Help picking a Home Theater Receiver

[SugarJ]

Oh gawd, I knew I was getting in over my head. I am not an audiophile by any means. My "mancave" is an L-shaped basement in my townhouse which is about 700 sq. ft. I've got a 8-year old Sony HTIB setup which I'm looking to upgrade. The "theater" area is 11'w x 15' long. Whatever I get the neighbors will hate. This is a gaming/movie system only though. When I do listen to music, it's upstairs.

Now, my dad offered me his old Fischer cabinet speakers with 15" woofers. I'm really thinking about building some new mdf boxes for them, because I've never heard better sound out of any other speakers in 25 years. I think they'd be freaking awesome fronts.

Sigh, too many options. I was out looking at speaker setups today, and I can't see how you can get good sound out of a 3" cube, which is what most of the "home theater speaker systems" seem to be. Maybe I'm just too old to realize how good they can be.

[enaberif]

Originally Posted by SugarJ

Oh gawd, I knew I was getting in over my head. I am not an audiophile by any means. My "mancave" is an L-shaped basement in my townhouse which is about 700 sq. ft. I've got a 8-year old Sony HTIB setup which I'm looking to upgrade. The "theater" area is 11'w x 15' long. Whatever I get the neighbors will hate. This is a gaming/movie system only though. When I do listen to music, it's upstairs.

Now, my dad offered me his old Fischer cabinet speakers with 15" woofers. I'm really thinking about building some new mdf boxes for them, because I've never heard better sound out of any other speakers in 25 years. I think they'd be freaking awesome fronts.

Sigh, too many options. I was out looking at speaker setups today, and I can't see how you can get good sound out of a 3" cube, which is what most of the "home theater speaker systems" seem to be. Maybe I'm just too old to realize how good they can be.

your right you can't and people buy the sub par systems and don't know what they are missing

[SKYMTL]

My brother picked up this one at a Sears store yesterday. Heard it at his place this morning and I'm stunned:

SONY Bravia® Blu-ray Home Theatre System BDVE500W - Sears - Sears Canada

It has literally everything you need and there is supposedly a $35 off coupon code bumping around Reflagdeals too.

From the online reviews I see, it is a hell of a system and the only complaint is that it's too expensive...which is alleviated by the sale price.

[SugarJ]

My current HTIB is a Sony too, I've been happy with it and if it had enough inputs I probably wouldn't be looking. Same problem with that Bravia system you linked SKYMTL. Oh well, going to listen to some units today.

[biff]

Originally Posted by SugarJ

...and I can't see how you can get good sound out of a 3" cube, which is what most of the "home theater speaker systems" seem to be...

You're right you really can't but some pretty high priced marketing will tell you otherwise... I think they go by the name of 'Blose'.

If you can find another route around all the HDMI (i.e. HD feeds) to your TV then there are some good deals to be had on the used market. I have a couple older HK's that I picked up, there's not an HDMI port to be found but I only use them for audio, and they're REALLY good at that.

As for the upgrading speakers bit... IMO there's not a whole lot of sense in upgrading from somewhat lowend (just based on your description) to modern mid to low end (based on your price point). This is all just my opinion but I'd save the $$$ for better speakers or if you can build your own. All those ity bity satelites won't play low enough either leaving a hole in your frequency response or forcing you to cross the sub over higher which is no good either. And at thise prices there's not a lot of money left over for a good crossover in those speakers.

Again, just my 2cents...

[Spikemaul]

Check out Energy Speakers Energy Speakers - Home Theater Systems, Home Audio Speakers, Speaker Systems, Stereo Speakers, Tower Speakers, Surround Sound Speakers, Subwoofers, Bookshelf Speakers, Center Speakers

Their Canadian too.

I have an eight year old Take 5.1 setup and I still love them like the first time I heard them.

[biff]

FWIW Here's a nice tear-down review of the Energy C500's.

[lcdguy]

There is nothing wrong with Yamaha amps. It just depends greatly on the speakers you pair with them as well as the quailty of the speaker cable. I used to have a Yamaha amp it sounded great with my JBL speakers. the only reason i upgraded to a marantz other then the bling factor was i needed more HDMI ports and up mixing. Having said that Klipsch are ok (unless your insane and go klipschorn) Energy, Polk Audio, Athena all around the same sound quality i personally prefer JBL as they seem to giv you good bang for your buck. how ever i gave my old amp to my parents and paired it with some polk audio (itty bitty speakers) and it works fine since the room is small. Also you don't necessarily need massive speakers it depends on how big the room is. The bigger the room the bigger speakers as you need more sound pressure. The YPAO works good. But the Audessy is much better on the higher end amps such as mine and some denon models the amount of sampling points is unlimited. On mine it suggests between 8-10 points but can do more . All in all go to an audio store (not FS or BB) as they will be setup properly and in a more at home type environment with normal ceilings. Then once you find the hardware you like find the cheapest place and buy it . BTW onkyo's from NCIX are very nice amps at excellent price points. (especially if you have PP)

Just my 2 cent's

[SugarJ]

Man, there's a whole world of stuff out there I know nothing about. Anyway, here's what I've done so far. I liked my friend's Yamaha amp with Totem speakers (don't remember the exact model number, but very similar features / specs). BB had the HTR6260 on doorcrasher, and I picked one up for $449 + tax. It's a 2 zone, but you could hook the zone 2 speakers up as presence speakers for a 9.1 config if you really wanted too. I'm not sure I'm going to even go 7.1, but it's an option.

My current HTIB speakers are 4 ohm, supposedly not usable with the amp as it requires 6 ohm min. I picked up a pair of Precision HD25 tower doorcrashers for $100 so I can at least watch TV until I decide what to do for speakers. Unfortunately I missed out on the Klipsch F1's as they were sold out. If nothing else, I could replace the drivers at a later date, because they were cheaper than bookshelf speakers with stands. Or I'll give them to my son.

The mess of cables, and manually switching the toslink cable between the PVR and PS3 is now a thing of the past. (This is kind of what drove the whole thing in the first place, the lack of inputs on my HTIB). I'm down to 3 cables into the receiver and 1 to the TV. So now I'm going to spend some time figuring out what I'm going to do about speakers. The idea of building my own speakers appeals to me as I have a table saw and router. So now I'm going to do some browsing on AV forums, and learn something new.

Thanks for all your input. I'm sure I'll be back with more questions.

[lcdguy]

9.1 isn't really needed as i don't think anything out there supports 9.1 but i believe most dts-hd and dolby-ma is 7.1 so it could be worth while. Building your speakers is certainly an option. I would also consider the JBL ES Series.

Fronts JBL ES-80 - Audio: Home Audio & Speakers: JBL 6" Tower Speakers (ES80) - Pair | Best Buy Canada Web Store

Center JBL ES-25C - Audio: Home Audio & Speakers: JBL Dual 5" Center Channel Speaker (ES25C) | Best Buy Canada Web Store

Surrounds JBL ES-10BK - Audio: Home Audio & Speakers: JBL Bookshelf Speakers (ES10BK) - Black | Best Buy Canada Web Store

Sub JBL ES150P - Audio: Home Audio & Speakers: JBL 10" 300 Watt Subwoofer (ES150P) | Best Buy Canada Web Store

There is also a package deal they have for around 1349. Just thought i would shoot that out there.

I would also check out aperion audio (Home Theater Speakers - Home Speakers - Free Shipping - Aperion Audio) as they make excellent speakers. For audio forums i would checkout avsforum. Most of the members on that forum really know their stuff. For cables i would go with monoprice. especially for bulk cabling.