The Official Unofficial Home Audio Thread

[SteelSD]

Ok, so the Roku/Fire TV/Chromecast thread started to get me thinking about home audio solutions (receivers, speakers, etc.). I'm not an audiophile, but have recently been upgrading my surround sound system and would love to hear what others are currently using...get some shared tips/advice on best practices for speakers, setttings, etc.

Currently, I'm running (room is about 20' by 20')...

Receiver: Sony DN 1060 7.2 Channel (no Dolby Atmos decoding unfortunately)

Center Channel: Sony Core SSCS8
Front L/R: Sony Core SSCS5 Bookshelf Speakers
Surround L/R: Yamaha NC-C125
Surround Rear: Sony SS-SRP900

Subwoofer 1: Paradigm PDR-80 (front-firing)
Subwoofer 2: Klipsch SW-350 (down-firing)

Yes, the surrounds used to be my L/R front speakers and my rear speakers my surround L/R. I'd like to upgrade both most likely. The Sony Core line, to me at least, is very strong; clear, solid mids and highs- faithfully reproducing HD sound without distortion. I consider the center and front channels to be the strength of my setup along with the subs. However, it's becoming more and more obvious that, as they continue to break in, the front sound wall of my system is separating from the surrounds and rears from a quality perspective. I'm a budget guy and with a smaller room I'm more concerned about bang for the buck and clarity than I am filling a big sound stage.

Now, I have my eye on a cheap (like $40 a pair) of Bowers and Wilkins LM-1 speakers to replace my rear set. They weren't cheap at all when new, but they're not near new any more and I have a concern that I'm tossing $40 at speakers well past their prime. Additionally, I'm kicking myself for not grabbing a couple of the Sony Core SSCS3 floorstanding speakers when they were half price @$119 per during the pre-Thankgiving day sales. But should I really be pining for floorstanding speakers or should I continue to use the bookshelf pair in front and upgrade my surround L/R channels with something else? Does anyone have advice on underrated/under-priced speakers that might match what I'm looking for?

Any feedback would be appreciated and anyone can feel free to share their setup (I'm sure some have drool-worthy stuff)!

[paintmered]

You don't have to spend a bunch of money to get good results.

For most (non-audiophile) people, the Dayton Audio bookshelf speakers are among the best value available. Dayton Audio is the house brand for Parts Express, located in Springboro. They have a small store at their warehouse location - I've picked up a few pairs of speakers for $20 each there before. They typically run around $50 a pair on Amazon - still a great value at that price.

I use a pair of those for my front channel speakers, one of their center channel speakers, a 12" powered sub, and two smaller satellite speakers that aren't quite up to snuff for the size of my room, but I keep them for aesthetics. I have a mid-end Yamaha receiver. It's not a professional setup, but I have less than $500 wrapped up in all of it and it is more than adequate.

[krm1580]

Back in the day before I had kids and we actually had money, I splurged on a 5.1 surround system built on Totem Accoustic speakers. Totem Sttaf for the Front L&R, Totem Mites for the Rear L&R, Totem Mite TC for the center and Totem Lightning for the sub. That was 12 years ago and to this day I still love them as they have amazing sound for a relatively small footprint.

Here is an idea for you if want to kick it around. I would certainly take a look if I was starting today: Magnepan speakers

Last February I was at my parents house in North Carolina and went over to their next door neighbors to help them mount their new flat screen TV. This guy has all really high end stuff - McIntosh Labs amp, Krell preamp. The stuff costs more than a new car, its crazy. Anyway he has these huge speakers with the most incredible sound reproduction I had ever heard and I walked up to them an noticed they were only like an inch deep and thought they were really cool, so I asked them half jokingly "what would a pair of these set me back" and he said $5000. I said, each? and he said no for the pair. (Now, quick reference point, high ends speakers on par with his other hardware are 20K+, so 5K is low.) He told me they were Magnepans made by a small company in Minnesota and they were the best speakers he ever heard at any price.

I looked them up and their surround speakers are the same technology its a hybrid ribbon design and they run as little as $300 a pair with the gap being that below a certain size you lose a certain amount of the low end. They do sell bass panels that will fill the gap and they are pretty reasonably priced. they have free trials and some of the models they will even pay you to try them. Not sure if it is something you are interested in but you could take a look. www.magnepan.com

[SteelSD]

You don't have to spend a bunch of money to get good results.

For most (non-audiophile) people, the Dayton Audio bookshelf speakers are among the best value available. Dayton Audio is the house brand for Parts Express, located in Springboro. They have a small store at their warehouse location - I've picked up a few pairs of speakers for $20 each there before. They typically run around $50 a pair on Amazon - still a great value at that price.

I use a pair of those for my front channel speakers, one of their center channel speakers, a 12" powered sub, and two smaller satellite speakers that aren't quite up to snuff for the size of my room, but I keep them for aesthetics. I have a mid-end Yamaha receiver. It's not a professional setup, but I have less than $500 wrapped up in all of it and it is more than adequate.

Thanks for the suggestion, paint. I've heard of Dayton Audio and the speakers generally get good reviews. I'll keep my eyes open.

Back in the day before I had kids and we actually had money, I splurged on a 5.1 surround system built on Totem Accoustic speakers. Totem Sttaf for the Front L&R, Totem Mites for the Rear L&R, Totem Mite TC for the center and Totem Lightning for the sub. That was 12 years ago and to this day I still love them as they have amazing sound for a relatively small footprint.

Here is an idea for you if want to kick it around. I would certainly take a look if I was starting today: Magnepan speakers

Last February I was at my parents house in North Carolina and went over to their next door neighbors to help them mount their new flat screen TV. This guy has all really high end stuff - McIntosh Labs amp, Krell preamp. The stuff costs more than a new car, its crazy. Anyway he has these huge speakers with the most incredible sound reproduction I had ever heard and I walked up to them an noticed they were only like an inch deep and thought they were really cool, so I asked them half jokingly "what would a pair of these set me back" and he said $5000. I said, each? and he said no for the pair. (Now, quick reference point, high ends speakers on par with his other hardware are 20K+, so 5K is low.) He told me they were Magnepans made by a small company in Minnesota and they were the best speakers he ever heard at any price.

I looked them up and their surround speakers are the same technology its a hybrid ribbon design and they run as little as $300 a pair with the gap being that below a certain size you lose a certain amount of the low end. They do sell bass panels that will fill the gap and they are pretty reasonably priced. they have free trials and some of the models they will even pay you to try them. Not sure if it is something you are interested in but you could take a look. www.magnepan.com

Awesome system and the Magnepan info was great, krm. I checked the website and followed the reviews. Wow. I had never heard of the company but, geez, are the reviews ridiculously good. The 20.7's are a bit (like all the way) out of my price range, but the 1.7's are actually something I could see myself saving up for. The reviews on those are insane! We sometimes have cause to travel to the cities and will put them on my "must visit" list. Really appreciate the info!

[SteelSD]

Update time...

After a lot of research, scouring Craigslist, eBay, pawn shops, and even Goodwill (their online auctions are not to be scoffed at, BTW...), here's what I've done...

Center: Center Channel: Sony Core SSCS8 (kept)
Front L/R: Definitive Technology SM65's
Surround L/R: Sony Core SSCS5 Bookshelf Speakers
Rear L/R: Bowers and Wilkins LM1's

I left the subs the same, but I'm thinking about replacing the down-firing Klipsh. I couldn't pass up the B&W LM1's at $40 for the pair and I'm glad I didn't. Their highs are amazing, and I tried them in front but while the mids were super-clear, they were just a bit too weak in the low-mid range. But as rears, they're outstanding. Every once in a while watching Blu-Rays, some of the effects (knocks, doorbells, certain background noises), I start looking around the room. They got me checking out B&W speakers, but while some were pretty affordable, I really wanted quality floorstanding speakers and those are...well...not affordable...

Then I visited one of the local pawn shops. Apparently, they recently had a run of folks pawning/selling quality speakers. I contemplated a set of Klipsh RF3 II floorstanders for $199 (with the assumption that I could talk them down a bit):



They're a little older, but get really good reviews and I figured I could negotiate to hit a price point @$150. However, after closer inspection, I noticed that three of the grill posts were broken- each at the top of the grill. That got me a bit worried that the speakers had either fallen over forward or dropped at some point. There were a couple other cosmetic issues, so I kept looking around the shop. Tucked in the corner of the electronics area were a pair of these:



Now, I apologize in advance for my ignorance. I hadn't considered that I'd find an affordable pair of Definitive Tech speakers that met my criteria. They're not floorstanders, but they might as well be. This shop had these sitting there for months, but didn't have them together as a pair. They're big and I kept mistaking them for lower-end Definitive HTIB subwoofers; not figuring out that they were actually higher-end Studio Monitor 65's ($900 a pair retail when new). Hell, a pair routinely sells (actually sells) for $400-$500 with shipping on eBay in similar condition. I didn't figure I could afford something like that so I was shocked SHOCKED when I saw they'd been marked down to $149 for the pair. Yeah, I was ballsy and tried to negotiate a further discount, but they were having none of it and I was so jazzed that I just handed them my debit card. They're currently hooked up and sound amazing (as expected- reviews on them border on audiophiles geeking out). I'll get stands for them or build them myself. I'm done with my setup for quite a while and the total cost for the seven speakers and two subs was $507 total.

[JaxRed]

Does anyone mind answering some "newbie" questions? A while back I had a fairly cheap surround sound system. Woofer, and 4 speakers. It worked ok, and I loved periodically when watching a movie and it would sound like a sound was coming from behind you. But it eventually stopped working.

1) I see all this talk about speaker bars. What good are they? They can't give you surround sound, right?

(If someone answers there will be follow-up newbie questions)

[SteelSD]

Does anyone mind answering some "newbie" questions? A while back I had a fairly cheap surround sound system. Woofer, and 4 speakers. It worked ok, and I loved periodically when watching a movie and it would sound like a sound was coming from behind you. But it eventually stopped working.

1) I see all this talk about speaker bars. What good are they? They can't give you surround sound, right?

(If someone answers there will be follow-up newbie questions)

Jax, we've owned three sound bars and no, you don't get real surround sound from them. The best we have is an LG Music Flow soundbar/wireless subwoofer combo that sounds quite good but it's really just to have an upgrade over my wife's living room TV speakers.

[paintmered]

Does anyone mind answering some "newbie" questions? A while back I had a fairly cheap surround sound system. Woofer, and 4 speakers. It worked ok, and I loved periodically when watching a movie and it would sound like a sound was coming from behind you. But it eventually stopped working.

1) I see all this talk about speaker bars. What good are they? They can't give you surround sound, right?

(If someone answers there will be follow-up newbie questions)

A soundbar can stimulate surround sound by directing sound in certain directions and having that sound reflect off of walls and other surfaces. Because of needing to "bounce" sound, how convincing its surround sound is will depend on where the listener is in the room - it might be decent in one place and awful in another. No, it doesn't work nearly as well as multiple speakers, but such a system will have greatly improved audio quality compared to a TV's terrible built-in speakers. They're also simple to install and are more WAF (wife acceptability factor) friendly. But the good soundbar systems encroach on the cost for a 5.1 surround sound system.

[JaxRed]

OK thanks. I did some follow up, researching what TV I had and it's capabilities. It's about a 2011/2012 era. Vizio M3D55SL.

https://www.vizio.com/m3d550sl.html (web page)

http://cdn.vizio.com/manuals/kb/legacy/m3d550sl.pdf (manual)

I'm pretty happy with what I bought. 3D set 55" 120Mhz refresh. 4 HDMI ports. One is ARC. Has optical out. Can't find out 100% sure that is has audio pass through but I've read where Vizio has been pretty good about this where other haven't.

Right now I'm using all 4 HDM's. 1) DirecTV 2) Roku 3)Mi Box Android 4) Computer. But I can probably lose the Mi Box.

I'm thinking of a set up like this. https://www.amazon.com/Sony-BDV-E210..._cd_al_qh_dp_t

It has an ARC HDMI port. So, if I connect this to the HDMI ARC port on my set, will my ROKU which is on HDMI 2 also play sound out of the ARC port into the audio system? Or is it only HDMI 1 (the ARC port). Basically I'm wondering if the ARC HDMI can be my only connection or do I also need an optical? Page 20 of the audio manual sure makes it seem like it.

https://docs.sony.com/release//BDV-E...3100_E2100.pdf

If so I think my audio-pass thru question is moot.

[SteelSD]

Jax, based on my understanding or ARC, I believe your TV will output audio to the ARC-enabled receiver regardless of which source input you're using. I would, however recommend looking at other options that include receivers with multiple HDMI inputs for the best bang for your buck.