will probably upgrade it later. I went through the "bose phase" and actually almost came quite close to buying one of their lifestyle systems; I saw their little presentation in their acoustically engineered room, and was pretty impressed by it, but then luckily i decided to try my own test. I burned a cd just to see what music sounds like on it, and well, sometimes my free klh speakers sound better then that system. So i was back to square one, doing research, looking through this forum, reading many reviews and such. The primary use for my system will be to listen to music and movies, so I'm trying to decide whether i should buy individual speakers and create my own mix of speakers (possibly bookshelf speakers for the left and right channels, as well as a nice center channel) so that I could listen to music better, or if it would be better to get a ht speaker kit. I would appreciate any suggestions. I have anywhere from 300 to 1000 dollars to spend on speakers and cables. The speakers that i was looking at were these:

Hsu Research VT-12

Onkyo SKS-HT240