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  1. #1
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    Question New house - new system

    Buying a new house and with it came a request from my wife for smaller speakers. While my system is not the best, I tend to like it and have some plans for some upgrades, but maybe I just need to start over.

    My System:

    2 DCM12A Towers (used for surround, 2 channel, and house parties)
    1 DCM Center Channel (love this center channel over the previous one)
    2 rear sony surrounds (from in the box and need to be replaced)
    1 Sony Subwoofer (decent)
    1 Sony HT Reciever

    New house has an open large down stairs. The Family room is open to the left side to the kitchen and breakfast nook with a half wall, the right side there is a window type half wall to the den, the rear is an exterior wall and the front of the room has a built in media center half wall that opens to the formal dining and living room. The media center is pointed at a 45 degree towards the corner made by the breakfast nook. Room is roughly 16x20. I can post floor plan if that would help understand the area.

    Wife would prefer to see as little of spearkers as possible and likes Bose. While I know Bose are over priced, the product has its advantages. The new systems offer something like 5.1, DVD/CD player, 340 hours of saved music and supports like 8 wireless speakers. Looks like a small foot print all around.

    I prefer the full range of sound that I hear with the current system and do not want to lose sound range. Can anyone suggest a system with the features offered by Bose, including the small speaker size, but better quality, full range of sound, and less then or equal to the price of a Bose pacakge? With small speakers would I still be able to use 5.1, 2 channel and host house parties / karaoke?

    Considering -

    Bose Lifestyle 48
    Orb Audio Speakers 7.1 pacakge and a new HT unit
    Keeping what I have
    Home Builder installed 5.1 surround speakers in wall (can't really take them with me if I move)
    Open to opinions
    Last edited by tenebros; 11-06-2005 at 07:32 PM.

  2. #2
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    I'd say bottom line: no bose. Part of it depends on how much you want to spend. I'm a paradigm man myself. Check out www.paradigm.com and look at their performance and cinema systems. They'd be a great step up from what you have now, just now a huge jump price wise. The Cinema systems are great for movies, are all very small, and still sound great. This paired with a good yamaha or denon entry-level HT receiver would blow the bose stuff out of the water, and would probably be cheaper too. This system would also be fairly good for casual music. IF you're really into music, I'd say get a set of monitor 5's or 7's by paradigm, which too aren't a huge jump price wise from what you have now. I've had Paradigm Monitor 9's for years, and i love them. Only downside of Paradigm is it can be a little hard to find their stuff.....you can only get it at specialized smaller dealers. Anyways, I'd say go to some high end places (smaller the better usually) and ask their opinions. I bet you all of them will tell you to stay away from bose, not because they make crappy stuff or anything, just because you can do MUCH better for the price. This site's a great resource for reviews too. Good luck!!

  3. #3
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    Sorry, thought of a few quick additions:

    -Look at the On-Wall monitor speakers by paradigm. Haven't heard them myself, but the idea is great and they'll free up floor space without you having to compromise too much sound. Also regarding the bose music storage......I'd say think about the price. While it has some advantages, keep in mind that it's totally proprietary, and spreading it around the house will also cost hundreds more with bose stuff in the future. All your music is just stuck inside your stereo. For the price of those bose systems, I'd do the following first before ever considering the bose system....

    Buy an Apple iBook 12" (999), and an Airport Express base station (129). You could put over 5,000 songs on your ibook, and play the music wirelessly through your stereo. This saves you a lot of money, and stores the music in a way that you can actually do something with it (burn CDs, bring it with you, etc.), and I'm sure it's easier to navigate the music this way. I use a system like this, only with a 12" powerbook and I think it's a blessing to large music collections (i have 13,000 songs). The convenience can't be beat, and I like knowing that my music is portable, not stuck on a hard drive in my stereo. Theres also the whole ipod thing along with that. While I can have all the benefits of a large music library linked up with the stereo, theres tons more value to this laptop (wireless internet, etc). Not that you're in the market for a new computer, but when you look at a bose stereo system for 3,000 or more, it puts things in perspective and makes you realize what else you could do for the same price. I'm not a bose hater, I just think it should be reserved ONLY for uneducated consumers who simply don't want to spend the time or effort researching and piecing a system together. When people research like you are, they see how nice of a system you can piece together for the same price, or even less. Any high end shop will tell you that bose for the most part is a total ripoff when you consider the alternatives out there. Again, good luck!

  4. #4
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    Quote Originally Posted by StateDJ85
    Buy an Apple iBook 12" (999)!
    Thats actually a good idea. After looking into the Bose more I have decided to go with the 7.1 Orb system with the reciever.

    The TV will sit in the Media Niche. The seating will wrap around the back corner next to the Nook's half wall. The ceilings will be 9 feet 4 inches. Trying to decide if mounting the Orb speakers on the ceiling will be a good idea or if I should wall mount the speakers, or use stands to line up with ear level.

    Plan to use the system for music and movies. The room is very open as you can see in the pictures below; no real walls. The room that will have the surround system is roughly 16 x 20. Have come up with two ideas for speaker placement. The ceiling mounted option:



    The wall and/or stand mounted option:



    Thoughts? Suggestions?
    Last edited by tenebros; 11-26-2005 at 02:58 PM.

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