Onkyo HT-S3300 5.1 Best for the $$ ?

[Flying freak]

New to the forum and looking for advice!

Im a college student looking to get above avg audio in my bedroom (listening to music, not gamming) The music will come from an optical cable hoked up to my computers graphic card.

Living in an apartment volume is not important to me I am more concerned with quality (THD I believe?)

So the question is can I do better for 500$? because I have no (and will never have) a use for video i thought about buying an old (pre hdmi) high end receiver and separate speakers, would this give me better audio?

All contributions would be very helpful!

Steven

 

[sholling]

For music you'd probably be better off putting together a 2.1 system as you suggested using the best used bits and pieces you can afford. The problem is knowing what you're looking at and being sure to test that gear before putting out any money.

A second approach is to go with bargain pieces that are a step up from HTIB. I'm not a huge fan of low-end Polks but Newegg.com has been having almost weekly clearance sales on Monitor 30s and 40s for $80-120 and they are a lot better than what comes with most HTIBs (M30 Review). Add a receiver with a good basic feature set like a refurbished Onkyo TX-SR508 - I'm suggesting an AVR for bass management and auto setup features. You don't save that much with a 2-channel receiver and most lack bass management. Top off with a decent for the money $200 music oriented subwoofer, I'll let others suggest the subwoofer.

 

[Flying freak]

sholling:

Thank you for giving me a place to start. Is there a reason you suggest a 7.1 receiver as appose to a 5.1 ?

Do you think trying to buy/find a pre hdmi (this should make them pretty cheap right) unit would be a good idea?

Is 2.1 generally considered better for music or are you suggesting that so that i can spend more on speakers/add later?

Anyone have any opinion on these?
Energy Take Classic 5.1 5.1CH Premium Home Theater System
(also on new eggs site)

 

[sholling]

I suggested the 508 for bass management and its Audyssey room correction not for the number of channels. No law says you have to use all of those channels. You can use it as a 2 or 2.1 receiver if you like. If you buy a stereo receiver for not much less money it won't have bass management or room correction or much else and it won't be much cheaper because of economies of scale. Manufacturers sell darn few stereo receivers.

On the other hand if you can find an older receiver with bass management (internal crossover to the sub) for a lot less money (say for $50-75) then I'd say go for it as long as it includes all of the bits and pieces and works, then apply that savings toward better speakers.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

For music you want to get pair of best possible speakers you budget could afford. Polks are ok, but I think if you be able to stretch you budget a bit you'd be amazed at how good this speakers are:
http://www.amazon.com/Energy-Reference-Connoisseur-floorstanding-speaker/dp/B001BY8WOA
Sold as Each, you'd need to buy two plus cost of AVR (+shipping) you'd be closer to $600, but it's really worth the extra dollars.
RC-30 can dip pretty low, but they are not full-range speaker. Eventally you'd want to add a sub, but I'm not sure if it's a good idea in apartment...
Some say it's ok, as long it's on subdude and playing at low-level, but I think I'd want to have sub room shaking, chest pounding experience - you can't have this in appartment as you'd get arrested/fined

In general HTIB is your worst choice for music

 

[Flying freak]

Thank you for the suggestion but I believe i forgot a critical element, size!

All of this is to listen to music while at the computer therefor smaller speakers would be ideal. 2 large floor type speakers would be ideal for the back 2 speakers but i see no way of playing them infront

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

Oh, I see.
One of better choices at this is AudioEngine 5
http://audioengineusa.com/Store/Audioengine-5
They don't accept digital input - you want something like this for your computer if you want something higher quality than onboard sound

 

[Flying freak]

Oh, I see.
One of better choices at this is AudioEngine 5

Could I power those through a receiver? I was thinking id feed the receiver a optical (digital) signal let it do the digital to analog conversion and put the signal out to the speakers.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

Any particular reason you insist on using AVR? AudioEngine are self powered - no need for external amps. They don't have dac, but Behringer UCA202 will this job nicely.
I mean is hdmi support is a must?

 

[Flying freak]

Any particular reason you insist on using AVR? AudioEngine are self powered - no need for external amps. They don't have dac, but Behringer UCA202 will this job nicely.
I mean is hdmi support is a must?

I was thinking AV receiver because possibility to expand in the future. I will not be running anything off of hdmi (trying to figure out if an old, pre hdmi ultra high end receiver would work and how expensive it would be).

I also thought a receiver would provide more adjust-ability and allow for a sub (sub will for sure be added in the future and i promise I will be nice to the neighbors).

 

[Flying freak]

This is an image of where id like to set it up. any ideas for speaker placement would be much appreciated.

my current idea was to left the monitors a bit and place the speakers below them. (same as im set up now just with better speakers)

 

[sholling]

For what you're doing these b-stock Behringer B2030P for $160 are a great choice with a subwoofer and a receiver. They excel up close.

Or you could go with powered speakers running directly off your sound card. I just haven't used any of the popular models. If there is a guitar center in the area you could go listen to some B2031A (larger amplified cousins of the B2030P - $200ea) and see if you like how they sound. You won't need a receiver and you could put off the subwoofer with the larger speaker. You can run a subwoofer off of must external soundcards you just have to manually balance the speaker/subwoofer volume levels.

 

[BassAddictJ]

HDMI support is overated IMO. if you know what you're doing you wont need it and you can save some $$ in the process...

 

[Flying freak]

Between the
onkyo 508
YAMAHA RX-V567BL
YAMAHA HTR-5063

Which would you suggest?

All seem to be at or around the same price. New egg currently has both the yamahas marked down by 200$ as they are recertified units (which I don't have a problem with)