[00bolt]

Okay, I have a tv in my living room with a Sony theater in a box setup. Its not bad, in fact I have kinda liked it over the past 5+ years I have had it. But it was pretty cheap. I think around $400 total.


I recently converted one of my rooms into a "tv room". It is by no means a huge fancy theater room, but it is all mine (wife big into decorating and entire rest of the house is hers).


In this room I have a 46" Sony LCD tv mounted on the wall. All the wires/cables are hidden behind the wall and all my AV equipment is in the closet. I have PS3, Dish Network HD reciever, Macbook, PC, etc all hooked up to work on the TV.


Heres my problem: When watching movies, listening to itunes, playing rockband... its very blah in there with the TVs speakers. So I want to add surround sound.


I do not have a TON of money to spend like some of you, but I was hoping for a complete setup for under $2k. My first thought was some kind of surround bar under to tv to keep it clean and easy. I thought since my room is pretty small, it might not be bad. (im less than 10' from my tv when sitting down)


But have heard mixed things about the soundbars. So I thought maybe I should just do it right. I thought about Bose, but not sure I want the little square things off to side of my tv. I do not have an entertainment center, everything is in the closet.


So I was thinking tower speakers. Have a buddy with Polk A7s and they sound totally awesome! But he doesnt have centers/rears/subs...


so if you were me in my situation and needed a reciever and speakers for under $2k.... what would you reccomend?


I would say 80% movies and 20% music.

 

[00bolt]

Okay, little update. I have a friend who does home theater installs as a side business. He just got a contract with Paradigm. Said he could hook me up with the speakers at his cost if I will pay him to do some of the labor. (basically just need him to run some speaker wire, etc).


So, my question is Im looking for an unbiased opinion. Giving my situation, if you were to get some Paradigm speakers, what would you recommend? Again, not spending an arm and leg. Saw one set of towers were like $6k. That is obviously way out of my price range.

 

[00bolt]

he recommended monitor 9 towers and monitor cc190 center... after doing VERY little reading and research. Im leaning more towards the Monitor Titans and CC290. What do you think about this combo to start off with? Then getting sub/rears later. Will be using Onkyo 706 receiver.

 

[calnbs]

I like Paradigm and B&W but I wasn't loving their prices. In the end, I had to go elsewhere. After almost 2 years of research, I decided B&M speakers weren't for me. So I headed out towards the Internet Direct option. They offer beautiful speakers that sounded very good to my ears at a price I can afford.


My two favorite system for under $2K are the AV123 Rocket 5.0 system (when it's on sale) and the Swan Diva 6.1 at ozhometheater. Both receives great reviews from many owners. Downside is they are both out of stock and will take some time to get stock. And auditioning them may be a lot harder because they do not have local dealers.


My favorite low budget speakers are the Infinity Primus 362 and Polk RTi8 when it's on sale at Frys.


Have you had the chance to audition these speakers to see if you like them? If you like them and thinks the price is fair, by all means.....buy it. If you don't like the sound, go elsewhere....no matter how great a bargain is...it's worthless if you dislike the item you are buying.


How much are you actually going to save? Shop around if you can. How much is your friend charging you? What about the supplies such as wires, hdmi, cords, etc? Will your friend charge you an arm and a leg for name brands such as "Monster Cable"? If he was your friend, tell him you can order everything from www.monoprice.com .


As for subs, look into SVS, HSU. I own the AV123 MFW 15, it's a very affordable sub (i got it at sale price). Hard to beat this subwoofer at that price but they seem to have an issue or two with their amps dying.

 

[Stephen Hopkins]

At dealer cost I'd say Titans + CC290 would be a great start, perhaps with Atoms or ADP-190s as surrounds. For the subwoofer, I'd still look elsewhere... maybe a BIC H100, PA-120, or maybe even an SVS PB10.

 

[00bolt]

he is emailing me some pricing now.