Home Theater Question

[Thurman Murman]

Whats the advantages of building a Home theater and Buying one in the box like this one http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....=1200703058009 ?I want to get a new sytem in the coming months cause mine doesnt even have HDMI.Can box systems not support 7.1 or HD lossless Audio?

[un4gvn94538]

buying seperates you will generally get better quality. receivers tend to have more features and options. speakers usually are better quality. you might spend a little more than whats in your link but its worth it

[richteer]

Originally Posted by Thurman Murman

Whats the advantages of building a Home theater and Buying one in the box like this one http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....=1200703058009 ?I want to get a new sytem in the coming months cause mine doesnt even have HDMI.Can box systems not support 7.1 or HD lossless Audio?

Frankly, if you care one bit about sound quality, HTiB are a waste of money. With a bit of research and a half-reasonable budget, you can get a pretty good audio system.

[ZackL]

Originally Posted by richteer

Frankly, if you care one bit about sound quality, HTiB are a waste of money. With a bit of research and a half-reasonable budget, you can get a pretty good audio system.

I wouldn't say they're a waste of money. They are GREAT for someone beginning their venture into the electronics world who can't afford / doesn't have the knowledge to upgrade all at once. I had a HtiB and recently swapped the receiver(to Onkyo 805) as per my income situation allowing it (college). Now all I need to do is swap out my speakers and im great. I'll be starting with klipsch fronts come July.

[HAMP]

Originally Posted by Thurman Murman

Whats the advantages of building a Home theater and Buying one in the box like this one http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....=1200703058009 ?I want to get a new sytem in the coming months cause mine doesnt even have HDMI.Can box systems not support 7.1 or HD lossless Audio?

No HDMI inputs on the HTiB from that link you provided. I remember getting my HTiB with the Optical inputs and not knowing how important the HDMI audio was. Actually I gotten 2 HTIB(1 for living room, 1 for bedroom). Once I ordered the Onkyo 605 and heard the PCM and TrueHD I believe I lost my mind. I wanted to hear much much more and I went and bought the Klipsch speakers and upgraded the Onkyo to the 805. One of my HTiB only Cost $100 from Microcenter(lol) a RCA 5.1 that did the Job I THOUGHT I wanted, to just bring out the movies a little bit more for the bedroom. The 2nd one was a Panasonic 5.1 with more power that put a smile on my face, because that's what I THOUGHT I wanted.

[Beta Man]

I see what you're looking at is $400.... so I'll assume the budget will be right around there....

I'd recommend getting a receiver that can pass-through the HDMI to get lossless audio, but have the PS3 decode the audio for you, and start with a pair of fronts, or fronts and center......

Here's my recommendation to start out with for around $400

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listi...on=refurbished


And a pair of these for up front maybe


http://www.amazon.com/Polk-Audio-Mon...754832&sr=1-94


eventually add the center (or now if you want to stretch the budget)

http://www.amazon.com/Polk-Audio-Mon...2754929&sr=1-2




and further down the line, you can get these, and then move the bookshelf fronts, to the rear, and still use the same center

http://www.amazon.com/Polk-Audio-Mon...2754929&sr=1-1


That way you're not buying something now, that you won't be able to use in your system later.

good luck!

[Petra_Kalbrain]

Usually, with a decent HTiB, you will not get anywhere near a futureproof system. The speakers in particular often have very poor range and the wattage yield is often a fraction of what you should be getting for good sound quality. Some HTiB packages actually do come with pretty decent receivers these days though. If you decide to go with a HTiB, make sure that the RECEIVER IS FUTUREPROOF!!! At least then you know that upgrading the speakers is the only thing that you will need to worry about down the road.

RESEARCH IS KEY IN THIS SCENARIO! Do a lot of it and don't be afraid to ask questions... most specifically:

#1. Is the HDMI passthrough? If the answer is yes, move on to the next one!!!
#2. Can it handle a 7.1 speaker addition in the future?
#3. What is the wattage output rating? anything less than 1000W should be avoided if you ever want to consider a 7.1 setup.
#4. Can it decode bitstreamed TrueHD and DTS HD MA?
#5. Does it support 7.1 Uncompressed PCM? This is important because a lot of people don't realize that an advertised "supports PCM" is vague enough to mean that it will only output a stereo PCM signal... that's right... ONLY 2 CHANNELS of audio!

Those are the 5 questions that I always make certain that I have full details about and understand to the utmost when looking at receivers.