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Help with purchasing Home Theatre.

N

neoelectronaut

Cancelled
Original poster
Dec 3, 2003
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I want to get a Home Theatre/Surround Sound setup for my home. I was just wondering if anyone had any personal reccomendations for me.

I saw a $55 Duraband one in wal-mart the other day on clearance. I think I may get it, just as a starter.
 
neoelectronaut said:
I want to get a Home Theatre/Surround Sound setup for my home. I was just wondering if anyone had any personal reccomendations for me.

I saw a $55 Duraband one in wal-mart the other day on clearance. I think I may get it, just as a starter.
Click to expand...

The best thing I ever did was check out epinions.com once I'd narrowed it down a bit. I checked out a bunch of sites, finally settled on a kenwood system that seemed to offer the most bang for the buck. Sounds great. I checked prices at lots of places, found it would cost around $300 bucks. Went to epinions and foudn a kenwood system 2 tiers above the one I was looking at for 80 bucks LESS from some little store in New Jersey, the list price at kenwoods site was like 500 bucks. Shipping was like 70 bucks, but that was still cheaper than the more inferior system I was considering. So the point is, take your time, narrow it down to a few models, then search all over for a good price. A dael like I got might not be that easy to find, so take into consideration shipping costs. I found best buy and circuit city to be very competitive in the lower end home theater system market because they offer free shipping on everything and generally low prices anyway on those sorts of things.

I'm happy with my kenwood system. Looks professional, sounds fine, came with a powerful subwoofer, and I definiltey think I got the best for my money (its a 600 watt system with an 8" subwoofer, dts and dolby, and has multiple digital audio ports). Now if only the sound engineers for the DVD industry could do a decent mixing job. Its such a delight to get a well engineered DVD, but frnakly, too many of them just utilize surround sound enough to be distracting.
 
for $200-$300, your best bet is to buy a "Theater in a box" (TIAB) sets... honestly, it wont sound good at all in a large room (anything over 15" x 20"), or if you want to have glasses shattered with hifi. I have more than $200 in cables alone on my 6.1 system, and I just blew out my subwoofer a few weeks ago. LOL @ myself.

Kenwoods TIAB are pretty good, as are Sony's.. i think you can get one for around $250. But if it's a small room, and you aren't an audiophile, they'll work just fine.
 
In the same vein; I already own a nice Sony 6.1 receiver and I'd like to buy some speakers next.

Can I get something decent for $300-$400? Speakers alone, I'm not worried about anything else yet.

Thanks for the help.
FD
 
$200-$300 isn't going to get you much. I also highly recommend Paradigm but they are in your price range. I'd recommend going to BB and auditioning their speakers. They have an Athena set that's nice, some Klipsh among others.

Just don't, please don't, get any Bose. You also have the option of getting a few speakers at a time. You need a REALLY good center channel, that's 80% of home theater. Then your front left and right, then a really good sub. The surrounds don't need t be much, because they are mostly sound effects and music. Go to Best Buy and at least get an idea what you are up against.
 
Kid Red said:
$200-$300 isn't going to get you much. I also highly recommend Paradigm but they are in your price range. I'd recommend going to BB and auditioning their speakers. They have an Athena set that's nice, some Klipsh among others.

Just don't, please don't, get any Bose. You also have the option of getting a few speakers at a time. You need a REALLY good center channel, that's 80% of home theater. Then your front left and right, then a really good sub. The surrounds don't need t be much, because they are mostly sound effects and music. Go to Best Buy and at least get an idea what you are up against.
Click to expand...

Finally a fellow Bose hater....Bose Just Blows (For Home Theater)
 
FlamDrag said:
In the same vein; I already own a nice Sony 6.1 receiver and I'd like to buy some speakers next.

Can I get something decent for $300-$400? Speakers alone, I'm not worried about anything else yet.

Thanks for the help.
FD
Click to expand...

Check out Sony's speakers (SS-MF550H (Fronts), SS-MB150H (Rears), SS-CN550H(Center), SA-WM25(Sub)) they are in your price range and they are a pretty good bang for the buck
 
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