recommendations for home theatre surround?

[Peyton300TD]

Lots of companies have been selling surround speakers, woofer, and reciever/amp as a bundled package. does anyone know of any good deals? i am looking to spend less than $400, I know Sony Style system sells for about that. any tips?

eric

[suginami]

I'm not really an "audiophile" nor knowledgeable about home theater systems, but my next door neighbor bought an RCA home theater surround sound package and it sounds great.

[Flash Gordon]

If your budget for the whole surround system < $400, I don't think you can get anything that is even remotely decent I don't think anyone even sell a system at that price. You need to budget at least 1- 2k, not including TV, for a half way decent unit. Otherwise you are just throwing money away.

[Flash Gordon]

Originally posted by suginami
I'm not really an "audiophile" nor knowledgeable about home theater systems, but my next door neighbor bought an RCA home theater surround sound package and it sounds great.

With all that Nakamichi in your car, you must know something about sound system

[Chamorro]

Originally posted by Peyton300TD
Lots of companies have been selling surround speakers, woofer, and reciever/amp as a bundled package. does anyone know of any good deals? i am looking to spend less than $400, I know Sony Style system sells for about that. any tips?

eric

Really depends on what you're looking for.....some are more geared towards video, some more towards audio. The most important thing is to try to listen/watch your CD/DVD on the system(s) you have your eye on. I look at frequency response (wider range tends to be better), multiple audio/video inputs, compenent video output, and Dolby Digital, DTS and ProLogic II decoding. DVD/CD changer is a plus. Have fun searching!

[suginami]

Originally posted by Flash Gordon
With all that Nakamichi in your car, you must know something about sound system

Yeah, no kidding. I like good, clean sound in my car. I also like volume. Lots of volume. I get so much sound with no distortion that your ears will start to hurt. Seriously.

I've got almost $5,000 invested in audio equipment in my car. The head unit itself went for $2,200.

The good thing about Nakamichi is that the head units do not look like Hong Kong at midnight. Very clean and elegant designs.

[G-Benz]

Don't let the budget prices scare you off...(I'm a Nakamichi fan as well)...the budget systems sound better than you'd expect for a reason:

the speakers use "matched drivers"!

That is VERY important when getting a surround system. It ensures consistency and tonal balance.

I've seen snob acquaintances bragging about their $900/apiece B&W rears coupled with some DCM fronts and an Infinity center and the whole package sounded terrible!

You don't want a movie effect have a Viper roaring from the rears morphing into a Honda on the fronts into a Dodge Dakota in the center!

[Peyton300TD]

Originally posted by suginami
Yeah, no kidding. I like good, clean sound in my car. I also like volume. Lots of volume. I get so much sound with no distortion that your ears will start to hurt. Seriously.

I've got almost $5,000 invested in audio equipment in my car. The head unit itself went for $2,200.

The good thing about Nakamichi is that the head units do not look like Hong Kong at midnight. Very clean and elegant designs.

when do i get a test listen!?

[chazola]

You can get something half-decent for your budget, though it is limited. Those sony package deals are ok, though they're limited in options and probably power.

I've worked in sound engineering all my life and I have a $200 Yamaha DD/DTS reciever driving Dynaudio professional speakers (L and R mains and Center, and some small Denon monitors as my rear effects. I would have had all-matched (this is best, as G-benz said) if space/budget allowed. I haven't bothered with a subwoofer yet as I have downstairs neighbours and I get plenty of low end from the Dynaudios already.

If you don't wanna go for the bundles deal, start with a half decent budget reciever (Yamaha or Denon, some of the Pioneers) and get yourself a decent set of front speakers (rears are generally used just for fx and don't need to be as good/big as your fronts) Your center speaker is only used for speech/mono signals. With a good reciever to start with you can always upgrade, though if you're not hugely demanding you can go with the package and make out fine.

Don't forget to use the digital connections!

[crash9]

I’d say save the big money for a sound system that plays music. Theater sound is no biggie, except in the minds of retailers that are trying desperately to bring back the good old days of hi-fi. The cheap stuff is fine if you’re not trying to impress anybody but yourself. Just don’t use the speakers in the set – no matter how good they seem alone. For movies use the cheapie-matched speakers and turn off the TV’s audio – I doubt if any are standouts – listen to them – buy what you like, and don’t expect it to last forever.

[MTI]

My only advice for an HT sound system . . . Don't scrimp on the center channel speaker/drivers.

[suginami]

Originally posted by Peyton300TD
when do i get a test listen!?

Whenever you want.

You live in the Marina Del Ray area, right?

I live in Diamond Bar, which is about a 45 minute - 1 hour drive east of you, without traffic.

We are really way overdue for a So. Cal GTG, too...

[Flash Gordon]

Pau, I am an audiophile for a long time. I bought one of first Nakamichi cassette tape deck when it first came out in the 70's. The deck is long gone but the tapes that I recorded are still good. Recently I transferred the cassettes that I like to CDs so I can preserved them. In addition to other audio equipment that I have, I have a Nakamichi digital surround sound preamp for almost 8 years now, and it still perform flawlessly Too bad Nakamichi is not as much into home audio as before. However, I am not very much into car sound, go figure that!

[G-Benz]

Originally posted by MTI
My only advice for an HT sound system . . . Don't scrimp on the center channel speaker/drivers.

Absolutely...

...despite the fact that you might think a 5-channel system actually produces 5 EQUAL amounts of sonic information (like a 2-channel stereo), the center channel provides the majority of the sonic infomation...the other four are just fill, intended to create spacial information.

But you aren't buying separates, so your center channel speaker is limited to the quality of the complete set you purchase...again, at least they are matched.

[G-Benz]

)

Originally posted by Flash Gordon
Pau, I am an audiophile for a long time. I bought one of first Nakamichi cassette tape deck when it first came out in the 70's. The deck is long gone but the tapes that I recorded are still good. Recently I transferred the cassettes that I like to CDs so I can preserved them. In addition to other audio equipment that I have, I have a Nakamichi digital surround sound preamp for almost 8 years now, and it still perform flawlessly Too bad Nakamichi is not as much into home audio as before. However, I am not very much into car sound, go figure that!

I still have my Nakamichi 480 cassette deck (wanted a Dragon, but not on my college-age budget ).

The VW still has the Nakamichi TD-1200 that I used in early car stereo competitions (before CAN was pre-empted by IASCA). That was what I replaced my TD-800 that was stolen a month earler...

I LOVED that deck! Once after getting the car out of storage I reversed the jumper cables and fried the unit! I spent over $400 to have a shop resucitate it back to life! They got it to work after a month of effort, but never could get the digital display correct (everything was 99.9 or 199.9FM and 999 or 1999AM).

It still requires the security code to activate, like the MB Becker radios...