new and looking for advice

[vonerick]

i took some pictures of my family room, and i need some advise. The rooom is 20 x 20 with 8' ceilings, and i have a misth 65" HDTV widescreen. I'm currently running a old Sony pro logic receiver, a JVC DVD player, dish 811, some speakers from a bookshelf stereo, and a 10" powered sub from radio shack.

1st of all I'm very impressed with the knowledge you guys have and the way you can afford to spend $3k on HT equipment. I'm just a country boy from Texas that wants a little more from his movie watching and music playing experinces. I had my eye on a Yahama 6.1/JBL speaker HTIB combo for around $500-$600 from Best Buy, but after reading pages and pages of post, i'm not sure now.

my plan is to either use a yahama, pioneer, or a sony, (can't afford the high end speciality stuff) with some towers, bookshelf, or sat for my fronts l/r and then install crown molding around the room and hide speaker wire going to the rears and back center. Shound i keep them close to the ceiling and angle them down, or install them ear level, that goes for the fronts and the rears?

would like ideas on affordable equipment and speaker styles and placement and any and all comments. Also let me know if towers, buckshelf or sat would best suite my set-up?

[Andrew Pratt]

Welcome to the HTGuide site! We'd be more then happy to help steer you in the right direction regardless of your budget. First a question though...why is the image on your TV upside down?

For an AV receiver and speakers you might consider buying some or all of it used to maximize your dollars.

New from BestBuy this Yamaha looks alright.

Yamaha

Another option is to look for one of Panasonic's new digital amp receivers. They're affordable and sound very very good for the low price. There's the Panasonic SA-XR25 that's usually under $200 and the Panasonic SA-XR50 that's a little more then that. Either one would work dandy with the Fluance speakers.


For speakers you'd be hard pressed to beat the Fluance set

http://www.fluance.com/fluan5speaks.html

That with shipping would put you near the top of your budget but would give you a pretty nice sounding system. You wouldn't have a subwoofer with the above fluance speakers but you could always add one at a later date and the towers will do ok for the time being. If you're at all handy when you're ready for the subwoofer I'd strongly suggest you consider showing you how to build your own since its extremely easy and by far the easiest way to get the most bang for your buck

For placement of the surrounds take a look on the Dolby site here for some guidelines on where to place the speakers. You'd ideally want the surrounds a few feet above ear level when seated so if they have to be much higher then that just angle them down a little.

[vonerick]

it was some advertisment for some show coming on this spring, it was upside down just to catch your attention.......when i 1st looked at my pics, i thought the camera displayed the image that way.

your ideas and imput seems great....if i buy a used receiver, what brand should i look for, and where is the best place and prices?

thx in advance.

[Gordon Moore]

Well Andrew basically is basing that recommendation on the system I more or less went with. I took a chance and was pleasently surprised.

FWIW, the Panny SA-XR25 was replaced by the Panny SA-XR50 and you don't gain much (same digital 6.1 amp unit) so....I found mine clearing out locally for $199 CDN

I went with the Fluance speakers and they mate quite well. In-fact for 2-channel it's a pretty sweet combo when you mate towers with a sub....

This is my setup:

http://www.fluance.com/fluanhigthre.html $299 US
http://www.fluance.com/fluancemv670c.html $69 US (x2 if you want 6.1)
http://www.fluance.com/fluanbipsurs.html $99 US
so that's $536 + shipping

Course you are missing a sub....there are 8" woofers built into the mains but they don't nearly go low enough or output enough for what you can get from a dedicated sub.

Given your budget Andrews suggestion of the 5.1 pkg would be a good choice.

Andrew's heard them and was impressed (taking into consideration this is budget speaks)

As for the receiver, it doesn't have to be that one....but it does work well together for a 6.1 setup and a very surprising 2 channel amp as well, the best part is that it's very efficient so that it has lots of power....it produces approx 85% of what the manufacturer claims it will do. The Yammies are really more like 30-35% of their rated power

(in other words it won't even be close to 6X100. Even at 35% it will still be loud so don't worry too much about this point , just showing you that ya can't believe everything that you read.)

I would expect you could probably find the SA-XR25 for around $150 US or less with some looking. That would throw you a little over budget but would go a little farther than the 5 speaker package. If you considered the 5 speaker package you would have to still add the AV-SC to round out to 6.1

If you would like some backing on whether or not you should take a chance on an internet only manufacturer...PM me and I'll point you to several links touting how happy they were with their decision on the 5.1 pkg from fluance.

Shipping is really prompt with these guys and they package the stink out of their products so it's not coming damaged...unless a truck road over it.

I'm just an owner...and in no way affiliated with the company....I just have little bad to say about them.

[Andrew Pratt]

Buying used can be good if shipping isn't too high and the item was well taken care of. www.audiogon.com is the best place to buy from but they're aren't many entry level receivers there and to be honest in many ways I'd rather buy a new panasonic digital amp then a used Sony etc. As for brands Sony should be avoided unless you buy their ES line which is pricey, Yamaha, Denon, Pionner, Marantz and Oynko all make decent lower priced receivers. Kenwood is hit and miss but you could do worse...that said given the options available to you I'd say buy the panasonic or the yamaha new from Best Buy since its on sale for a decent price.

[vonerick]

I'm leaning towards the Fluance SX-HTB with an xtra center channel for the rear. That panasonic SA-XR50 sounds like a good price for my budgets, and one other question, where is the best place to purchase cables? (Best Buy is not the best buy) I want some quality cables to squeeze all the performance i can out of my system.

[aud19]

Cat Cables, links at the bottom of the page :T

[Andrew Pratt]

Given the tight budget don't spend too much on all the cables upfront as they're the easiest thing to upgrade later on as required. Also remember that the digital receivers sound the best when you use a pure digital path from the source to the receiver so don't use analog cables from your DVD player if that's what you use as a CD player also. I don't know if your DVD player has a digital coax output but that would be something to consider using and a nice digital coax is available from catcables :T

[vonerick]

I got the wife involved, because she has to approve of the money spending.....But this is what I've decided on: Panasonic SA-XR70 (rec'vr), Panasonic S-97 (dvd), Fluance SX-HTB w/ added AV-SC (speakers) use my existing Optimus 10" powered sub.

Went with all Panasonic for the HDMI connections......

If this is not a good set up, or if its a waste for the HDMI, let me know pretty quick, because she says I can order this week....

[aud19]

I just read a good review of the Marantz SR4400 (if my memory serves me....) One of the few under $500 receivers the reviewer said he'd recommend. MSRP was $459 (again if I remember correctly). Which should mean you could get it for high $300's likely. No HDMI but possibly better SQ, which is more valuable IMO. Just FYI, might be worth the listen

[vonerick]

well after talking the wife into letting me spending a little more money......(I told her how nice the silver finish would look in the TV cabinet, and how it matched the dish 811.) I've come to find out that its hard to find the XR70 and the S-97, and the only one that i did find cost more than the MSRP. So instead of pushing myself and my budget way past my limit, I dropped back to the XR50 but now I need a DVD w/ upconv to go with it. I know my TV has DVI and I think it has HDMI also, but I'm not 100% sure. Saying that, and not wanting to start a new thread, what is a desent DVD player for the $100 to $200 pricce range?

[Andrew Pratt]

The LG DV7832NXC & Zenith DVB318 DVD Players are your best bets in the upconverting players in that price range. See this site for more info on them. The panny DVD players are usually pretty good buys as well and will look great with your receiver.

[vonerick]

just got the XR50 for $219 at sale4sure.com

[yanksno1]

Hi, just found this thread and had a few questions about the Fluance SX-HTB setup. I'm mostly looking at this to watch movies (in 5 or 6.1 surround) with as I don't listen to music much at home.

1. How are these speakers when listening to movies with?
2. From reading reviews it sounds like the center speaker is pretty weak, so I'd mostly likely want to upgrade the center. Any opinions on what speaker to upgrade to?
3. Since I'm mostly planning on watching movies with this, do you guys suggest I buy a sub to go with these speakers?
4. I'm looking to spend around $5-600 for a receiver, are there any particular receivers that go well with these speakers? One thing I'm looking for is at least 2 component inputs so I can upconvert through my receiver since my TV only has 2 component inputs. Any opinions on this?

Thanks for answering my questions, I greatly appreciate it.