Opinions Needed

[Goth]

Ok....checking with the brain trust here...posed this question to my squaddies and am now soliciting outside via these forums.

My stereo and speakers are old....speakers are approximately 25-28 yrs old and receiver is about 15 yrs old. I don't pump music loud, but I do like crisp clean music and movies.

Question - Should I go with a home theatre setup or should I buy a pair of floor speakers now...and a new receiver 6 months from now. Not looking into brand names yet, just getting a feel of what style most people would recommend.

So, hit me with your suggestions people. I know this board is full of people with opinions, so let's keep this on topic.

[Holden McGroin]

I never have opinions.

[Sabre]

You're ugly and your breath smells...Whoops! Sorry, began to post before reading your text, Goth.

I personally went with a nice reciever with home-threater capability built in to it.  Then I shopped around for a nice set of surround speakers (front left/right, rear left/right, center, subwoffer).

[JB73]

there are some decent sounding sets of a reciever / 5 speaker combo in the mid hundreds range.

if you were an audiophile, well that's a different story.

if this is for multimedia (watching DVD's in full THX and the like) thats even a different story.


i'd look into something like THIS

though something like THIS has more features and probably sounds better.

the biggest thing is no matter what it sounds like in the store it will sound NOTHING like that in the acoustics of your own home.

don't buy from best buy, use them as a guide. then go to a local audiophile store witha good reputation, and see about a "trial" period, where if the sound in your home is not satisfactory in 30 days, you can get a ful refund on a different system.

the problem withe the packaged systems though are the speakers. you kind of are stuck with them if they dont sound good, yes you can hook up others, but it's wasteful money.

if you don't like the sound you have to return the whole system. which is no necessarilly bad, but might be a pain to hook all that stuff up.

simple answer is there is no easy answer to your question LOL

[Goth]

Originally posted by JB73
the problem withe the packaged systems though are the speakers. you kind of are stuck with them if they dont sound good, yes you can hook up others, but it's wasteful money.

if you don't like the sound you have to return the whole system. which is no necessarilly bad, but might be a pain to hook all that stuff up.

simple answer is there is no easy answer to your question LOL

And there is the problem of it all. I am not, nor can I be a true audiophile living in an apartment, however I have always appreciated good speakers for clarity even if I can't boost it up. I am not convinced that home theatre speaker setups will offer the clarity I seek.

I love DVD's and use surround sound for movies and believe me, I don't know how I watched movies in the past without it. My speakers were great, but being aged, they are disintegrating (literally). The woofers are getting shorts in the wiring and sound is distorted and cutting in and out...highly annoying. Was so upset last night that I pulled the backs off the speakers and hotwired it as a temporary measure, but it's a matter of time. So I have to break open the old wallet.

[JB73]

i have a pair of 15 year old bose 901's that are in great condition.

you can't argue with quality. although i did pay just over $300 a piece IIRC for what is basically a bookshelf speaker.

i have a pair of BIC venturi tower's also, though my dennon reciever is not even surround LOL all items about 15 years old, but they sound great.

[Raider179]

For my money I would go with the home theatre. surround is great for movies. I have an Onkyo (this one)

http://www.onkyousa.com/model.cfm?m=HT-S770&class=Systems&p=i

and am very satisfied on clarity, on loudness. I still have yet to try to take it to the stops on the volume. Sounds very clear at very high volume.