Home Theater System

I agree with Coryjon for the most part, but i'm gonna recommend bose. Bose claims to be the best. they are close, but not the best. you can definitely buy better speakers and receivers than bose, but i personally would not, for the following reasons.

Bose sells you a package, and everything works perfectly right out of the box. plug and play. if you go with something other than bose, you will prolly need a frankenstein system. you will need to be careful to get the right speakers for front, rear, center and sub. X speakers in the front, Y speakers in back, and Z for your sub and who knows what for a receiver. Bose is easy

Bose sounds great. Coreyjon is right, they dont have the best sound, but its really damn good. if you're not an audiophile, it may be really hard for you to tell the difference between bose and some high end set up. the difference is there, but bose is plenty good for the vast majority of people, including myself. They can charge so much because they do sound amazing even if they aren't technically top of the line.

size, the bose systems are so freaking small and look so good. like i said, you can buy better speakers, but typically they are huge and not nearly as attractive as those little cubes.

bose is expensive but i wouldn't consider them over priced for the before mentioned reasons. great sound, easy set up, tiny attracitve package (thats what she said).

 

i respectfully disagree with you on a number of accounts here. You do NOT need to build a frankenstein system if you choose not to go with Bose and you are definitely sacrificing serious sound quality that most anyone with normal hearing can identify. In terms of being close to the best, Bose isn't in the top 10.

Speakers are not like televisions...you can always see the differene in tvs when they're sitting next to one another...but not when they are separated...with speakers, you can always hear the difference. It's my opinion.

If you go to a high end audio store, they often times keep trade-in bose systems that they can hook up so you can hear the difference...with all components being similar. Believe me, that will make your decision easy.

I personally own some Dunlavy SC-1s and have owned NHTs in the past. As NHT's are now being discontinued, you can find them at a somewhat discounted price. One step further, I recommend B&W to anyone. You can buy their entry level series for less than a bose set up and they make bose sound like the crap they are.

 

ND, I will concede with you that for most bose would be fine (some people generally can not hear the differance, but I certainly can), but in terms of upgrading the system and overall system flexibility you tend to limit yourself with the bose option. For a lot (probably most) HT enthusiasts who just want a simple to instal, non obtrusive upgrade with a high WAF (wife approval factor) bose fits in there nicely.

Now, and maybe its just me, but the franken system you mention isn't at all as scary as the origional book may have you believe. Even if you are technically challeneged it's not that hard to set up. Now most people arn't going to run a microphone/rta combo and calibrate the equlaizer using pink noise, but that said, many new recievers have a bult in auto calibration now that make it very very easy to calibrate the system to the room.

Besides the Denon/Polk combo is sexy.

Like wine, audio is a very personal taste, and I'm not one to tell someone their wine selection sucks.

The biggest thing is to know what you want out of the system, and to achieve it within your budget. (or like most come as close as the budget will allow, then upgrade components to maintain on top of current ht tech trends).

 

sorry for the double post

 

You had me at McGyver.

 

i'm really liking the features on the Denon 3808CI. How ever i'd have to wait awhile to afford the speakers that would do the receiver justice. And my next dilema is finding a audio store around here that carries anything close so i could go take it for a test listen.

 

Actually, Best Buy usually has Denon and Onkyo receivers setup in their demo rooms, as well as Polk speakers.

 

closest best buy around here is over an hour away.
so i may need to make a road trip.


not that i am looking for shelf speakers but saw this and thought it wasn't a bad deal!

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0..._rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=501040131&pf_rd_i=384082011

 

I love the cherry color that Polk has.

 

http://www.klipsch.com/na-en/products/home-theater-system/

 

Bose Sucks period

VERY over rated!

Bose is made for people that DO NOT enjoy their music loud !

 

you make some very good points. i'll admit i dont have to much of a desire to be an audiophile, so the difference in quality taht i dont notice may be enough to drive you insane. my office mate will not listen to any music taht is not in a lossless format. most of the songs on my computer are compressed to about 4 mb, all his are in the 20's and when he gets in my truck and i'm listening to a burned cd i can tell its like nails on a chalkboard to him. i can tell a difference between compressed and lossless but not enough to warrant taking up 3x the HD space on my computer. so i'll concede to your points. i'll just say that for me, Bose is a good option, mainly due to ease of hooking up and size. we have a huge surround sound set up in our living room now and it looks horrible

yeah, you are more limited with Bose. i can tell a difference in regular over the ear headphones and studio quality headphones, but thats easy to compare. i guess its harder to compare two surround sound systems since you rarely have more than one per house. i'll just say i've heard bose systems before and i'm a fan, but if you want top of the line, do something else. all i know is the yamaha reciever we have right now requires a doctorate in rocket science to use. i have never used such a finicky complicated system in my life. its badass, but its annoying as hell to use and set up.

over rated is the best way to describe them. and how loud do you listen to music? if the walls are shaking i'm happy, i dont need to blow the windows out

 

i'd like to hear that !!!!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWkJ86JqlPA





http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUX3_Q3XPgI

 

Sound is very subjective, you need to go out and listen to your choices and make your selection based on what you like to listen to and can afford instead of what others like.

but, if it were my $2000, I would buy a pair of these : http://www.magnepan.com/model_MMG - $599.00
they have no BASS, so you will need a sub.. and an AMP with Balls (Better Denon, Yamaha, NOT SONY!).

Klipsch makes some excellent speakers (not the cheap ones, please!), I would surf Craigslist in your area and look for a second hand set of them. I bought a used pair of KG3's with a Passive Bass filler for $300.00 and they rocked for years before I sold them for what I paid for them. Klipsch are huge, very loud, and do not need much power. I used to have a pair of the Corner Horns until I made the move to Martin Logans. Lots of good stuff out there, just listen and YOU PICK!

Couldn't resist posting my opinion as well.. let us know which way you go.

 

thats definitely badass but way more than i need

 

I would not buy Bose for myself but I would buy it for my dad. He wouldn't know the difference in sound and the setup is easy.

Even my own system is a bit over my head. I have an Onkyo Receiver, 2 Infinity 10" 2-ways up front and 2 small sony rears in the back. I also have a Velodyn subwoofer that I can't figure out how to set up.

I can't seem to get everything to "play fair". I'm beginning to spend some time over at AVSForums.com to get this sorted out. This is the first time since owning all of the components that I have the room to use them.

And don't forget the other important component...a BIG TV!!!

 

Just looked it up, I guess my local BB is a Magnolia store. I figured all of them had those high end demo rooms.

 

Yeah, unfortunately they couldn't touch the prices I ended up getting for the Onkyo TX-SR507 receiver I just ordered. Their list was for $350 on sale and they really didn't want to budge. Ended up getting it from Newegg (who, IMO, is better about exhanges/returns than Best Buy is) for $250 shipped.

Newegg ended up having some stellar deals on Wednesday with their 10% off everything offer. Got the Onkyo receiver, two Polk 60 series floor speakers, 10" Polk sub, 50" Samsung 1080p plasma, and a few other odds and ends for a sweet price.