Surround Sound Home Theatre Receivers

[Russell]

I’m sort of a newb when it comes to home theater systems, after the advice from a previous thread I have moved away from doing a home theater in a box system and have picked up some speakers. Mind you they are not the best on the market but with 1 year of school left and given my budget (and the fact that they were on sale) I think I have done alright:

Speakers:
Front – Soundstage Bookshelf Speaker
Back - JBL 2 way 4” VENUETOUR
Center – JBL Dual 5” VENUETOUR

Hardware:
Amp – Older Yamaha amp, with no TV inputs or sub input
TV - Sony 37” Trinitron TV (with RGB analog video, YPbPr analog video, S-Video)
Gaming - Xbox 360 (HDMI), Game Cube, Wii
2 Disc DVD Player

The front speakers are not the best but I would like to get some nice Floor Standing speakers over the summer or once I am done school, so for right now the Soundstage speakers are doing just fine. I also currently do not have a sub do the fact that my current amp does not have an input for one. Now for the questions:

- I will be buying a new amp as the old one is not that great, what should I be looking for in an amp? I would like to clean up the wire behind my TV as I only have 1 YPbPr input and 1 S-Video which means some switching of cords is done, with that in mind I would also like something with HDMI for when I get a new TV. Any suggestions?

- What should I be looking for in a sub?

- Seeing as I don’t currently have a TV that will use 1080p and the fact that I am very happy with my Xbox I won’t be buying a blue ray player anytime soon. Out of curiosity how does the PS3 hold up as a blue ray player?

[R_Ethug]

Re: Surround Sound Home Theatre Receivers

yea you want an new amp with HDMI and switching if your tv can do it.. its sooo nice.. but more $$.

i just bought a new pioneer amp like 2 years ago that does component in/out switching and its awesome.. my 360 is not the hdmi so all my stuff is component (sat, 360, xbox1, gamecube,etc) and it all runs through the amp.. so much easier..

so my recommendation would be to check out whatever pioneer has with HDMI.. mine cost me like 750ish amp alone when i bought it.. works great still..

i have so so speakers from a previous all in one setup and they work fine with it.. but no sub ahhaha i haven't had one since i bought the new amp so i can't really tell you much there

my bro's PS3 works nicely as a player but the movies cost too much and who the hell buys movies when i can get everything for cheapy and put it on my xbox1.. good enough for me..

[The Brice]

Re: Surround Sound Home Theatre Receivers

I’m sort of a newb when it comes to home theater systems, after the advice from a previous thread I have moved away from doing a home theater in a box system and have picked up some speakers. Mind you they are not the best on the market but with 1 year of school left and given my budget (and the fact that they were on sale) I think I have done alright:

Speakers:
Front – Soundstage Bookshelf Speaker
Back - JBL 2 way 4” VENUETOUR
Center – JBL Dual 5” VENUETOUR

Hardware:
Amp – Older Yamaha amp, with no TV inputs or sub input
TV - Sony 37” Trinitron TV (with RGB analog video, YPbPr analog video, S-Video)
Gaming - Xbox 360 (HDMI), Game Cube, Wii
2 Disc DVD Player

The front speakers are not the best but I would like to get some nice Floor Standing speakers over the summer or once I am done school, so for right now the Soundstage speakers are doing just fine. I also currently do not have a sub do the fact that my current amp does not have an input for one. Now for the questions:

- I will be buying a new amp as the old one is not that great, what should I be looking for in an amp? I would like to clean up the wire behind my TV as I only have 1 YPbPr input and 1 S-Video which means some switching of cords is done, with that in mind I would also like something with HDMI for when I get a new TV. Any suggestions?

- What should I be looking for in a sub?

- Seeing as I don’t currently have a TV that will use 1080p and the fact that I am very happy with my Xbox I won’t be buying a blue ray player anytime soon. Out of curiosity how does the PS3 hold up as a blue ray player?

Hey Russell I certainly am not a pro on the subject but I've had several different home theater setups over the years an could atleast offer you my opinion. For receivers my last 2 have been Harmon Kardon, sound great and have never had issues with either personally my #1 choice, back when I was an electrician i worked with an individual who was a bit of an audiophile and said when he was doing electronics in school they stripped apart some receivers and found that Onkyo seemed to have the best quality components in them out of the receivers tested. (Not sure what the other receivers were off the top of my head and this was years ago aswell mind you) For a sub I would just look into something space conscious. Energy speakers are great and I have a personal favoring for PSB speakers as those are what I have for my setup. I have a big Nuance sub I've had for years, I like it because it looks like a larger end table and nobody knows it has dual downfiring 10's inside until you crank it up and rock the house, but it was pricey and is certainly not for everybody. For a T.V. I just bought a samsung 52" lcd around Christmas time for ~$2300 and I love it, picture quality is excellent especially while playing blue-ray vids in 1080p. I think the ps3 is a great blue-ray player, with setup options galore and has caused me no issues either so. So I hope I was atleast a bit of help for you Russell, I'm sure there's more people here with more knowledge than myself.

Cheers

[Billip]

Re: Surround Sound Home Theatre Receivers

I have had several higher-end Yamaha receivers over the years and have been very happy. They deliver very clean power, and tend to have be at the forefront of the market in terms of features. Yamahas better amps all start with "RX-V????", rather than the "HTR-????" models that Future Shop/Best Buy sell.

Having said that, the other suggestions in this thread are all good (higher-end Pioneer, Harmon Kardon, Onkyo).

[LiQuus]

Re: Surround Sound Home Theatre Receivers

42" TV, a computer with nice 5.1 speakers... lots of pirated movies/tvs.. heh

[Russell]

Re: Surround Sound Home Theatre Receivers

I have had several higher-end Yamaha receivers over the years and have been very happy. They deliver very clean power, and tend to have be at the forefront of the market in terms of features. Yamahas better amps all start with "RX-V????", rather than the "HTR-????" models that Future Shop/Best Buy sell.

Having said that, the other suggestions in this thread are all good (higher-end Pioneer, Harmon Kardon, Onkyo).

My Yamaha has been a tank, never once have had a problem with it and it has got to be almost 7 or 8 years old so its just out dated.

[stefan]

Re: Surround Sound Home Theatre Receivers

I have the Yamaha RXV 1600. So far so good. Only does up to 1080I on the video end though I believe, but I don't have anything HD.

[Kordain]

Re: Surround Sound Home Theatre Receivers

Receiver = Harmon Karmon for quality,

Not sure about lesser ones sorry

[stefan]

Re: Surround Sound Home Theatre Receivers

HK has a good reputation. Generally pretty high output, although like Yamaha, I don't think the ones as futureshop are the good ones.

[Kor]

Re: Surround Sound Home Theatre Receivers

Receiver probably doesn't matter that much, spend your money on better speakers.

That being said, I bought from Outlaw Audio

http://www.outlawaudio.com

The best bang for the buck on speakers is internet companies. I kinda wish I had bought online even though I didn't.

Here are a couple examples

http://www.av123.com
http://www.ascendacoustics.com

[Klobi-One-Kinobi]

Re: Surround Sound Home Theatre Receivers

+1 for the yamaha receivers. My YTR-5890 has been good, a few years old but solid.

[The Brice]

Re: Surround Sound Home Theatre Receivers

A stereo is only as good as it's weakest link or make sure if you have good receiver, good speakers don't cheap out on the wiring, make sure wiring is quality and sized appropriately. (bigger the better) Make sure all connectors are quality as well.

[Stonewall]

Re: Surround Sound Home Theatre Receivers

I like the pioneer receiver I bought last year. I still haven't used the room calibration stuff though. As for speakers I have cheap Sinclair Audio ones that work fine for now. Personally I like Paradigm speakers but energy and Klipsh are good speakers. Although I think Klipsh have moved into the more expensive end in the last couple years.
edit: Ohh and make sure you buy all your cables at Monoprice.com, Monster is a total rip off.

[Tuna]

Re: Surround Sound Home Theatre Receivers

Monoprice FTW! Super cheap and pretty quick too. Only problem is you feel so ripped off for the cables you bought at Futureshop.

[Kor]

Re: Surround Sound Home Theatre Receivers

A stereo is only as good as it's weakest link or make sure if you have good receiver, good speakers don't cheap out on the wiring, make sure wiring is quality and sized appropriately. (bigger the better) Make sure all connectors are quality as well.

Sad to say your weakest link is probably your speakers before and after you buy a new receiver. Speakers make the biggest difference, I have heard $10,000 speakers hooked up to a $100 receiver. Then I've heard $100 speakers hooked up to an amp/source worth thousands. The weakest link for 90% of people is their speakers.

I order my cables from

http://bluejeanscable.com/

More expensive than Monoprice but they are custom and very good quality. Some of the monoprice cables are a little cheap. Yeah cables don't matter too much but it sucks when the plastic jacket is cracking or things like that. Nice cables are nicer to work with.