Newbie needs a lot of guidance

[Bugg]

Hey All,
New to this home audio thing, just got an amazing system, total of 13 speakers.

I have a pair of Polk Audio RTi A7, one Polk Audio CSi A6, 2 pairs of Polk Audio FXi A6, 2 Polk Audio PSW 125, 2 pair of Polk Audio Atrium 50. (Sorry I'm new to the site and I can't post links).
Like I said earlier I'm new to this, BRAND NEW. I need to know what i need to get this going.

Here's where i'm having my dilemma. I want to put the floor standing speakers both sub the center speaker and all 4 surrounds in one room, that would be for the game system, dvd player, t.v.. I want to put two of the outdoor speakers in my bathroom for the Mrs. when she's showering and two outside for when we have company or we're just outside enjoyin the california weather. I want everything to be on one source. I want the speakers in the the bathrooom and outside to only play the radio and cd's, while the other speakers will play the radio, tv, game, etc. Is this possible, please let me know what would be needed. Please keep in mind that i have nothing, no source unit, no receiver, nothing but speakers, please get me goin in the right direction

 

[strube]

Hey All,
New to this home audio thing, just got an amazing system, total of 13 speakers.

I have a pair of Polk Audio RTi A7, one Polk Audio CSi A6, 2 pairs of Polk Audio FXi A6, 2 Polk Audio PSW 125, 2 pair of Polk Audio Atrium 50. (Sorry I'm new to the site and I can't post links).
Like I said earlier I'm new to this, BRAND NEW. I need to know what i need to get this going.

Here's where i'm having my dilemma. I want to put the floor standing speakers both sub the center speaker and all 4 surrounds in one room, that would be for the game system, dvd player, t.v.. I want to put two of the outdoor speakers in my bathroom for the Mrs. when she's showering and two outside for when we have company or we're just outside enjoyin the california weather. I want everything to be on one source. I want the speakers in the the bathrooom and outside to only play the radio and cd's, while the other speakers will play the radio, tv, game, etc. Is this possible, please let me know what would be needed. Please keep in mind that i have nothing, no source unit, no receiver, nothing but speakers, please get me goin in the right direction

Welcome to the forum!

That is definitely possible, and can be implemented a number of ways. Do you have a budget in mind for the remaining components? That would help because you have a multitude of options across the entire spectrum of budgets, now that you have your speakers covered.

 

[Bugg]

lol what other components are remaining and what would be the best and most cost efficient way of going about this?

 

[strube]

lol what other components are remaining and what would be the best and most cost efficient way of going about this?

Well you need a receiver with at least a second zone, which most have these days. This, besides wire and sources, is all you need to power your system.

Some receivers have networking capabilities so you can stream mp3s from your computer to your system. All of them will provide radio as a source.

Some receivers will have an amp section for your second zone, some will have a third zone to allow you to actually be watching a movie in your main system, listening to the radio in the bathroom, and listening to mp3s on the patio, but the third zone may or may not require another amplifier.

The amp section of your receiver needs to be powerful enough to power your speakers adequately, but they aren't terribly inefficient, so you don't need a ridiculous amount of power.

...etc.

Then, for sources I really think all you need is a blu-ray player (as long as you don't want to watch a movie and listen to a SACD or CD or DVD-AUDIO on zone 2, then you would want a second disc-source device). There again is a large range of blu-ray players to choose from, though the AH favorite is the Oppo because it can play absolutely everything. However, if you do find yourself wanting to watch a movie in the main room and listen to a CD in the other rooms, you may want a cheaper blu-ray player and a second optical disc player of some sort. I personally would never recommend to someone that a PS3 is the best option for blu-ray because I am a firm believer in standalone players as opposed to a gaming console that can also play movies, but I am sure some will disagree with me on that.

You mentioned gaming, so I assume you have or plan on having a gaming system. I am certainly not going to tell you which one of those to get. You can see which one I favor in my signature.

I can't just list two or three components and say if you buy these you will be happy, because I don't really know that, and you may not be aware of all features, etc. that you may be interested in using in the future. That is why I asked about a budget.

 

[Bugg]

WOW....I'm glad I stumbled onto this forum, half of what you wrote is like the teachers on "Peanuts" to me. Okay, let's try it like this, in the main room I want to be able to watch dvds, play my XBOX360Pro (i bought the pro then 2 weeks later the Elite dropped by $100, that sux), and listen to radio/cds. The bathroom and outside i strictly want music, just radio/cd's, want to be able to play in the bathroom and not outside and vica versa, as well as music throughout the entire system if I please. Haven't really done too much pricing but looking to spend up to $500. I'm havin an engagement party next year and want to get everything in working order, as well as keeping the budget right, kuz we all know what follows and engagement party, a life of suffering

 

[strube]

WOW....I'm glad I stumbled onto this forum, half of what you wrote is like the teachers on "Peanuts" to me. Okay, let's try it like this, in the main room I want to be able to watch dvds, play my XBOX360Pro (i bought the pro then 2 weeks later the Elite dropped by $100, that sux), and listen to radio/cds. The bathroom and outside i strictly want music, just radio/cd's, want to be able to play in the bathroom and not outside and vica versa, as well as music throughout the entire system if I please. Haven't really done too much pricing but looking to spend up to $500. I'm havin an engagement party next year and want to get everything in working order, as well as keeping the budget right, kuz we all know what follows and engagement party, a life of suffering

Man, that sucks. Can you return the 360 for a refund within some sort of 30 day window and get the Elite with the refund? They also have a $50 rebate for a little while still that puts it at $250!

I will get into a receiver recommendation in a while. Gotta work atm.

 

[Bugg]

LOL trust and believe i tried, i went back as soon as i saw the ad, they said they couldn't let me swap, but he did give me $100 back since the price change within 30 days. So yea, that was pretty cool of them.

 

[Bugg]

Would the Denon AVR-890 do what i'm interested in doing?

 

[Fenix]

Well it sounds like all you will need to purchase is the Blu-Ray player and the receiver, since you have the Xbox, you can use that to listen to music CDs or play your MP3's from your computer.

 

[Bugg]

For the other parts that i need i am looking to spend up to $500, the less the better. any suggestions?

 

[strube]

For the other parts that i need i am looking to spend up to $500, the less the better. any suggestions?

Ok, I have been looking into things. Here's the problem. Most receivers do either 7.1 or 5.1+2 channel zone 2.

Because you want to run 7.1 in your main system and drive a zone 2, you will need either a 9.1 receiver (Denon 4810CI would be my recommendation - spendy!), or a receiver (the 890 you mentioned earlier would be good - same thing as a 2310CI, but I wouldn't go any lower in Denon's line - an Onkyo 607 or 606 would work as well, these can be purchased refurbished for a good deal cheaper, and I think people actually have much better luck buying refurbished Onkyo than new Onkyo) and a zone 2 amplifier like this: http://www.jr.com/audio-source/pe/ASO_AMP100/.

For Blu-Ray on a budget, I like Panasonic. Samsung blu-ray players can do netflix and stuff but so can your xbox so I am sticking by my Panny recommendation.

 

[strube]

After that all you need is plenty of speaker wire (I like 14 AWG, but you are probably fine with 16 AWG), RCA's to hook up your Zone 2 amp, and 2 HDMI 1.3a cables in colors of your choice from the glorious Monoprice.

IF you want to stretch your budget a bit, you should look at maybe a little more power for the receiver - I am just saying that because power is good and you have some pretty nice speakers, which may shine a bit more with extra juice, IDK (I myself go for more power whenever possible ). If so, look at the Onkyo TX-NR807/HT-RC180 or 806 (805 would be the best, but they are very tough to find).

 

[Bugg]

Perfect, I do thank you so very much. Time to start piecing this thing together, thank you all for the input.

 

[strube]

Perfect, I do thank you so very much. Time to start piecing this thing together, thank you all for the input.

One more thing of interest that I forgot to mention that hopefully won't confuse things too much:

I don't know if your Xbox came with this set of cables, but you will probably need them because I am thinking zone 2 on most, if not all, receivers will only output an analog signal, meaning you actually would need that kit if it didn't come with your Xbox, and then an additional RCA audio cable like the one I linked above, so you can hook up the Xbox to analog input as well as HDMI on your receiver...

EDIT: Actually all you would probably need is the audio part (you can get the HDMI cable from Monoprice still), which is on Ebay for pretty cheap:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Genuine-XBOX-360-AUDIO-ADAPTER-OPTICAL-CABLE-HDMI-54_W0QQitemZ370267368958QQcmdZViewItemQQptZVideo_Games_Accessories?hash=item5635a7adfe&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-Optical-Audio-Adapter-XBOX-360-HDMI-AV-Cable-Gamin_W0QQitemZ180413747380QQcmdZViewItemQQptZVideo_Games_Accessories?hash=item2a017f50b4&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

http://cgi.ebay.com/Cw330-HDMI-Audio-Video-AV-Cable-Optical-for-Xbox-360_W0QQitemZ150376715248QQcmdZViewItemQQptZVideo_Games_Accessories?hash=item23032693f0&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

http://cgi.ebay.com/AUDIO-VIDEO-HDMI-AV-CABLEGaming-Cables-For-Xbox-360_W0QQitemZ280404532534QQcmdZViewItemQQptZVideo_Games_Accessories?hash=item4149699d36&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

...and so on.

 

[Bugg]

surprisingly, that made sense thx again

 

[jostenmeat]

FWIW, I highly recommend an extended warranty, if not too late to do so, on your xbox. My brother is on his third!

I got him the second one as a bday/xmas combo gift, and made sure to add the extended warranty of two years. Sure enough, it failed maybe only two months before that expired. When he replaced it, he made sure to add a new warranty.

I almost never buy warranties. The only other I ever have for AV is for my projector. $260 for two bulbs + 6 years was too hard to pass up. It appears, from what I have read, that gaming consoles are not the most reliable, and furthermore, the xbox has much higher failure rates than other consoles such as the ps3.

 

[strube]

FWIW, I highly recommend an extended warranty, if not too late to do so, on your xbox. My brother is on his third!

I got him the second one as a bday/xmas combo gift, and made sure to add the extended warranty of two years. Sure enough, it failed maybe only two months before that expired. When he replaced it, he made sure to add a new warranty.

I almost never buy warranties. The only other I ever have for AV is for my projector. $260 for two bulbs + 6 years was too hard to pass up. It appears, from what I have read, that gaming consoles are not the most reliable, and furthermore, the xbox has much higher failure rates than other consoles such as the ps3.

The newest iteration of Xbox 360's don't have near as many (if any) problems since they have basically been completely redesigned internally, but that is still probably good advice.

Two bad they had to redesign the thing two times before they got it right.

 

[strube]

Two bad they had to redesign the thing two times before they got it right.

As a member of the grammar police, I need to sit in a seat of shame or wear a hat of shame or some similar activity for that one.

 

[jostenmeat]

As a member of the grammar police, I need to sit in a seat of shame or wear a hat of shame or some similar activity for that one.

I actually thought it was done on purpose, FWIW. I don't know why.