itschris

itschris

Moderator
Hey guys, my CEO at my company is wanting to put together a budget system. I'm trying to find him a capable receiver for under $500 (... yeah I know...)

Anyway, his main concern is basic surround sound an that he has a 2nd zone for his lanai. I found a couple of the Onkyo's in that price range, but they have Zone 2 line out. What exactly does that do? Do you have to connect to a seperate power source?

Any advice would be welcome
 
M

MDS

Audioholic Spartan
Zone 2 line out is used to connect an external amp for zone 2. If you use the zone 2 line out on a 7.1 receiver you can retain 7.1 in the main zone while still playing stereo in the second zone. If you use the rear surround speaker terminals for the zone 2 speakers (and assign them to zone 2) then the receiver powers zone 2 but you can only do 5.1 in the main room when zone 2 is active.

The 60x series and above Onkyo receivers can power zone 2 or use an external amp via the zone 2 line out.
 
M

markw

Audioholic Overlord
You need to connect a power amp to this and to that, a pair of speakers.

It doesn't haveto be an elaborate affair, Any old stereo unit will suffice, be it a receiver, integrated amp or whatever. If you use a receiver or integrated amp you would use the "aux" inputs.

Of coure, if that unit has seperatable preamp/poiwer amp stages, you can simply use the power (or main) amp in
 
Adam

Adam

Audioholic Jedi
Chris- MDS and Mark already have you all set up, so I'll mention something else that popped into my head.

CEO? Budget system? Your CEO either makes way too little (we've seen your system...and pool, after all) or his priorities are way out of wack. :)
 
itschris

itschris

Moderator
Chris- MDS and Mark already have you all set up, so I'll mention something else that popped into my head.

CEO? Budget system? Your CEO either makes way too little (we've seen your system...and pool, after all) or his priorities are way out of wack. :)
Okay, we just had a "meeting" about this. I got him all excited and we started talking real equipment when suddenly his wife called. Game over. It's safe to say my salary is in no way impacting his. While tropical and lagoon-ish, my pool overlooks my neighbor's hairy a$$, his overlooks the Gulf of Mexico.

After a good scolding from the missus, he's now been reduced to a home theater in a box.... the Onkyo HTS 3100

He's got 2 small kids and he'll never get to watch a movie anyway. He's sorda where I was at a couple of years ago. You know it's funny, he won't spend more than the Onkyo HTIB, but I just helped him order a 42" Toshiba LCD for $1200 for OUTSIDE BY THE POOL!!!!!! I told him it'll get ruined. He wants to be able to watch football while he's in the pool That apparently is important to both of them so the money will then be spend. "If I get a year or so out it... it'll be worth it" was the explanation!!!! I find that really wealthy people spend money in odd ways!

At some point you just throw you hands up and marvel.
 
C

chadnliz

Senior Audioholic
Sounds like your "CEO" needs to aim higher in his equipment budget and his selection for a wife :)
 
jcPanny

jcPanny

Audioholic Ninja
New HT system

Chris,
It sounds like the CEO was shot down by the CFO.
Invite the Boss and his family over for a movie night and play one of the Pixar movies with good surround sound and LFE. Maybe their perspective on the HT system will change. If not, the HTIB is better a little better than the TV speakers.
 
itschris

itschris

Moderator
Well...we're taking a field trip to Circuit City tomorrow to pick up the Onkyo HTIB. I've begged, pleaded, and made considerable fun of him for his lack of foresight, but he just doesn't care that much. "This will be fine... I don't need anything more than this" is the standard response you get from him and so many others. Then again, we each have our own hobbies to be into.

My nieghbor has $395 leave blower and laughs at my $65 Ryobi... so go figure.
 
M

MDS

Audioholic Spartan
On the bright side...the Onkyo HTIB systems include a receiver that is essentially the same as the 5xx series which is not a bad choice. The weak point in any HTIB is the speaker system. But you're right, we all have different priorities. If he feels something is lacking later on, at least he has a solid receiver choice and can just upgrade the speakers.
 
itschris

itschris

Moderator
We just got back from our field trip. I upsold him to a better 7.1 channel Onkyo HTIB. It comes with and IPOD docking station. I told him he can take two of the speaker and put them outside so he's actually saving about $250 between the IPOD dock and outdoor speakers. He's getting a much better sub out of the deal... powered vs passive.

So now all I have to do is go over there and help him install everything. It's gonna break my heart to put that nice LCD outside!!
 

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