Budgeting HT/Stereo

[Shortsord]

Well I'm still working on just deciding on my stereo set up, which I've gotten so much help here for, and can't believe nothing's purchased yet. Nonetheless, the side effect of so much research is that people are now coming to me for help, oddly enough.

So one of my good friends wants to put some money into both a home theater set up and a separate stereo setup as well. He wants to overhaul everything, so new display and components all around. I've talked to him about auditioning for almost everything ad he's planning to do so as soon as we get some ideas together. What I've done so far is try to split up his budget accordingly to have a rough idea of what price speakers and electronics to look for. And this is what I'd like some opinions on.

Total budget is ten thousand. Can't go over by more than a hundred or two, so pretty fixed it is. This is how I split it down:
2000 or so for stereo speakers, considering 1500 + 500 for sub or such
1000 or less for stereo int amp or preamp and amp or such
2000 or so for home theater speakers
700 or so for home theater sub
1000 or less for receiver
2500 or so for display
800 for sources and etc

His goal was to have a very nice stereo setup for himself, and get a balanced family room going with the ht. I thought that whatever is left over from the stereo budget should flow into the ht speakers, and whatever is left over from the receiver budget should go into the sources and etc budget, including sound treatments in there.

Any advice on this break down? Too much or too little being considered anywhere?

Thanks a lot.

 

[Audioholics]

Make sure you check these out:

http://www.audioholics.com/buying-guides/system-buying-guides/

 

[jcPanny]

2 channel and HT

Have your friend check out the Onix Strata Mini's for the 2 channel system with a tube or solid state integrated amp.
http://www.av123.com/products_product.php?section=speakers&product=78.1

For the main HT, the AV123 X-series speakers are well within the budget.
http://www.av123.com/products_category_brand.php?section=speakers&brand=55

 

[westcott]

Total budget is ten thousand. Can't go over by more than a hundred or two, so pretty fixed it is. This is how I split it down:
2000 or so for stereo speakers, considering 1500 + 500 for sub or such
1000 or less for stereo int amp or preamp and amp or such
2000 or so for home theater speakers
700 or so for home theater sub
1000 or less for receiver
2500 or so for display
800 for sources and etc


Any advice on this break down? Too much or too little being considered anywhere?

What could be more fun than spending someone else's money on audio\video equipment?????

I would nible a little bit out of the source, receiver, and display budget and realocate to the speakers and\or sub budget.

Don't forget a good remote, broadcast quality cables, and quality surge protection. An OTA antenna can pay for itself, as well, if being charged for local channels.

As the Audioholics buyers guide points out, $10K can go fast and their are lost of little things that can add up (spl meter and calibration DVD\CDs).

http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/forum/showthread.php?t=5441

P.S. The new Onkyo with HDMI 1.3a support and HD audio codecs would be a no brainer, unless someone else releases a similar unit soon.

 

[jake5717]

As the Audioholics buyers guide points out, $10K can go fast and their are lost of little things that can add up (spl meter and calibration DVD\CDs).

Just as a note. I rented the Avia HT DVD from Blockbuster online.
Is there a forum loaner SPL meter that members can just share?

 

[Shortsord]

Make sure you check these out:

http://www.audioholics.com/buying-guides/system-buying-guides/

Mainly I looked at the budgeting your home theatre guide for basic ideas of how to split up the money. I'm planning on sifting through those other guides for component recommendations as well. Truly endless resources on this site. Thank you.

What could be more fun than spending someone else's money on audio\video equipment?????

I would nible a little bit out of the source, receiver, and display budget and realocate to the speakers and\or sub budget.

Don't forget a good remote, broadcast quality cables, and quality surge protection. An OTA antenna can pay for itself, as well, if being charged for local channels.

I completely agree about spending other peoples money. The best part is that he actually trusts me, and I'll get to come along with him and his wife to all the auditions, and I'll probably be responsible for setting it up. And thus he'll owe me even more.

I was considering slicing the receiver budget by 300-400 and putting that into a bit of the sub and speakers. 700-900 will get him a decent sub from SVS or HSU I figured, and allow him to go as high as 2500 in the speaker area if needed. I'd take out some for the display, but I'm pretty sure he's not gonna consider a projector with all the windows in his living room, so I figure it needs to be kept high in order to get a pretty good LCD/Plasma/projection set.

The sources and etc budget is actually meant to cover a remote, cables, dvd-player, and a turntable or Squeezebox or cd player for stereo. It's tight enough already, I think. He's already got a few surge strips (I don't think he needs a conditioner or filter thingy yet, right?), and I have the SPL meter and Avia (plus nifty blue filter glasses I got from THX free) to lend.

That new Onkyo looks pretty good and fits snugly in the budget, but I think we're gonna need to figure out the speakers first to make sure 90wpc is enough. I'm pretty sure it will be though. Thanks for that.

Oh and jcPanny, I plan on having him listen to the X-LS as I've ordered a pair to audition, so we'll see what he thinks. I'd love to convince him to try the Stratas, mainly so I could see/hear/touch them myself, but he's not keen at all on paying return shipping. It would really need to come out of his total budget. We'll see.

Thanks for all the help.

 

[Shortsord]

Egad, I wish I could make decisions as quickly as some people can.

This is now what he's settled on after a week of auditioning and discussions with his wife:
Stereo-
Magneplanar MG12 1000
SVS PB10 375
NAD C372 900
Squeezebox 300
HT-
Axiom 80 5.0 2425 for custom veneer (m80, qs8, vp150)
SVS PB12-plus 950
sharp 52" 2900
Oppo 981 230
Onkyo tx-sr605 500
Logtech Harmony 880 150

This leaves about 250 to spare and still be under budget. I figure this can towards some nice looking cables and some DIY acoustic treatments.

I have a few questions though.

The Onkyo looks great for features (and the HDMI makes a difference, he's planning on buying a PS3 soon, which is another reason he chose the Sharp) but the power looks weak for such a large speaker as the M80. I figured since he's only going 5.1, he could use the Onkyo and bi-amp the front speakers from the back-surrounds, which the Onkyo is set up to do.
Is this as simple as it seems and will it work? Will it be enough power for the M80's? And will the center have enough power on it's own?

He loves the Magneplanars ( I do too now) but the dealer warned that they are pretty darn power hungry.
Would the NAD be enough power, or are there better options?
And for as sub to go with them, is the PB10 mostly sufficient? I chose it because it would match, was cheap, and the fact that the MG12 go fairly low on their own. Would a bigger sub be better just for music? Or could he even step down to something like an X-sub?

That's about it. He's ready to buy, and I think this looks like an awesome set up. Does everything look rounded up fairly well?

Thanks for all your help, it's making me look smart and helping a good friend.

 

[ski2xblack]

The NAD C372 is conservatively rated at 150wpc, has very good dynamic power, and can push low impedances, so you should have no problems power-wise. There are other options in the sub $1K range, but the NAD is certainly a serious contender.

X-subs are nice looking, but you can get better performance for not many more ducats. Onix has several sealed type subs in the 4-6 bill range in their own lineup which are better than the x sub, particularly for music, at least in my humble opinion. I would think that those (UFW10, VFW10?? not sure of model numbers) are comparable to the SVS on your list. If the mains are fairly full range anyway, you want a true sub.

 

[mazersteven]

Is he going to have 2 rooms? One for HT and one for 2-channel? Why not one room for both?