My Home Theater Setup

[vtswordfish]

Hello all!

I am finally getting my home theater to a place where I feel like I can share what I have without being embarassed (all of you all have such killer systems!).

I have literally built this system up in the past month, replacing old components I previously had.


I currently have the following speaker setup:
Polk CS1 Center
Polk Monitor 70 Fronts
Polk PSW10 Subwoofer (this will be upgraded to 12" soon!)
Polk Monitor 30 for SL/SR speakers
Onkyo speakers (don't know the number) for my SBR/SBL, will upgrade these to monitor 30's soon too.

My big thing I want to upgrade next is my receiver and subwoofer. My current receiver is a Sony STR-DH520, nothing great by any means, it gets the job done but that's about it. I'd love to hear some suggestions on an affordable (maybe sub $400) receiver that would work well. I don't really -need- the networking stuff on the receiver, but will take it if there.

Eventually the subwoofer will be on the list too, want to go with a 12" around 300 watts or so, something with a little more beef behind it, the PSW10 is pretty weak for most applications.

I'm working on some shots of my setup and will post them soon!

[darkpoet25]

If you don't mind buying a refurbished AVR a lot of people like going with http://www.acessories4less.com As for a sub, don't know what your budget is but the SVS SB-1000 or PB-1000 are around $500 shipped with a 45 day in home trial. They are nice subs for the price, the SB-1000 is a sealed 12" and the PB-1000 is a front ported 10".

[onyxbfly]

Originally Posted by darkpoet25

If you don't mind buying a refurbished AVR a lot of people like going with http://www.acessories4less.com As for a sub, don't know what your budget is but the SVS SB-1000 or PB-1000 are around $500 shipped with a 45 day in home trial. They are nice subs for the price, the SB-1000 is a sealed 12" and the PB-1000 is a front ported 10".

Acessories4 less rocks!! Can't say enough good things about them!!!

While we are looking at refurb Harmon Kardon has an official Ebay refurbish store. This is one of the better units available. I know you may be thinking yeah it only has 95W. But anyone in the know will tell that HK has always been notoriously underrated. HK 95 watts is like everyone elses 120 watts!!! But HK will give you that power consistently to every channel every day till the cows come home!!

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Harman-Kardo...item5af311df46

[Billy13]

Originally Posted by onyxbfly

Acessories4 less rocks!! Can't say enough good things about them!!!

While we are looking at refurb Harmon Kardon has an official Ebay refurbish store. This is one of the better units available. I know you may be thinking yeah it only has 95W. But anyone in the know will tell that HK has always been notoriously underrated. HK 95 watts is like everyone elses 120 watts!!! But HK will give you that power consistently to every channel every day till the cows come home!!

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Harman-Kardo...item5af311df46

harman/kardon

Mine are both older, lower end models....but the sound is phenominal!

[onyxbfly]

Originally Posted by Billy13

harman/kardon

Mine are both older, lower end models....but the sound is phenominal!

I have a couple their older models and I have a Lexicon. One of my best friends and a couple of my co workers have the 3550 or something like that. It really is a beast and it was a head of its time way back then. There really is something about that sound that.....is simply great

[Billy13]

Originally Posted by onyxbfly

I have a couple their older models and I have a Lexicon. One of my best friends and a couple of my co workers have the 3550 or something like that. It really is a beast and it was a head of its time way back then. There really is something about that sound that.....is simply great

[vtswordfish]

I've always loved the look of HK receivers, so HK it is then! Will probably be a month or so before I hop on a receiver, will keep an eye out for a good deal for the right one.

[igotcabada]

Originally Posted by vtswordfish

Hello all!

I am finally getting my home theater to a place where I feel like I can share what I have without being embarassed (all of you all have such killer systems!).

I have literally built this system up in the past month, replacing old components I previously had.


I currently have the following speaker setup:
Polk CS1 Center
Polk Monitor 70 Fronts
Polk PSW10 Subwoofer (this will be upgraded to 12" soon!)
Polk Monitor 30 for SL/SR speakers
Onkyo speakers (don't know the number) for my SBR/SBL, will upgrade these to monitor 30's soon too.

My big thing I want to upgrade next is my receiver and subwoofer. My current receiver is a Sony STR-DH520, nothing great by any means, it gets the job done but that's about it. I'd love to hear some suggestions on an affordable (maybe sub $400) receiver that would work well. I don't really -need- the networking stuff on the receiver, but will take it if there.

Eventually the subwoofer will be on the list too, want to go with a 12" around 300 watts or so, something with a little more beef behind it, the PSW10 is pretty weak for most applications.

I'm working on some shots of my setup and will post them soon!

This is almost identical to one of my previous set ups, from the subwoofer all the way to the onkyo surround speakers Good luck with the system and looking foward to the pics

[vtswordfish]

While I'm waiting on buying a receiver, which would you recommend, 5.1 or 7.1? I always see some debate on the topic, and although I have a 7.1 setup now I've been considering dropping back down to 5.1.

[bigshot]

Yamaha's AV receivers pack tremendous bang for the buck, and their DSP technology is state of the art. They are the best for surround processing.

If your room isn't huge, it would be better to get better speakers with 5:1 than to compromise on the quality of the speakers and get 7:1.

[besi]

check out bestbuy.com clearence and openbox deals you can find yamaha and denons receivers on sale sometime.
I got my 2 yamaha for 70$ & 80$ openbox.

[vtswordfish]

Originally Posted by besi

check out bestbuy.com clearence and openbox deals you can find yamaha and denons receivers on sale sometime.
I got my 2 yamaha for 70$ & 80$ openbox.

Well I asked that question because I saw that the HK 1610 is on clearance at my best buy for 76.99 - 10% off, so about 70 bucks. Not sure if that's a great deal or not, but I know its a 5.1 setup

[igotcabada]

Originally Posted by vtswordfish

Well I asked that question because I saw that the HK 1610 is on clearance at my best buy for 76.99 - 10% off, so about 70 bucks. Not sure if that's a great deal or not, but I know its a 5.1 setup

This for $77? Seems like a pretty good deal to me....

[onyxbfly]

Originally Posted by igotcabada

This for $77? Seems like a pretty good deal to me....

Certainly worse things one cans pend money on. For $77 bucks you really can't go wrong. That review was honest almost to the point of painfully honest. But with its shortcomings I would not think 2x about buying it for 77 bucks!!!

[vtswordfish]

Yep that's the one, it was an open box item but still had the remote/manual and all that with it, I might bite the bullet on it.

[vtswordfish]

Well, I ended up biting the bullet today and upgrading the receiver. After using my monitor 70's for a few days I noticed that my receiver was starting to get really hot and take a little longer to turn on whenever I booted things up. Not sure if that's because of the speakers or what, perhaps the receiver was just jealous of all my new toys.

Anyway I found a local guy via craigslist selling a Yamaha RX-V567, brand new, still in the box for $175, I felt like it was worth the chance since the reviews were pretty favorable and I hear good things about Yamaha, I set it up tonight and did some minimal testing before going in to work, seems to be a very nice upgrade!

What would you all recommend for tuning the audio for movie watching? I still have noticed that the center channel is a little weak and the fronts and sub a little too high, I didn't tweak the levels on them yet so that'll make a difference, is there a disc or movie you'd recommend to try and balance out the audio?

[onyxbfly]

Originally Posted by vtswordfish

Well, I ended up biting the bullet today and upgrading the receiver. After using my monitor 70's for a few days I noticed that my receiver was starting to get really hot and take a little longer to turn on whenever I booted things up. Not sure if that's because of the speakers or what, perhaps the receiver was just jealous of all my new toys.

Anyway I found a local guy via craigslist selling a Yamaha RX-V567, brand new, still in the box for $175, I felt like it was worth the chance since the reviews were pretty favorable and I hear good things about Yamaha, I set it up tonight and did some minimal testing before going in to work, seems to be a very nice upgrade!

What would you all recommend for tuning the audio for movie watching? I still have noticed that the center channel is a little weak and the fronts and sub a little too high, I didn't tweak the levels on them yet so that'll make a difference, is there a disc or movie you'd recommend to try and balance out the audio?

IIRC Yamaha uses YPAO or something like that. Its been a while since I have fooled around with one. You can get a mic and set it up and let it run through its room correction speaker calibration software. Or you can get an SPL meter and set the levels on your speakers till you have balanced sound all the way around set at 75db

SPL meters are relatively cheap. There is a sticky here in the forum for calibrating your speakers with one.

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=38765

[vtswordfish]

Yeah it has YPAO, I've heard mixed things about how well that'll yield results, but it came with the mic too so I'll probably give it a shot. Pretty sure I'll just end up grabbing an SPL and doing some calibrations on my own, seems to be the best results that way.

[onyxbfly]

Originally Posted by vtswordfish

Yeah it has YPAO, I've heard mixed things about how well that'll yield results, but it came with the mic too so I'll probably give it a shot. Pretty sure I'll just end up grabbing an SPL and doing some calibrations on my own, seems to be the best results that way.

Yeah I've hear mixed results about YPAO as well, Then again If you poke around the Audyssey forums you will see that it has its fair share of issues as well. There is no perfect room correction calibration software out there. They all have their challenges. If I set up a room for a client I will run Audyssey and write down the settings and then do it manually. Sort of like a check and balances sort of thing. You can always adjust the levels that Audyssey sets etc.