Surround Systems?

[Mudcat21]

I finally purchased a HDTV. Absolutely love it! Now comes the hard part....The surround sound system. I don't want to screw up this great TV with a crappy system, so I'm looking for idea's of system that you guy's have and are happy with. I'm looking at the $1000-$1500 range. Also, what's up with some receivers having HDMI capabilities. How does that work with the satellite receivers? Thanks for any suggestions.

[Spork]

Your best bet will probably be building a customized set. Seperate receiver, seperate speakers, good cable, etc. You can pretty much forget those all-in-one box sets if you're looking to go with superior quality and want to spend over a grand.

Personally, I spent $200 on a Sony 600W 5.1 system and it sounds fantastic. In my opinion, you can spend all the money you want on a sound system, but if you don't set it up correctly, it's going to sound like dump. I've tweaked and changed the settings on my receiver countless times in an attempt to make it sound flawless... and it does. So like I said, if you don't know what you're doing when it comes to setting it up, then it'll be no different than a bookshelf stereo from Kmart.

[Bobby Bass]

No matter what system you buy spend the extra 40 bucks and buy an air pressure meter. This will allow you to balance all of your speakers to reach you at your seat with the same intensity. You can't tune your set up by ear only. Does make a difference and you can use the meter to set up friends systems and you will be surprised at some of the noise levels of things around the house.

[LMITOUT]

And don't waste your money on Monster Cable....no matter how hard they try to tell you/sell you on how much it will make your new system sound better....it won't. That goes for speaker wire to HDMI cables. Save the money and upgrade to a better DVD player, TV, speakers, etc. etc.

[Spork]

Quote:

---

And don't waste your money on Monster Cable....no matter how hard they try to tell you/sell you on how much it will make your new system sound better....it won't. That goes for speaker wire to HDMI cables. Save the money and upgrade to a better DVD player, TV, speakers, etc. etc.

---

Monster Cable makes some pretty darn nice cables. I've actually bought a few of them due to their manufacturing quality alone. Personally, I'm not going to spend $10 on a flimsy crappy no-name cable when I can spend another $10 on something made with better quality.

That's like saying why spend $100+ on a fantastic Shimano reel when you can get a cheapy $20 reel from Target that will do the same thing.

[LMITOUT]

Because there is very little difference between the two wires (Monster and cheaper-other-brand) and cannot be compared to something such as fishing reels which are more complicated. Yes, two reels will essentially do the same thing but one will do it better than the other and you can tell the difference. This is just wire we're talking about. Not much complicated or sophisticated about that. It's just that....wire.

Don't believe the hype and blow your money. Even the guys with mega-bucks systems don't fall into that trap. It's been examined, studied, and tested.....there isn't an appreciable difference between the $100 speaker wire and one that is half that or even a 1/10th of that in price.

Head on over to your favorite home audio forum of choice....M-C isn't pushed at all, in fact it has a reputation of overpriced merchandise and there are other alternatives that most will go with at a much reduced cost.

Like I said, save your money and put it towards better equipment. If you've got $20,000+ invested into your system and still bored and want to spend more money, go replace all your cable with M-C to make you feel better.....but it won't sound any better.

[Bobby Bass]

I to think the monster cables are way over priced. We are not talking about buying cheap cheap replacement wires but you can by shopping around find some decent cable and speaker wire options. Wire is wire, I would be more concern about connectors.

[Spork]

Quote:

---

I to think the monster cables are way over priced. We are not talking about buying cheap cheap replacement wires but you can by shopping around find some decent cable and speaker wire options. Wire is wire, I would be more concern about connectors.

---

That's the reason why I buy Monster Cables is due to the connector quality. If I'm looking for bulk speaker cable, then I'll by a decent quality roll of audio cable. But otherwise I'll tend to stick with Monster for my audio and video cables. The connector ends are far superior to anything else I've seen.

[Whoaru99]

That $1000-$1500 range is a really tough price point. Not that you can't get good sound, it's just that at that price and higher, you have LOTS of choice. If you can go to the top end of that you start to get into some pretty good sound.

My advice is to spend a moderate amount on a receiver, probably no more that $400-$500 - maybe even less depending on how much convenience and features you want. Spend a goodly sum, pretty much the rest, on the speakers and especially a good subwoofer.

HDMI can be a good thing, but unless your set is a 1080P and you are going to get a Blue-Ray or HD-DVD player, there isn't a whole lot of reason to stew over it. Besides, it seems it's kind of hit or miss as to how well different devices interface via HDMI.

As far as cables go, Monoprice.com has inexpensive cables and I've not seen any complaints about them. If you want to spend a bit more, but not outrageous, Blue Jeans Cable makes some of very nice cables. They use only top grade Belden or Canare cable stock and VERY nice Canare connectors.

Again, spend most of your money on speakers and subwoofer, the electronics don't make nearly as much difference as the speakers and sub.

[zachp]

I got a pretty good package deal with a Yamaha 5940 reciever ($299), Yamaha 5950 upconvert dvd player($179), Klipsch synergy quintet III surround 5pc speaker set($499), Klipsch 10" subwoofer($400) total would be $1375 but packaged was right around $1000 i don't remember the exact total but it was around $300 to $350 off. I also got a Monster Power reference power center which runs about $300 but i thought it was a must have with the high priced equipment as well as a HDTV. I got it at BB and since i am a rewards customer and recently bought a computer i had racked up some points and got another $250 off on top of the package deal. The system sounds unbelievable, i don't get to crank it due to living in an apt but for watching movies the highs and lows are very crisp and the sub could shake the whole apartment building building if a guy had the balls to do it. I got this back in November so i'm not sure if they're still running the package deal, i wouldn't have seen it but i went to try out the speakers and there was a sticker there with the package deal on it.

[Blake]

Quote:

---

I got a pretty good package deal with a Yamaha 5940 reciever ($299), Yamaha 5950 upconvert dvd player($179), Klipsch synergy quintet III surround 5pc speaker set($499), Klipsch 10" subwoofer($400) total would be $1375 but packaged was right around $1000 i don't remember the exact total but it was around $300 to $350 off. I also got a Monster Power reference power center which runs about $300 but i thought it was a must have with the high priced equipment as well as a HDTV. I got it at BB and since i am a rewards customer and recently bought a computer i had racked up some points and got another $250 off on top of the package deal. The system sounds unbelievable, i don't get to crank it due to living in an apt but for watching movies the highs and lows are very crisp and the sub could shake the whole apartment building building if a guy had the balls to do it. I got this back in November so i'm not sure if they're still running the package deal, i wouldn't have seen it but i went to try out the speakers and there was a sticker there with the package deal on it.

---

My dad bought a new 50 inch plasma so he sold me his 5 year old Sony 32 inch t.v. and his Sherwood? surround sound with 5 speakers...for 300.00....thinkin it was a great deal since his surround sound alone was 1000....got the T.V. hooked up...its awesome....as for the surround sound...could be another year or so to know how it sounds as I haven't the faintest idea how to hook it up

[Mudcat21]

I still haven't bought a sound system yet. But I did narrow it down to the one I want. I'm going with the Klipsch RB-51 bookshelf Home Theater System. It will be powered by a Denon AVR2307. A friend of mine bought the Klipsch RB-61 system and I got to hear it.....WOW! I was sold after watching a movie and listening to some CD's. Overall it will be a little more money then I originally intended to spend but I feel it will be worth it.

[Blake]

Mudcat.....I'm sure yours will come with assembly instructions!

[xedge2002]

Blake if you have the name and model # of your surround sound system try googling it with Instruction's added on and you might get lucky and find out how to hook it up.

[Blake]

Quote:

---

Blake if you have the name and model # of your surround sound system try googling it with Instruction's added on and you might get lucky and find out how to hook it up.

---

Awesome idea xedge!! I will look that info up and give it a try. Thanks!