Home theatre audio experts: help please

[Whitigir]

I am all about Stereo.

Good Stereo = best performance.

Why ? Because we have 2 ears. Most of the time you hear Left to Right, and your brain will some what interpret it as behind you. This effect can be recreated with a good Stereo system

Surround sounds are Fake.

[BlueDubbinTDI]

Got the TV hooked up! now just need to go get a digital cable for the xbox. Thanks for the help guys

[Calum]

<--- has about $15 grand in his home theatre, and is shuddering at this thread.

The best advice I've seen here though, was that Bose is junk. Sony is also overpriced.

Op, what you're looking for is a system that will allow you to run all of your components through it. The end result will be that you'll always need to have the "stereo" on while you're watching tv or anything on your tv. The stereo will be used to select which component is displayed and heard, not the tv anymore. The wiring will be very similar to how you wired your old tv. The difference being that you will wiring everything to the stereo instead of the tv, and then run one additional wire from the stereo to the tv for video only.

There are other ways to do it so that you can still get sound from your tv, but without knowing the capabilities of your components I can't describe the process fully.

When looking for a home theater system ignore the wattage ratings and pretty well every sticker you see. There are so many ways to fudge those numbers that they are useless without knowing exactly how the tests were conducted.

Instead, find a system with; enough hdmi inputs for the number of components you have plus a couple exta for future expansion, one that sounds good to YOU, and is in your price range. This should hopefully leave you with a few options, **this is the most critical part of the selection process** pick the one with the remote that's easiest to use and find the buttons on. People always give me the stink eye when I say this because they expect a much more technical answere, but it really is the most important part. I'm sure we've all had a remote that was nothing but a sea of buttons. It's frustrating to no end and you'll quickly begin to hate whatever that remote controls.

[Calum]

Originally Posted by Whitigir

I am all about Stereo.

Good Stereo = best performance.

Why ? Because we have 2 ears. Most of the time you hear Left to Right, and your brain will some what interpret it as behind you. This effect can be recreated with a good Stereo system

Surround sounds are Fake.

You're not wrong, but the way most movies a are mastered is with rear speakers in mind. The center is easy enough to just send a mono signal to the fronts but integrating the rear signals after the fact will be equally as fake. I run my system 2.0 and bypass everything but the volume knob when listening to music, but movies I run it 5.1.

Sent from my GT-S7560M using Tapatalk

[n2oinferno]

Originally Posted by Calum

<--- has about $15 grand in his home theatre, and is shuddering at this thread.

The best advice I've seen here though, was that Bose is junk. Sony is also overpriced.

I wish I had fifteen grand. I'd buy.. uh... maybe one B&W speaker. Just to have it and admire it, you know. I don't know what they go for now.


For the record, I wasn't about to buy my Sony soundbar for MSRP, but for half off it was a great price IMO.

Originally Posted by Calum

There are other ways to do it so that you can still get sound from your tv, but without knowing the capabilities of your components I can't describe the process fully.

I think I've got him pretty much set in the right direction. Doesn't really care about sound other than wanting something better than TV audio (isn't that how it always starts for all of us? ) and I looked up the manuals and pictures of his components to make sure everything will connect properly.

Originally Posted by Calum

**this is the most critical part of the selection process** pick the one with the remote that's easiest to use and find the buttons on. People always give me the stink eye when I say this because they expect a much more technical answere, but it really is the most important part. I'm sure we've all had a remote that was nothing but a sea of buttons. It's frustrating to no end and you'll quickly begin to hate whatever that remote controls.

<3 my Harmony. I just don't know what will happen when Logitech finally dumps them.

[BlueDubbinTDI]

Originally Posted by Calum

<--- has about $15 grand in his home theatre, and is shuddering at this thread.

The best advice I've seen here though, was that Bose is junk. Sony is also overpriced.

Op, what you're looking for is a system that will allow you to run all of your components through it. The end result will be that you'll always need to have the "stereo" on while you're watching tv or anything on your tv. The stereo will be used to select which component is displayed and heard, not the tv anymore. The wiring will be very similar to how you wired your old tv. The difference being that you will wiring everything to the stereo instead of the tv, and then run one additional wire from the stereo to the tv for video only.

There are other ways to do it so that you can still get sound from your tv, but without knowing the capabilities of your components I can't describe the process fully.

When looking for a home theater system ignore the wattage ratings and pretty well every sticker you see. There are so many ways to fudge those numbers that they are useless without knowing exactly how the tests were conducted.

Instead, find a system with; enough hdmi inputs for the number of components you have plus a couple exta for future expansion, one that sounds good to YOU, and is in your price range. This should hopefully leave you with a few options, **this is the most critical part of the selection process** pick the one with the remote that's easiest to use and find the buttons on. People always give me the stink eye when I say this because they expect a much more technical answere, but it really is the most important part. I'm sure we've all had a remote that was nothing but a sea of buttons. It's frustrating to no end and you'll quickly begin to hate whatever that remote controls.

Well this thread has all but been wrapped up. But I don't plan to spend anymore money on this system because the picture is gorgeous and the soundbar is good enough, its a small room. Maybe once I get a nice place I'll invest but right now this is it.

[Calum]

Originally Posted by n2oinferno

I wish I had fifteen grand. I'd buy.. uh... maybe one B&W speaker. Just to have it and admire it, you know. I don't know what they go for now.


For the record, I wasn't about to buy my Sony soundbar for MSRP, but for half off it was a great price IMO.



I think I've got him pretty much set in the right direction. Doesn't really care about sound other than wanting something better than TV audio (isn't that how it always starts for all of us? ) and I looked up the manuals and pictures of his components to make sure everything will connect properly.



<3 my Harmony. I just don't know what will happen when Logitech finally dumps them.

If you don't mind spending the time to set it up, the MX 450 from Universal remote control is outstanding and fairly cost effective. Logitech has them on ease of setup, but for ease of everyday use the URC has them beat to a pulp.

And I didn't spend all that money in one shot, that took over ten years as I waited for funds to come in and technology to get to a point that I wanted to buy. I had thought about waiting for decent 3d to come to projectors, but the setup in the theatres doesn't really work for me, so I took the plunge and bought a Mitsubishi projector. I kept the screen relatively small at 92 inches, this allowed me to maintain a 20 degree viewing angle while keeping my couch in the middle of the room. (Any bigger and my wife gets nauseous.) The room BTW is a 15x23 foot room that I had framed with sound damping techniques when I built the house. I ran all of the in wall wiring for the projector, rack, and speakers long before I had everything assembled. I still haven't properly sound deadened the room to prevent reflections, but the dimensions alone helps to stop standing waves, as does the couch in the middle and the exposed steel beam in the ceiling.

I'd love to be able to afford B&W, they have truly awe inspiring sound quality. But I just can't justify that much cost. Instead I just do my best with positioning my honestly modest (on the grand scale) speakers.

The best part though, is the theatre style popcorn maker. I just completes the whole experience.

[Calum]

Originally Posted by BlueDubbinTDI

Well this thread has all but been wrapped up. But I don't plan to spend anymore money on this system because the picture is gorgeous and the soundbar is good enough, its a small room. Maybe once I get a nice place I'll invest but right now this is it.

Not a problem, I didn't realize it so wrapped up when I started typing.

Enjoying what you have is more important then bragging rights.

[Whitigir]

Originally Posted by Calum

Not a problem, I didn't realize it so wrapped up when I started typing.

Enjoying what you have is more important then bragging rights.

1+

AMen to that

The same goes for car and performance. Enjoy it to the way it best serve you, not bragging rights

[Vracer111]

Originally Posted by Whitigir

I am all about Stereo.

Good Stereo = best performance.

Why ? Because we have 2 ears. Most of the time you hear Left to Right, and your brain will some what interpret it as behind you. This effect can be recreated with a good Stereo system

Surround sounds are Fake.

Now that the OP has his help for his setup, I'll just say 2 channel is great for 2 channel CDs...but is still a front only soundstage. But a nicely mixed 4 or 5.1 multichannel SACD disc or Blu-Ray concert disc [like Jeff Beck - Live at Ronnie Scott's], that really envelopes you and puts you in the center of the experience (rather than having the experience happen in front of you, which is okay for music because you are listening to the music as an audience member with it being performed in front of you.) A side/rear multichannel setup playing audio signals at each location replicates discreet sound sources much like real life because what you hear in is physically coming from different locations. And for gaming (first person shooters) this difference is absolutely critical.

There is a big difference when I'm playing Halo or World of Tanks Beta using my reference stereo headphones verses my HT system speakers (5.2 for gaming)...much more detail and information from the HT system speakers because you can pinpoint instantly where a distance firefight is versus taking the time to pan side to side to get your precise information with the headphones. It also helps when you are in the middle of a fight and have to bug out due to hearing a Mantis gunning on you from ~195 degrees heading, his buddy with the machine gun turret on your other flank at ~150 degrees, some guy trying to snipe you from 270 degrees, all with grenades and enemy fire incoming directly ahead of you.

Headphones loose out big time and lead to more deaths due to less precise information - you have to know exactly what is going on in a 360 degree plane around you every moment of a match and physical speakers giving discreet information excel at that. Gaming in stereo is like being a horse with blinders put on.

[jdcorbitt3]

Originally Posted by n2oinferno

I wish I had fifteen grand. I'd buy.. uh... maybe one B&W speaker. Just to have it and admire it, you know. I don't know what they go for now.


.

I listened to a pair of these quad amped to 8 Krell 800 watt mono block amps. It was at a "Steriophile" show at Dorall in a hotel where they took the furniture out of the rooms to set up listening rooms.

The sound was amazing. They are the Nautilus Series and in the 90s they sold for $35,000 a pair. The manufacture set up the room and the total was $130,000. Today, there are actually speakers that cost that much, but my ears can't hear the difference. I have been using Onkyo receivers for the past 20 years they are about the best bang for the buck. They have receivers ranging from $199 to $3,000

John

[BlueDubbinTDI]

Originally Posted by jdcorbitt3

I listened to a pair of these quad amped to 8 Krell 800 watt mono block amps. It was at a "Steriophile" show at Dorall in a hotel where they took the furniture out of the rooms to set up listening rooms.

The sound was amazing. They are the Nautilus Series and in the 90s they sold for $35,000 a pair. The manufacture set up the room and the total was $130,000. Today, there are actually speakers that cost that much, but my ears can't hear the difference. I have been using Onkyo receivers for the past 20 years they are about the best bang for the buck. They have receivers ranging from $199 to $3,000

John

Yeah my next step would be to buy a good reciever and then piece he rest of the system together. My dad built his setup piece by piece and not as a package and it sounds amazing! I don't think he spent more than $3k either.