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Recommendations for Surround Sound System

post #1 of 15
7/23/10 at 10:07am
Thread Starter 
I'm looking to purchase a home theater system for my room at school next year to fully take advantage of music, movies, and video games. Here's my room and entertainment situation:

Double dorm room, definitely no larger than 300 square feet
Large HD TV will be purchased, but most likely not 3D
Xbox 360 and/or PS3 - therefore a DVD or Bluray player is not necessary. I would rather spend the extra money on more powerful speakers.
Although the system will be used for games and movies, the largest percentage of usage will probably be for music during parties. Therefore, powerful speakers and deep, powerful bass are a must.
5.1 or 7.1
I have no receiver, so I will need the whole package
Budget is around a flexible $500, but I would prefer a less expensive package if available

What do you guys think?

Thanks in advance,
Jack
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post #2 of 15
7/23/10 at 10:17am
I would suggest just going with 2 full range speakers that get loud, because this is a dorm room, and its not worth risking nicer equipment until you can be sure someone isnt going to leave drinks on top of them, or knock them over, or kick the driver...

These are BIG loud speakers, with 15" woofers for plenty of bass. They aren't too expensive, and are more about being loud and powerful than overly detailed.

http://www.amazon.com/BIC-AMERICA-RT.../dp/B00009WBYI

You can grab a pair for $200, and then you have plenty of room for a receiver. Here is where I would try to get something as nice as you can, because it will last a while, and you can keep it out of the line of fire...

Brands like Onkyo, Denon, and Yamaha all make pretty nice ~$300 receivers. I would recommend this Onkyo, http://www.accessories4less.com/make...eceiver/1.html It is factory reconditioned, but still has a warranty and this is a very popular place to get great value. This receiver will last you quite a while and will facilitate future upgrades to nicer speakers.
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post #3 of 15
7/23/10 at 10:25am
Could you get away from the 5.1 logic and perhaps just go with better/solid 2 speakers?

When I was in college, I had a pair of Klipsch LaScalas AND a pair of Electro Voice Interface D speakers stuffed into our dorm room. Took up an entire wall, edge to edge and we utilized the speakers as 'tables' of sort.

When it came time to do a frat party for a prior room mate, I dragged my LaScalas over there and charged an hourly rate.

When the idiots in my own dorm got a little cantankerous with their volume, I simply turned my volume to STUPID and drown them out. They soon got the point that there was a bigger dog on the block who had some serious bark.

The LaScalas would be great for your parties and you could augment their bass with a sub if you wanted.
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post #4 of 15
7/23/10 at 10:29am
Is "STUPID" before or after 11? =P Gotta love vintage SPL
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post #5 of 15
7/23/10 at 11:50am
Thread Starter 
A 2.1 system could definitely be another route -- I just love surround sound and feel like it would be a very cool addition to my room. However, those RtRs look pretty badass. Also, they've unfortunately discontinued the lascalas and their new lascalas II are way out of my price range.

What do you guys know about the Onkyo HT-S5300? I've read mixed reviews on this site so wanted to hear your opinion.

Maybe 2.1 is the way to go though -- it would be nice to get that "STUPID" level that annoys the neighbors and makes my room shake with bass.

That being said, music is nice too -- not just noise.
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post #6 of 15
7/23/10 at 12:26pm
You will be hard pressed to get that kind of performance with 2.1 unless you go used.

Off the top of my head,

BIC F-12
Infinity Primus P162
This leaves you around $150 for a receiver, you may want to go used here and find something decent for $50-$100.
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post #7 of 15
7/23/10 at 2:45pm
Thread Starter 
Thanks for the advice guys,

Any thoughts on the Onkyo HTS-5300?
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post #8 of 15
7/23/10 at 4:30pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Transmaniacon View Post

Is "STUPID" before or after 11? =P Gotta love vintage SPL

Here's the rest of the story... (if it's not frowned upon)

I'm an early to bed, early to rise type. Always have been...always will be. Freshman year was full of partying in the hallways until what, 3:00 a.m.?? I was TRYING to sleep.

Ironic that in the mornings at 9:30 when I'm bustling about I keep hearing "shut upppppppp out there.....I'm tryingggggggggggg to sleepppppp"

hmm.... freaking rude if you catch my drift.

One weekend I was going out of town. I happened to have a timer soooooooooo, I put the volume knob (Yamaha CR-2040, roughly 120x2) to about 1:00.

I had a phono and put Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon.... the chimes if you recall that (annoying) part. Set the needle on the LP turned everything "ON" except for the timer.

I set the timer for something like 4:15 or something stupid like that... and left for the weekend, my system behind locked door.

Saturday night the timer hit and for about 5 minutes, played the bejezus out of those annoying chimes at a volume I personally don't ever want to hear.

To give some perspective... my equipment was the Yamaha 2040, LaScalas, Electrovice Interface "D's", dbx 3bx, dbx sub harmonic synth, Audio Control C-101 eq, Akai GX-747 open reel, Pioneer CTF 1000 cassette deck and a Phase Linear, linear tracking TT. It would put out some SERIOUS thump. The LaScalas punch you in the chest and the EV's had a -3db point of 28hz @ 106 db's. Definately, a cacaphony of violence.

Come Sunday night when I returned, there was proverbial he** to pay as virtually the entire building was angry with me and my stunt. I'll admit that some thought it was funny as all get out but...the ones who usually yelled for everyone ELSE to shut up...were all angry as THEIR sleep was interrupted.

Net effect however was I made my point and virtually everyone became a little more tolerable and used a touch more respect for each other.

As Martha Stewert might say, this was a good thing
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post #9 of 15
7/23/10 at 4:34pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by JackcaJ View Post

Also, they've unfortunately discontinued the lascalas and their new lascalas II are way out of my price range.

Maybe 2.1 is the way to go though -- it would be nice to get that "STUPID" level that annoys the neighbors and makes my room shake with bass.

I don't know your budget. So, starting high and allowing you to work down.

1. Buy some used LaScalas...better yet... if you can make just the bottoms, make just the bottoms (or buy some beater boxes)

2. Sell the mid and hf horns/drivers

3. Buy the Klipsch K510/K69 large format horn/driver that they use in their cinema lineup

4. Biamp the LaScala, now called a "JubeScala"

5. get a kick hiney sub to mate with it

6. Be prepared to be awestruck.


If you or anyone you know/trust happen to ever be near Knoxville, TN, I can provide you an audition with a stock LaScala (the pair mentioned above) and I can reconfigure the other one into a JubeScala with the larger K402 horn (bigger brother to the K510)

I'm here to tell you the scale that these will provide both inside AND outside will pin a smile on you from ear to ear.

Go to the Klipsch site or the audiokarma.org site and do a search on "JubeScala"

Serious offer if you want to audition.
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post #10 of 15
7/23/10 at 4:37pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by JackcaJ View Post

Budget is around a flexible $500, but I would prefer a less expensive package if available

What do you guys think?

I think I'm an idiot for not having caught that earlier. My apologies.

You'd have to go used and can (forget) the JubeScala idea. For missing that important tidbit, I'll go force myself to repeatedly listen to 20 minutes of Marie Osmond singing Paper Roses.

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post #11 of 15
7/23/10 at 10:21pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by coytee View Post

Here's the rest of the story... (if it's not frowned upon)

I'm an early to bed, early to rise type. Always have been...always will be. Freshman year was full of partying in the hallways until what, 3:00 a.m.?? I was TRYING to sleep.

Ironic that in the mornings at 9:30 when I'm bustling about I keep hearing "shut upppppppp out there.....I'm tryingggggggggggg to sleepppppp"

hmm.... freaking rude if you catch my drift.

One weekend I was going out of town. I happened to have a timer soooooooooo, I put the volume knob (Yamaha CR-2040, roughly 120x2) to about 1:00.

I had a phono and put Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon.... the chimes if you recall that (annoying) part. Set the needle on the LP turned everything "ON" except for the timer.

I set the timer for something like 4:15 or something stupid like that... and left for the weekend, my system behind locked door.

Saturday night the timer hit and for about 5 minutes, played the bejezus out of those annoying chimes at a volume I personally don't ever want to hear.

To give some perspective... my equipment was the Yamaha 2040, LaScalas, Electrovice Interface "D's", dbx 3bx, dbx sub harmonic synth, Audio Control C-101 eq, Akai GX-747 open reel, Pioneer CTF 1000 cassette deck and a Phase Linear, linear tracking TT. It would put out some SERIOUS thump. The LaScalas punch you in the chest and the EV's had a -3db point of 28hz @ 106 db's. Definately, a cacaphony of violence.

Come Sunday night when I returned, there was proverbial he** to pay as virtually the entire building was angry with me and my stunt. I'll admit that some thought it was funny as all get out but...the ones who usually yelled for everyone ELSE to shut up...were all angry as THEIR sleep was interrupted.

Net effect however was I made my point and virtually everyone became a little more tolerable and used a touch more respect for each other.

As Martha Stewert might say, this was a good thing

Heh yea I have been there, except my suitemates freshman year for some reason became obsessed with Elton John's Tiny Dancer, and would sync up their speakers to all play it on repeat, and sing along... lets just say it was a long semester...

On topic, Cerwin Vega is known for making loud speakers, might want to check craigslist for something like that. You are going to have to go the vintage (big) speaker route to get something with the loudness you want, thats within your budget. Those BICs are good for your needs, but if you really want surround sound, you will not be able to get that "party-loud" sound.
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post #12 of 15
7/24/10 at 12:10am
hey there brother, if this is a dorm room environment i wouldn't recommend anything to over the top, and i wouldn't really trust that onkyo setup you are looking at to reliably make it through college. if you want a strong system with a very powerful subwoofer, i think you should consider logitech's Z-5500 5.1 system. it remains a proven setup, and for around $300-$350 will meet all of your needs. i bought my younger brother the much smaller z-2300 2.1 speakers for christmas 2 years ago, and you can easily hear the sub from the 2nd floor when it is in the basement, and its not a small house either. the 5500 is much more powerfull and i think it would make a lot of sense for you. the only downside is that you can't run hdmi to it. my recommendation would be to checkout newegg.com's listing to learn about it. whatever you decide to do, buy your audio cables from monoprice.com. you will save so much money over any other retailer.
let me know if this helps.
Tim
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post #13 of 15
7/26/10 at 11:48am
Quote:
Originally Posted by coytee View Post

Could you get away from the 5.1 logic and perhaps just go with better/solid 2 speakers?

When I was in college, I had a pair of Klipsch LaScalas AND a pair of Electro Voice Interface D speakers stuffed into our dorm room. Took up an entire wall, edge to edge and we utilized the speakers as 'tables' of sort.

When it came time to do a frat party for a prior room mate, I dragged my LaScalas over there and charged an hourly rate.

When the idiots in my own dorm got a little cantankerous with their volume, I simply turned my volume to STUPID and drown them out. They soon got the point that there was a bigger dog on the block who had some serious bark.

The LaScalas would be great for your parties and you could augment their bass with a sub if you wanted.

Not on that budget, but yeah, with those LaScalas, I could definitely see you drowning out just about anything at a college. Now find a decent pair for less than $2000.
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post #14 of 15
7/26/10 at 4:01pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by JackcaJ View Post

Any thoughts on the Onkyo HTS-5300?

Best place to find out about that is here:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1235651

I think its a good place to start reciever wise but the speakers are crap
Quote:
Originally Posted by Transmaniacon View Post

Those BICs are good for your needs, but if you really want surround sound, you will not be able to get that "party-loud" sound.

I disagree complelely!

Case in point would be the Bic PL89 floorstanders delivering output of 119db

Pair them with the PL28 center and the PL66 surrounds you have an amazing system, though its out of this guys budget
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post #15 of 15
7/26/10 at 4:25pm
Those BICs have a sensitivity of 98dB, but regardless, they are out of his budget. I suggested the RTRs because they give you the loudness and bass, and stay under budget.
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