home theatre setup

[cameron123]

Hello everyone,

I am in need of some guidance from the pros. I am trying to build a home theatre and would like opinion from all the audioholics who have experience in these type of things.
Please note, I am interested in an advice not based on price or budget, my budget can be flexible. The room where all this will be placed is 13.5’ wide and 19’ long. Width is actually more but I will not be utilizing the whole place.

So, here are the questions;

1. I am looking to buy a receiver that would last me for some time and not get outdated like my last one. I have been looking at these receivers and It doesn’t matter to me which brand it just has to be a really good receiver with bells and whistles.

Onkyo NR807.
Onkyo TX-NR 1007
Pioneer VSX-9140TXH
Yamaha HTR 6295

2. I really want to be future ready hence I am interested to know What are the advantages of going 9.2 as opposed to 7.1?

3. I know that 9.2 has additional 4 speakers for height and wide, do we use the normal surround speakers for this task? If so, any recommendation as I need to buy another 4 speakers, I currently have the following set of speakers.


Front L/R. Polk audio RTi 10
Center, Polk audio CSi 5
2 Surround back, RTi 6.
Subwoofer, Velodyne DSP 12 (should I be adding another sub as well?)

4. I am also looking to buy a blue ray player and interested in this model so far as it has built in hard drive of 250GB. There are so many blu ray that say stream this, wireless that and TV’s as well come with internet connectivity, I am confused as to whether I need to by TV as well as blu ray that is wifi ready.

LG BD590.


5. I am also interested in the following TV as I really like its picture quality.

Sharp LC60LE810.

Closing Remarks: All I want is the best video and audio from my system for movies and have the option of streaming music/pics via computer if I need to. I also would like to be able to connect portable hard drive preferably via USB to play DVD’s.

I thank everyone in advance for their assistance.

 

[m_vanmeter]

1. those are all quality a/v receivers, pick the one that has the features you need. Each has it's strong points, but there is no "best"

2. very few movie soundtracks are actually encoded with 7.1 "unique" audio channels, most are fully 5.1 with the 2 rear channels in a 7.1 setup matrixed from the side channels. The newer receivers do have Dolby Pro Logic IIz which adds the additional 2 channels as "front high L&R" or "front wide L&R". Again, these are not unique encoded channels, but a matrixed mix of the front channels.

3. yes, regular surround speakers, usually on the smaller size so they fit in and there is not that much actual audio information on them anyway.

4. internet connectivity is nice for firmware upgrades, but only one device needs it to stream programming off the internet.

5. no comment on the Sharp, if you like it then that's what counts.