$3000 -$4000 budget for 5.1

[shug23]

Hi...I am looking to set up a 5.1 system. The house I bought has two 'nice' speakers installed in the ceiling, which I plan to use as surround. So I'm thinking I need 2 fronts, a center, a woofer, and a receiver. My older system at a different house is 7.2 with Paradigm Speakers and Anthem D2v. and P5.....I bought these components years and years ago, and won't be going as high end at this new location......I would appreciate any suggestion, as I am very much NOT up to speed with today's products. Thanks in advance

 

[ryanosaur]

You can put together a solid system for that. Might even be able to consider two subs for better Bass!

A year old Denon, Marantz, or similar Yamaha, some Hsu subwoofers, and potentially many options in the speaker category.

What Size room? Please include full exposed room volume.
Expected listening distance from speakers.
Photos are always fun.
Music:HT?

Cheers!

Oh, and do you know what the installed speakers are?

 

[lovinthehd]

Ceiling would be more appropriate to the Atmos/DTS:X type formats than surround speakers IMO. Depends where they are in relation to your seats, too. What makes them "nice" speakers, tho....what are they particularly? Seems like a budget you can do well with in any case. The stuff Ryan asks about would help....

 

[KEW]

Earlier these deals were showing as expiring at midnight PST tonight. The countdown timer is no longer there, so they may be around longer, but if you are ready to buy, just do it!

A pair of these for $162 each (or $324/pr)

Infinity REFERENCE 253 | 5-1/4" Floorstanding Loudspeaker

Infinity REFERENCE 253 three way floorstanding speaker has powerful sound, deep bass response and elegant design that accommodates any home theater system.

www.harmanaudio.com

one of these for $162

Infinity REFERENCE RC263 | 3-Way Center Channel Speaker

Infinity REFERENCE RC263 dual three way center channel speaker accommodates with any home theater system & has crystal clear sound quality with low distortion.

www.harmanaudio.com

That gets you the front three for $486! I know that is way under your budget, but these are great speakers and the center is the best center I have ever heard - I assume that since you are talking 5.1 that your emphasis is on HT so the center is important to you!

That leaves you with $1500 to $2500 for your subs (we would recommend two) and AVR.
For the AVR, get this:

https://www.amazon.com/Denon-AVR-X3500-Receiver-Enhanced-Surround/dp/B07FMRD1RV/ref=sr_1_2?crid=1BJJVX3Q05O3V&keywords=denon+avr-x3500h&qid=1575342738&sprefix=Denon+AVR%2Caps%2C529&sr=8-2

So that leaves you with $950 to $1950 for a pair of subs. Like I said, I assume you are about HT and or gaming. If you were 100% music, you could save money with subs that do not get all of the way down to the low (or below) 20Hz territory, but for HT, unless you are in an apartment where you need to be sensitive to your neighbors, you will want to spend at least ~$1400 for subs. I don't know of any killer deals right now on good HT subwoofers, and we need to know more particulars like your room size and how much of your listening is music%/HT%/Gaming% to make good subwoofer recommendations.

Again, the low cost of these speakers may scare you, but trust me, they are great speakers being clearanced at a deep discount and a couple of good subwoofers will easily take half of your budget!

Edit: I should ask what type of music you listen to because some genres of music do involve the kind of high output at low frequencies that I would normally consider only needed for HT!

 

[NINaudio]

Is this a second house you're purchasing and/or are you leaving your other system at the other house?

 

[shug23]

yes, this is a second home....the room is approximately 24 by 22 but only has 3 walls as the one side just opens up into the kitchen area...The room also has 17 foot cathedral ceiling and the two ceiling speakers are about 12 feet high, pretty much above the head while listening or watching. I will be about 20 feet away from the fronts. The guy I bought the house from did everything first class, so I am assuming his speakers are 'nice'...I cannot tell the brand but they appear to be about 8-10 inch circular white speakers and are inset (flush ) into the ceiling...….not sure if wife will go for two subs...My other house has a very large paradigm sub and a fathom sub (which ahs two speakers and is about 3 foot tall)….what I like about those subs is I don't actually hear them, but 'feel' them instead..... I mostly listen to alternative rock off Sirius and stream movies off Roku...I don't do any gaming. My favorite games were Civilization II and Phantasmagoria, (but now I just showed my age)

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

I would also use the 2 ceiling speakers for Atmos/DTSX. For surrounds, I would use the 2 side walls. So 3 speakers up front, 2 side surrounds, and 2 ceiling Atmos speakers.

 

[shug23]

you are suggesting a 7.1 or 7.2 system?...unfortunately I don't have two side walls, just one and unfortunately I have a wife who s tired of all my wires.....there isn't any way that I can put surrounds off to my sides, unless they were wireless or if I wish to lose a wife

 

[William Lemmerhirt]

Might not work for you, but when we built this house, it didn’t have plans for a right wall either. So, to my wife’s chagrin, I built this column. It’s 12’ from the LR floor to peak. It initially held a 35lb JBL surround speaker but my transition to Atmos forced me to change a little. Now it houses an IW dual
5.25” JBL(grill off). It also left a much more convenient place for the 3 gang switch box. Anyway, just might be a solution.

 

[shug23]

well, I have decided on Paradigm fronts.....probably gonna get the prestige 85's The manufacture is giving a 20% discount with any trade in, so I bought a $30 pair of speakers off Amazon and now have a 20% coupon to use , This will set me back close to $3000. I'm going to transport my Fathom sub (it's a beast with its two speakers)...…I still need to decide upon the receiver and a center speaker....So budget is blown....ah well........

 

[mtrycrafts]

Might not work for you, but when we built this house, it didn’t have plans for a right wall either. So, to my wife’s chagrin, I built this column. It’s 12’ from the LR floor to peak. It initially held a 35lb JBL surround speaker but my transition to Atmos forced me to change a little. Now it houses an IW dual
5.25” JBL(grill off). It also left a much more convenient place for the 3 gang switch box. Anyway, just might be a solution.

That sure looks good. From that pic, the work looks great.
Hopefully she likes the sound.

 

[shug23]

That does look good, but I cant do that....I am now thinking of a Yamaha 1080 or a 880. Does anyone know if it is possible to set up wireless surrounds ? Is it hard to do ?

 

[William Lemmerhirt]

That sure looks good. From that pic, the work looks great.
Hopefully she likes the sound.

Thanks a lot! She doesn’t really care that much, but she knows it matters to me. So I guess does like it in some way!

 

[William Lemmerhirt]

That does look good, but I cant do that....I am now thinking of a Yamaha 1080 or a 880. Does anyone know if it is possible to set up wireless surrounds ? Is it hard to do ?

Thanks.
I haven’t seen many if any elegant solutions for wireless surrounds. Hopefully one of the guys has.

 

[shug23]

ok, so I bought the Yamaha 880 an could use a little advice with set up.....The way the manual suggests I do it, is not what I want. They suggest running my DISH HDMI (and my Roku HMI) into the receiver and then from the receiver, go to the television. If I do this, then whenever I want to watch TV, I am forced to turn on the receiver and listen to it in surround sound...eg. I cant just turn the TV on and get sound, say to quickly get the weather.

I tried running the Roku HDMI into the television directly and from the television I ran an optical cable from the television out to the receiver...This didn't work; I actually got no sound coming from the TV or the receiver. SO I am flummoxed and bewildered why I didn't get any sound using the optical cable.

Putting that aside, my current set up is , I am running my DISH HDMI to the Television, bypassing the receiver entirely. SInce it is a smart TV, I can watch Hulu, Prime, and so on just through the television speakers.

I am also running the Roku HMI through the receiver and then down to the TV, so anything I can get on Roku, I can get in surround.

This sort of works, but if there was something I wanted to watch on the TV which I cannot see through ROKU (say a football game or a movie), I cannot view it in surround with my set-up

Maybe what I want is an HDMI splitter which gives me the option to run the DISH signal into either the TV or the receiver.........

I'm just not sure what I am doing wrong, but surely I must be.

Also, for extra credit, is it possible to run my IPOD thru the reciver ? ( my 28 year old son's girlfriend laughed when she saw I have an IPOD....what's up with that?)

 

[snakeeyes]

Did you enable HDMI pass thru? Basically the AVR allows hdmi signal when it’s in standby.

 

[shug23]

I am not sure how I do that, but no I did not.....are you saying the DISH signal might pass thru the receiver and down to the TV, even if receiver is turned off (if I can figure out how to allow pass-thru ?

 

[shug23]

ok....saw a you tube video......I have to see if I can set the receiver up to do that....thanks for the clue......….what about playing an IPOD through the receiver.....any ideas?

 

[ryanosaur]

I used to do this... you need a mini-phone Jack (stereo-male) to RCA male, and plug into auxiliary or Cd terminals in back of AVR.

She laughed because you can stream from most phones and your computer straight to most AVRs with airplay, for example.
Yes, the venerable iPod classic is an archaic device that shows just how old some of us are.
I take mine out whenever I travel now just to have a backup audio plan. That’s the only time it gets any love these days. Apple Music and my iPhone do everything now.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

I am not sure how I do that, but no I did not.....are you saying the DISH signal might pass thru the receiver and down to the TV, even if receiver is turned off (if I can figure out how to allow pass-thru ?

Yep. You can Pass-Through both Video and Audio to the TV even when your AVR is off (Standby mode, plugged in). But you have to set up for HDMI pass-through.