Speaker question

[Moviefan1203]

My wife and I received a Sony Bravia 46 inch TV for our wedding last June. Quite frankly, the sound is terrible on that thing and we are looking for a speaker setup. Neither of us are well versed in audio, and we really don't know which direction to go without going into a Best Buy/HHGregg and asking. So I figured my fellow film experts would be a much better group to ask an opinion on. What direction is the best route to go and where we should go to get it? Thank you very much in advance, I really appreciate it.

[HAMP]

Congrats on your first year!!!! Our wedding will be on June 26th.

We need to know the answer to these questions:
(1) What is your budget,
(2) Do you plan to have a 5.1 or 7.1
(3) What have you heard that you like and didn't like.
(4) What do you have besides the TV?

[HiDefRev]

AND - Stay out of Best Buy. 99.99% of the employees know nothing except for the lies that management tells them in order to make a bigger profit.

[crazyBLUE]

Originally Posted by HAMP

Congrats on your first year!!!! Our wedding will be on June 26th.

We need to know the answer to these questions:
(1) What is your budget,
(2) Do you plan to have a 5.1 or 7.1
(3) What have you heard that you like and didn't like.
(4) What do you have besides the TV?

HAMP is right by giving us a dollar figure you are willing to spend , Then we can can give you ideas & point you in the right direction .

[Moviefan1203]

Originally Posted by HAMP

Congrats on your first year!!!! Our wedding will be on June 26th.

We need to know the answer to these questions:
(1) What is your budget,
(2) Do you plan to have a 5.1 or 7.1
(3) What have you heard that you like and didn't like.
(4) What do you have besides the TV?

Thank you very much and congratulations to you as well!

1) We'd like to stay under $500 if feasible.
2) We're open to either one, I don't have anything against either.
3) What I want is something that is going to make our living more much more like a movie theater, you wouldn't believe how high we have to sometimes turn up the volume on our TV to hear dialogue on movies and TV shows, it's baffling. I want to feel the walls shaking and the neighbors being launched onto their front lawn without having to turn it up all the way.
4) We have two Blu-ray players and a Wii although we are talking about picking up another gaming console in the near future as well. We have been less than impressed with the Wii, it does have some really fun games but they seem to be few and far between.

Thank you very much for the help.

[Morrissey]

Originally Posted by Moviefan1203

Thank you very much and congratulations to you as well!

1) We'd like to stay under $500 if feasible.
2) We're open to either one, I don't have anything against either.
3) What I want is something that is going to make our living more much more like a movie theater, you wouldn't believe how high we have to sometimes turn up the volume on our TV to hear dialogue on movies and TV shows, it's baffling. I want to feel the walls shaking and the neighbors being launched onto their front lawn without having to turn it up all the way.
4) We have two Blu-ray players and a Wii although we are talking about picking up another gaming console in the near future as well. We have been less than impressed with the Wii, it does have some really fun games but they seem to be few and far between.

Thank you very much for the help.

Unfortunately for $500 you probably won't get that 'walls shaking and the neighbors being launched onto their front lawn without having to turn it up all the way' type of sound.

Good news is that you can get something that sounds better than your TV for $500.

[BigAl87]

Originally Posted by Moviefan1203

Thank you very much and congratulations to you as well!

1) We'd like to stay under $500 if feasible.
2) We're open to either one, I don't have anything against either.
3) What I want is something that is going to make our living more much more like a movie theater, you wouldn't believe how high we have to sometimes turn up the volume on our TV to hear dialogue on movies and TV shows, it's baffling. I want to feel the walls shaking and the neighbors being launched onto their front lawn without having to turn it up all the way.
4) We have two Blu-ray players and a Wii although we are talking about picking up another gaming console in the near future as well. We have been less than impressed with the Wii, it does have some really fun games but they seem to be few and far between.

Thank you very much for the help.

2 sets like that

http://www.vanns.com/shop/servlet/it...1827/jamo-c401

1 of those

http://www.vanns.com/shop/servlet/it...2/jamo-c400cen

This Polk sub
http://www.vanns.com/shop/servlet/it...lk-psw10-black


And this basic receiver

http://www.vanns.com/shop/servlet/it.../sony-strdh510

for a total of 530$

or spend more on the receiver and get an HTIB setup like this and upgrade speakers later.

http://www.vanns.com/shop/servlet/it...mo-s-413-hcs-5

The first set of bookshlf is really really nice and they are on liquidation since they have been taken from Europe and selling in the US now since Klipcsh took Jamo over.

[jomari]

id highly agree on BigAl's suggestion, but would rather invest on a good 2.0 setup first, then dive into 5.1 afterwards. its not your neighbors your trying to please, but your own.

Quality components id spend on starts with
- a good long term AVR
- your front left and right speakers
- IF within the budget, get the matching center speaker as well.

The rest can follow afterwards.

Callas is a great friend of mine who may be able to conjure up something similar. Its my day off, and plan to get some sun. (read:avoid posting for now and live a life )

[Beta Man]

Congrats indeed!!! The wife and I will be celebrating something between 3 and 8 years or so at a date later this year sometimes ourselves............


Anyways.... I would stick with a simple AVR, L/R/C setup for the time being...... you'll be amazed at how much better it will sound than t.v. speakers, and you can add more in the future if you so desire....

"Surrounds" and "Subs" are often like kryptonite to wives

Sometimes the Sub can be hidden, so perhaps a Sub and just L/R would work as well.... although I really would urge you to get a center channel.

[callas01]

I would strongly suggest that you look into a 3.0 setup and a receiver.

These Jamo E660 towers, $130/pr
and the Jamo E7 center channel $120

this would give you a good start to a nice system then add a receiver like this one here
Denon 1610 and you and the wife could be happier with the overall front sound stage.

then save up for surrounds and a sub. Personally Id add surrounds first and then the sub, but whatever tickles your fancy in that regards. Premier Acoustics PA-120 is a nice sub to get, and then for surrounds, you can grab whatever is a good deal at the time and have a nice simple setup for not too much money.

Otherwise you could get the same receiver the Denon 1610 and pick up this 5.0 Jamo system and then just save for a sub. But the one above would be a better system to start with IMO.


Lastly if you could stretch the budget, the Jamo C405s $350/pr and the C400 Cen would be a very welcomed start especially if you are going to wait on a sub for any length of time. The C405s could give you some decent bass to keep you OK for a few months till you save some more $ for a sub and surrounds.

This setup would run you about $700 tho, but it would be worth it since your starting from scratch.

[Avond]

Congratulations!!!

I am by no means an expert, but I was in a similar budget situation as yourself and also asked the experts here for some advice, so I will pass on what they told me, as I found their advice EXCELLENT! (ps-thanks again Jomari, Callas and all the rest for your input )

I will second Jomari and Betas suggestions about starting with a few components and building it up as you go. It'll make it more upgradable in the future and help you to scout deals as you go, IMHO. I was a little hesitant to do that at first because it can be hard to not have everything all at once to hear it all together, but I was glad I took their advice. It was suggested to me to start with a 3.0 system with a good entry-level receiver (I ended up with the Denon AVR-590) and then add the sub and surrounds to them at a later date after saving up a little more money, and that worked out fantastically for me. I can also wholeheartedly recommend some of the Jamo speakers suggested in an earlier post. I bought the C403 fronts, C400 Center and C401 as surrounds and have been extremely pleased with their looks and functionality, especially at their pricepoint, and they are on sale now for less than when I purchased them. They sound very laid back and smooth to my ears and I like them a lot.

I wish you the best of luck-I know everyone here will help steer you towards something fantastic!

[Xgm3]

Originally Posted by jomari

id highly agree on BigAl's suggestion, but would rather invest on a good 2.0 setup first, then dive into 5.1 afterwards. its not your neighbors your trying to please, but your own.

Quality components id spend on starts with
- a good long term AVR
- your front left and right speakers
- IF within the budget, get the matching center speaker as well.

The rest can follow afterwards.

Callas is a great friend of mine who may be able to conjure up something similar. Its my day off, and plan to get some sun. (read:avoid posting for now and live a life )

Agree I like jomari's take!

[Moviefan1203]

Thanks a lot for all the help guys. What I think we are going to do at this point is start out with the left, right, and center Jamco speakers with a receiver. It seems to be a good starting point to get our feet wet since neither of us know a whole lot about audio in home theater systems. We definitely want surround sound, but it seems to be something pretty simple to add at a later date. Is it difficult to get everything connected and setup to the TV, Verizon Fios box, Blu-ray players, and Wii so that the sound is always coming out of the better speaker system?

Edit - Sorry for the dumb questions.

[callas01]

Originally Posted by Moviefan1203

Thanks a lot for all the help guys. What I think we are going to do at this point is start out with the left, right, and center Jamco speakers with a receiver. It seems to be a good starting point to get our feet wet since neither of us know a whole lot about audio in home theater systems. We definitely want surround sound, but it seems to be something pretty simple to add at a later date. Is it difficult to get everything connected and setup to the TV, Verizon Fios box, Blu-ray players, and Wii so that the sound is always coming out of the better speaker system?

Edit - Sorry for the dumb questions.

there aren't dumb questions...

yes it is pretty easy to connect, basically the blu-ray player will connect via HDMI, hopefully the Wii and the Fios does too....

if not they should connect via component or RCA....

have those go to the proper input and then out to the TV via the output, then you run auto calibration once all the speakers are connected and put where you want them....