My plan - Comments/critcism encouraged!

[SpauldingSmails]

Well guys, i appreciate all the info and positive ways you have steered me in pursuit of my HT goals.... On the TV side, I was all set to grab the 54" S1 deal at Sears during black friday, however due to the fact i was closing on my house (thus not wanting to open up credit accounts i have to explain to the bank) i waited til after the closing and missed the deal... At that point, the cost benefit of the 50" panny X1 appeared the best deal... Ya its 720p, but im 9-10' away, bottom line it looks FANTASTIC on PS3/BR, and HD channels are more about THEIR signal than the limits of the TV... Im generally pleased with it...

So now on the surround sound end, I didn't want to miss another great deal. NewEgg has the monitor line basically 50% off... So I grabbed a pair of floorstanding monitor 50's, a CS1 center channel, and the cheap PSW10 sub... Receivers weren't a great deal on newegg.. Basically I want a 5.1 receiver with HDMI audio, no optical BS... BB has a good deal on the Pioneer 519, so i think im going with that...

Until i figure out how im going to attack rear surrounds, i figure i'll just enjoy a 3.1 system... I live in a condo, so my goal is good sound, nothing absurdly loud. All in on this system will be ~500, which is cheaper than most HTiB with their junk little speakers...

Do the rears need to match like the front soundstage?

all in <1200 for a 50" panny tv and polk audio system seems like a good deal... cheaper than the S1 itself i was considering...


HT is important, but with all the expenses of owning your own place i clamped down on my budget. For those considering something similar, i will post back on the quality of sound, and the TV is flat out excellent... amazes me there is such a price discrepancy between 720 and 1080, and then from plasma to LCD... its a joke...

I will remain envious of you 54,58" owners out there until the X1 becomes a living room TV and i upgrade the HT, until then i am content...

I am fairly sure my sub is considered junk, but i'll judge once i set everything up tonight... Im sure it will be a world of difference from the TV speakers.

Thanks for everyone's help, i have become a much more informed buyer thanks to this site and its saved me a ton of money and provided me top notch quality per dollar spent.

Happy New Year everyone!

[Pycroft]

Congrats on the purchase. That's a fine starter system, I'm sure more than enough for the condo! To answer your question, timbre matching the rear speakers is not necessary, although in the perfect world you would. I currently do not have timbre matched rear speakers and it's not a problem to me. Especially if you are only using it for HT, and not for 5 channel music, it should not be a problem.

Good luck and report back what you think of your new system!

Pycroft

[Beta Man]

Congrats indeed...... Due to price, I'm looking at 50" 720p Plasmas pretty much exclusively...... I saw a 50" Viera that was 720p (not sure of model etc) for $799 but the wife still says we don't need a new T.V.

[SpauldingSmails]

Originally Posted by Pycroft

Congrats on the purchase. That's a fine starter system, I'm sure more than enough for the condo! To answer your question, timbre matching the rear speakers is not necessary, although in the perfect world you would. I currently do not have timbre matched rear speakers and it's not a problem to me. Especially if you are only using it for HT, and not for 5 channel music, it should not be a problem.

Good luck and report back what you think of your new system!

Pycroft

Will do, Im sitting at work, plotting my speakerwire connections, and what kind of mat im going to put under the sub/towers... (hardwood).. Lunchtime heading to bestbuy, grabbing the 519 AVR...

[SpauldingSmails]

Originally Posted by Beta Man

Congrats indeed...... Due to price, I'm looking at 50" 720p Plasmas pretty much exclusively...... I saw a 50" Viera that was 720p (not sure of model etc) for $799 but the wife still says we don't need a new T.V.

That is the X1 probably (they also make a C1 which is basically the same price, reported contrast ratio is 15k:1 vs 30k:1).

You can grab it for 700 if you time it right.. I went off amazon for 770 shipped... I just have basic Dnice settings on it... going to do offsets in a month of so once i put some hours into it...


Makes a HUGE difference with the settings... Right out of the box i was slightly worried as the setting were not good... 30 secs of tinkering made a world of difference... wondering what the diff will be with service menu offsets...

[SpauldingSmails]

apologies on putting this in the wrong sub forum...i began thinking i was going to talk about my speaker system... I can be long winded.