Newbie HTIB recommendations

[Rainmaker]

I'm brand new to these forums, and I can see that there are many extremely knowledgeable people here. Hope this isn't too simplistic. I'm looking into getting a home theater system and was looking for suggestions. I'm a casual listener on a budget of $700, and I admit I can probably not appreciate the subtle improvements in sound quality of high end equipment.

My room is a combined living room/dining room, with a 51 inch widescren on one end, the dining table on the other, and the couch in the middle dividing the two. The room is about 25 feet long. There is a small "ledge" where rear speakers could be mounted above the couch because the dining area has a slightly higher ceiling. There is no way to hide wires that would run to the rear speakers, as this part of the ceiling is blocked by all sorts of air ducts and such when I crawl around up there to take a look. So I am probably left running the wires up the corner of the room, across the side, and then over to the ledge. I'm not too keen on this option. I also don't think rear speaker towers would work either, because I couldn't hide the wires as I have hardwood floors.

I've been wanting a home theater system for over a year and a half now, but always procrastinate because of this hang-up. Am I stuck with a 2 speaker system such as the Bose 321 or the Niro? After searching through some of the old posts, I'm thinking these might not be the best options. Any suggestions?

[psonic]

Since you are a casual listener, here is the perfect starter HTIB. This is basically the system that started me into audiophilia a few yrs ago. This is an absolute steal for the money. Unlike the little HTIB's at Best Buy, this system plays big and loud even in a large room. For under $350, you get a good 100w 5.1 receiver, a big 100w powered sub and surround speaks that sound very good. Hard to beat. You will not believe the effects you'll get from movies like Saving Private Ryan or Star Wars Episode II. There are reviews on this over at CNET, they raved about it too. I'm pretty sure you can see this at Circuit City if you have access to one.

http://www.shoponkyo.com/catalog_detail.cfm?id=HT-S660S&type=3&class=Systems&p=i&ext_war=1

[Rainmaker]

Thanks for the reply, psonic . The reviews look favorable and sounds like a good value. But it still doesn't solve my problem with the rear speaker wiring issue. Any suggestions in that regard?

[prash]

you could be very well with the ventriloquist speaker system from HSU, they are a very respected speaker manufacturer on this forum. u could use the onkyo 501 or pioneer 912/913/914 as the receiver to power it.

-prashanth

[psonic]

well you will get 90% of the sound information from the front 3 plus subwoofer...the rears are rarely used in movies and music...you could also position them on the sides of the room or outer LR front...talk to some local installers if possible, I know you can get flat speaker wire, if you never seen it, it looks like tape, you may be able to put it under the floor molding...good luck and don't fuss too much over rears

[remmib]

Or you could try those with wireless rear speakers.

I know Poineers, Philips and Kenwood all have
at least one HTIB system that has 2.4G wireless rear
speakers. Based on reviews I've read, wireless rear
tend to pick up WLAN noise though.

[samgupta]

Another option is to get paintable wiring...I was at a Good Guys a few years back and they were showing me the stuff. It was made by Monster so naturally the price was sky high/total rip off, but that's another story. If you get stuff like this, you can better camouflage it into the wall.

Here's the link:
http://monstercable.com/home_av/audio_cables/iow.asp

Try checking out the Acoustic Research site...hopefully they will have a competing product. It will be a lot cheaper...

Good luck!