Hi all

so I have been reading threads all day and I cannot decide what I should do?

I just bought a

Panasonic TH-50pz80U - 50in plasma
Panasonic DMPBD30K - blue ray player

And now I need some sort of sound system, I was thinking the bose cinemate.

Here are my specifications,
1) small speakers for mounting on wall or putting on TV stand
2) no wires, either wireless surround speakers or no surround at all
3) about 500.00 spending limit

My couch is 12ft from tv along back wall. The room is tiled floor.

What should I get?

Bose is not popular with many who post here, but even so it might be the one for you.

BD brings not only a great picture, but new and better surround sound capability. Many people, myself among them, find that good audio really improves the experience of watching an HD movie. Still people differ; my wife finds impressive audio to be, well, unimpressive.

I suggest that you go to a store with a comfortable and well setup listening room and spend some time listening to a good movie with a good sound track. If you still don't feel that 5.1 or 6.1 or 7.1 surround is worth while, then buy the Bose. Stereo or Bose faux surround sound may be more than good enough.

On the other hand Onkyo and others make fairly nice HTIB set ups at reasonable prices.

After you buy whatever you buy, get a nice carpet to put on the floor between you and the speakers.

cool thanks for the reply,

the gf bought a carpet this afternoon, so that solves that problem

I was thinking of getting the Panasoinis HTIB Panasonic SC-PT760

might be what I need

Nothing wrong with Panny gear and it lets you use the same remote for everything. But here is the deal...

With that gear you will get real DD 5.1 from DVDs , but not from your cable box or TV or BD player, and you can't enjoy the advanced versions of Dolby and DTS on BD.

But it will be better than Bose and maybe you want to stop now.

But if you want DD 5.1 from HD TV and BD you need a central unit (receiver, HTIB unit whatever you call it) that accepts a digital audio connection (optical or coaxial) from the TV/cable box/BD player. For the BD audio features you will need an HDMI connection from the player to the central unit.

L/R (red/white) audio connections are stereo only. They cannot carry DD in any format.

But you need not go out and buy some humongous complex 35 lb receiver especially if you will accept getting only DD 5.1 or DTS 5.1 from the BD player. If you want at least some of the BD advanced audio the Onkyo HT-S6100 (in your price range but not wireless) can decode some of the new codecs.

On the other hand vanilla is always good.;)

so I bought the Panasonic SC-PT960 5.1 for 439.00 and had a 40.00 off cupon
so I cant argue with the price.

I'm running HDMI from the BD to the TV and from the TV optical to the surround sound
I plan to use the other HDMI port in the back for the cable box when they finish rewiring my apartment so in about 30 days.

That gives me surround from BD and cable right?

also I might return the BD player, I got a good deal on it, 269, but with a upconveritng DVD player built in to the surround sound unit, its probably all I need. I'm not ready to start buying 30 dollar Blueray discs.

did I do good?

also what type of surge protector, power conditioner etc should I have

I'm running HDMI from the BD to the TV and from the TV optical to the surround sound
I plan to use the other HDMI port in the back for the cable box when they finish rewiring my apartment so in about 30 days.

That gives me surround from BD and cable right?


Maybe. Some, but not most TVs do not pass DD 5.1 from an external device on to another device; they only provide the DD sound track of whatever TV channel they are receiving OTA. That's why most folks have to run a digital audio connections (or HDMI) from their cable box and from their DVD player direct to the receiver. Some displays do pass the DD from both OTA and/or a cable box, but not from an external player.

also I might return the BD player, I got a good deal on it, 269, but with a upconveritng DVD player built in to the surround sound unit, its probably all I need. I'm not ready to start buying 30 dollar Blueray discs.


I have a very nice upconverting DVD player, and an A-30 HD DVD player that upconverts very well, and while I find upconversion does improve things, whether it will do it for you depends in part on whether the display is better at up converting or the player is better. But no upconverting player will give you the same PQ as BD on your very nice Panny. One call always rent high def disks or get them from Netflix as I do.

You are setup for great PQ with the only drawback being whether you will be getting the best BD audio. But lots of folks, including me, are postponing a BD player until the price drops still more (although I have a Panasonic DMP-BD55K in my Amazon cart).

So while you decide about the BD player go ahead and enjoy the SD player that you have-- your new and very nice display and sound system will will keep you happy, perhaps for quite awhile.

It seems to me that you're not prepared to spend more on all of the speakers than you spend on a single media player? That seems to undervalue sound quite a bit. Half of the movie experience is sound (just try watching a movie with no sound) -- in a balanced system, you'll spend as much on speakers as you do on picture.

That being said, under $500 (I'm assuming for the entire system?) there aren't any great choices, especially if you want to go wireless. I'd suggest getting a stereo system for now, and forgo the surrounds, just so you can actually have some reasonable sound for the money.

And people will advise you to put a thick rug on that tile floor, to avoid early reflections from the floor. They'd also advise absorption panels on the walls and ceiling, but that will blow your audio budget right there, without buying a single speaker.