anyone willing to share their audio knowledge?

[Timn8ter]

What the!!!!! You can do that kind of stuff in the forum? This is unacceptable. There should be no commercial post allowed in the forum.

I can't say I'm surprised much by your reaction. Yes, I design and sell speakers, but I'm giving my honest opinion and offering the starter of the thread another option. I'm not hiding the fact that I have a commercial interest and I'm also making myself available for questions, comments or critique. Hopefully some of you will find my comments useful.

[Timn8ter]

What about movies? Any movies that you guys know are particularly sound-demanding?

M&C is very demanding, as is The Incredibles and The Day After Tomorrow. Not just for bass either. There are many scenes where the action moves around the room. This can give you a sense of how well balanced your system is. Does the sound that starts at the left side and moves across to the right sound the same all the way?

[manhattanproj]

I think I will start out with a 3.1 set up. Any recommendations on which speakers to check out. I plan to use them mostly for movies and sometimes music.

[Quagmire]

This is really good advice. Thanks woochifer.

I listen to mostly pop and hip-hop music. IMO, it is rather hard to use those two genres to judge speakers. Let me know what you guys think.

What about movies? Any movies that you guys know are particularly sound-demanding?

You have gotten a lot of good advice so far. One thing that I haven't heard mentioned yet, unless I just missed it among all these multiple posts, is the room size where this system is to reside. There are some "mini speaker" setups offered by various brand name companies, which for smaller rooms and in systems where Home Theater is the primary focus, have pretty good sound IMO. I'm not talking about HTIB systems, but rather smaller "matched" speaker systems which are paired with a sub specifically for HT use. Of course in a moderate to larger sized room, one of these setups will be inadequate, but if you're talking about a small living room, bedroom, den, or dorm room; one of these little systems might be just the ticket. Performance on music reproduction will be compromised, but especially on your budget, compromises will have to be made. In fact, since you list HT as being the primary use for this system, I would encourage you to do most of your auditioning with movies rather than music. Sure bring along a few familiar CD's just to get an idea of what you can expect for music playback, but you should be primarily listening for how well this system performs on HT playback. If cost were no object you would have many more options, but on a limited budget you need to make your dollars count in the areas which are most important to you.

Like I said to begin with, I agree with most of the advice you've gotten already -- especially the advice to be patient and build a better system over time. But if you do have a smaller sized room, this is just one other option that might be worth your time to investigate. Best of luck to you.

Q

[manhattanproj]

Even though i dont have a big buget to start with, i do not think it is a good idea to make compromises by looking at the smaller HT system as suggested by Q. Yes i'll be able to have a HT system right now, but what i want is a good system. that's why i'm thinking about buying a 2.0 or a 3.1 set up first, with the money that i currently have. i'll able to buy a better pair of speakers, like the floorstanding type, in the future. i know that Q is suggesting another option for my budget, but i would rather build my system patiently as suggested by others.

let me know what you guys think?

[paul_pci]

Even though i dont have a big buget to start with, i do not think it is a good idea to make compromises by looking at the smaller HT system as suggested by Q. Yes i'll be able to have a HT system right now, but what i want is a good system. that's why i'm thinking about buying a 2.0 or a 3.1 set up first, with the money that i currently have. i'll able to buy a better pair of speakers, like the floorstanding type, in the future. i know that Q is suggesting another option for my budget, but i would rather build my system patiently as suggested by others.

let me know what you guys think?

Yes, that's reasonable. A lot of people don't have patience and want it all now. And then's there's the people with money to burn and drop money on a quick system they'll totally ditch later as they learn more about what they want out of home audio. What you should do, not like it hasn't already been said, is find a speaker line you think you'd be happy with and buy the bookshelves model that in the future you'd move to the rear as surrounds. That way you'd have a matching system as your budget allows you to build. And then there's the added excitement from moving to listening to bookshelf speakers as your mains to floorstanders as your mains It's like listening to your music and movies in a whole new light.

[manhattanproj]

What you should do, not like it hasn't already been said, is find a speaker line you think you'd be happy with and buy the bookshelves model that in the future you'd move to the rear as surrounds. That way you'd have a matching system as your budget allows you to build.

how often do companies change their line of speakers or their models of speakers?

[snickelfritz]

I am new into this audio stuff so I really don't know much, if anything. I am looking to set up a home theater system at home. But I have no idea what to buy. Should I buy a HTIB or should I build my own system. There are a lot of terminlogies that I dont understand like frequencies, sensitivity, and impedance.

Just wondering if anyone can help me out by teaching me about this stuff? Or if you know a site that explains them.

Thx

To put it quite succinctly, the room dimensions and general acoustics are the most important component in any audio system.
A $50,000 system in a room with poor acoustics and huge standing wave pile-ups is probably not going to sound as natural as a high-quality $10,000 system in an optimal room.

Building your own system from selected components is more expensive than a typical superstore all-in-one setup, but you will almost certainly end up with better components.
For example, Sony might make an excellent DVD player, Rotel might be a good choice for the amplifier, and Paradigm a good choice for speakers.

Most of the advertising hyperbole listed for components and speakers is often useless for choosing between models.
For example, a given 100 watt per channel HT receiver might actually be less powerful than another brand rated for 80 watts per channel.

Speakers should to be chosen by careful listening comparisons with music you are familiar with. (bring CDs with you)
Compare only two models at a time, and try to get the dealer to set them up as similarly as possible.
You can safely ignore speaker specifications.

Frequency response is the measure of the system's reproduction of sounds from the bass to treble, plotted on a horizontal graph.
Usually specified with a tolerance in an echo-free environment, such as "+/-3db".
+/-0db would be theoretically perfect.


Sensitivity is the measure of sound pressure produced by a speaker at 1 meter with 1.83volts(1 watt @8ohms)

• 3db represents a doubling or halving of required amplifier power to reach a given sound pressure level.
  3db also represents the minimum audibly significant change in sound pressure level.
  ie: 87db is noticeably louder than 84db, but 86db is not.

• 6db is a power factor of 4.
  This is probably an ideal increase in amplifier power when upgrading to gain headroom.
  ie: a really significant upgrade from a 60 watt amplifier(18dbw) would be a 250 watt amplifier(24dbw).

• 10db is a power factor of 10.
  ie: 100 watts is 10db louder than 10 watts.
  10db also represents an aural doubling of sound pressure level.

Impedance is the measure of a speaker's overall electrical resistance, expressed as a nominal value, such as "8 ohms".
In reality, the impedance varies greatly across the audio spectrum.
Therefore, one "8 ohm" speaker might require more current than another "8 ohm" speaker.
Lower impedances generally require more current from the amplifier, which is often what separates really good, really expensive amplifiers from those you might find at Bestbuy.

[Quagmire]

"...i know that Q is suggesting another option for my budget, but i would rather build my system patiently as suggested by others."

Actually, that is part of my suggestion too. That is what I meant by...

<<"Like I said to begin with, I agree with most of the advice you've gotten already -- especially the advice to be patient and build a better system over time.">>

But the main point that I was trying to make is that IF this system is for a smaller room and IF it is to be used primarily for Home Theater, you may not need anything more than one of these speaker systems. For small rooms, these systems can be quite good and you may have to spend significantly more money for only marginal improvements. I want to re-emphasize that I'm speaking of HT performance and not critical music listening. I you had stated that you wanted to use this system primarily for music listening or at least 50/50 music and HT, I would not have made this recommendation. Also, I did not want to infer that these systems are "compromised". In truth, ALL speakers/systems are compromised, as in, all speakers have strengths and weaknesses. The compromises I was referring to are those that must be made when judging performance for music reproduction versus Home Theater use. It is difficult to assemble a system which will do both EQUALLY well. It is very possible to assemble a system which performs well for one format and acceptable for the other. Especially on a smaller budget, it is prudent to determine what the primary usage will be and then optimize the setup based on that usage. That is the compromise.

Q