I need to get some decent in ceiling speakers and a tuner.  I would like to get good sound during action movies and that type of thing.  The guy at best buy was trying to sell us on a six or seven speaker system with speakers at about $250 each and a $1500 tuner that was on sale for $850.  Can I get good quality speakers at $150 each?  What about a tuner?  I am clueless on this stuff and I don't want to spend quite as much as what he was showing us.  Thanks for any help.  Also,  where should I look?  Online is no problem.

These guys are the ARF of home theater shit.

Sure, as long as you don't delve into the local TV forums sections there. It is populated by spittle spraying and "s" slurring dweebs.  

...and I am a hardcore, component level electronics, server & network admin, and ham radio guy saying this!

Don't fall for high cost speaker wire. 12/2 stranded copper works fine and test equipment can't tell the difference between it and that expensive mosnter cable "oxygen free" horse hockey.

Surround speakers needn't be much more than 2 way bookshelf speakers.


ETA:  Can't hotlink on my phone, but you will find more than fair prices and knowledgeable sales advisors at www.crutchfiled.com.

Probably shouldn't ask me, I spent $4k on my system.

You can get a good-quality receiver for around $400.  My Marantz was in that range, and it has everything I need in regards to inputs/outputs, though my needs are modest compared to some.

General Guidelines from when I was shopping:
-Don't mix and match brands of speakers
-Have the forward speakers be from the same series/model line
-Rears can be of a different model line if you want to save some money.  You are already compromising acoustics by going in-ceiling, and those speakers don't generally have a high fidelity workload.
-Listen to a lot of speakers if you can.  A higher-end speaker shop will be better than a big-box store for learning how to listen to sound differences between speakers.
-If you are watching movies, the center speaker is probably the most important as it will handle most of the dialog
-If you primarily listen to music, the L/R towers are most important as most music is in stereo

If you aren't lurking on AVS for this you are doing it wrong.

Don't go here unless you want to end up with a $10k+ system.

You make that sound like a bad thing?

AVS Speaker FAQ

Might be a good place to start.

He could go Outlaw Audio and use the rest of the funds for good/great speakers at a frugal price.

I went with Definitive technology for my in ceiling speakers and have zero regrets.

taggage for later reading.

my setup.

speakers are 8 years old(good speakers will last a really long time)

Fronts: Paradigm Titan Monitor Bookshelf
Center: Paradigm 3-way
Rears: Paradigm atom monitor bookshelf
Sub: SVS cylinder woofer(looks and sounds awesome

i just got a new reciever as my 8 year old one was on the fritz.

Denon AVR-x4100w..almost the same as the Marantz SR5009(my brother has this one). Marantz and Denon are the same company and share a lot of components. i personally don't like the aesthetics of the marantz and that's why i went with the Denon.

at the time i think the fronts were about 400 for the pair, about 400 for the center, and 250 for the surrounds. the sub was 799.00 and i got the new receiver in march for 799

this is a rocking system and always impresses someone who has never really had a expericence watching a movie at home with a nice sound system.

my wife loves the new reciever because it has built in pandora, and she can control it from her telephone from any room in the house.

Follow this advice

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNzr6lfiHJE[/youtube]


ah damnit.. I really need to renew


Link to the yootoob

Do you have a local stereo / electronics shop instead of a best buy?   When we built I worked with our local guy and have been really pleased.  We remodeled our basement last year and in doing so decided to work with him again on a good set up.   We gave him our needs and our budget and he told us where we'd be best suited to spend our money.   In our case, we put a little more money into speakers and a little less into the receiver / tuner since some of the super high end 7.1+ and above receivers have way more functionality and features than the average home theater person needs.

I have some pretty decent stuff (Yamaha receiver and sub and Boston in wall and ceiling mounted speakers) and didn't spend near what you are talking about.   I can turn it up loud enough to be painful (I have one of those Dolby cross-over set up discs) and still have a lot of room to go on the top end before I max out the speakers or reciever.    I am far from an expert but it sounds like the cost / quality curve is very much "S" shaped.

It starts off pretty steep, and there is clearly really cheap, really poor quality stuff out there.   You can spend marginally more money and usually get much more in terms of quality.  Once you get really high end you start getting less improvement in quality for each $ spent.

Not a bad thing. That site is very similar to The Garage Journal, lots of people with a lot of money that build expensive stuff. Only go there if you want to spend much more money than you planned.

I enjoy the heck out of my klipsch speakers. They are very efficient too which means I don't need a million watts of power.

what kind of wattage do i need?

A quality subwoofer makes a big diffeernce.

Room size shape and dimensions are important.

A quick read on acoustics like reflection absorption isolation will help.

I've built some nice custom home theaters and critical listening suites.

I agree with much of what's already been posted here.

Except Klipsch. Too bright or tinny for my tastes.
And $5000 for a decent speaker and sub array is not crazy.

Wrong question.