Newbee needs help with Home Theater Speakers

[CPanther1995]

Hi, I'm new to this board and really new to Home Theater. I recently bought an Onkyo HTS-770 package system. It's the only Home Theater in a Box I would consider because it looks upgradable. 1000 watts 6.1 surround sound and all speakers are 8 oms.

The receiver appears to be great,and the speakers don't sound bad. I've been told it's a great starter systm, I just need to add better speakers to it.
I've been looking at Bose because a good friend of mine has Bose 301 series V that sound great. He's also using a big Infinity center speaker, sorry I can't remember the model #. He said it's the next step up from the C25. he's also using Infinity bookshelf rear speakers. Watching a movie at his place is something else, and I wanted to duplicate that in my living room.

Rather than just copy someone, I wanted to do my own research. I thought I was sold on Bose 301's, and was in the process of finding out the difference between series IV and series V when I found this forum, and did a Bose 301 search and discovered alot of you don't like Bose.

I'm new to this, and I'm on a budget right now. I want to sell the Onkyo speakers I have and get new speakers. I've looked at the Infinity C25 center channel on ebay and the BIC DV62CLR center channel. I need a good bookshelf speaker like the Bose 301 's because of where I need to put my front speakers, right on top of my bookshelves on each side of my widescreen. It up high so it will not cause interferrence with my TV. If you don't think the 301's are really that good, is there something else that size that will do better?

As far as surround sound speakers, I was considering the Bose 161's due to their size, but now I'm not sure. They will be wall mounted. The Onkyo came with 3 rear speakers. I've been told by a few people to just set up the system as a 5.1 instead of 6.1 for now and turn the rear back channel off.
I may just keep the onkyo rear surround speakers and upgrade the front and center channels. That friend that owns the 301's gave me a subwoofer that sounds way better than the Onkyo subwoofer that came with my system.

Any recommendations for front, center and surround speakers will be helpful.

 

[markw]

You might want to specify a budget for those five speakers. (nt)

that helps...

 

[CPanther1995]

If I went with all Bose, 301 V, 161 rears and the VCS-10 center from Bose factory refurbished I would spend right under 500.00. I can get either that BIC or Infinity center channel for around 125.00 with shipping. I have seen Bose 301 series 4 for 160.00 + with shipping at ebay, 301 series V for 270-290+ at ebay.

I would like to stay close to these prices if possible. If not, I may need to upgrade a little at a time.

 

[markw]

Just post a total please.

I'm too old and tired to play math games.

 

[CPanther1995]

Around 500.00

 

[markw]

OK, here 's some advice to start with...

You should attemptto make sure that atleastthe frontthrespeakersare from the same brand and line. This will assure that the sound across thefront atleast is coherent. There's nothing like hearing Ahnold start out in the center and changing into pee wee herman when he's coming from the surrounds.

If you're going to be playing music a lot through the five channels, you should gat matching rear surrounds as well.

If you wouldconsider a nice pair of front surrounds and a cebter, then these would serve you VERY well.

for your front L/R:

http://www.audioadvisor.com/store/productdetail.asp?sku=ATHASB2&product_name=Audition AS-B2 Speakers - Pair

They put out some pretty nice, full bodied sound all on their own.

For your center:

http://www.audioadvisor.com/store/productdetail.asp?sku=ATHASC1&product_name=Audition AS-C1 Center Channel Speaker

That center and a pair of the B2's wil lset you back about $430.

These here would make good rear surrounds but would put you over your $500 budget by about $100, but if you could get by with four of them instead ogf the larger B2's, those plus that center would be $540. As far as front R/L, they are not quite as robust as the B2's above, but even with these as the front mains, they will be far, far better a Bose system

http://www.audioadvisor.com/store/productdetail.asp?sku=ATHASB1&product_name=Audition AS-B1 Speakers - Pair

P.S... if you could swing the $600 for a pair of B2's a pair of B1's and the C1 center, you'll never look at Bose again. As Captain Kirk would say, "promise"

 

[CPanther1995]

Athena must be something. They came up when I did another Bose search.
I'll look into this. Thanks.

 

[corysmith01]

Cpanther, if you do decide to go with the Athena (and that would be a good choice, no doubt), then hop on the as-b1's quick! You were just shown a link to them at audioadvisor for $179...but that might over shoot your budget. However, if you go and order them online at Best Buy, they're letting them go for an unbelievable $90 a pair. I think they're discontinuing this line at BB right now, and thus are selling them SUPER cheap. Go here and see:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=5335693&type=product&id=1051806301325

If you click where it says "see price in cart" it will show them as $89.98...half the price of the quote from Audioadvisor. Also, they're letting go of the floorstanding AS-F1's for a song too...but don't know if you want floorstanders.

Athena makes good stuff that everyone here has raved about, especially for the price-to-performance ratio, so you'd do yourself good with an Athena set-up.

 

[zumbo]

As David Lee Roth would say, "jump".

Oh, your receiver is not 1000watts. But it will work fine with the speakers recommended.

 

[CPanther1995]

I would like to have floorstanding front speakers, but the way my new TV ( 55" widescreen Mitsubishi) and the bookshelves on ea side ( one holds the home theater components and Satellite receiver , the other holds DVD's and they are bolted together with a lg shelf between the two) take up space, I don't have room beside the bookshelves. That's why i want a very good set of bookshelf speakers for front speakers.

I need to check out those Athena speakers. I was also looking at the Infinity Primus 160's, 150's and C25's. I just found out Infinity has a deal going on where if you buy $398.00 worth of qualifying speakers, you will get 2 150's for free.

Is Athena better than Infinity? Also, is it ok to just set up the stereo in 5.1 and leave 1 rear surround sound speaker off? My Onkyo is 6.1 with a real right back and left channel. Is there any real benefit to 6.1?

 

[Buckeyefan 1]

I need to back up here on this thread.

CP, why do you want to upgrade your speakers? You said your friend's system had Bose and they sounded great? What receiver does he have? A general consensus here feels Bose just aren't all that great. Athena speakers are wonderful, but may need a little more of a receiver than what you have. Infinity are OK, but the one's at CC aren't that great.

I think Onkyo is doing the public an injustice by claiming the wattage on your system is 130 watts per channel into 6 channels. Your receiver weighs 21 lbs. My fear is that your receiver is not going to be able to drive much more than what you have. The speakers supplied with your HTIB look fine, and I bet they sound very good with your receiver. Heck, your sub is a 10". I wouldn't go selling your speakers if you are unhappy with the sound. I would recommend you sell the system as a whole, or see if CC will upgrade you to a Harman Kardon or upper end receiver. Then you'll have the power to drive a full set of the amazingly low priced Athenas (that is an outstanding deal - I'd get 3 pair at that price!) Check out the misleading specs - they seem to put my $1300 Denon 3805 to shame:

>> product line >> Systems >> HT-S770
Receiver Section
Power Output (8 ohm, 1 kHz, FTC) 130 W/Ch
Dynamic Power*
THD (Rated Power) 0.08 % (all channels)
Frequency Response 20 Hz-100 kHz (+ 1 dB, - 3 dB)
Damping Factor (8 ?) 60
S/N Ratio 100 dB (IHF-A)

 

[CPanther1995]

That friend with the Bose 301's has a Sony receiver. It's a 600 watt 5.1, sorry I can't tell you what the model # s.

I have doubted that my system is a true 1000 watt system, but why do you think it cannot handle any more than these speakers. These speakers are 8 oms speakers, not the small 6 oms speakers that Wal Mart as in theri Panasonic and Pioneer HT in a Box systems. I didn't get it at Circuit City but at a local TV and appliance place, where I bought my Widescreen. I looked at one at Circuit City and was basically told you are paying for a good receiver and ok speakers. I was told it was upgradable. I'll e-mail Onkyo and ask them about this system. if it's not upgradable I'll talk to Queen City TV about taking it back.

 

[CPanther1995]

The owners manual for the HT-R520, the actual model # for the receiver states that you must use speakers with an impediance of 8 ohms or higher. less than 8 ohms will damage the system.

When I first hooked up the system, I used the standard wire they supplied. My friend with the Bose speakers told me to get 16 ga speaker wire, and it did make a difference. The existing speakers don't sound bad, but his center channel Infinity soulds better than mine for example. He has done a fair amt of home theater research and he couldn't find anything that would keep me from upgrading speakers if I wanted to.

I also did a google search and found a case on another forum where a guy used existing speakers with the system and they worked fine.

The HT-R520 looks identical to another receiver Onkyo made, the TX-SR502 which according to the Onkyo website is a 450 watt 6.1 surround sound HT receiver sold by itself and is last year's model.

I'll call Onkyo tomorrow morning and ask them.

 

[cuse4284]

from the consumer reviews i've been reading this might be the best receiver on the market . not only does it have 1000 watts but according to jr.com it has phono input and is hdtv capable. cant say that i've seen a receiver for less than a $1000 with a phono input these days. the only complaint that i saw about this system was that the cable that came with it was cheap, but that it didn't matter because you should be using monster cable anyways . this actually seems like a nice system for the price, $250. but i can't believe some of the specs that are out there on this thing. makes me lose faith in onkyo. probably wont be considering them as much in the future.

 

[markw]

Actually,

Athena speakers are wonderful, but may need a little more of a receiver than what you have.

These speakers I recommended have a sensitivity rating of 90 - 91 db. These can be driven by virtually any receiver to moderate levels. Most can achieve much more than moderate.

But, now he's talking about floorstanders. With that budget he's really pushing the quality envelope here. I'd recommend the Athena F1's (if they can be found!) which I think were selling for $300/pair or the F2's which areselling for $400/pair.

So much for that $500 budget.

 

[Takeereasy]

I'm going to quote myself from an earlier thread.

Can I suggest the HSU ventriloquest system. This sytem will beat the most little speaker system hands down. This system has won several awards and is praised as having an incredible cost/performance ratio. It tackles the lack of bass that small enclosures have in an innovative way. Another bonus is that you will get a kick butt sub out of the deal. Their website was down while I was typing this so I can't link you directly to the site, but I would suggest you look at either the STF-2 or STF-3 with those speakers. I'm not sure but I think you can get the package with the stf-2 for about $600. The website is hsuresearch.com and they have a free trial period as well. Good luck with your purchase.

One more thing I'd like to note is that the Ventriloquest won the budget system award while hooked up to an Onkyo 501 receiver using home depot speaker wire. Do yourself a favour and look at this over the Bose option please.

 

[CPanther1995]

I called Onkyo. They are sticking to their guns regarding the 1000 w / 130 w per channel rating. They did admit it was the same receiver as the TX-SR502, just reworked. The HT-R520/HTS-770 has a 2 yr parts and labor warranty and you can hook up any 8 ohm speaker to it. They recommend that the speaker be rated for 130 w. So I can use Athena, Infinity, or whatever.

They also pretty much confirmed that they sell this system at the price they do because of the speakers that come with it. The speakers are not Infinity, Athena, etc. They are not bad, but they are not the best. It is a system you can buy at a entry level price and upgrade.

In the last day I've gone into information overload researching this receiver and this system. You have to really dig to find some bad reviews. The majority of the reviews are positive.

 

[CPanther1995]

I'm going to quote myself from an earlier thread.



One more thing I'd like to note is that the Ventriloquest won the budget system award while hooked up to an Onkyo 501 receiver using home depot speaker wire. Do yourself a favour and look at this over the Bose option please.

Thanks, I'll check them out.

 

[Leprkon]

Bets Buy also has the Athena FS-1 floor standers for $ 97 each. They are, however, unfortunately sold out of the center channel. You might get lucky at the local store.

The Infinty deal (free 150's) is a great value unless you have a wife or you plan to wall-mount the speakers. The 150's are a true book-shelf speaker, not a surround. They could be actually used for your fronts, if you get the center, some rears, and a sub to add up to $ 399.

The 150's are big and heavy. If you use them for surrounds, you will either have a doggone big box hanging on your wall that your wife hates, or pieces of a big box lying on the floor surrounded by a bunch of masonry dust. Look them over at the nearest Circuit City before you actually buy or see if you could trade down to the 140's, which would be alot more usable as a surround.

 

[markw]

Gotta love it.

If you use them for surrounds, you will either have a doggone big box hanging on your wall that your wife hates, or pieces of a big box lying on the floor surrounded by a bunch of masonry dust.

... ...great visual imaging...