Posted: 3/28/2012 3:09:00 PM EDT
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I am building a new house and I have saved up some decent money for a sound system. It will be a surround sound system that will be run to the TV as well. My living room is right in the middle of my house and it is pretty large. It is right around 40-45ft long, 20-24ft wide, and will have 11ft ceilings. It will also have a full kitchen and breakfast area branching off of it as well.
I have roughly $4,000 set aside for a receiver and speakers. What quality brands should I look at? 5.1 or 7.1 surround? Receiver? Anything else? I love my rock and classic rock music the most. I like bass, but not too much. I just like that good, clear, powerful sound. |
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I like bass, but not too much. I just like that good, clear, powerful sound. At this price point you need to throw out your old ideas of how a stereo sounds. Get a good receiver with auto calibration (I like Pioneer with MCACC) and it will balance the sound from all the speakers and the sub. In an area that large, you need a pretty big sub to properly fill it with bass. Either a eD, Hsu or an Epik would fill that room nicely.
http://www.edesignaudio.com/product_info.php?cPath=2_41&products_id=746 http://www.hsuresearch.com/products/vtf-15h.html http://www.epiksubwoofers.com/empire.html Like the previous poster mentioned, you need to audition speakers to see what you like. Everyone hears differently. If you have no place local to audition then you can just take a chance and go with an internet brand. Let's say you dropped $1,000 on the sub and $500 on a Pioneer receiver, that leaves $2500 for the speakers. Do you want towers or bookshelfs? Have you thought about building speakers yourself? There are hundreds of great designs on the web. |
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Take a look at Pioneer ELITE SC-37 or its more modern replacement model(s). It will do 7.1 sound (which I enjoy a lot).
A quality subwoofer is fairly expensive but you can save some money by getting one in a simple cabinet. Then just be sure to place it in a discreet location to minimize seeing the minimalist cabinet. Get a pair of quality main speakers and a decent-looking center channel. These cannot be hidden and will determine the overall sound quality. Finally, you need some surrounds and rears. Look at Orb Audio. They are small, discreet, easy to hide in your decor and have high wife approval factor. They are more discreet than in-wall speakers. Oh, they sound good, too. Total WAG - $1300 AVR $800 Subwoofer $800 main speakers $400 center channel $500 surrounds and rears $200 cables, wires and miscellaneous installation goodies |
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Integra and NAD are on the higher end. Quality products. Where Onkyo will probably drive a 6 ohm load all day, an Integra can drive a difficult 4 ohm load without breaking a sweat. Normally the higher end models have a better power supply and a few better D/A converters.
Don't go crazy on the receiver and cheap out on speakers. Speakers are an investment. Receivers will burn out. Formats will change. Quality speakers will last for decades. At the most you may have to replace a leaky capacitor. |
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Quoted:
I like bass, but not too much. I just like that good, clear, powerful sound. Get a good receiver with auto calibration (I like Pioneer with MCACC) and it will balance the sound from all the speakers and the sub. In an area that large, you need a pretty big sub to properly fill it with bass.Quoted:
Don't go crazy on the receiver and cheap out on speakers. Speakers are an investment. Receivers will burn out. Formats will change. Quality speakers will last for decades. At the most you may have to replace a leaky capacitor. I agree wholeheartedly with the above quotes. You definitely have your work cut out for you in that large of a room. You should be expecting to spend about $1k or more on your receiver and will likely want to run floor standing speakers. I really like the Martin Logan Dynamo700 for that type of room, budget. For receivers, Pioneer Elite SC-55 or Yamaha Aventage RX-A2010, both are tough to beat for what you get and shouldn't have a problem filling that room if you have the right speakers. someone mentioned KEF, while they're great (I have a KEF KIT100), not many places carry them. You definitely want to go hear as many things as possible in one place before making a decision, and don't let yourself fall in love due to a single great demo. Look for a local Hi-Fi shop with a large selection or a Best Buy with Magnolia, and don't be afraid to tell them your goals and budget. |
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Is the 4k budget just for components or for your contractors to wire/set up? For me all components will crap out someday (not including speakers), getting a nice foundation is key like a proper component cabinet, proper wires (power, speakers, data), proper location, etc. just make sure it's future proof. every 5-10 years there seems to be a new format or media that is required to say current.
7.1 is not bad setup however the size of your room you may want 7.2 receiver to have the option of having a 'nice' bass to keep the full sound for everyone if you like to entertain. some of the bluray concerts have great sound mixing and create an awesome experience if you can make the right setup. |
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Quoted:
The difference in a 7.1 and a 7.2 receiver is just an extra LFE output jack. If you need a second sub, a $3 "Y" adapter from Wal-Mart does the exact same thing.
7.1 is not bad setup however the size of your room you may want 7.2 receiver to have the option of having a 'nice' bass to keep the full sound for everyone if you like to entertain. 7.1 refers to discreet channels of audio being processed. You can use 1, 2 or 20 subs and it's still 7.1. |
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Quoted:
I like bass, but not too much. I just like that good, clear, powerful sound. At this price point you need to throw out your old ideas of how a stereo sounds. Get a good receiver with auto calibration (I like Pioneer with MCACC) and it will balance the sound from all the speakers and the sub. In an area that large, you need a pretty big sub to properly fill it with bass. Either a eD, Hsu or an Epik would fill that room nicely.
http://www.edesignaudio.com/product_info.php?cPath=2_41&products_id=746 http://www.hsuresearch.com/products/vtf-15h.html http://www.epiksubwoofers.com/empire.html Like the previous poster mentioned, you need to audition speakers to see what you like. Everyone hears differently. If you have no place local to audition then you can just take a chance and go with an internet brand. Let's say you dropped $1,000 on the sub and $500 on a Pioneer receiver, that leaves $2500 for the speakers. Do you want towers or bookshelfs? Have you thought about building speakers yourself? There are hundreds of great designs on the web. The above, as well as SVSound and Rythmik, and probably a few others, are supposed to be really good. |
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Quoted:
What do folks think of the Integra (or it's more common Onkyo) brand for an AVR? How about NAD? I have old NAD stereo stuff. The integrated amp is OK, but my power amp is really good. I don't know how the new stuff is. I heard that they had QC issues somewhere around 10 or 15 years ago. |
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I had an Integra reciever pre HDMI days and got an Onkyo when I needed HDMI. I was happy with the Integra and still happy with the Onkyo. Speakers I'm partial to Paradigm, but I bought my setup when Monitor v3 series was new. I'm not sure what they've been up to recently. 7.1 means you've got to buy another set of little used speakers (personally, most of my use is just stereo basic cable tv). I just went 5.1 |