HTIB vs Separate

[dennisk415]

Hi I am new to this site and also new to looking for a home system. With all of these new htib coming out and reading on cnet as in how good they are I cant figure what I should buy. I was thinking of picking up the engery take classic speaker system and getting a Onkyo TX-SR607 receiver and the new ps3 as my blue ray player. Would this system sound better say the new Onkyo HT-S9100THX htib. Any help or suggestions would be great. Thanks in advance

 

[jostenmeat]

The Energy Take is probably the most affordable package from a reputed speaker manufacturer. The Onkyo might be the pinnacle of HTiBs. I don't know who has compared the two.

What's nice about the Take package, IIRC, is that you can get it without the subwoofer. The subs are almost always very lacking, and it's nice to add a more capable one to a "package".

The best bang for buck speakers are known to be studio monitors, such as made by KRK, Yamaha, and Behringer. They don't look sexy, usually without any grilles, but it's not like Onkyo speakers are sexy either. The increase in cost will be nominal, yet the improvement in audio should be substantial. If you are truly pinching pennies, yet want something "better", I'd recommend this route.


Trust me, speakers make all of the difference. It's worth listening to some, and splurging a bit. You'll see I'm right once you go into a decent store.

Otherwise, I've dubbed Onkyo HTiBs as the gateway drug. How fast you move to harder drugs seems to vary, person to person.

 

[bombarde32]

...... looking for a home system ... cant figure what I should buy ... thinking of ... Onkyo HT-S9100THX htib.

Ok. Let's price the PS3 slim with the HT-S9100. That's $300 for Playstation and about $800 for the HT-S9100 for a budget of $1100.

You can get a Pioneer receiver RETAIL from bestbuy.com for $200 leaving us $870 to play with. Let's say we go with Paradigm's speakers "for audiophiles on a budget" ... the Monitor series version 6 (latest & greatest). We'll use the following setup:
- Fronts: Atom Monitor pair: $250
- Rears: Atom Monitor pair: $250
- Center: CC-190: $300
- Sub: PDR 8: $300
- Grand total AT RETAIL: $1,100 though you can probably buy the whole thing for $1,000 at a dealer.

Great - so now we're over budget by $130 and we still need speaker cable. Let's say 200 feet of 12 AWG at 52 cents per foot (but you can do better) takes us to $230 over budget. I'm ignoring the HDMI blu-ray to receiver cable as you'd have to buy that with the other setup as well.

So the point of all this is: Think very hard before buying that HTIB. For $200 or so you can upgrade to a Monitor system from Paradigm (I'm sure their competitors have similar systems you can audition as well) and it will beat anything a HTIB is going to do.

Last thought in this (VERY) long winded post ... The key to me is the sub. In the lower budgets the bookshelfs and cubes aren't going to handle frequencies below 80-100 Hz with authority, if at all. So you need a good sub that can take all that load off the speakers and allow them to concentrate on what they are good at.

And again - do yourself a favor and at least audition budget audiophile systems before plunking down a grand on an HTIB.

Good hunting in your quest for a system!

 

[bombarde32]

Srry to be more of a blowhard on this thread but one last thought. The above post wasn't meant to push any particular product from Paradigm or another manufacturer. Only to say that no matter which way you go I think you can do better than HTIB even if it means starting with a quality 3.1 system and adding the rears in later.
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BTW - does anyone know if you can still use the TV as the center channel? I used to see people splurging on towers and then buying the center/rears later on but haven't heard of anyone doing that for quite some time. Not that I was ever a fan of it for home theatre but if you are big into stereo music it was a nice option.

 

[oppman99]

Don't forget, if you find something you like that is a little above your price range, there is always the used market. I have picked up some killer deals from sites like audiogon and the classifieds here. When I first put together my movie system, I picked up a complete set of Infinity Primus speakers that were new, but being replaced by a new model. Not saying they are top of the line by any means, but they do the job well enough for me.

I strongly agree with the above posts that if you look around, you can get a far superior system for not much more than the HTIB option. Just so you don't think I'm knocking theater in a box, I have heard some that are very good considering their size. An ex-girlfriend had a Panasonic setup that surprised me, but still no contest with "real" speakers, especially if you have a medium sized or larger room. I have gone with smaller/less expensive speakers for other systems, and usually regretted it later, but that's just my experience.

 

[bombarde32]

I strongly agree with the above posts that if you look around, you can get a far superior system for not much more than the HTIB option. Just so you don't think I'm knocking theater in a box, I have heard some that are very good considering their size. An ex-girlfriend had a Panasonic setup that surprised me, but still no contest with "real" speakers, especially if you have a medium sized or larger room. I have gone with smaller/less expensive speakers for other systems, and usually regretted it later, but that's just my experience.

Yup. And let's be honest ... for 1,000 - 1,500 you are NOT going to get a top of the line reference system. If you want the quickest and easiest way the by all means, get the HTIB. But if you don't want to be dissapointed then take your time, pound the pavement (so to speak) and build your own with "budget audiophile" speakers.

As a bare bones minimum requirement ... each speaker should have a seperate woofer and tweeter rated to play down to 100 Hz (but I'd like to see 90). Then set your crossover to play 10 Hz above their bottom end.

K - enough blowing on this. If you have any other questions PM us.

 

[lsiberian]

Hi I am new to this site and also new to looking for a home system. With all of these new htib coming out and reading on cnet as in how good they are I cant figure what I should buy. I was thinking of picking up the engery take classic speaker system and getting a Onkyo TX-SR607 receiver and the new ps3 as my blue ray player. Would this system sound better say the new Onkyo HT-S9100THX htib. Any help or suggestions would be great. Thanks in advance

This is a bad solution either way IMO.

But the take classic is better than the HTIB imo.

Still I second JM's suggetion of a a few monitors paired with a nice budget sub.

If your good with wood and have some basic tools though. I suggest you build yourself some sealed Recession Buster kits. The come with an assembled crossover and the driver for well under 100 bucks. This route lets you decide how they look and gives you the satisfaction of truly seeing your speakers on the stands. You get much better bang for your buck this way.

 

[jostenmeat]

FWIW, if it needs to be "easy", and cheap, I do think the OP is barking up the right trees.

I've even read of pro CI guys giving flagship Onkyo HTiBs the props.

I personally have found that even lesser Onkyo HTiBs have better speakers than some other popular brands. I think they're significantly better than Polk's entry level, for instance, though that really isn't saying much. IOW, you actually CAN do worse by cherry picking, if somewhat difficult to do. IMO.

Also, Onkyo destroys Panasonic HTiBs, of which I've heard a few. (my good friend works for Panasonic, and so many of his friends/family own their product). Onkyo over Pana every day of the week for HtIb.

I know with the Energy setup, batpig the Denon guru is a big fan, and finds this to be of exceptional value.

of course, again, everyone will still recommend stepping up if possible. but, those packages are around for a reason.

fwiw, I started this insanity with an HTiB. The initial taste drove me mad, as you can well see, and at least that half year gave me plenty of time to research before I opened my wallet up, and dumped everything in it out on the saleman's table.

 

[pattinsonrobert]

Hi Everyone..

I am newbie here and looking for a Home theater system.I am pattinson and this is my first forum entry here.. Since I am new to forum community and I feel I am in midst of my own learning curve. I feel sometimes, that I have to learn a lot, hope you guys have patient on me.

 

[smihalik]

I am by no means an expert when it comes to speakers. I got a ridiculous deal on my RBH's early on in my quest to build a good sound system and I jumped on them, thus ending my search But....

I've heard good things about Ascend Acoustics. A very good system would be CMB-170 as your left and right, CMT-340 as your center, HTM 200 as your rears. $850

SVS PB10 as your sub. $499

Refurbed Marantz 5003. $429 on Accessories4less.com

$1778


More money than you were looking to spend, I realize, but If you save for an extra few paychecks it will be a killer system. No real need to upgrade later on.

That's what I'm doing with my system. I've been building it slowly over the last few months. Buying good quality items when I have some disposable income. I started like you BTW. Looking for a good HTIB. I'm happy I've chosen this path instead.