Great Set-Up for Music/Movies? What do you have?

Question

I am new to speakers and want to know some opinions. I love Music so I am looking for a great set-up to listen to Cd's and my Ipod. I would also like it to be good for Movies but mostly it will be for Music....concert DVDS will be great as well.

Could you recomend something good in both the middle and high range prces. I know you pay what you get for!!

Answer 1

At the low end is a home theater in a box, or HTIB. They range from $100 a the local Target/WalMart to $1000 at Circuit City. The sweet spot for a HTIB is about $300ish from this seller:

http://www.accessories4less.com/cgi-bin/category/HTIB

At about $1,000 there are many more choices. Your best bet is buying online from an internet only seller. It cuts the middle man = higher quality speakers for the money. They all have money back guarantees, less shipping of course.

So at around $1,000, this is your best bet:
Pairing these online only 5.1 speakers
http://www.av123.com/products_product.php?section=speakers&product=83.1
with a decent receiver:
http://www.accessories4less.com/cgi-bin/item/MARSR5600
http://www.accessories4less.com/cgi-bin/item/MARSR4600
If you haven't heard of Marantz go to a high-end theater store and they'll fill you in. Better than Sony, Yamaha, etc.

But you say you like music and concert DVDs (so do I, look into DVD-Audio and SACDs), step up to Ascend Acoustics CBM-170 SE bookshelf speaker:
http://www.ascendacoustics.com/pages/products/speakers/cbm170/cbm170.html
They for go a fancy finish in favorof top quality components for life-like sound reproduction. 5 of these will run:
http://www.ascendacoustics.com/pages/purchase/advisor.mv#bottom
By the way, the best timbre matching is using 5 identical speakers, not some sideways lying rectangular beast of a center channel.

Pair one of the above receivers with the Ascends.

But wait, we forgot the subwoofer. Again, internet only companies give you the best bang for your buck. For movies, that's easily SVS:
http://svsound.com/products-sub.cfm
But for music as primary and home theater as second, it's HSU Research:
http://hsuresearch.com/subwoofers.html

If your budget is much above what I pointed out, there's far too many systems available to post here. But at any budget, stay away from Klipsch, BIC and any other speakers that use "horn loaded tweeters". They're bad enough with movies and positively unbearable with music.

If you buy something at the Ascend level or higher, you have to get a DVD audio player. It's 5.1 channels of lossless audio (uncompressed). Universal players start at around $100 and play DVD, CD, DVD-Audio, etc.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVD_audio

Just to let you know, the NAD receiver ROBERT P always has to post about has an MSRP of $1,700.
At $1700 you can start looking at slightly pre-owned seperates, ie pre-amp/processors and power-amps.

Answer 2

Hi there. First you need a good sounding receiver with emphasis on sound quality. I would have to say NAD are up front when it comes to the sound of their equipment which is designed in the U.K. and assembled in the East. The NAD T 773 A/V Receiver is a quality 7.1 channel Receiver which i feel will serve your purpose nicely.It is rated at 110 watts/channel continuous all channels driven.

Loudspeakers are hard to recommend as they all sound different and people have different tastes on what sounds good to them.Some speakers favor the high frequencies some emphasize the midrange -vocals are more prominent while others are more neutral with equal distribution of all frequencies. Klipsch Speakers are a bit on the bright side as they use a horn loaded tweeter. .Most of the British Speakers fall into the other categories -emphasis on mids and neutral.

There is an NAD T 773 at Spirit Sound for $1,299.00 brand new or refurbished for $1099.00 which is a great saving.


http://www.spearitsound.com/nad/t773.asp

Answer 3

B&W speakers are AMAZING, but kind of pricey. Get good 5.1, 6.1, or 7.1 channel receiver. I have a Harmon Kardon and it is pretty good. They rate their watts per channel pretty low (mine is 55 watts per channel and it replaced a 100w per channel Kenwood, the H/K can get just as loud and the sound is so much cleaner). Denon, Onkyo, H/K, and Yamaha are pretty good receivers. Higher end than that I can't afford and have not looked at.

Answer 4

particularly? noway. NUTS as a results of fact i like that music. BQ: in all possibility... smash On via, haha sorry. BQ2: i won't be able to even undergo in suggestions yet i will bypass with.. backyard State, i like indie music and Zach Braff's music style. around the Universe as a results of fact the Beatles rule of direction and Nick and Norah's Playlist. BQ3: I loooove Chips Ahoy cookies. you haven't any longer any theory, my dad buys them extensive deluxe packs and that they are long gone in an afternoon. No kidding. We purchase chocolate types or perhaps those soft style of cookies, omg. no longer something beats chips ahoy. Cheers!

Answer 5

I used to work for a pro DJ that used to be a rep for JBL. He turned me on to the brand, and I went that route when I purchased my home theatre. I've had them for 5 years and I absolutely love them. Great balance, clear low end, and enough power to handle anything you feed them. All without completely draining your bank account!