-About 4inches of room on each side of screen for a speaker.
-couch is against the wall and the speakers behind the couch MUST be on the same wall
What does someone feel is the lowest amount of money to have a quality surround sound system to be happy with in my situation?
So far it looks like Martin Logan MLT-2 vs Polk Audio TL1600(is TL2 much better?) vs Energy Take Classic 5.1 is my best option unless anyone has a better idea for my setup and budget.
Would I get overall better sound with a better quality 3.1 surround sound system for the same price as the 5.1 systems I listed above? Are much more expensive subwoofers required for good sound?
15 feet us a pretty long "speaker to viewer" distance...and the 5.1 speaker systems you list are small room systems! Are they way better than tv speakers? Yes, but as you ask, a 2.1 or 3.1 with bigger drivers would likely be better.
Some really good budget speakers with decent driver size are Polk monitors, infinity primus, def tech sm350/450s, pioneer aj speakers, to name a few... And klipch make a couple really good budget subs!
If you have the space go with a bigger speaker especially if your that far away. Smaller satellites can get strained easily. Towers generally will have more bass and be fuller than a book shelf. Also if you are going to put a book shelf on a stand, if you can afford it just get the tower. The polk new monitors are pretty decent. They play very loud and clean. for about 400 you can get the 65t's towers and a cs20 center. Great start to a system. With that setup you can decided if you like the polks and either add on some book shelves or upgrade your speakers and put the polks to the rear. Front stage imaging is the most important. As long as your front 3 match up the rears can take a back seat. Thats not to say having them all match would sound great but on a budget your better off buying stuff in stages over getting everything all at once.
In regards to 3.1 vs 5.1 I would say go with 3.1. 80% of your movie goes through your center channel and if you listen to music your L/R do most of the work. The rears for movies are mostly for effects. The energy system isnt bad and is a great for the price. But you will get a much better system going with 5 book shelf speakers over small satellites.
If I was spending 400 on new stuff I would go 3.1 a pair of polk 35t = $150 a polk 15t center =$99 psw-10 sub = 110 the rest you can spend on shipping (from newegg) and speaker wire connectors. If you get a bit extra cash you could get a set of polk 45b's for 200 as new fronts.
I had to do some speaker shopping for my buddy and the ARX a1b keep coming up with high regards. Why dont you check out the ARX bookshelves or the tower speakers that they offer. I wouldn't do any smaller than a bookshelf with a 5.5"+ driver as a rec.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Elihawk /t/1470023/best-speaker-system-on-a-budget#post_23247918
15 feet us a pretty long "speaker to viewer" distance...and the 5.1 speaker systems you list are small room systems! Are they way better than tv speakers? Yes, but as you ask, a 2.1 or 3.1 with bigger drivers would likely be better.
Some really good budget speakers with decent driver size are Polk monitors, infinity primus, def tech sm350/450s, pioneer aj speakers, to name a few... And klipch make a couple really good budget subs!
Quote:
Originally Posted by lemonslush /t/1470023/best-speaker-system-on-a-budget#post_23248022
If you have the space go with a bigger speaker especially if your that far away. Smaller satellites can get strained easily. Towers generally will have more bass and be fuller than a book shelf. Also if you are going to put a book shelf on a stand, if you can afford it just get the tower. The polk new monitors are pretty decent. They play very loud and clean. for about 400 you can get the 65t's towers and a cs20 center. Great start to a system. With that setup you can decided if you like the polks and either add on some book shelves or upgrade your speakers and put the polks to the rear. Front stage imaging is the most important. As long as your front 3 match up the rears can take a back seat. Thats not to say having them all match would sound great but on a budget your better off buying stuff in stages over getting everything all at once.
In regards to 3.1 vs 5.1 I would say go with 3.1. 80% of your movie goes through your center channel and if you listen to music your L/R do most of the work. The rears for movies are mostly for effects. The energy system isnt bad and is a great for the price. But you will get a much better system going with 5 book shelf speakers over small satellites.
If I was spending 400 on new stuff I would go 3.1 a pair of polk 35t = $150 a polk 15t center =$99 psw-10 sub = 110 the rest you can spend on shipping (from newegg) and speaker wire connectors. If you get a bit extra cash you could get a set of polk 45b's for 200 as new fronts.
What I have to work with for speaker room is 30inches of space under the screen and 4inches from screen to wall on each side of the screen. Do you still think your suggestions could work? Thank you so much for breaking it down into prices, that is extremely helpful and a very good budget setup that I'm going to look into.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dan Hitchman /t/1470023/best-speaker-system-on-a-budget#post_23248244
What size is your room? H x W x L
Is it open to other rooms?
Any pictures you could post?
What is your listening preference? Movies, music, both?
Floor to ceiling 90inches. Wall the screen is on is 120inches, screen is going to be about 109 inches. Viewing distance from couch is about 15feet.
On the right side of the couch is the Kitchen and Dining Room separated by a wall, so I cannot have a surround sound speaker there. On the left side of the couch is a wall as it is fitted in the corner.
Package Includes SP-FS52 Floor-standing Loudspeakers (two total), SP-BS22-LR Bookshelf Loudspeakers (1 pair), SP-C22 Center-Channel Speaker and SW-8MK2 Powered Subwoofer
You can get this for around $600. I have this system in a similar sized room and it sounds good. Weak point in the SUB which I replaced with a Klipsch RW-12D for $280 more. Complete system for under $1000.
Hooked to an Onkyo 515 $328 or a 818 $800 and you have a great setup.
Do consider the Denon 1913, Crutchfield has a good price on it. In fact, if you called around (B&H for example), you could probably get a 2113 for the same price.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ryan25 /t/1470023/best-speaker-system-on-a-budget#post_23249385
Do consider the Denon 1913, Crutchfield has a good price on it. In fact, if you called around (B&H for example), you could probably get a 2113 for the same price.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ryan25 /t/1470023/best-speaker-system-on-a-budget#post_23249385
Do consider the Denon 1913, Crutchfield has a good price on it. In fact, if you called around (B&H for example), you could probably get a 2113 for the same price.
I always envisioned Onkyo as my first AVR, but as I compared them, I noticed a high number of faulty units. More so than from Sony, Pio, Denon... I think the deal-breakers were 7 zones and AirPlay, Wifi wasn't a factor as I have some other components that need Ethernet, so I just bought a bridge.
Well, I don't believe BT can stream video, but I could be wrong. You could get an AVR with AirPlay to do that or I'd just hook the computer up directly to the projector and run audio to the AVR.
I would definitely stay away from Polk speakers and Sony receivers. You don't get much for your money.
Try these babies with high quality ribbon tweeters that throw a bigger sound stage:
Arx A1b monitors (2 pairs) - $299 pair
Arx A2c center. $209 each
You can always upgrade to the A3c or A5 towers later and use the spair pair of A1b's for height effects speakers (as long as your receiver has these decoding options... either Dolby ProLogic IIz or DTS Neo:X). If you move your setup to a better room... you also have the option of using the extra pair as back surround speakers for 7.1.
Yes, somewhat more than the Polk's, but superior in every conceivable way.
Newegg.com has sales on the Klipsch RW-12d for around $280 every so often (it's $350 right now). A really good budget 12" digital sub. Lots of good reviews right here on this forum.
Don't cheapen out on your speaker budget. This is the most important part of the system. Even if you have to get a little bit at a time. Otherwise, you might just be upgrading sooner than you realize.
Unless they're as good a quality as something like the HSU HB-1 mk2's at $159 each, then I definitely don't agree. For extremely tight budget speakers maybe... but why wouldn't you save up for something you won't want to upgrade almost immediately?
Yeah, for a system in a small room where you don't crank the volume those were not bad speakers at all, you could do worse. Don't expect them to fill a medium or large room. Need a sub no matter what.
But you'd have to use one of them as a center. There doesn't seem to be a matching center available any more given that these are clearance models.
Hi, I have a 19 L X 11 W X 8 H room with the distance from the couch to television about 9 feet. (typical NYC apartment). I am considering purchasing a Yamaha HTR-4065 5.1 and a pair of HSU HB-1 mk2's . I'm thinking I will forgo everything else until my budget looks a little better. My question will this work alright and be upgrade able without having to junk any of these pieces later. I'm mostly interested in home theater listening.] Thanks for the informative posts.
The HSU speakers are fine for movies, however they're designed for playing loudly in a larger room and a little finicky with positioning.
In that average price range, you could try:
Ascend Acoustics CBM-170 SE (move them to surround duties and get the CMT-340's and stands up front later)
Arx A1b (move them to surround duties and get their A5 tower and A2c center later) @ theaudioinsider.com
I think you should look at upping your receiver budget just a little bit. The Yamaha is only a budget 5.1 channel receiver. If you want to keep it around for a while for upgrade purposes, go for a 7.1 or 9.1 channel receiver.
The Pioneer SC-1222-k is 7.2 with full pre-amp outputs and is $549 at Newegg.com right now, or if you can call around to area Costco's and look for the SC-1522-k for $599, it's a tricked out 9.2 channel receiver with pre-amp outs. That Costco deal is, by far, the best bang for your buck right now.
I have the CBM-170 SEs. Great speaker. You cannot go wrong with them. And then it is nice to have the option of upgrading the fronts to the dual 6.5" driver CMT-340s later on if you want, along with using the CMT-340 SE center. That would give you six 6.5" drivers in your front sound stage, with the speakers an exact timbre match.
Thanks. I just ordered the CBM-170SEs and am still working on the receiver. The Costco deal is dead in my area. I was wondering would the full pre-amp be utilized in a room my size? Will I want an amp down the road? Also when I was purchasing the speakers they wanted to sell me 80.00 speaker wire. Is there something I should know about buying speaker wire or is this another variation of the Monster cable ripoff ? Thanks again.
Quote:
Originally Posted by rmatt10066 /t/1470023/best-speaker-system-on-a-budget#post_23266804
Thanks. I just ordered the CBM-170SEs and am still working on the receiver. The Costco deal is dead in my area. I was wondering would the full pre-amp be utilized in a room my size? Will I want an amp down the road? Also when I was purchasing the speakers they wanted to sell me 80.00 speaker wire. Is there something I should know about buying speaker wire or is this another variation of the Monster cable ripoff ? Thanks again.
I'm thinking of the pre-amp outs for future use. Those would definitely allow you to add more power if you ever can utilize a bigger room. If the receiver doesn't have them, then you're stuck until you upgrade yet again.
The 1222-k isn't a bad receiver by any means (though it is limited to 7.2 decoding) and it's 50% off at Newegg.com if you cannot get the Costco 1522-k deal.
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