Looking to buy 2.1 system for my living room.

[AcuDefTechGuy]

Pioneer, Boston, JBL, Infinity - all good.

 

[Mkilbride]

Find a retailer in your area. Even BB will ,or should, let you audition some gear. BTW I've heard some great things about those Pioneers as well. If a retailer won't give you the time to choose, then don't give them your business. Retailers should never make it hard for you to buy stuff!
Have fun,
Mike

Nothing like that exists in my area.

The Showroom at Best Buy is filled with 2500$ systems only. There's no place to go listen to the Bostons or so. We'll see.

 

[Mkilbride]

Don't see a way to edit my message.

So you're saying those Boston Floorstanding Speakers for 100$ are really good for the money?

 

[zieglj01]

So you're saying those Boston Floorstanding Speakers for 100$ are really good for the money?

Yes they are.

 

[Mkilbride]

Yes they are.

Just went and read reviews.

As far as I can tell, everyone is saying unless I'm willing to pay 300$ or more PER Floorstanding Speaker, I can't get better.

I guess I'll be getting them then, Put an order in tomorrow.

Receiver as well, speaker wire too. I may not need a center, I'm starting to think. I mean it's not a Surround Sound System, it's two floor standing speakers sitting on the sides of the TV...a center might be excessive unless I went surround. So I can probably just drop 100$ off there.

A sub, is important, so I'll still be getting that, though the floor standing speakers supposedly have some type of woofers in them, so I'm curious as to that.

I think it'll be really nice.

The TV I have has pretty bad ones in it. I mean, the way they work, if you're facing it at an angle, the sound comes off as robotic for some reason.

So this'll be a nice upgrade. The Sub still feels wildly expensive considering the floor standing spakers are supposed to deliver a similar effect with their woofers.

As for the sub, why not pair Boston with Boston?

http://www.accessories4less.com/make-a-store/item/BOSCSSUB10B/BOSTON-ACOUSTICS-CSSUB10-Classic-Subwoofer-Black/1.html#!more

 

[afterlife2]

Glad you took our suggestions make sure to post pics when you set everything up. The sub I suggested is better and has more power.

 

[zieglj01]

So this'll be a nice upgrade. The Sub still feels wildly expensive considering the floor standing spakers are supposed to deliver a similar effect with their woofers.

As for the sub, why not pair Boston with Boston?

BOSTON ACOUSTICS CSSUB10 Classic Subwoofer Black | Accessories4less

Bookshelf and tower speakers, can only give you a certain amount
of bass. A subwoofer, is used to fill the bottom end more.

I do not reccomend that Boston sub - I would buy this Energy sub
before that one.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16882269026

You may want to look at the - PA 120
http://www.sounddistributors.com/buynow.asp?action=detail&prid=197&crid=57&cat_name=Powered+Subwoofers

I would try to save up for this Rythmik sub.
http://www.rythmikaudio.com/FV12.html

 

[Scumfrog]

In your case, a good return policy is critical. Try what you like and you should be all set. If it works, keep it. If not, return and try something else. Keep reading reviews and asking questions. You are certainly getting a lot of ideas in addition to your own. I am sure you will make the right call!
Have fun,
Mike

 

[CDogg]

For purchases such as this I would buy them online instead of the store. You are saving yourself money and they offer a return policy if you are not satisfied. One place I would recommend is Cruthfield. Awesome tech support is there if needed.

Good luck and enjoy the music!

 

[GranteedEV]

Hmm,

What about these?

Pioneer - 5-1/4" 3-Way Floor Speakers (Pair) - Black - SP-FS51-LR

These are good speakers

Or what about this?

Amazon.com: Sony SSF-7000 Floor-Standing 4-way Speaker with 8" Woofer (Pair): Home Audio & Theater

x_X; no

Sony - 10" 100-Watt Powered Subwoofer - SAW2500

no.

Maybe even get the receiver in store?

600$ would be about my absolutely limit for everything, but I mainly watch alot of TV's, and movies. 50'' Panasonic Plasma, the ST30, calibrated and whatnot...I watch all the highest resolution content in loss format...figured I should get some decent audio to go with it.

Well... you're... optimistic.

Just went and read reviews.

Don't put much stock into subjective reviews.

As for the sub, why not pair Boston with Boston?

Because speaker companies usually make underperforming "tiny" subs made to sell in stores, not adequately performing adequately sized subs.

 

[Mkilbride]

Ugh, one of the reason I have trouble with the audiophile community. They see excessive as the norm.

Thanks for all your help, ordering the setup you recommended.

***

Orders placed on all of it.

Supposed to arrive around Wednesday or Thursday...which is perfect, I have Thursday and Friday off, time to put it together and listen.

THis is my first real audio system, only used my dinky PC Speakers from Logitech or PC Speakers til now. I imagine this will be miles ahead of that. My father has an old Sony system he bought when I was a kid, it's a radio though. That's the only real speaker system I've ever listened to, he bought it for like 800$ back then, real nice old setup...I broke it when I was a kid by taking a screw driver to it though it appears. Used to be able to play CD's ;P

Exciting stuff. Parting with that money hurt though. I imagine this is going to be like my Sound Card.

See, I bought a Sound Card for PC. I thought it sounded exactly the same as onboard sound. 2 years later, the card died and I had to get a replacement from Creative, still under Warranty.

Took them two weeks and it was two weeks of hell. Without the sound card everything was flat and dead and the levels were off. I imagine it'll be somewhat like that with this. At first I won't hear the huge difference I imagine, but if I ever went back to the DEFAULT Speakers, I'm sure I would.

Got two HDMI cable's, as I already had one spare, figure that's enough to hook my PS3 & TV up to it and one just in case. I can take my PC and hook it up to my TV, might do that to try it out with some games.

 

[zieglj01]

^^^^
Good Luck and have fun.

 

[Scumfrog]

Keep us posted and enjoy your new stuff!
Mike

 

[GranteedEV]

Ugh, one of the reason I have trouble with the audiophile community. They see excessive as the norm.

There's definitely a law of diminishing returns, but you are welll below it, so it's not excessive. Excessive is when you pass beyond that threshold.

 

[Mkilbride]

Pauls TV is the only website that didn't give me a tracking number and I didn't register an account at checkout, as I paid with Google Checkout. I got a Google order number though, but ...ugh.

Everything should arrive by Thursday...but I have no way to check the status of it.

Also, the Boston one is frustrating me. No status updates there.

Has just said "New Order" for 24 hours. No idea when it'll ship, no updates, nothing. The page for them says Out of Stock, so I'm worried that they charged me, but someone else bought around the same time and ugh.

I was hoping to have it all arrive by the end of this week ,b but I have no idea on the receiver or Speakers.

Wires, cables, and Subwoofer should all arrive Wednesday / Thursday.

 

[zieglj01]

^^^^
Hang in there, you should be getting the Boston status one - late this afternoon,
or by tonight. This is the first official business day.

 

[BM1]

I run Infinity Primus towers and sub for my 2.1 HT system. It's been great for my mixed movie, game, and music use, and it's definitely a good value price wise. They are cheap compared to others yet still sound good.

P363BK Towers
PS312BK Subwoofer

 

[Mkilbride]

The Receiver arrived today, quite nice, that's like...one day shipping...for free. I mean it doesn't ship on weekends...so yeah. Monday to Tuesday, one day.

Sadly, I can't say the same for the rest of it. Delivery Estimate for Monoprice is freaking Monday!

Subwoofer says it'll come NEXT Tuesday! Even though I chose the 3-5 day shipping...which cost me extra. If I had known it was going to take that long, I would have just taken the Free Super Saver. It's estimate was the same. I was hoping it'd all arrive Thursday / Friday, my days off. Boston Speakers are due to arrive tomorrow, though, which is pretty amazing once again for such a big product, free shipping, and 2 day shipping at that?

However, without the Speaker Cable, which will arrive Monday, I can't even do that

------------------

On the topic of the Receiver...THIS THING IS HUGE!

I had no idea!

I've seen receivers at other peoples houses and in store and when I first opened the box I thought they sent me two by mistake.

The thing is a mammoth! It might not fit in my TV's case

Christ. The instructions were terrible, but a CD came with it, so I guess I'll check it out. I plugged it in, it worked, everything looked solid. Just got to try hooking some speakers up to it

Still though, damn. So huge! I thought the box was just crazy big because they do that alot these days with items...but no, it really filled that damn box...

*

Manual seems helpful on the CD...but some of this stuff seems complicated. SO much work involved beyond just hooking them up and plugging it in.

So many settings to adjust and features to change.

 

[afterlife2]

Nice! Glad you got the receiver fast. You think yours is big you should see mine. lol. Make sure you have place it in a good ventilation spot. You don't have any type of speaker wires to try your speakers? You can always go to home depot and get some cheap ones in the mean time. Also check out some you tube videos for your receiver. Don't forget we want pics! Have fun.

 

[Mkilbride]

Nice! Glad you got the receiver fast. You think yours is big you should see mine. lol. Make sure you have place it in a good ventilation spot. You don't have any type of speaker wires to try your speakers? You can always go to home depot and get some cheap ones in the mean time. Also check out some you tube videos for your receiver. Don't forget we want pics! Have fun.

Eh, I ordered 100 feet of speaker wire, why would I not just wait a few days more? No reason to buy more...100 feet is already plenty.


I mean, I can even go 5.1 if I wanted to. Two bookshelf speakers for the back and a center...probably be able to pick all that up for like 300-350$ and have a nice 5.1 setup.