New Home = New HT -- Please Help!

[lovekeiiy]

You can can a mighty fine receiver for $700. And they'll have some codecs too. That's going to be in the mid range line. It just may not have a lot power to run the speakers, so you'll need to make sure the power is within the contineous power ratings for the speakers; under power speaker can be worse then over power them. The other knock is not as many inputs or outputs. Think of the gaming systems, cable/satallite, dvd/BR players, and whatever else you may want to hook up. You may need to get a some kind of switcher.

On my hometheater, I've probably spent close to $10K on it with all the wiring, pronto, connectors and various what not. And the kicker, I'm not even a movie buff, LOL. But I am into sports, so it's great watching those high def games, 8).

I liked the goodguys. They managed to have quality stuff overall. Sure they were usually MSRP, but I never had issues with customer service, even when I had an problem with the Klipsch center and the warranty was under by buddy's name. CompUSA never brought in the line of products GoodGuys had, which was a shame.

If you do come by Goat, hopefully I'll have the surround setup; I'm still waiting for some connectors to see if they'll fit with the wiring with the speakers hanging. Then I'll be able to set the audio properly; I can't guarantee the colors on the TV, since I have some colorblindness so it's really hard for to calibrate the TV. If there was a tool that gave measurement for it, I'd get it out of necessity.

[MadBryan]

$700 for an Elite tells me its an older one. What model Cause?

[Lord Geoff]

I am a Denon and Definitive Technology guy, myself. The guys are right, you want to take a variety of material to test equipment. My old default testing set was Metallica, Yes, 10,000 Maniacs, Sneakerpimps and Haydn for different musical qualities and for surround sound, The Matrix. That chapter where Neo and Trinity are assaulting the building to rescue Morpheus was good for that when it came out, but with a blu-ray setup in the store, I am sure that there is better testing material now.

[Causedawg 83]

Originally Posted by MadBryan

$700 for an Elite tells me its an older one. What model Cause?

It's the VSX90TX. It has 2 HDMI inputs, and 1 HDMI output.

Currently, the only thing I have that needs it is the DVD player, and I'll obviously replace that when I get the Blu-Ray player. I know I'll want the inputs for future gaming devices (XBox next next gen), and Satelite TV, for whenever we decide to make the jump to HD. That's it, though... right? I can only think of 3 things I would have that would require HDMI inputs... so I guess that would leave me one short.

[Causedawg 83]

Originally Posted by Lord Geoff

The Matrix. That chapter where Neo and Trinity are assaulting the building to rescue Morpheus was good for that when it came out, but with a blu-ray setup in the store, I am sure that there is better testing material now.

It's funny you say that. I went to Best Buy this morning (about an hour ago) to listen to their Klipsch's, and he played that exact scene for me. Matrix has always been what I've played to test out sound systems. Awesome movie.

[MadBryan]

Is this the reciever? LCDTVs

[Causedawg 83]

Hahahahaha! It looks like it might be!


If not, and that little "V" at the end means it's something different, I'd be willing to bet it's not 200 dollars different.

[GoatMother]

FYI, Fry's has the TS-XR805 (3 HDMI inputs, THX, 130 wattx7, yada yad all the bells and whistles for audio codecs) for $699. Circuit City is $100 more than that.


$10 HD DVD's as well..

edit for the ad, bottom right corner:

San Jose Mercury News | San Jose Shopping - Computers & Electronics - Fry's Electronics

[BMC]

Damn thats a good deal! Good luck on your HT setup/purchase Causedawg! I don't have anything to add since these guys covered everything extremely well.

[Jon Liu]

What the guys said here is fantastic advice. I'd say the best budget/bang for-the-buck receiver you can get is probably the Onkyo 805. The 605 is great at the price point, but the 805 at 600-700 is a steal, in my opinion.

In terms of speakers, SVS speakers, I've heard are very good. Axiom Audio is another company that makes fantastic speakers at very low prices. Woundup just bought a pair and I think CoryB has a set of them for sale in the Coffee Table Deals section.

Also, if you are really looking for some "Wowing" speakers, but at a budget price, I would suggest going over to AV123.com and checking out their X-Series speakers. The new X-Statics look FREAKIN' unbelievable, and on top of that, they are supposed to sound amazing. What's more, is that they are stupidly cheap compared to what you get looks AND sound-wise.

A pair of those are only $699. And throw in an X-Voce for an addition $499 and you are set, in the front stage. So at this point the speakears are $1100, plus the receiver, which if you went with the 805 would probably be about $700.

If you were to buy Cory's SVS PB12-ISD/2 sub @$650, that would REALLY have you set for a while. Otherwise, the AV123 MFW-15 sub is an absolute killer at the price as well. $599 for one.

So at this point, you would be looking to spend $2400 dollars on a system that you would just be UTTERLY amazed at. I think with this setup would have you set for a long time to come, too.

[MadBryan]

Yep, I'd get Cory's sub for sure. I've got two SVS cylinders myself. LOVE'EM!!
Jon is right about that Onkyo 805. I bought mine shortly after he did and that thing is a tank. I threw my back out putting it in the cabinet Seriously. I know that doesn't mean its gonna sounds good, BUT IT DOES. Excellent build quality is all I'm say'in

[Causedawg 83]

Well, I think I've made my decision.

Rather than pull everything out of savings, my wife really likes the idea of paying for it in installments. Best Buy has a great interest free 3 year payment plan right now at their Magnolia Stores, so I've been calling around to different Magnolia Best Buy's in the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex, trying to work out a deal with someone. I finally made a deal with a guy in Grapevine. He's gonna sell me the entire Klipsch setup I want (Reference series, 8" towers, 12" sub, 5 1/4" surround and center), and the Pioneer Elite 91 (more future proof than the one I posted about earlier), and he's gonna sell me all of it for 20% off. That works out to be a pretty good deal, and something both my wife and I are excited about.

I'll be going down there on Saturday to purchase/pick it all up. Unfortunately, their 12" sub is out right now, and will be for 3 weeks. So, I can either wait a month to have one sent to our local BB, or get the 10" instead. I don't know which one I'd rather have. I'm not sure how much I need a 12" sub considering that the 8" towers put out a significant amount of base themselves. Thoughts?


Oh, and the reason I've decided to go with the Klipsch speakers is because I've had an opportunity to listen to them on several occasions, and both my wife and I loved them. They sound fantastic. Plus, I've wanted Klipsch speakers for several years, but always figured they were way too expensive. 20% off works for me though!

[ZoomZoom71]

Dude, be careful getting into the "installment plan" cycle. As a new homeowner, you're probably gonna get bombarded with all sorts of "needs" for your home, not to mention all the expense from all the real necessities. Just be careful not to get in this and get over your head on monthly payments. You'd be better served to save your money and pay cash, once you've saved enough. Just sayin'....

[GoatMother]

I'm not sure how much I need a 12" sub considering that the 8" towers put out a significant amount of base themselves. Thoughts?

Wait for the 12", espeically so since your 8" towers will doing very well for mid bass. The 12" will do better for the lower end than the 10" hands down.

[BMC]

What Goat said. You'll definitely want the extra punch the 12in. will provide.

[Causedawg 83]

Originally Posted by ZoomZoom71

Dude, be careful getting into the "installment plan" cycle. As a new homeowner, you're probably gonna get bombarded with all sorts of "needs" for your home, not to mention all the expense from all the real necessities. Just be careful not to get in this and get over your head on monthly payments. You'd be better served to save your money and pay cash, once you've saved enough. Just sayin'....

Oh, we've got more than enough money saved up to do this. My wife just doesn't like the idea of seeing that much money disappear from the savings account all at once. I'm going with it since it gets me my speakers.

Besides, in her eyes, this gives us an opportunity to make the payments partially from savings, but also from my paycheck. She likes to keep the savings account as untouched as possible. Thanks for the great advice, though. We've already backed off a number of things as our eyes were much bigger than our wallets.

[dmiller68]

Originally Posted by Causedawg 83

Oh, we've got more than enough money saved up to do this. My wife just doesn't like the idea of seeing that much money disappear from the savings account all at once. I'm going with it since it gets me my speakers.

Besides, in her eyes, this gives us an opportunity to make the payments partially from savings, but also from my paycheck. She likes to keep the savings account as untouched as possible. Thanks for the great advice, though. We've already backed off a number of things as our eyes were much bigger than our wallets.

Just remember when you make that final payment to call them up and close the account. We liked to use "90" days same as cash deals, earn a couple extra months of interest. However, we find they leave the accounts open when you done paying the last payment so when you look at your credit report it has a whole bunch of loans open in the system.