hi there.

i'm putting together my theater room in my newly finished basement, and here's what i've got so far:

PS3
Onkyo TX-SR805 7.1 Receiver
PTAE 2000U Projector

but i have no idea about speakers, or which ones to get. basically i want ones that won't detract from the components i've invested in already. my room is 16' X 13'.

any suggestions? have i given enough info?

my budget is hopefully around $500 - $600...but i'll spend more if i need to...

thanks for the input.

Are you looking to do 2.1/5.1/7.1? Towers or bookshelves? Do you like bright/warm/laid back sounding/neutral speakers?

I'd recommend you spend $600 on two very good fronts and a sub and wait for surrounds later.

i was looking to do 7.1. (but 5.1 at the least). is my price range totally out of whack? i was planning on doing towers, as the space on my wall is pretty much monopolized with the screen.

You will get upgrade-itis and not be happy with the sound in a few years... Yes 5.1 or 7.1 can be done for $600 but the sound will be medicore at best. I'd get 2 towers, then a sub later, then surrounds... 75% of surround data goes to the two fronts anyway... then like 15% for center channel and rest to surrounds... this of course depends on the movie.

any suggestions?
I'd suggest doing some reading and researching and listening.

Jason

I'd suggest doing some reading and researching and listening.

Jason

You're so very helpful... did you miss the part about him being a complete noob :rolleyes:

What's the problem with suggesting that someone do a little bit of homework and a little bit of legwork before dropping $500-600?

Noob or not, it might be wise to make an informed decision...

Jason

What do you think he's doing posting this thread? At least he didn't walk into Tweeter or Worst Buy and buy Bose. Anyway, OP, decide how many speakers you want to get right now and we can suggest some...

now 7 views and i'm the 7th post.... i was at the time of writing
anyways, check out the athena LS series at audioadvisor. They have some on clearance or special. I'd go with 2 LS-500's,an LSC-100,and 4 LS-100's for surround duties. Wait for a sub and drop atleast $300 on one in the future HSU or BIC would work well.

Look at Aperion http://www.aperionaudio.com

I would not do 5 or 7.1 with a six hundred dollar budget. You pretty much will have to buy junk to get it all at once. I would take the 600 bucks and put it into one pair of speakers and then add when you can.

It's what I would do if that was all the money I had to get going.

Yes, your budget ratio is kinda out of wack. You should spend less on your receiver and more on your Speakers. I own a Onkyo 805 and love it, plus with the new model out, it's definately a great deal now around $650ish. With your budget, you are limiting your options. Budget speakers are:

Polk R or Monitor Series (when on sale frys or amazon)
BIC Venturi or BIC Acoustech
Elemental Design (might be out of your price range)
AV123 X-series (a little out of your price range)
Athena (within your budget)
http://www.audioadvisor.com/prodinfo.asp?number=ATKLS500

Subs: BIC, HSU, SVS, AV123 x-sub

Save your money and get your wires, HDMI, cords at monoprice.com or bluejeans.com

Do your reading, research, and listening because no one will know what you like more than YOU.

Yes, your budget ratio is kinda out of wack. You should spend less on your receiver and more on your Speakers. I own a Onkyo 805 and love it, plus with the new model out, it's definately a great deal now around $650ish. With your budget, you are limiting your options. Budget speakers are:

Polk R or Monitor Series (when on sale frys or amazon)
BIC Venturi or BIC Acoustech
Elemental Design (might be out of your price range)
AV123 X-series (a little out of your price range)
Athena (within your budget)
http://www.audioadvisor.com/prodinfo.asp?number=ATKLS500

Subs: BIC, HSU, SVS, AV123 x-sub

Save your money and get your wires, HDMI, cords at monoprice.com or bluejeans.com

Do your reading, research, and listening because no one will know what you like more than YOU.

All excellent Choices, especially the X-series. May I also recommend Ascend CMT-340ses or CBM-170ses

thanks for the input.

(it took me a few seconds to realize that noob might mean newbie, and not knob!! hahaha)

well, me being me, i'll probably just blow apart the budget then. :)

here's a question: if money wasn't really an issue...what would be a few suggestions to look into to get the best out of that receiver? i know that i could probably spend a couple thousand on some kick butt speakers...but if it was you guys buying it for yourselves, and using that projector and receiver that i had...what would you look at?

I'd spend $600 on a sub, $1000 on two fronts, and another $500-600 on surrounds/center. And $15 on 12 gauge speaker cable. That will get you a very, very capable sub from eD/epik/AV123/Hsu, excellent fronts, and good surrounds.

Maybe up your budget to $1500 and you can have a pretty nice setup/

I would not do 5 or 7.1 with a six hundred dollar budget. You pretty much will have to buy junk to get it all at once. I would take the 600 bucks and put it into one pair of speakers and then add when you can.

It's what I would do if that was all the money I had to get going.
Agreed.

Jason

thanks for the input.

(it took me a few seconds to realize that noob might mean newbie, and not knob!! hahaha)

well, me being me, i'll probably just blow apart the budget then. :)

here's a question: if money wasn't really an issue...what would be a few suggestions to look into to get the best out of that receiver? i know that i could probably spend a couple thousand on some kick butt speakers...but if it was you guys buying it for yourselves, and using that projector and receiver that i had...what would you look at?

Let me first say that I can never ever go back to watching movies on a tv ever since I got my hands on a projector. It is an amazing feeling to be watching movies on a 100+ inch screen. Let just say, I haven't been to a movie theater eversince.

Budget will always be a factor because if its not, people will be throwing in $200,000 pair of speakers.:D:D. Most people use budget as a starting point but most of us often exceed it (including me). You are getting a nice reciever, might as well get yourself some nice speaker to go with it. In 3 years that reciever will be out-dated but chances are...your speaker will be fine.

I can't say which speaker is the best because I am no expert. Plus, we all don't know what YOU like. All we are doing is pointing you towards a certain direction....The rest is up to you to find the answer for yourself. Hit the owner's thead...Nuance's Perfect Speaker Thread, FunkMonkey's Speakerquest thread because they did a lot of legwork on speaker comparison. I did a ton of reading and research. Audition speakers as much as I could. Made a list of speakers from both stores and internet direct companies.

In the end, based on my research, I felt Internet Direct speakers was the right choice for me. At the time of my decision, there was a huge sale on a set of speakers that was on my top 5 and that opportunity was the closing deal for me.

Here are some of the speakers you can look at. Over your budget but it's worth a look incase you want to increase your budget:

B&M Speakers: Monitor Audio, Paradigm, B&W, Klipsch, Polk LSi have received rave reviews.

I.D.: Swans, AV123's Rockets (currently at an awesome sale price), Axiom, Aperion, Salk, are some of the top choices for internet dealers.

I have been trying out different speakers for a few weeks now and finally decided to go with Infinity Beta's. Check out the Beta 10's or Beta 20's at Vann's. If you don't need a vertical center you can get 5 x 10's for about $445. They sent me one by mistake. I did not hook it up but I did check out the build quality. It is impressive for the price.

What I'm adding to my Onkyo receiver(HT-R640).
Infinity Beta 40s
Infinity Beta 20s
Infinity C360
Outlaw LFM-2

Total $1030

You might look into Polk Audio with your budget.
Polk Audio Monitor 50s (tower)
Polk Audio Monitor 30s(bookshelf)
Polk Audio CS1 (center)
Outlaw LFM-2 Subwoofer (cheapest price for a decent sub)
Total $732

You're so very helpful... did you miss the part about him being a complete noob :rolleyes:

Yeah, I bet he did, but suggesting something is totally wrong. Your trying to sway and OPINION when you answer a post other than LOOK, LISTEN, LISTEN some more and LISTEN some more again.
Your speakers are not speakers I would want to buy and so on.
He is better off not posting such a question, looking at prior posts about the brands and making the decision with HIS EARS.
Once he hears something he likes, then he can go forward and decide things like if there too much for a complete system, part it 2 at a time until finished. Worst thing is to buy within budget without hearing anything, then getting AUDIOPILISM bug, upgraditious.

1. Ascend acoustics 340 SE mains, 340 center, 170 surrounds. Use the ascendacoustics.com system builder and it should be about $1200 for this 5.0 system.

2. AV123 (**********) x-sls mains, x-ls surrounds, x-cs center can be had for about $900 using their system builder as well.

3. Polk Monitor 50 mains, Monitor 30 surrounds, CS1 center all from amazon.com can be had for $450-500.

That's where I'd look at those price ranges.

For subs you have plenty of options. These are all very highly regarded in their price ranges:
$250 Bic H-100
$350 eD A2-300
$475 eD A3-300
$500 HSU VFT2
$600 SVS PB12-NSD
$600 AV123 MWF-15

Check out BIC Acoustech

And for a little more, check out Revel Concerta series speakers.

Regards, Tom

Yeah, I bet he did, but suggesting something is totally wrong. Your trying to sway and OPINION when you answer a post other than LOOK, LISTEN, LISTEN some more and LISTEN some more again.
Your speakers are not speakers I would want to buy and so on.
He is better off not posting such a question, looking at prior posts about the brands and making the decision with HIS EARS.
Once he hears something he likes, then he can go forward and decide things like if there too much for a complete system, part it 2 at a time until finished. Worst thing is to buy within budget without hearing anything, then getting AUDIOPILISM bug, upgraditious.

The OP should not need to spend time on thorough, rigorous testing just to end up with a decent system. Of course, this would provide best results, but it is not wrong for him to prefer the easy route.

Fry's electronics is having a sale on Infinity Primus 362 (Black)
$99 each, only this weekend.

The OP should not need to spend time on thorough, rigorous testing just to end up with a decent system. Of course, this would provide best results, but it is not wrong for him to prefer the easy route.

Look... I don't have an agenda... I don't work for speaker companies and neither does anyone else here... I just want people to get something that sounds great for them and maximize their bang for the buck. I really didn't mean to offend anyone. The whole point of this forum is for people to get impressions of various speakers. Also, as expensive as gas is - assuming you don't live in a large city with dozens of dealers - and as prevalent as ID companies are these days, it's impossible or impractical to audition as many speakers as you would like.

... I don't work for speaker companies and neither does anyone else here... .
That's a good one...tell me another! :D

Jason

thanks to those who gave some suggestions on places to start. your imput was very helpful in giving me a starting point to begin my research.

but seriously, there are some people who have got a little bent out of shape about this. i realize that sound is a personal preference. it's not like i said "tell me what speakers to blindly go out and buy!". i was just looking for some suggestions, that poeple think would sound good with my receiver. i'm a pretty busy guy, with my business, and young family...so i do a lot of my research online for this project.

i was just looking for some feedback. i didn't want to waste anyone's time, dealing with a idiotic, open-ended question. so sorry.

anyways...what's the best food to eat while listening to my speakers? :D

That's a good one...tell me another! :D

Jason

Let me rephrase that... almost nobody here works for speaker companies... better? :cool:

anyways...what's the best food to eat while listening to my speakers? :D

Nachos or chips and salsa all the way :D

but seriously, there are some people who have got a little bent out of shape about this. i realize that sound is a personal preference. it's not like i said "tell me what speakers to blindly go out and buy!". i was just looking for some suggestions, that poeple think would sound good with my receiver. i'm a pretty busy guy, with my business, and young family...so i do a lot of my research online for this project.

i was just looking for some feedback. i didn't want to waste anyone's time, dealing with a idiotic, open-ended question. so sorry.
:D


Don't be offended by asking, I just answered it as I SHOULD BE, since everyone always lists the **** THEY LIKE and you didn't know that.

I once did as you did and bought something opinionated and lived with it for a few years until the day I decided to build my own. My homebuilts blew away the RTi Polks I had so bad it made me wonder what else I was missing listening to these posts and I went out and tested. Its not hard, it doesn't take more than a good weekend once you have a list of places that carry alot of product.
It should be a RULE that you can only say a brand type, no supporting it of the least and actually have a sticky that has several different budget ranges with just a list that fits in each range. Then the rest of the forum can be for problems, placement ideas etc and no more WHAT SHOULD I BUY actualy in any forum section.

YOUR EARS, YOUR EYES are YOU and YOU are different that anybody else!!!
Identical twins can not always like the same thing!!!!!!!!!

When you listen and buy because what others tell you without testing the ones they don't mention also, you end up being a AUDIOPILE.
A Audiopile is never happy, always strives for the never ending goal of perfect. There is no perfect once you enter the Dark Side of AV.
By their death and Audiopile has never used a piece of equipment to its death, he has amassed piles of nearly new used equipment.

Look at them all now with receivers. Yeah some CAN AFFORD to be this way, most can't and now everyone is dumping their old receivers for new decoding ones, which if they waited just a little, shopped around they could keep the nearly new gear and buy a decoding BD player or learn to live with 5.1 analog out which is the same thing.

You can learn to live off these guys, I do at times.
Anything over a year old is lucky to fetch 40 cents on a dollar.
I did 2 HT setups using flea bay and Audiopiles and got thousands of dollar equipment for less than $500. And if you don't like something, which I have at times, you re-flea bay it and get your money back and sometimes more than you paid for it.

anyways...what's the best food to eat while listening to my speakers? :D

Hawaiian Puna Bud.....lol, just kidding.