So after some research I am considering this theather system setup: (advice wanted)

[Eternal]

Reciever:
Onkyo TX-SR507 5.1-Channel, or a refurb 606
Key points I want are: hdmi, and ability to handle audio through the hdmi.
If you guys can think of any other decent recievers (around $250 to $500) let me know.

Speakers:
Behringer 2030p x 4 (for the front and read speakers)
Unknown center speaker, I figure I will go into frys/best buy and listen to some. (suggestions for a $50-$120 would be nice)

Sub:
Dayton SUB-120 HT Series 12" 150 Watt (may get a second one laater, sticking with one for now)

And one question, the Behringer 2030p are 100 watt speakers...does the reciever have to be 100 watt per channel too? or is an 80 watt per channel reciever fine for them?

Any advice on my possible home theater system is welcome.

Thank you,

Chris

 

[alexsabree]

Reciever:
Onkyo TX-SR507 5.1-Channel, or a refurb 606
Key points I want are: hdmi, and ability to handle audio through the hdmi.
If you guys can think of any other decent recievers (around $250 to $500) let me know.

Speakers:
Behringer 2030p x 4 (for the front and read speakers)
Unknown center speaker, I figure I will go into frys/best buy and listen to some. (suggestions for a $50-$120 would be nice)

Sub:
Dayton SUB-120 HT Series 12" 150 Watt (may get a second one laater, sticking with one for now)

And one question, the Behringer 2030p are 100 watt speakers...does the reciever have to be 100 watt per channel too? or is an 80 watt per channel reciever fine for them?

Any advice on my possible home theater system is welcome.

Thank you,

Chris

You can have more power than needed on your receiver, however you have to be very cautious not to over-drive your speakers. If they go any higher than intended (100watts) problems could arise. "Under-driving" them won't cause any damage at all -so yes- an 80watt receiver is fine. (You'd probably never use all the wattage on that speaker anyways)

Its best to get all five speakers (center, surrounds, fronts) sounding alike. If you get the four behringers and then end up with some other brand for your center it might not sound right.

I'm not sure if I'll get shot down for this, but if this is for home-theater use, I would strongly recommend going 2.1 and then expand on that later on.
That way you can get a kick-arse subwoofer with some nice fronts and then concentrate on the surround sound later on... at least that's the route I would take.

For me, the subwoofer is the most important part of the home-theater system. Then the speakers. Then the receiver. For a starting subwoofer I would at least aim for eD A2-300 or HSU STF2 or SVS PV10 depending on your budget and preferences.

Don't get me wrong, what you have picked out is great. But by buying one thing at a time and getting better speakers you save money overall because you don't have to replace it later on when you decide its time for an upgrade (which is usually what happens)

 

[Pyrrho]

Reciever:
Onkyo TX-SR507 5.1-Channel, or a refurb 606
Key points I want are: hdmi, and ability to handle audio through the hdmi.
If you guys can think of any other decent recievers (around $250 to $500) let me know.

You should look at the offerings from Yamaha, Denon and Pioneer. I personally like Yamaha and Pioneer for "bang for the buck", but it depends upon the particular deals you find.

Speakers:
Behringer 2030p x 4 (for the front and read speakers)
Unknown center speaker, I figure I will go into frys/best buy and listen to some. (suggestions for a $50-$120 would be nice)

Sub:
Dayton SUB-120 HT Series 12" 150 Watt (may get a second one laater, sticking with one for now)

And one question, the Behringer 2030p are 100 watt speakers...does the reciever have to be 100 watt per channel too? or is an 80 watt per channel reciever fine for them?

Any advice on my possible home theater system is welcome.

Thank you,

Chris

Speakers (including subwoofer) are the most important part for how your system will sound. Make sure you select speakers that you like. Also, you want to make sure your front three speakers all match each other. The reason is, when a sound pans across the front, you want the tonal quality of the sound to remain constant from each of the speakers. Ideally, this means you will use identical front speakers, but you will probably be happy with "voice matched" speakers (i.e., a center speaker from the same manufacturer of the front right and left speakers designed to be used together). The fronts all matching each other matters more than the fronts matching the surrounds for two reasons: First, the most important sounds in soundtracks are almost always in the front channels, and second, humans can hear better in front of them than in back of them.

In my case, I use identical speakers for all channels (except subwoofer, of course), and I will never go back to any being different. But most people are happy if the front three are "voice matched".

If sound quality is what matters most to you, spend as much as possible on your speakers and spend as much time as possible auditioning different speakers before you buy.

As for power ratings, you can pretty much ignore them on speakers. The reason is, there is no standardization for how they are rated. Some manufacturers rate them for a specific power with a specific amount of distortion, others rate them for when you will destroy them. I have run speakers rated for 60 watts with an amplifier rated for 160 watts, and I have used amplifiers rated for less than the power handling capabilities of the speakers. How much power an amplifier is putting out at any given time depends upon many things, such as the input signal level and the position of the volume control. So don't worry about that too much. Just try out the speakers with your amplifier to make sure it will play undistorted loud enough to suit you. (Impedance, on the other hand, does matter, and you want that to match your amplifier, as too low of an impedance for a speaker can cause problems for an amplifier not designed for it.)

 

[lsiberian]

Reciever:
Onkyo TX-SR507 5.1-Channel, or a refurb 606
Key points I want are: hdmi, and ability to handle audio through the hdmi.
If you guys can think of any other decent recievers (around $250 to $500) let me know.

Speakers:
Behringer 2030p x 4 (for the front and read speakers)
Unknown center speaker, I figure I will go into frys/best buy and listen to some. (suggestions for a $50-$120 would be nice)

Sub:
Dayton SUB-120 HT Series 12" 150 Watt (may get a second one laater, sticking with one for now)

And one question, the Behringer 2030p are 100 watt speakers...does the reciever have to be 100 watt per channel too? or is an 80 watt per channel reciever fine for them?

Any advice on my possible home theater system is welcome.

Thank you,

Chris

Just get another pair of the Behringers 2030p and use it one as a center.

The 5** series from onkyo doesn't do HDMI Audio as far as I know.

The 606 does and is an excellent receiver.

On a side note. Please try to keep it to a single thread. We all read the entire site. So we'll get your posts.

 

[anamorphic96]

Actually the new 5 series from Onkyo does do audio through HDMI and all the new HD codecs.

One other thing to clear up from an earlier post. You can damage speakers with to little power much easier than having to much power. In fact it probably happens more often than over driving since many people go out and purchase really nice top notch speakers then buy a cheap receiver to drive them.

Also the OP might want to look at matched set of speakers from the same series and manufacture. Timbre matching is one of the most important rules to follow in HT if you want a cohesive surround effect. Especially across the front stage.

 

[lsiberian]

One other thing to clear up from an earlier post. You can damage speakers with to little power much easier than having to much power. In fact it probably happens more often than over driving since many people go out and purchase really nice top notch speakers then buy a cheap receiver to drive them.

If you buy an HK, Onkyo, Marantz, Denon, or Yamaha receiver then you won't have any issues. They make very good receivers with solid amp sections.

an HK receiver was benchmarked somewhere and tested better than amps considerably higher in cost. Funny how that is sometimes.

 

[Eternal]

Thank you for the advice... also sorry for the sort of repost, I just felt it was deserving of a new post since it is no longer about what things I should research, and more of what I intend to buy.

I would not want to have a speaker turned of on it's side for the center one. I actually like the look for the Behringer 2030p's, it's just the imbalance of teh speaker sideways is too much for me, if I could have 2 hooked up to the center that might work... If not think I would beable to find a center speaker to match the Behringer 2030p's? I could buy many different ones from best buy and frys and return the ones that don't sound good...

I am going to read more reviews on the recievers, I intend to have a few models I am watching for sales on.

My concern with the HDMI and adudio is in my laptop I have two ATI 4780s in crosfire, they transmite video and 7.1 audio, but there have been some issue with the radeon cards and the hdmi audio recognition, so I wanted to ensure the reciever would work with my laptop. (My laptop has a blu-ray player on it).

There seems to be a great sale on a polk audio center speaker atm: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16882290023 would you guys think that would distort the Behringer 2030p's sound, or should I consider a polk audio speaker setup?

 

[Robof83]

Overall I think you have made a very good choice in both speakers and subwoofers. Maybe you could use the extra 2030p in a 6.1 setup.

The onkyo 606 can be had for 606 refurbished.

 

[Eternal]

I just stumbled across a great sale on polk audio speakers...what do you guys think of this set up:

Polk Audio CS2 Cherry Center Channel Loudspeaker: $119 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16882290023

Polk Audio Monitor 60 Cherry Floorstanding loudspeaker x 2: $139 each http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16882290018

Polk Audio Monitor 40 Cherry Two-way bookshelf loudspeaker Pair: $150 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16882290011 for the rear speakers

It would end up being about the same as 3 pairs of Behringer 2030p...I just don't know how they compare is quality...the frequency is a larger range on the polk audio, an di have heard good things about polk audio...almost temptiing to pull the trigger and buy these, then wait for a same on a good polk audio sub, or just get the Dayton sub I was looking it.

I have an older reciever 5.1 I can use until I find a deal for a newer one...I forget the moodel it's at my other house atm, but this speeker setup I just listed seems very tempting...

 

[Eternal]

I am really close to buying the paulk audio set up...this is a very good deal I may even get the 70s instead of 60s

 

[Robof83]

I still say the behringers would sound better, they have excellent build quality and drivers and measure very well. Also, although I've only had the oppurtunity to listen to them for a few hours I can say they are probably the best value speaker I've heard.

 

[Patrick_Wolf]

Your budget is pretty tight which is why I'd recommend sticking with bookshelves vs floorstanders as you'll usually get the most bang for your buck with them.

I haven't heard either the Polks or B2030P (yet) so I can't recommend either. I say yet because I actually just ordered a pair of B2030P's from zzsounds.com and will be comparing them against 3 other pairs of speakers; being the SBS-01, TSBL, & CBM-170 SE.

 

[Eternal]

My budget is modifiable, I have well more than $1000 I can spend, but I would rather keep the money in savings for other expenses, so the polk audio is in my budget, I am thinking about getting the 70 monitors (with 2 subs, 2 mid sub, and 1 tweeter) then finding a reciever on sale ($300-500). And then waiting to get the sub until a very good sale turns up.

 

[Patrick_Wolf]

I've read good (and bad) things about Polk too, also many people on here say Energy is good. Which is why I decided to try them out. However I was a little more than disappointed with their newer CB series. Their RC series, and older C series might actually be good, but I'll never know cause I'm staying away from Energy as I believe they really aren't good and there's better choices out there in a given price range.

Anyway, point being is it's a gamble to commit to purchasing speakers you haven't heard before. If you do, at least make sure you're comfortably with the store/sites return policy.

 

[lsiberian]

Thank you for the advice... also sorry for the sort of repost, I just felt it was deserving of a new post since it is no longer about what things I should research, and more of what I intend to buy.

I would not want to have a speaker turned of on it's side for the center one. I actually like the look for the Behringer 2030p's, it's just the imbalance of teh speaker sideways is too much for me, if I could have 2 hooked up to the center that might work... If not think I would beable to find a center speaker to match the Behringer 2030p's? I could buy many different ones from best buy and frys and return the ones that don't sound good...

I am going to read more reviews on the recievers, I intend to have a few models I am watching for sales on.

My concern with the HDMI and adudio is in my laptop I have two ATI 4780s in crosfire, they transmite video and 7.1 audio, but there have been some issue with the radeon cards and the hdmi audio recognition, so I wanted to ensure the reciever would work with my laptop. (My laptop has a blu-ray player on it).

There seems to be a great sale on a polk audio center speaker atm: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16882290023 would you guys think that would distort the Behringer 2030p's sound, or should I consider a polk audio speaker setup?

Can you just set it up vertically?

That would be ideal actually.

You can also phantom the center channel. This works very well in some setups.

If you want a true center I suggest the Beta 360 from Infinity.

 

[Pyrrho]

Can you just set it up vertically?

That would be ideal actually.

You can also phantom the center channel. This works very well in some setups.

If you want a true center I suggest the Beta 360 from Infinity.

Yes, setting a bookshelf speaker in the middle vertically is the best way. I do mine that way. You get the most perfectly matched sound by having identical speakers oriented identically.

I personally do not recommend phantom centers, though some people like it that way. With a phantom center, the phantom image is in the right place for at most one person when people are sitting side by side, which is not good.

 

[lsiberian]

Yes, setting a bookshelf speaker in the middle vertically is the best way. I do mine that way. You get the most perfectly matched sound by having identical speakers oriented identically.

I personally do not recommend phantom centers, though some people like it that way. With a phantom center, the phantom image is in the right place for at most one person when people are sitting side by side, which is not good.

I do the same. I have them vertically aligned. This is the best way IMO. YOu can event invert and mount the bookshelf above the tv if necessary.

 

[Eternal]

I do the same. I have them vertically aligned. This is the best way IMO. YOu can event invert and mount the bookshelf above the tv if necessary.

What are your thoughts on the polk audio set up I listed above? I am a little concerned about the asthetics (fiance likes the chery color) It is a little more costly to get them, but I can expand my budget if they are still very solid speakers nad are a great price. I have been reading some reviews and people have bought the Polk Audio monitor 70's for $1000 a piece 2 years ago. I can get them for $200 on sale from around $500 atm from newegg.

I am very close to jumping and the Polk audio setup. If I dont' get the pulk audio I will wait for a sale on a good reciver before I buy the 2030Ps. I have an older reciever I can use temporarily until I find a good one for the polk audio ones.

 

[lsiberian]

What are your thoughts on the polk audio set up I listed above? I am a little concerned about the asthetics (fiance likes the chery color) It is a little more costly to get them, but I can expand my budget if they are still very solid speakers nad are a great price. I have been reading some reviews and people have bought the Polk Audio monitor 70's for $1000 a piece 2 years ago. I can get them for $200 on sale from around $500 atm from newegg.

I am very close to jumping and the Polk audio setup. If I dont' get the pulk audio I will wait for a sale on a good reciver before I buy the 2030Ps. I have an older reciever I can use temporarily until I find a good one for the polk audio ones.

Do you have a revel dealer local? If so go listen to the Concerta series. They are same speakers as the Infinity Beta series that HK sells on their ebay store.

Also look for a KEF dealer.

You might also look at demoing The speaker company. It's a free demo. Just get a pair of them and you'll know if you like them or not pretty quickly.

 

[Patrick_Wolf]

What are your thoughts on the polk audio set up I listed above? I am a little concerned about the asthetics (fiance likes the chery color) It is a little more costly to get them, but I can expand my budget if they are still very solid speakers nad are a great price. I have been reading some reviews and people have bought the Polk Audio monitor 70's for $1000 a piece 2 years ago. I can get them for $200 on sale from around $500 atm from newegg.

It's not really a sale per say, the Monitor series is discountinued so they're greatly discounted. I'm not sure what "Big Savings" newegg is talking about. The black Monitor 70 is only $30 more and appears to be more popular than the Cherry; which is probably why it's a little cheaper atm.