AVS › AVS Forum › Audio › Surround Music Formats › 1500.00 To Build A System, Where To Start??
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

1500.00 To Build A System, Where To Start??

post #1 of 14
10/26/06 at 10:46am
Thread Starter 
I got a 15 by 12 room need a system that is both powerful and an excellent SQ for under 15 hundred. Any Ideas?
Reply
Reply

AVS Top Picks

post #2 of 14
10/26/06 at 2:04pm
Not alot of info to work with there............as far as room characteristics, your wants and needs in system, your personal preferences, future upgradabilty, what you might have that you can use for now, etc......also no metion if audio only or audio/video, but I will assume audio only (and surround) since it is in the surround area.

If that is the case, and no video, I really think you will be better for the foreseable future going with a 2 channel set up. SACD and DVD-A are slowly (and sadly) dying. There is no other "real" surround on the horizon. Yes talk of it with the new DVD formats, but nothing solid that I know of.

Regardless...........choose your speakers wisely. They will have more affect on your system than anything else. I would choose large full range speakers all around....be it 2 channel or surround.

With all that said..............1500 isn't much to build a whole system. I would start with a very good pair of speakers and lower end AVR, or even a 2 channel reciever. This is something you can build on later.

Post back with some more info and you will bet more and better responses.
Reply
Reply
post #3 of 14
10/26/06 at 6:04pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by jesse_r View Post

I got a 15 by 12 room need a system that is both powerful and an excellent SQ for under 15 hundred. Any Ideas?

Ascend speakers, a panny xr-57 and a used sacd/dvd-a player off audiogon.com or ebay.
Reply
Reply
post #4 of 14
10/26/06 at 7:30pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by dirk1843 View Post

Not alot of info to work with there............as far as room characteristics, your wants and needs in system, your personal preferences, future upgradabilty, what you might have that you can use for now, etc......also no metion if audio only or audio/video, but I will assume audio only (and surround) since it is in the surround area.

If that is the case, and no video, I really think you will be better for the foreseable future going with a 2 channel set up. SACD and DVD-A are slowly (and sadly) dying. There is no other "real" surround on the horizon. Yes talk of it with the new DVD formats, but nothing solid that I know of.

Regardless...........choose your speakers wisely. They will have more affect on your system than anything else. I would choose large full range speakers all around....be it 2 channel or surround.

With all that said..............1500 isn't much to build a whole system. I would start with a very good pair of speakers and lower end AVR, or even a 2 channel reciever. This is something you can build on later.

Post back with some more info and you will bet more and better responses.

This is excellent advice, the OP would be very happy in the long run if he followed it!
Reply
Reply
post #5 of 14
11/1/06 at 5:48pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by dirk1843 View Post

Not alot of info to work with there............as far as room characteristics, your wants and needs in system, your personal preferences, future upgradabilty, what you might have that you can use for now, etc......also no metion if audio only or audio/video, but I will assume audio only (and surround) since it is in the surround area.

If that is the case, and no video, I really think you will be better for the foreseable future going with a 2 channel set up. SACD and DVD-A are slowly (and sadly) dying. There is no other "real" surround on the horizon. Yes talk of it with the new DVD formats, but nothing solid that I know of.

Regardless...........choose your speakers wisely. They will have more affect on your system than anything else. I would choose large full range speakers all around....be it 2 channel or surround.

With all that said..............1500 isn't much to build a whole system. I would start with a very good pair of speakers and lower end AVR, or even a 2 channel reciever. This is something you can build on later.

Post back with some more info and you will bet more and better responses.

No offense, but I disagree.
One does not need mega-bucks to build a sound system, not even
surround sound.
Pick a receiver that fits what you will want to do. (most important)
Make sure it has the inputs/decoders you will need;
e.g. 6 analog inputs for your universal player for SACD/DVDA
DD/DTS decoders, enough digital inputs for all your devices; TV,Satellite, etc.

Get enough power per channel for the room; don't worry about overkill.
Pick the components you need right now (CD/Universal player /DVD/turntable)
whatever.
Pick the speakers you can afford based on your needs with what you have left.
You can ask the "boss" for new speakers on your birthday, but if you don't have
all the stuff you need to play the sounds now, well, go figure.
If, however, it must sound the very best, right now, then by all means go with
my friends suggestion in the previous post and get the good speakers now!

HTH,
boondocks
Reply
Reply
post #6 of 14
11/2/06 at 3:45pm
You can get a nice 5.1/7.1 speaker setup, receiver, and universal dvd player for within your budget.

One of these sets of speakers http://www.**********/products_catego...akers&brand=55
Oppo 970HD Universal player
and a $500 receiver.
Reply
Reply
post #7 of 14
11/27/06 at 6:17pm
No offense taken, but I would like to see a surround system that is powerful and sounds good, starting from scratch, that you can build for less than 1500.

The only thing I ask is something that you can keep.....not a HTIB with no way to add more components or change speakers. While it may sound ok (even good) now, what happens when HD-DVD or Blu-Ray is common place and you can't decode Dolby True HD?? Or if you want to upgrade to 6 or 7.1??

My speakers aren't high end at all, but they alone were over a grand. I am not saying we need alot of money to build a system........I personally don't, but I did build mine over a while using what I could, and always trying to buy components that I could upgrade.
Reply
Reply
post #8 of 14
11/27/06 at 6:45pm
After a lot of reading on these forums and not much money according to a lot of people on here, here's what I ended up with (before I heard about this site I was going to go with the Onkyo HT-S790 HTIB).

Pioneer DVR640HS DVD Recorder with 160gb HD 328.00

PANASONIC SA-XR57S 296.00

VELODYNE CHT FRONT ROW SYSTEM 5 piece with 2 extra to make it 7. 268.00

BIC Acoustech H-100 12" sub 234.00 (they accepted my bid for 190 )

All those prices were with S&H included)

Just ordered everything Sat. so anxiously waiting for arrival. With a total cost of 1126.00, it looks to me to be a very good system.
Reply
Reply
post #9 of 14
11/28/06 at 10:27am
I would look at the DIY route.

Upgrade from used components and put together some stuff yourself. I'm sure there are plenty of good high quality components which are being sold. I'm upgrading from a RX-V2600 to a RX-V2700, out of your price range, but mine is in mint condition and considering I've never even physically touched it since it was put in place its flawless, you can find a lot of solid equipment out there like that. Just an example to show whats out there in good condition.

I spent roughly 5K by the time was all said and done on my setup and if I knew a year ago what I knew today I would have gone DIY, more so if your on a budget.

What you can create yourself for $1,500 will outshine anything you can buy for that dollar amount.

Its not for everyone but if you can do it it is a lot more satisfying and upgrading doesn't cost nearly as much.

I plan on selling all my DefTech stuff and building my own setup.
Reply
Reply
post #10 of 14
12/23/06 at 9:38am
I disagree, I say the reciever will be your center piece and you should spend more there now and get some cheaper speakers for the time being. Id go with the Pioneer Elite VSX-84TXSi, retails for 1500 bucks but Tweeter has them on sale for 1099.99. They may even have some speakers that they throw in with this.
Reply
Reply
post #11 of 14
12/23/06 at 9:23pm
Quote:


I disagree, I say the reciever will be your center piece and you should spend more there now and get some cheaper speakers for the time being. Id go with the Pioneer Elite VSX-84TXSi, retails for 1500 bucks but Tweeter has them on sale for 1099.99.

The speakers, not the receiver, have the greatest impact on the sound. There is a massive difference in sound quality between a $250 and $1000 5.1 setup. There is a very small sound quality difference between $250 and $1000 receivers, assuming no special power requirements.

It is generally recommended that one spend 60-80% of their money on speakers and subwoofer, and no more than 20-40% on the electronics.
Reply
Reply
post #12 of 14
12/23/06 at 9:25pm
jesse,

You need to provide more information. Do you listen to mostly music? Or movies? Or an even split? Do you need a DVD player? Do you have any WAF constraints, i.e. do speaker size and aesthetics matter?
Reply
Reply
post #13 of 14
1/6/07 at 9:31pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by kbrake35 View Post

I disagree, I say the reciever will be your center piece and you should spend more there now and get some cheaper speakers for the time being. Id go with the Pioneer Elite VSX-84TXSi, retails for 1500 bucks but Tweeter has them on sale for 1099.99. They may even have some speakers that they throw in with this.

I have to agree with bfdtv.

The reciever is not half as important as the speakers.

The speakers will make or break the system's quality.

My advice: Spend most of the money (if not all) on the best quality 5.1 speakers you can buy for $1,100. to $1,200.

Use the remaining $300. - 400. to buy a nice little Denon reciever. (and yes Denon makes great little recievers for just that much. Just shop around.

Then build from there.
Reply
Reply
post #14 of 14
1/7/07 at 7:45am
This thread has become a place for opinon of other posters.................what ever did the OP do??
Reply
Reply
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home
  Back to Forum: Surround Music Formats

AVS Top Picks

AVS › AVS Forum › Audio › Surround Music Formats › 1500.00 To Build A System, Where To Start??