Surround Sound

BeaverC32

Anybody have any tips/suggestions for a good surround sound system? I'm looking to spend around $200-$300.

Find more posts tagged with

Free for TechExams community: Cybersecurity salary guide

Compare cert salaries and plan your next career move

Button

Comments

billybob01

yeah, just get married, all the surround sound you want then!!!! Seriously, i would like to hear from anyone regarding a wireless surround sound system?

BeaverC32

Actually, I want surround sound to drown out all the nagging

RTmarc

BeaverC32 wrote:

Anybody have any tips/suggestions for a good surround sound system? I'm looking to spend around $200-$300.

You are not going to find anything in that price range that is considered good. In no way do I consider myself an audiophile or have any type of elaborate setup at the house, but I spend over $500 just on the sub woofer. If this is something you are going to get into, I'd suggest spending more money on a better system or piecing it together. If you jump into an entire system in that price range, you are ultimately going to be wasting your money. You'll end up replacing it.

Not really trying to hijack your question or anything. The reason I said anything is because I made this mistake. I bought a cheap system and ended up later replacing everything. That first investment was a complete waste.

BeaverC32

RTmarc wrote:

BeaverC32 wrote:

Anybody have any tips/suggestions for a good surround sound system? I'm looking to spend around $200-$300.

You are not going to find anything in that price range that is considered good. In no way do I consider myself an audiophile or have any type of elaborate setup at the house, but I spend over $500 just on the sub woofer. If this is something you are going to get into, I'd suggest spending more money on a better system or piecing it together. If you jump into an entire system in that price range, you are ultimately going to be wasting your money. You'll end up replacing it.

Not really trying to hijack your question or anything. The reason I said anything is because I made this mistake. I bought a cheap system and ended up later replacing everything. That first investment was a complete waste.

Sorry, I disagree. I have heard systems in my price range and they have been great. Just talking to someone at work, they suggested this system: http://reviews.cnet.com/surround-speaker-systems/onkyo-sks-ht540/4505-7868_7-31930496.html?tag=mncol;lst

dynamik

I'm going to go with Marc on this one. I'd save up and do it right. Actually, I did. I put together a nice system from 7th-9th grade (didn't make as much as I do now back then

), and it's still kicking ass 15 years later. Even if those sound good, how long will they last? They're probably some relatively cheap pieces of equipment from China or Taiwan. I spent something similar on my Sub as well. You can get ridiculous to the point where only .0001% of the population can actually tell a difference in quality, but I don't think you can go wrong with getting some mid-range equipment.

BeaverC32

My budget is tight as I recently purchased a house...$500 for just a subwoofer is well beyond my budget. The brand I mentioned, Onkyo, is based in NJ (despite the name)...and so far everything I have read about this brand has been positive, particularly for this model.

I understand I can get something better if I spend more, but I was looking for something within my price range that someone could recommend. Thanks anyways

dynamik

Sorry man

Like I said, I've had my stuff forever, so I'm really out of the loop as far as a lot of this newer stuff goes. If you go with those, be sure to post a review. I don't think they're going to be terrible or anything like that; hopefully they work out for you

jamesp1983

BeaverC32 wrote:

My budget is tight as I recently purchased a house...$500 for just a subwoofer is well beyond my budget. The brand I mentioned, Onkyo, is based in NJ (despite the name)...and so far everything I have read about this brand has been positive, particularly for this model.

I understand I can get something better if I spend more, but I was looking for something within my price range that someone could recommend. Thanks anyways

i used to work in audio sales and all my experience with Onkyo equipment was very good!

Barrypr

Got this a few years now, and still love it i payed around 600 euros for it, its 399USD

Logitech thx z-5500

http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/speakers_audio/home_pc_speakers/devices/224&cl=US,EN[/url]

Total Peak power: 1010 watts

Aldur

Barrypr wrote:

Got this a few years now, and still love it i payed around 600 euros for it, its 399USD

Logitech thx z-5500

http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/speakers_audio/home_pc_speakers/devices/224&cl=US,EN[/url]

Total Peak power: 1010 watts

I have the same set of speakers, got them about 3 or 4 years ago, paid 250$ for them. I have to say they haven't let me down yet. They're an amazing deal for the price. The only thing that I dislike about them is that the receiver only has 1 optical port..... My 360, computer, xbox and PS2 all want to use that one optical port and I end up doing a cable swap every time i turn one on.

Really though, thats a minor nuisance for what I got for 250$

shednik

Barrypr wrote:

Got this a few years now, and still love it i payed around 600 euros for it, its 399USD

Logitech thx z-5500

http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/speakers_audio/home_pc_speakers/devices/224&cl=US,EN[/url]

Total Peak power: 1010 watts

I have the 2 speaker 1 subwoofer version of that and bought it 3-4 years ago it still serves me very well!

deadpool287

Aldur wrote:

Barrypr wrote:

Got this a few years now, and still love it i payed around 600 euros for it, its 399USD

Logitech thx z-5500

http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/speakers_audio/home_pc_speakers/devices/224&cl=US,EN[/url]

Total Peak power: 1010 watts

I have the same set of speakers, got them about 3 or 4 years ago, paid 250$ for them. I have to say they haven't let me down yet. They're an amazing deal for the price. The only thing that I dislike about them is that the receiver only has 1 optical port..... My 360, computer, xbox and PS2 all want to use that one optical port and I end up doing a cable swap every time i turn one on.

Really though, thats a minor nuisance for what I got for 250$

there is a piece of equipment that allows you to connect the optical to it and then you can connect that to what ever is needed. I'll try and find this for you.
one of them
-not the one I ahve but same concept.
http://www.amazon.com/tag/digital%20optical%20selector%20switch

another one
http://www.shoptronics.com/diauopsesw.html

this is the exact one I Have
http://cgi.ebay.com/Digital-Audio-Optical-Toslink-4-Way-Selector-Switch_W0QQitemZ250307922103QQcmdZViewItem

HeroPsycho

I'm an audiophile, and I've setup family with the Home Theater in a Box setups.

Believe it or not, the best of the bunch in my experience has been Sony for those types of deals. Onkyo is good, too. Sony tends to have a bit better interconnectivity options on their receivers that can give them IMO an edge.

There's nothing wrong with these packages, as long as you understand what you're getting and know the limitations. My biggest complaint about them is to improve your sound later, you usually have to replace all of it because the speakers are too weak to hook up to a better receiver, and the receiver in the bundle won't drive better speakers adequately.

If you want something you can upgrade easily later, I would recommend looking at maybe a separate receiver and a bundled good quality speaker set. If you can afford that, you're gonna get much better sound and more flexibility to upgrade later. For speakers, something like this...

http://www.onecall.com/ProductDetails.aspx?id=93220

If you're patient, a Kef bundle will go on sale every few months. I've seen similar bundles for about $400-500 on dealnews.com somewhat regularly. You can get a good receiver for $200-400. The combination of the two would blow the barn doors off a $300 speaker-receiver set in sound quality, and would allow you to more easily upgrade either the receiver or speakers more easily down the road. Another nice thing about these Kefs are you can sit at a very wide angle and still hear all the speakers perfectly fine, which makes you and the wife happy, as well as guests over watching a movie.

But to be honest, the people who took this recommendation from me unless they're extreme audiophiles don't see any need to upgrade beyond this. Those that went with the complete home theater in a box for the most part feel the same way, but some have regretted not just ponying up the extra few hundred dollars of very good sound is something they appreciate.

Don't forget Black Friday is coming. You might be able to snag a good deal in either category if you're patient.

Hope this helps!

Ahriakin

Back home I spent about 10 years putting together my Hifi, just upgrading every time I had the cash, the final 'version' was worth about $20k and sounded like nothing I've heard since. Anyway that was just as a point of reference for what I'd call 'good', may aswell add some context,

My main Hifi now is Headphone/PC based, I'm not going to invest in anything I can't pick up and take back to Ireland with me

. I recently ended up buying a nice cheap Onkyo HT-R340 and love it. It's well within your budget, has good connectivity and superb well balanced sound for the price - a lot of units in this range rely too heavily on the subwoofer for low-mid frequencies which they are not really designed to do, it saves them money on the sattelite speakers so they can have an impressively 'boomy' sound for your action movies but lack depth and detail for anything else, the Onkyo does not fall victim to this imho. I wouldn't use it for large rooms but it suits ours fine (our living toom is about 15x18ft).

supertechCETma

I have been very pleased with this unit. in fact I have two. Speakers make the difference between a good home theater system and a pitiful portable picnic player. Come with uncle and hear all proper! Hear angel trumpets and devil trombones. You are invited. ...
(let's see if anyone can connect that reference...).

http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/PUSA/Products/HomeEntertainment/AV-Receivers/PioneerReceivers/ci.VSX-818V-K.Kuro?tab=A

Viddy well, little brother. Viddy well.

BeaverC32

Bringing back a thread from the dead, but I recently purchased this Onkyo HT-S3100 for about $240+tax on amazon, and I have to say I love this system. I watched Iron Man on Bluray and the sound was fantastic. I read reviews that the subwoofer was a bit too weak, but it was shaking my furniture and put off a nice deep sound so I have no complaints there. The speaker wire was cheap so I bought 100ft from RadioShack, and the receiver has no HDMI inputs/outputs so I used optical/coaxial connections for the sound, but other than that I love this system. I am not an audiophile so the sound this puts out is all I will ever need. For about $300 (system + cables + speaker wire), I have what I consider a great home theater system.

Breadfan

Amazon.com: Onkyo HT-SR800 7.1 Home Theater Entertainment System (Black): Electronics

This is what I have and it kicks a$$...got it on special at HHGregg with a 5-Disc DVD/CD player. Very happy with and very easy to configure and set up.

You can never go wrong with Onkyo....just my .02 Good luck and lets us know what you decide on