Rule of Thumb for a Home Theater System??

[MovingForward]

Curious to know what is a good Rule of Thumb(percentage breakdown) for a complete Home Theater system....??? Thanks...

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

http://www.audioholics.com/buying-guides/how-to-shop/ask-dr-a-the-budget-dance

 

[highfigh]

Curious to know what is a good Rule of Thumb(percentage breakdown) for a complete Home Theater system....??? Thanks...

I would say that there's really not a rule that's so simple. People have come up with their own but the user's needs will dictate how much needs to be spent on each item. For example, a person who will absolutely never play it at extremely high SPL will only waste a lot of money if they buy a high powered receiver. Conversely, someone who has major deficits in high, mid or low frequencies needs speakers that can sound good to them and that may mean a cheap speaker is perfectly fine.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

The Rule of Thumb

1) get the biggest baddest movie screen possible that will fit your room

2) Biggest baddest amp

3) Biggest baddest speakers that sound great

4) Cleanest purest sounding pre-pro with tons of HDMI I/O.

5) Biggest baddest subwoofer

 

[STRONGBADF1]

The Rule of Thumb

1) get the biggest baddest movie screen possible that will fit your room

2) Biggest baddest amp

3) Biggest baddest speakers that sound great

4) Cleanest purest sounding pre-pro with tons of HDMI I/O.

5) Biggest baddest subwoofer

Good to just get it over with from the get go...




There is no real rule of thumb ratio. Your priorities will change how much you spend on each item. The Audioholics recommendations are very good starting points though.

 

[jostenmeat]

I agree with highfigh, there is no simple breakdown.

If the speakers you love are easy to drive, then a beefy amp is not required. If the speakers you love are very hard to drive, a big amp is required.

If you sit only 6 feet away from display, a good plasma could fit the bill. If you sit 16 feet away from display, you need a projector.

If projector, and you have terrible light control, this budget could become astronomical.

If you have fantastic light control, the budget could be rather modest.

Small sized room can be pressurized easily. A very large open area may need not just a biggest baddest subwoofer, but perhaps multiple biggest baddest subwoofers.



All in all however, IMO, blow the budget on the things that make the greatest difference:

Video side, Display

Audio side, Speakers (includes subs)

They are the things that you finally perceive, and are doing by far the hardest part of the chain. It's easy enough to send the correct information from a bdp or cdp (and very affordbly too).

It blows my mind when some people spend more on a pre/pro than what the speakers are worth, or more on an amp, than what the speakers are worth. I mean, ok, extremely high budget, proportion can fall out of whack, but I mean for something like a mid-level budget.

If you buy monoprice (cabling, switcher, tv mount, etc), you may just have increased your budget by $1000, so happy hunting.

 

[pongaselo]

formula? we don't need no stinkin formulas

thx acutally has a screen size formula as well as height. Lighting control will dictate plasma vs projector. Pick speakers before amplification as if you pick well on the speakers they will probably last through a couple of amps. PSB or paradigm deserve your attention for speakers, Denon, Marantz and Yamaha for amps, Oppo or Panasonic for Blueray and Panasonic for Plasma, Epson for a projector and Tributaries for power management. speakers first