Hi everyone, a friend referred me to this site and i am new to this forum. i signed up to learn more about a/v equipment as i dont know too much and im hoping to get some advice on setting up a home theater. i just got married a few months ago and our new condo should be completed sometime this month. im in charge of putting all the electronics together for the new place while she deals with the furniture so i guess its time to start making some purchases.
ive attached a floor plan to the condo below and im thinking to place the home theater system to the left of the word LIVING. the top section of the floor plan (where the balcony is located) is facing east and that whole east facing wall is floor to ceiling windows. according to my rough calculations, the whole open area where the home theater system will go and which includes the living room, dining room, kitchen and the entry way comes out to approximately 560 square feet. the ceilings are 9 feet high so the total volume is 5,040 cubic feet. please correct me if i calculated incorrectly, also any alternative suggestions on where to setup the home theater would be much appreciated.
ive ordered a 65" Panasonic ZT plasma tv and ill most likely have it wall mounted, ive also purchased a Pioneer SC-1328-K (apparently its the same as the Elite SC-72) receiver to get things started. i would say that about 80% of the time this setup will be used for movies, tv and video games while the remaining 20% would be for listening to music. i'm not much of an audiophile and i tend to prefer strong and tight bass in the things i listen to and i like to feel the explosions and gun fire in movies. im not sure if this helps to give an idea of the sound i like but i use beats by dre tour in-ear headphones and i do prefer them to many other high end in-ear headphones that ive tried. i seem to prefer the bass that they produce over the clarity of other superior in-ear headphones.
during boxing day, i saw some good deals and decided to try out a couple of 5.1 sets. my audioholic friend came by to help out and the first one we tried out were the klipsch synergy synergy f10 towers with a c-10 center speaker (didnt hook up the b-10 bookshelf surrounds), this set came out to about $400 on sale. a klipsch 12" down-firing subwoofer (SUB-12) was also tested with the speakers ($300 sale price). the sound that came out from these were nice and loud. they have nice power but the problem was that the bass was quite loose and the treble was not very clear. i guess the overall sound quality was quite sloppy. my friend says that the treble was starting to give him a headache!
the other set that we tested that day was the JBL loft 50 towers with a loft 20 center channel (didnt hook up the loft 30 bookshelf surrounds) these were a pretty good deal at $600 since i apparently saved $940 on that purchase. we used the same klipsch sub as well. these sounded much clearer than the klipsch, the treble was sharp and crisp. the bass was tighter punchier as well but at times it could sound a bit weak and hollow, as if something was missing. the speakers also didnt seem to be very loud and powerful, we noticed that in order to get some decent sound, we had to crank the volume up quite high. i left these speakers setup to try them out further and the sound seemed to have improved. perhaps the overpowering nature of the klipsch just made the JBL set seem weak. im tempted to keep this set due to the price and just find a better sub to go along with them (perhaps the JBL es250pbk) but perhaps you guys can help me find something better.
in the end i want something that will last a very long time (buy once, cry once!) and id prefer not to simply just settle on the JBL set but will do so as a last resort. i would like to budget the speakers at $2000 but something closer to the $1000 mark would be ideal. i would also consider suggestions in a higher price range as well, the more info the merrier.
anyways i hope i didnt bore you guys with all this information, i was just trying to be as detailed as possible. i appreciate you taking the time to read this and potentially give some advice.
thanks so much in advance!
