best speakers for home theater setup

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goose99

Audiophyte
we are setting up a new home theater. the room is about 25ft long and 15ft wide. we have an epson home 4000 projector connected to a denon 1295W receiver. the room is for movies and tv, not so much just music.
trying to decide on the best speakers to get for the room. looking for a 5.1 surround sound system.
There are a lot of reviews online and various places, but I'm not an audiophile and unsure if there are enough differences between the systems to make a difference for us. So far I'm between the definitive technology 1000, klipsch, or polk signature.
Budget is less than 2K for all the speakers.

Thank you in advance for any input.
 
S

shadyJ

Speaker of the House
Staff member
Polk, Deftech, and Klipsch are all reliably good brands. Their speakers will be fine, but you can do better in the subwoofer department. For subs, in that budget I would be looking at Hsu Research, SVS, Monoprice Monolith, or Outlaw Audio. Those manufacturers also make good loudspeakers too, so a 5.1 setup from any other them would be very good. Some other good speaker manufacturers to look at is Ascend Acoustics, Philharmonic, Infinity Reference, JBL, Paradigm, and there are many more.
 
BoredSysAdmin

BoredSysAdmin

Audioholic Slumlord
Polk, Deftech, and Klipsch are all reliably good brands. Their speakers will be fine, but you can do better in the subwoofer department. For subs, in that budget I would be looking at Hsu Research, SVS, Monoprice Monolith, or Outlaw Audio. Those manufacturers also make good loudspeakers too, so a 5.1 setup from any other them would be very good. Some other good speaker manufacturers to look at is Ascend Acoustics, Philharmonic, Infinity Reference, JBL, Paradigm, and there are many more.
I've found Polk to have great finish/look but typically not great value, I like LSi/M sound, but it's just crazy expensive. Pretty much same goes for the Paradigm. Infinity Reference are awesome as they are on deep sales now (or least very recently used to be)
I'd also add this list http://gr-research.com/completedspeakers.aspx if you like their look (they are HUGE value at current sale prices) and NHT audio. as James mentioned SVS, HSU, and Outlaw - all make very competent speakers as well.
Since you've mentioned "Best", I'd say best sounding on your smaller budget would be GR-Research, designed by Dennis Murphy, the same guy behind Philharmonic, most of Salk Sound and few more awesome speakers.
 
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lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
FWIW best to refer to the Denon with a model number, not some marketing nonsense where they added up some wattage ratings to sound more impressive :)
 
lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
So if it is the Denon S930, they took the single channel 6 ohm 1khz @ 10% THD spec and multipled it by 7....I guess that makes it seems much more impressive to say 1295W that way, rather than 90wpc avr (2ch driven 8 ohm, 20-20kHz, .08% THD). SMH. :)
 
D

Danzilla31

Audioholic Spartan
we are setting up a new home theater. the room is about 25ft long and 15ft wide. we have an epson home 4000 projector connected to a denon 1295W receiver. the room is for movies and tv, not so much just music.
trying to decide on the best speakers to get for the room. looking for a 5.1 surround sound system.
There are a lot of reviews online and various places, but I'm not an audiophile and unsure if there are enough differences between the systems to make a difference for us. So far I'm between the definitive technology 1000, klipsch, or polk signature.
Budget is less than 2K for all the speakers.

Thank you in advance for any input.
I started off with the Polk Signature series and if your that low on a budget starting off that's not a bad way to go. They also go on crazy deals from time to time. They are not good measuring speakers but for what they cost they are not going to but I didn't dislike there sound signature.

Once you get started on this like all of us who joined this site and learn what's out there you will want to go more. You'll want better but as a starter brand the signature series from Polk has a decent look ok performance good value they fit your budget for total speakers. It's not a bad place to start.

I started there but had some issues with the sound and I learned here why the speakers and how they measure were causing this. So when my budget allowed since I went with SVS for subs and had such a great experience I then decided to go with them for speakers.

And never regretted it as mentioned they put out some good speakers for what you pay. I started with there prime line then upgraded to the PB 4000 subs and next year I'll be moving up to there Ultra line. And I'm very very happy with them.

But we all gotta start from somewhere and I enjoyed my time with the signature series from Polk. If you get there towers get the top of that line the S60 if you get there bookshelves for surrounds get the top of the line the S20. Extra love was put into the top of that line that the lower end didn't receive better quality on the drivers etc. If you do the center that S35 the skinny one? Uggghhh I had issues with that one Is recommend trying a high crossover on it. Those teeny weeny drivers can only do so much. I just got frustrated and bought another S60 tower for my center I had room to run 3 towers up front. Most don't. But those towers go sometimes for $300 a speaker good buy for that speaker.

Whatever you choose good luck other brands mentioned are great to look at as well and I'm sure some of the guys here will give you some killer ideas for good speakers on a budget. Enjoy the journey your starting audio is a lottof fun especially when you learn how to get it right. Lot of good wisdom good guys on this forum take advantage of them
 

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