Hi all this is my first post... Hmm how many of THESE posts do you see in a month.. too many to count I'm sure!


Ok straight up: I am a car forum guy. I like rare and fast cars and seem to dump my spare cash into that hobby and own an Audi RS6, BMW 850i, Ford Mustang 64 1/4 (K-Code) plus my wife's Lexus GX470 (yawn!).

I finally bought a house worthy of a "man cave" media room. I've got a 5-6 year old Kenwood receiver with 5.1 Dolby Digital, Bose Accusimass 10 dual-cubes (5 speakers), ditched the lame passive sub-woofer long ago and bought a Yamaha 45 watt powered sub.

I had the room custom-built with all Impact Accustics wiring (speakers, sub, etc.). I have jack plates in all the right places for a 7.1 system. I have canned lighting with dimmer controls for the room and a separate pair of small cans on a dimmer on either side of the plasma TV.

In December 2006 I bought a 55" Hitachi Plasma 1080P (55HDT79) TV. It looks amazing! The source is a Toshiba DVD with HDMI and 1080i upconversion. I'd like to go Blu-Ray in a year or so when the pricing comes down or use a Playstation 3 in the mean time... not sure the differences in a dedicated Blu-Ray drive and PS3 for a video source.. perhaps another post.


Anyway...

I am looking to go in stages to upgrade the sound system. This will be a dedicated home theater set-up.

1. I am looking to spend $1200-$1500 on a set of 7 speakers. I prefer a speaker that will be wall mounted on all sides (front, center, rear, side-fill) and not take up a ton of wallspace. Again, all of the speaker jacks are already installed. I will use my existing Yamaha subwoofer for now, so I don't think I need the low-end capability in the speakers (like a floor standing set). The jack plates were mounted next to a stud, so I can install a heavier speaker if needed. Also, I need to make sure that there is a nice wall kit available with the speakers selected. I don't know if I need different speakers for the center vs.front? What about front vs. rear? I have seen some larger center speakers that enhance the voice quanlity and are larger. Is it best to purchase a "matched set"? I have not seen a lot of 7.1 speaker systems for sale as a set.

2. Next I will be looking to purchase a $1000-$1500 receiver dedicated for home theater with 7.1 capability. I don't have the budget for it now but wanted to note this so that the speakers I purchase now can handle this upgrade later. I'd like to future-proof my speakers and hang on to them for 5-7 years like I did with the Bose 10's. I'm sure with Blu-Ray and HD-DVD the encoding will now allow for 7.1 surround and I want to be prepared for this new trend.


Thank you in advance. I'm glad I found this forum.