My 1st Home Theater Setup

Ok, I just purchased a new home that came with a Home Theater Room a.k.a Media Room.

It's pre-wired and designed for this, so I have all the speaker locations setup to where all I have to do is remove the covers on the wall and connect the speakers.

It's wired for a 7.1 setup but I noticed that most HT systems are 5.1?
I guess if it came down to it I could go with a 5.1 not a problem but prefer a 7.1 setup to match the room.

I'm going to be purchasing a Plasma HDTV, PS3 Slim, and a HT system so this is where I'm new at...I got the TV research down and know enough about the tech...but this will be my 1st HT system to purchase, so I'm a noob/newbie when it comes to this part.

I would like to have the simplicity of a theater-in-a-box setup and I was originally planning for something like the Bose V-Series but decided to take it a notch down in budget.

My current budget is at around $800. I need some input on what systems are out there that are decent for what I'm looking for.

I've also heard of the audio bars that produce a simulated surround sound but I'm not totally sure if that's true and if I should consider such a setup vs. a more traditional 5.1 or 7.1 system.

I'll be using the TV/PS3 for movies, games, and sports.

Any advice, input, etc. will be greatly appreciated.

crazyrob425, thanks for the reply but are these "Home Theater In a Box" or individual receivers? I need more detail information on why you're recommending these...please.

Also, so you'll know...I'm going to use my PS3 for Blu-ray, audio, etc. so a HT system that doesn't include a DVD/Blu-ray player is preferred since all I need is the receiver and the speakers, etc.

I'll look these up in the mean time but please elaborate a bit on why these...since I don't know much about them although I do recognize the name brands.

Thanks!

Ok, after looking at some of these I realized that the majority of them are HTIB's so I'm good to go with that.

To answer your questions m_vanmeter:

Room size is I believe 18x15 or something like that...pretty good size room.

My media room is designed with 7.1 already wired, so I would like to mount the speakers where they are setup. I'll have 2 up front, 2 sides, and 2 rear and of course the center speaker will be on top of the TV stand below the mounted TV. The stand will hold all my AV gear along with my PS3 and DVR. Yes, my PS3 Slim will be my BD player as well.

I also know that the pre-set speaker holes are covered with wall plates and I've seen some setups from the same builder that would have the speaker inside the hole with an outer speaker cover with breathing holes setup, so you really can't see the speaker. If that's an option for me once I take off the plates I wouldn't mind having speakers to fit in-wall vs. on a mount coming out of the hole. Either way is fine I guess, but I'll know for sure once I see behind the wall plates.

I don't want towers or speakers on my TV stand...they will all be mounted on the walls.

Also, I did like the Onkyo S6200...a good middle ground compared to the S5200 and S7200 which has the tallboys which I don't want. So far, out of all the ones I've read up on (i.e. - specs, reviews, etc.) I'm leaning towards the Onkyo S6200.

I narrowed down all the selections you gave me to these 2:

Onkyo HT-S6200 and Yamaha RX-V567BL

I decided to go with the 7.1 since my media room is already pre-configured to take advantage of this. I noticed that the only technical details that made me take notice is that the Yamaha has the HDMI 1.4 for 3D and Audio Return Channel and the Onkyo does not but has other things I like as well such as the Powered Zone 2, etc.

So, between these 2 HTIB's could you give me a little more input in which one is the best overall choice for me based on the info I've giving you? I realized that the Yamaha doesn't include speakers, so giving me some ideas for speakers for this one would be ideal to compare them better to each other.

I noticed the price on Amazon went up a little bit for the Onkyo, so I want to make a decision quick to make sure if that's the best choice between the two then I want to buy it before it goes up in price again.

I've already purchased a new TV and no it's not 3D enabled or ready, so I guess I don't need to worry about that.

In the future, when the tech matures and becomes more available and if I decide to upgrade to a 3D TV then I'll consider upgrading the receiver to one that supports it...but overall I do favor the S6200 over all of them so far.

I'll take a final look at the Yamaha one you mentioned with speaker options, etc. I appreciate all your input...I'm looking at making a decision and purchase sometime within the next few days.

Ok, thanks I'll keep that in mind and like I said earlier...I'm really liking the Onkyo HT-S6200 myself...after carefully reviewing all of the HTIB's you originally sent me...I liked this one the best overall.

Ok, I've made the purchase and have the Onkyo HT-S6200 in my house ready to setup. I found out about the subwoofer cable along the way and wanted your opinion on this.

The house came pre-wired as I've mentioned before and the cable for the subwoofer is a 75 ohm cable that at both ends comes with the connector on it like standard COAX cables use for cable TV.

I found out that I have to buy an adapter called "F" adapter to convert to RCA, so that I can plug it into the subwoofer and the receiver.

My question is this...is it better to do it this way or purchase a dedicated subwoofer cable that already comes with the RCA connector?

I would like to know do I lose any audio performance from using a 75 ohm cable with the "F" adapter that allows me to connect it to my subwoofer and receiver compared to a dedicated subwoofer RCA cable?

Well, it looks with some further research that this 75 ohm COAX cable to RCA is pretty standard for subwoofer connections.

I just read up on wall plates that I need to make my home theater setup neater and found that most of the inside connectors in the wall plates are for a either a 75 ohm COAX type connection or I can use an F adapter and then the outside of the plate uses the standard RCA connector which then connects to the subwoofer.

This makes me think that this is pretty standard in the industry and that a direct subwoofer cable that goes from receiver to subwoofer without using the built in pre-wiring of my home theater setup really shouldn't give me much of an advantage in audio performance...is that about right?

I like the fact that the wires are in the wall and all I would have to do is use these wall plates to make all the connections neat and easier to hook up.

I also found that the use of banana plugs is probably the way I want to go to make the speaker wire hook ups even easier...if this is correct then I may just end up having this HTIB finalized by tomorrow :-)