home theater

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eli

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Apr 30, 2003
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I have a 29" sony WEGA tv. I am going to purchase a home theather sound system for it. I have up to $450 to spend on it. I would like to have a digital reciever with it because I do want to listen to the radio, and I will have headphones. What other purposes do the digital recievers have? i am extremely new in home theater systems...so bare with me....

thanks
 
$450 isn't really a lot to spend on a HT system. Especially if you want a really good one.

This is what I would recommend if your dead set on that price...

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage...73541&productCategoryId=cat03010&type=product


Though, if you were willing to flex about $50, I'd recommend this one, as it is a pretty damn good system. I almost bought it when I bought mine, but bought a boxed set of JBL speakers and a sub, and a reciever seperate. I made the right decision. :) More expensive, but well worth it! Anyways, here's that other system...

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage...14641&productCategoryId=cat03010&type=product
 
hey...thanks for your help! well, I am looking for something that can sound good with dvds, and music. I can spend $500 as well. I have a sony 28" WEGA with progressive scan and a panasonic combo drive. when I get my new system, I still want to be able to use the old player for videos...is this possible?

I could save a little bit more...or sell something on ebay to get better speakers..I wan't damn good sound. I hear about people who just get two "bookshelf" speakers and a digital reciever...would this work better? or do people usually get like five bookshelf speakers and a sub?

Also, since I can play music through the actual dvd player of the home theater system, what purpose would a digital reciever serve other then a headphone amp and a radio?


thanks a lot man!
 
eli said:
when I get my new system, I still want to be able to use the old player for videos...is this possible?

I could save a little bit more...or sell something on ebay to get better speakers..I wan't damn good sound. I hear about people who just get two "bookshelf" speakers and a digital reciever...would this work better? or do people usually get like five bookshelf speakers and a sub?

Also, since I can play music through the actual dvd player of the home theater system, what purpose would a digital reciever serve other then a headphone amp and a radio?


thanks a lot man!
Click to expand...

Yeah, you can use your old DVD player if you want. That wont be a problem.

I personally like the surround effect of having 5 speakers vs 2 big ass front speakers. It's all about how you use them. If its just for music, 2.1 sound is fine. If its for movies and such, 5.1 or more is optimal.

As for the reciever, that isn't just used for a headphone jack and such. All your speakers hook into it, as do your outputs to your TV/DVD/VCR ect.

If you could find a 5.1 or 6.1 capable reciever for around $100 or so, you could snatch up a speaker set on bestbuy.com thats $400. They are JBL speakers with an 8" sub. I have that very set, and its absolutely wonderful.
 
This sounds awesome. I know the digital receiver is what you hook your speakers up to, but if you already have a dvd player that can play CD's and MP3's, then what does a digital receiver serve as aside from a headphone amp and a radio?

thanks for the help!
 
I just purchased on Onkyo HT-S760 package, and I like it a lot. I picked it up at Circuit City for $500 - $50 MIR (though the rebate may be over, the form says 5/31/04). I have I have 3 S-Video sources connected to it (it supports 4, and just as many composite connections plus a couple of component sets), and 2 of my sources (HTPC and DVD) are connected with optical audio (it has 2 optical and 1 coax digital inputs that can be used by almost any of the sources).

As for uses... as mentioned, it can serve as a video source switch as well. For example, you have a cable box, DVD player, PC, and game console hooked up; when you select the DVD source, it sends the DVD video signal to the TV and the DVD audio to its speakers, and so on for each piece of equipment you have hooked up. More expensive receivers can do things like convert between video input types (for example, a composite source output to the TV through a component connection) and so on. You also have a great deal of control over the audio for any given source. Do you want different surround or stereo modes for different sources? Different bass levels, etc? Maybe you are a purist and want the stereo sound from a CD player to only go to the front speaker pair (disabling the subwoofer). Most receivers will allow you to customize a number of settings for a particular source, and will remember them. Basically, you can hook just about anything up to it and tweak it to your heart's content.
 
http://www.vanns.com/shop/servlet/item/features/502499590

http://www.vanns.com/shop/servlet/item/features/502499661

In that order are two of my recommendations. I have the 5.1 version of the Kenwood from a year or two back. My friends all agree, its better to get the DVD and watch it here than it is at our local theater (well until the end of this year when we are replacing a duplex and a triplex theater with an 8 plex and 10 plex with all the modern amenities including decent sound and rooms that don't bleed audio between each other...)

That Yamaha is going to be a notch up obviously, but over the Kenwood it adds front speakers which are true three-way, low mid hi, where as the kenwood has dual low and a single hi. The Yamaha is going to give a bit more clarity assuming the crossovers are decently done (of course nothing beats a proper biamp or triamp setup.)

But since you have the DVD player already, and most likely component video, the Yamaha is probably your best bet (the Kenwood is less expensive though and I am very satisfied with the sound)
 
Those systems look awesome. Ok, so I have a regular dvd player, and using progressive scan with a 28" sony WEGA. Wouldn't I need one of those special dvd players in order to hook the sound system up to me TV?

Also, what functions does a digital receiver serve as if you already have one of those special 5 disk dvd players, aside from a radio and a headphone amp?
 
eli said:
This sounds awesome. I know the digital receiver is what you hook your speakers up to, but if you already have a dvd player that can play CD's and MP3's, then what does a digital receiver serve as aside from a headphone amp and a radio?

thanks for the help!
Click to expand...

It is your AMP for the speakers too. All but the sub, usually you have a powered sub. This is different from computer speakers where the speakers are all powered off an amp built-in to the sub.

You can NOT just hook speakers into your DVD player, unless you get computer speakers.

Also note $500 is not much at all to spend on an amp/reciever and surround sound speakers.
 
well the systems that the previous posters showed me seem plenty sufficient.
 
Im not a big fan of HTiB (home theater in a box) because it builds the dvd player into the reciever, thus if you ever want to upgrade your DVD player you're stuck with the built in one and might have to upgrade your entire system. Its much safer to just get a good reciever and some speakers. Check my sig for some real speakers :)
 
Hidaglio said:
Im not a big fan of HTiB (home theater in a box) because it builds the dvd player into the reciever, thus if you ever want to upgrade your DVD player you're stuck with the built in one and might have to upgrade your entire system. Its much safer to just get a good reciever and some speakers. Check my sig for some real speakers :)
Click to expand...

I agree, best way really to get a decent HT is to start by buying pieces at a time.

Start with a decent reciever and maybe a pair decent bookshelf speakers. Then when you have some more money buy a nice set of floorstanding and put the bookshelf to the rear, etc. Grow your system you will end up with a much better system in the long run. And lets face it, you will upgrade no matter what. This way you have less parts that are useless after the upgrade.
 
that sounds like a good idea. damn...I need some more money. I recently built a computer, and I found that the main thing I do on it is listen to music, watch movies, download movies, write papers, etc. Believe it or not, I don't play that many games. I'm think I might just sell my computer, get a damn good tv (using sony WEGA 28") and some good HT speakers. I can still do stuff on my other computer. I think I might invest in a good set of headphones for when my family gets annoyed.

I built three computers, had fun with them, now I think its time for a damn good home theater system. I think I might just get like a 46" sony, two bookshelf or floor standing speakers, a sub, a digital reciever, and a good five disk dvd player. and I can up grade the sound system from then on. Sound good?

thanks everyone for all your help
 
Sounds great except the Sony 46" TV. There are deffinately better TVs in that size and price range than Sony. They may do good at tube TVs but have been outclassed by many other manufacturers for larger TVs.

Look at Hitachi, Mitsubishi, Pioneer (if you can still find them) and Toshiba as alternatives.
 
I found an awesome TV. It's a mitsubishi 42" (plenty big for me and my room). It cost about $1,100 which is around my price range. Here is the link:

http://www.mitsubishi-tv.com/WT42311.html

As for the sound system, does klipsch make any good speakers that you would recommend? Or do they mainly specialize in computer speakers?

thanks for the advice about mitsubishi, that TV that I mentioned got awesome user reviews, and its in my budget.
 
Wow haven't seen many people reference UECWeb outside of avsforum or hometheaterspot. Great place to pickup an damn nice TV for cheap.
 
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