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Tarheel_
12-22-2004, 12:31 PM
here's the situation, my neighbor, impressed with my setup wanted to add 5.1 to his living room and add two speakers on his deck.
GET THIS....he wanted to do it with a $500 gift card from Best Buy. Ugggg.

so, i surveyed his current setup..typical really. Two 201 bose bookshelf and one bose center with a small 8" Yammie sub and a 'just made it' AC-3 Sony reciever. 1997 model i belive.

So my plans were this....spend the majority of money on speakers, use his current sub, Sony reciever and move the two bose outdoors.

List of needs: 5 speakers, DVD player, optical cable.

Luckily his house is new and he ran speaker wire in the four corners. Sweet.

Not sweet is the fact the two front corners are on a 10' ceiling that slopes upward and peaks at about 15'. Plus, tile floor and NO walls (except one to the exterior).

So, off to Best Buy...we listened to all the speaker packages and even some that include a sub and reciever for $500? Yikes, those setups sucked....Actually any package that included a sub was terrible. I guess to include the sub they sacrified sound quality.

We ended up going with Klispch Quintet. This package includes 4 matching small speakers and a slightly larger center speaker. THe sound was far superior to anything else offered there. As a bonus the Klispch include built-in mounts that rotate. This made mounting very straighforward.

The speaker cost was $419. throw in an optical cable and tax and we were pushing $450.
No much left for a DVD player, but as luck would have it there was an open box Pioneer 578AS for $89. Nice!

We headed home and spent a few hours mounting the speakers and connecting everything to a 32" tv and Directv reciever.

The Sony was tough to calibrate and setup...(i'm spoiled by onscreen menus). Finally, after four hours we tested a DVD and listened to CDs and DTV. I have to say, as an owner of a $15k HT system, this setup really sounded great. The speakers filled the room and the small center handled voices well. I positioned and set the small Yammie sub and it held up well. Even the Bose on the deck sounds very nice (actually better than they did inside).
So, i'm very happy with my first HT on a budget or otherwise. The following weekend they had a Christmas party and someone asked if I can help them setup a HT system. I love this hobby.

What i learned, the $40 for my SPL meter was a damn good buy, spend time setting up the receiver (esp. the speaker placement) move and adjust the sub, spend majority on speakers...basically, everything i've learned from some great experienced people on this board.

Worf101
12-23-2004, 07:11 AM
What i learned, the $40 for my SPL meter was a damn good buy, spend time setting up the receiver (esp. the speaker placement) move and adjust the sub, spend majority on speakers...basically, everything i've learned from some great experienced people on this board.

I've played "Worfie HT seed" myself more times then I can count. Just make sure you're not being taken advantage of though. After word got out that I can do HT here at work I had all sorts of people asking me to do the "impossible". I do it for friends no problem but some of these people I actually hate, so... no love for dem. Which is what I would have called your mission something impossible. But you did quite well with a completely miniscule budget. Only problem is if if your friend is completely un-tech, anytime his system goes down he's gonna holla back for a recalibration and God knows what else.

You did a good ting, let's hope you don't wind up paying for it!!! :D

bikehikefish
12-23-2004, 08:31 AM
Tarheel,

Since you bought at Best Buy, I'm assuming you listened to the Athena speakers. If you did hear them, can you comment on why you chose the Klipsch over Athena?

Thanks

Tarheel_
12-27-2004, 07:30 AM
i should have been more clear, the Athenas are a larger size speaker and did not fit the guys preferences. We compared smaller satelite-type speakers. Plus the Klispch have a very high sensitivity rating so filling a large room with sound was also high priority.