I have just recently left the "dark ages" of home theater when I upgraded from a 0 def TV (Sony Videoscope XBR Big Screen 52") that I have had since I purchased my house in '96 to a 55" Samsung flat screen TV. Now I want purchase a home theater system. I am new to this world and need all the help I can get. I have been reading various opinions about how much one should spend and what are good speakers and receivers. I realize that this is all subjective like ice cream. I guess I'm just a little over whelmed now that I learned that there was more than vanilla out there
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I had my house pre wired for a HTS even though I have a vaulted ceiling in the family room where this system will go and it is open to the kitchen. I will need to have speakers mounted on the walls
After looking at different speakers and listening to some at local retailers I was going back and forth between BestBuy who showed me 2 different products.
1. Bowers & Wilkins MT-50 satellite speaker system which is $250 a piece for each (5 total) 4" satellite speaker= $1,250 + Bowers & Wilkins 10" 200 watt Sub for $650 or the REL T-5 sub for $700 for a total of $1,900 (give or take 50 depending on the sub)
2. Martin & Logan Motion 2 3 1/2" speakers at $200 a piece for a total of $800 with the Motion 6 3 1/2" center channel speaker $300 = $1,100 + Martin Logan "Dynamo" 600 watt 10" Sub $700 or the REL T-5 sub for $700 that they all seem to love at BestBuy for a total speaker expense of $1,800 (or $1,850 with the REL)
They recommended for this setup the Denon AVR 2113ci receiver for $649 and I noticed that Denon has since come out with a new line and has another model in that price range that is the same price which is the AVR-X2000 for $649. It's interesting to me that at BestBuy all the sales dept seem to favor Denon for what I was trying to do yet the other store that I will go into next pretty much said Denon was an inferior brand to Pioneer and pushed the Elite series to me.
The systems at BestBuy total approximate price system .1 $2,550 & .2 $2,500. Pretty similar price.
The second Home Theater Store recommended a Sunfire HRS satellite system with (2) HRS Sat4 + (2) HRS SAT4BIP + 1 HRS SAT 4C center channel speaker + HRS 8" sub for a total of $1,688 + Pioneer receiver (below) $499 = $2,187 This is a system that they said retailed at $4,000 that they had on sale. I did notice when I looked online that it was mostly with the 10" sub that it was around that $4,000 range but it was still intriguing that it was more bang for the buck. The only thing I don't like about this store is they don't give you the model numbers of the equipment and only the sku. This seems to be a way to get you not to compare and automatically makes me distrust the salesperson but that is just me. Also, the 1st time I went into the store another salesperson tried to sale me the Martin & Logan MLT2 satellite system for $1000 when you could buy it pretty much every where else for around $350.
The receiver they recommended is the Pioneer Elite VSX-43 $499 and the 1st sales person I didn't trust recommended the Sony ES STR-DA1800ES for 699.99 which is a 7.2 system the others are 7.1
The total approximate price for this option is $2,187 with Pioneer receiver and $2,387 with the Sony ES receiver option.
I'm also a little confused about the Sub selection. When I was in BestBuy they did an awesome job with the REL T5 sub showing it's versatility with a music CD they played that was pretty impressive. With that being said I'm probably more interested in getting some "boom" when I watch movies and even though I do listen to music I would not consider myself an audiophile. But what the REL did even compared to the Martin Logan sub and B&W sub was pretty impressive and it is the same price.
I also have read about the SVS subs and have looked at their website and they seem pretty impressive. I haven't been able to find a show room in Dallas that has those for me to listen to. I would very much appreciate any help in the choices that were given to me at the 2 different show rooms as well as any suggestions that you might have for me to look at.
I also want to add about my "sub" that I plan (if possible) to hook it up with a wireless adapter so that I could put it behind my couch in the back of the room. Thoughts on that would be appreciated as well.
Thank you in advance and I'm looking forward to hear what you guys think.
Stephen