I recently purchased a home that has a room that would work well as a home theater. It is approximately 14 x 26. I was going to purchase a Bose system but a friend, who isn’t a big Bose fan, suggested your forum and to find out what would be better than a Bose system.
If possible I (or rather my wife) would like for the system to be wireless with small speakers and either in the dollar range of a Bose or less than a Bose.
I'm not an electronics guy so a system, I think, would be easier than pieces.
Suggestions?
Thank you very much in advance.
S
Sorry for the tardy reply. I did not have time yesterday.
First of all your friend is right avoid Bose. It has a huge frequency gap and the system is overpriced for what it delivers and not all that reliable. Most of all it is never compatible with anything else.
Also avoid going wireless. This will give you a bad headache. One of the pro installer members here recently catalogued a long list of short comings.
Also your hankering for an all in one solution is extremely misguided. All those HTIB units are just junk with poor performance and a very short life span indeed.
Now you have a very nice room. Just the right dimensions.
We however do not have enough information to give you advice.
For one will you be in that house long term? If your wife does not like wires there are some so, so ways of hiding them. However for a neat installation you should consider opening the walls and putting in conduit for wiring so you never have to open the walls again. This is the high road.
You don't have to worry about your lack of electrical experience, as today's equipment just connects video and audio with one HDMI cable. Then all is left is to connect the speakers, which you will have to do what ever you buy.
The real issue today with equipment is the set up though the Gui menus and calibration.
The next issue is that junk gear is the most expensive purchase.
In general the most stable systems have the peripherals connected to a receiver via HDMI, with one HDMI cable going to the TV, and then the speaker connections.
Smart TVs are a dumb idea, and you are best advised to avoid that aspect. Getting good reliable audio back is the big problem. In a good system once set up the only button required for the TV should be the on/off button.
Now you need to start with your speaker selection. If funds are tight just buy two good left and right speakers and a sub, and add the other speakers later.
For a receiver go to the mid point of the range. Avoid bottom end units. For new $1000 +/- 200 is the right ball park now. There is the refurb approach and many have saved a lot of money and got away with it. Personally I think there is risk.
The most important thing is to be clear what you want the system to do. There are now a bewildering array of choice, especially in the area of streamed media. So you need to be clear what you want and a budget.
Also what type of program you are interested in both video and audio makes a difference?
Make sure you download the user manual for any purchase you consider making and read it. It will be long and intimidating until you get a little more experience. This is where we can help.
The joy of a good home theater is to me and my family an enormous joy and pleasure and well worth the effort and funds expended if you are so inclined.
Your wife needs to understand a home is for enjoyment and pleasure, not a fashion statement. A home theater is what it is, and they actually look best when form follows function. Bigger speakers in general do perform better then small ones. All very small speakers universally perform poorly.
