Surround Sound

[Kori Ellis]

I want to get a surround sound system for our living room.

I don't know much about it. What's a good system cost? What should I look for?

Any info you have would be appreciated.

[ZStomp]

1000 Watts!

Sony--- get one that plays CD's and DVD with AM/FM Stereo!

[maxpower]

I've always liked getting stuff in components. I imagine the All-in-a-Box setups may be ok. If you are looking for the basics and are not too concerned with "the perfect sound" I'd let your wallet be your guide. Of course you would want to stick to more tried and true brands. I'm not too sure what time of year the new models are released but that is usually a great time to pick up the exiting models as ...it is usually just a cosmetic difference between models. I think the surround mode that is upcoming is 7.1 surround. I'm not sure how many dvd's are being released with 7.1. 6.1 is a bit more common but 5.1 is " the standard. By 5.1 that is 5 speakers surrounding you and the subwoofer designated as " .1". That is 2 in the rear and 3 in front. 6.1 ...3 in front 3 in rear.
Disregard wattage ...it's one of those "wow" stats meant only to grab your attention. You don't need more than 100 watts per channel.
Same goes for brands...just a quick browse through some audio/video forums and you can see what brands have a following. I have Sony and I like it but wouldn't swear by it. IF i had to get a new receiver I would go by review and price(sony's tend to be priced higher for what they give you)....OH YEAH...BUY ONLINE. I bought my sony online about 4 years ago and saved well over $130 from what you could find at local shops.

But in essence...if you are just looking for some pseudo-movie like sound keep it simple. I assume you have a DVD Player. So just grab a receiver and a 5.1 speaker set up and you are ready to go. Make sure your dvd player has the "optical"(looks like a house shaped connection) or "digital coaxial"(looks like regular composite connections i.e. red/white/yellow) but is orange. These connection will ensure you get "true" 5.1 sound.

here is one of the more popular a/v forums http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/forumdisplay.php?forumid=15


and here is a nice little FAQ..
http://www.elliotjohnsmith.com/audiovideofaq.htm


Q: Are Bose speakers any good?

A: Bose has a reputation for being a great speaker company among the public and hated by audiophiles. The truth is that Bose products do what they claim and are, well packaged from an aesthetic perspective. In reality, the products are overpriced for what is offered and they do not publish specs. Bose product sales is a testament to what good marketing of an average product can do. Here is a biased website that claims to tell the “truth” about Bose: http://www.intellexual.net/bose.html

Q: Is it worth the money to buy expensive speaker wire like Monster Cable

A: Monster cables are well built and perform well. It is questionable whether they sound better than similar gauge zip cord. As zip cord is much cheaper, the value proposition of high-end cables is a personal matter If you can/want to afford them, there is nothing inherently wrong with these products. In short..don't buy into the hype.

[KEDA]

Dont buy BlOSE speakers!

and get the higher end cabeling

I have been competing in national car stereo events since 2000, and I am a former world record holder, and I can say with total honesty that higher grade power, ground and speaker cabeling either in car audio use, or home audio is worth it!

[T Park]

Bose Surround system,

youll find that at like SAM'S Club, and use Monster Cables, the best in the biz IMO.

[violentkitten]

bose blows chodes tpark

[AlamoSpursFan]

I got a Phillips system at Best Buy for like $280. Works just fine for me. Although the subwoofer only has 2 levels: no bass whatsoever or 5.3 on the Richter Scale.

[MannyIsGod]

I was wondering how long you were going to take to setup that kick ass tv with some kick ass sound.

Components, do NOT buy an all in one system.

I'll post some stuff for you later

[maxpower]

Dont buy BlOSE speakers!

and get the higher end cabeling

I have been competing in national car stereo events since 2000, and I am a former world record holder, and I can say with total honesty that higher grade power, ground and speaker cabeling either in car audio use, or home audio is worth it!

Kori's not entering her Home Theater into any competitions. And since Kori is looking for her first setup...there is no need in overspending on items that make no discernible difference to the average user.

[mouse]

Four good speakers and 150 feet of speaker wire is all you need,
Anyone who had a stereo in the early 80's knows this surround sound is a major rip off. And I can prove it.

[JoeChalupa]

Ask Bjorn...just Bjorn.

[violentkitten]

KEDA do you drive an 80s olds cutlass or buick regal or chevy monte carlo?

[Hook Dem]

Ask Bjorn...just Bjorn.
Money........just money! :lol

[Slomo]

You can get a decent Surround system (a so called home cinema set) for around 600-750$. The major disadvantage of such system is the lousy sound quality when you listen to music as such 'home cinemas' are designed to create an effect which for dolby digital et al. is not very demanding sound wise.

Certain manufacturer advertise that you should have two systems one for surround and one for music - which can look quite ugly when installed in your living room.

The best solution in my opinion (if $ is not too much of an issue or if you are willing to build the system up slowly - in a few steps) is to buy a really good and powerful receiver/amplifier with surround decoder. There's quite a few good choices out there (Marantz, Yamaha, Harman Kardon...) that are capable to provide a clean powerful sound for music and have a smart decoder that allow you to mix and match your speakers in a surround system, my personnal favourite are the top Harman-Kardon models (min 100W per channel). In such a case you must have good quality front speakers (the benchmark here is their music performance) with the third - centre - speaker being from the same family or just the same as the left and right (otherwise the dialogues in the movies will not sound correctly). As for the surround speakers you need 4 good quality small speakers something like the SONY Pascal series (but not necessarily those) wich will give you a nice looking installation and good surround sound. The quality of the receiver's processors are very important since they must handle different speakers for different situations (stereo, dolby digital, dts, SACD...).

As for the subwoofer an active (self powered) woofer is the easiest solution chosing the most powerful model that you can both afford and fit in you living room, the lower the low freq. of the woofer the better.

While BOSE speakers are a good choice you must know that their entire production is based on psycho-acoustics, which means that they have succesfully analysed how we perceive sounds at different volumes and have matched their speakers to our perception. Which in clear text means that their speakers are not very good but sound great. The obvoious advantage of their system that simulate 5 speakers with two speaker and a subwoofer is a very neat installation with a decent (not great) surround and stereo sound. As for the 5 speaker set from BOSE you are totally depended on their hardware and have no way of improving or combining them with anything else - but they will again deliver a good sound.

P.S. to Mouse: No you can't!

[Sportcamper]

Plan A: make friends with KEDA & MAXPOWER....Have them build you something...Homemade stuff rocks!

The reason high end cabling is “a must” with audio/video folks is that line frequency (60 Hz hum) is a bear to track down & eliminate...

Plan B: Buy a pre assembled unit that meets your budget...The stuff Costco & Sam’s Club sells works fine....The Good Guys always has the latest & greatest merchandise....

[Jimcs50]

Kori

[JoeChalupa]

I think it depends on your taste.
I have surround sound and it cost me a lot less than $600.
I bought a receiver and just ran my VCR, back in the day, through my receiver and some good speakers.
Now I run my DVD player through it and it works fine.

[T Park]

Sams Club

Bose

best in the business.

Period.

[Useruser666]

Just buy 4 of those $500 Bose wave radios and arrange them around your bean bag chair! :lol

Sony makes a great inexpensive system that best buy sells. I think the cheapest is $299. You can add stuff as you see fit and everything is included. Bjorns is a good place to atleast look at the stuff. They have everything.

[JoeChalupa]

I have Sansui speakers that work great.

[Sportcamper]

JBL 4430 (http://www.dgmusic.com/speaker1.jpg)

Sams Club Bose... (http://www.bose.it/images/321comp.jpg)

[johnny00]

KEDA do you drive an 80s olds cutlass or buick regal or chevy monte carlo?
:lmao

[mouse]

Look I will say this one more time only.

go to the pawn shop and get you 4 speakers Altec Lansing/Kenwood/JBL etc.....

Bang you spent 80 to 100 bucks, then go to radio shack get me 150 feet of speaker wire, I have a Pioneer SX-3600 that will be so loud you will never have to turn it past level 7 for free. we mount each speaker on the the four corners of the room.

Then you pop in Pink Floyd's the Wall and tell me if you still want to blow $500-$800 bucks I will kiss your ass in front of everyone at the next GTG if you do.

[ChumpDumper]

If you aren't an audiophile, there are several good theater-in-a-box systems at there. Some. like those from Yamaha and Kenwood, have decent enough receivers that are worth upgrading with better speakers down the line -- I'm partial to Polk for all around performance and value, but there are plenty of good ones out there. If ease-of-use is a big issue, high end Sony components integrate very well with their remote technology. If the sky is your limit, go to Bjorn's with the names SloMo gave you on your minds.

The one thing I don't like about most surround systems is that the tiny satellite speakers that have no midrange (not a fan of Bose for the same reason) and suck for playing music. For most normal CDs, I have a seperate set of full range speakers on the amp's B channel to use with the subwoofer at a lower crossover frequency.

Yes, I'm a snob.

And cabling does make a difference; Monster Cable is good but there are similar performers available for less.

[IcemanCometh]

tpark buys into the hype

[Slomo]

If you aren't an audiophile, there are several good theater-in-a-box systems at there. Some. like those from Yamaha and Kenwood, have decent enough receivers that are worth upgrading with better speakers down the line -- I'm partial to Polk for all around performance and value, but there are plenty of good ones out there. If ease-of-use is a big issue, high end Sony components integrate very well with their remote technology. If the sky is your limit, go to Bjorn's with the names SloMo gave you on your minds.

The one thing I don't like about most surround systems is that the tiny satellite speakers that have no midrange (not a fan of Bose for the same reason) and suck for playing music. For most normal CDs, I have a seperate set of full range speakers on the amp's B channel to use with the subwoofer at a lower crossover frequency.

Yes, I'm a snob.

And cabling does make a difference; Monster Cable is good but there are similar performers available for less. The small satellite speakers should really only be used for surround and even then it's quite important how good your subwoofer is and how capable the processors in your receiver are.

Cabling plays a big role specially since it is often very difficult to hide big cables around a normal living room (my wife hates it) and therefore people just use the tiny cables that came with the speakers.

An excellent set of front speakers in my opinion is 2xTannoy Eyris 3 (or DC3) + 1xTannoy Eyris C (or DCC). They are on the expensive side but I have rarely heard a better set of speakers across a wide range of music (from classic to hip-hop) they are not the loudest but the quality exceeds most speakers that I've heard. One important trick to remember is to have a receiver that allows you to route the bass to the speakers when listening to music and to the subwoofer and speakers when listening to movies.

And even if you do not want to spend this sort of money on speakers it's still a good decision to invest in a good receiver and then a set of cheaper speakers from a proven manufacturer (I've heard some great sounding Tannoy, Dali and Mission speakers that were below 150 $ for the pair).