I apologize for the lack of updates in this thread. As a general recommendation, I would suggest that you make your own thread asking for advice here. Mention factors that we'll need to give you a good recommendation (your budget, existing equipment, sources you'll use, room size, aesthetic concerns, etc.)
The change in forum software also destroyed the formatting of this post. Perhaps the biggest problem is that this post was long enough that it was basically cut in half as the maximum length set up for the new forum software was far too short to contain all my original content.
I have a slightly updated draft that I could post as a multiple post thread, but I've sort of lost motivation to do so. Sorry
General Home Theater Audio Thread
Contents:
1. General Considerations
1.1 ? Auditioning
1.2 ? Internet-Direct vs. Retail
1.3 ? Used Equipment/Refurbished
1.4 ? DIY
1.5 ? Upgrade Path
1.6 ? WAF (?Wife Acceptance Factor?)
1.7 ? HTIB (Home Theater In a Box) vs. Individual Components
1.8 ? Speaker Roles and What to Look For
2. Product Recommendations
2.1 ? Budget + Spending Ratio
2.2 ? Speakers
2.3 ? Subwoofers
2.4 ? Receivers / Alternatives
2.5 ? Stuff to Avoid
2.6 ? Cables
3. Setup / Other Resources
3.1 ? Placement / Room
3.2 ? Calibration
3.3 ? Other Resources
3.4 ? Who is this Jello Character Anyway?
________________________________________________________________
1.1 ? Auditioning
I wanted to start this off making clear that audio stuff tends to not be as straightforward as some other areas of electronics purchasing. Particularly in the area of computers, it often comes down to cold hard numbers. If Videocard A gets 30FPS on a certain game at a certain resolution and settings and Videocard B gets 50FPS with the same test, then it?s a safe bet that it?s going to be the better card for just about anyone. There may be some minor quality differences between the images etc., but in the case of audio, it?s much harder to get a definitive answer for what constitutes the best option for someone.
In the case of audio, it really comes down to personal preference. There?s a saying that goes ?You can pick your friends, you can pick your speakers, but you can?t pick your friend?s speakers?. What may be the best choice for one person might not fit the taste of someone else. People can offer suggestions for products that give you good bang for your buck at a variety of price ranges, but there?s really no way to tell if it?s going to be something you?ll really like. That said, there are certainly some things to look for in a good sound system and some things are easier to recommend than others. Speakers are where the biggest ?personal preference? factor comes into play since there are so many quality products out there that vary quite a bit in what they sound like.
In order to really get the best match for what you want to get, auditioning different options is the way to go. I know from personal experience here on AT that the vast majority of people looking to get a sound system do not end up auditioning stuff based on any number of reasons (effort / time / distance / etc.). If at all possible, please try to get out and listen to some stuff in person to get an idea of what your options are. Ideally you would be doing the auditioning in your own final listening environment where your system will be, but that is often not the case. The way your room interacts with your system will be critical to how things are going to sound. That said, listening in a store is better than nothing. Especially in the case of some specialty AV stores, there can be some very decent setup jobs that will give you a good picture of what their equipment is capable of. Whether you?ll get the same results in your own home is a different story, but you?ll get an idea of what differences are between different products.
In order to audition equipment, you?ll want to bring your own source material. If you are not familiar with what?s being played, then you will have a harder time judging how things are sounding. There are some different schools of thought for what kind of material works best for auditioning. Some say classical music, some say bring stuff that you normally listen to, some say music is the true test of a system and not to bother with movies etc. When I am testing stuff now, I use a variety of stuff including a few songs that I?m very familiar with that include both male and female vocals and I throw in some well made and poorly made movie tracks to see how they handle things.
1.2 ? Internet-Direct vs. Retail
I?ll start off saying that I?m rather biased in this area since the majority of speaker / sub choices for the systems I?ve put together have been from internet-direct companies and I?ve been very happy with my purchases. There are certainly some excellent retail options out there and especially at high end budgets, it?s going to represent the majority of your best options. In the middle ground of the $500-$5000 sort of systems though, I think that there are some very good internet-direct options that should really be considered for systems in this price range.
Auditioning is the first drawback to purchasing internet-direct. By their very nature, these companies do not have locations setup throughout the country to give demonstrations of their products. Just to be clear, when I say internet-direct, I mean manufacturers that only sell through their own website direct to customers (SVS, HSU, Axiom, Ascend Acoustics, etc.) vs. buying regular retail products from online vendors (buying Polk through Fry?s website etc.)
There are a couple ways that you can audition these options though, and in some ways, it offers the best auditioning test you can get. One way to get an audition of these products is to try to locate a current owner of the same products. Many of these brands have a strong and loyal customer following that is enthusiastic enough about their products to give potential customers the opportunity to test the products in their own home. I have both gone to other owners? homes to test equipment and invited other people to hear my own system for these internet-direct brands. Several manufacturers have forums or other resources to help facilitate these kinds of auditions for potential customers.
A second way to audition these internet-direct products is through their in-home trial periods. Depending on the company, the specifics of their policy will vary, but in general you?ll get about a month to try out their products to see if you like them. During this period, if you decide not to keep them, you?ll ship them back to the manufacturer. In some cases, you?ll be out shipping both ways, some just one way, and others will cover shipping both ways meaning there is no cost to you at all. These in-home trial periods offer the best sort of audition you can get since you?ll be able to listen for an extended period of time, be able to use a lot of different source material, and you?ll be hearing the equipment in your own listening environment.
Of course retail stores will often have good return policies as well. Some higher end stores will also offer similar trial period options. I know I was personally surprised to find out how many small boutique-type AV shops were in my own area. There may be more options than you know about where you live so it?s something to check out. These kinds of stores may have attractive trade-up programs, offer great service, and other benefits.
Note that with retail options, it can be difficult to find list price info (vs. just MSRP, which is often inflated) to really know what your options are. Stores should be able to get you a discount though, especially if you're buying a whole system and more if you're paying in cash.
Some resources to find out how much people have paid for retail speakers might be looking at reviews at http://www.audioreview.com/ to see what people record as having paid for products.
Also, there are some places to look online that do give some figures for retail brand pricing.
This is out of date, but this page for example lists some pricing for Paradigm and B&W which could give you an idea of options that would be in your pricerange and relative prices between speaker lines and individual models.
http://www.bradfordshifi.com/prices.html
At the same time, I do not mean to imply that you cannot get excellent customer service or benefits through internet-direct companies. Due to the nature of their setup, they will often have excellent e-mail and phone communication. Some have forums where service representatives or even owners of the company will post. I have personally had some of my best customer service experiences dealing with these kind of online audio manufacturers.
1.3 ? Used Equipment/Refurbished
Another thing to consider when making purchases is going with used or refurbished equipment. For refurbished equipment, often times if you buy them directly through the manufacturer, you?ll get a new full warranty with the item. For example, the seller Harmanaudio on Ebay sells HK/Infinity/JBL products. ShopOnkyo has good deals on refurb receivers and HTIB sets, etc.
Going for used equipment is also another way to stretch your money. There?s always something better out there in the world of audio and that means that people are always upgrading. Individual manufacturer website forums, craigslist, ebay, etc. are full of used equipment. There are also a couple big AV related places to buy used stuff: http://www.audiogon.com/ and http://www.videogon.com/. I check a number of these places daily looking for good deals on things. If you know what you?re looking for, you can often find it for very good prices. I purchased my subwoofers and virtually the entire setup my parents are using from various used sources. Naturally there are the usual things to look out for when buying used products, but you can easily get products a step above what you?d be able to do for the same price new.
1.4 ? DIY
Do it yourself can be a great way to stretch your dollar in a different way. I have honestly not had the opportunity to do this myself for a variety of reasons, but many people swear that it is the only way to go. Projects range in complexity from easy to put together subwoofer kits to the very complex process of designing your own speakers with a wide range of projects between the two extremes. There are a lot of guides and resources to help you out if you think this is a route you want to take. A couple examples of sites that specialize in selling components are http://www.partsexpress.com/ and http://www.madisound.com/index.html.
Some resources to look at regarding DIY audio include:
http://www.diyaudio.com/
http://zaphaudio.com/
http://www.billfitzmaurice.com/
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/forumdisplay.php?f=155
http://www.htguide.com/forum/forumdisplay.php4?f=6 (Thanks Excelsior)
1.5 ? Upgrade Path
I think this is one of the critical things to consider while deciding what choices you want to make with your system. Depending on your long-term goals for your system, you have a wide range of options for how to start out a system or improve an existing one. Although other considerations come into play, budget is often the primary limiting factor for people purchasing systems. If you are the kind of person who wants to buy something all at the same time and not change anything in the future / spend any more money on it down the road, then this doesn?t apply to you as much. If you think you?ll want to make some changes and improvements down the road and will be able to spend some more on your system in the future, then leaving yourself and upgrade path is important.
If you are starting a system from scratch, you should consider getting an incomplete system to begin with if you want to leave an upgrade path.
For example, if you had $500 to spend, you have options including
1. Buy a $500 complete HTIB set with a decent receiver and very basic speakers and sub
2. Buy a $200 receiver and a pair of $300 speakers
3. Buy a $200 receiver, a pair of $150 speakers, and a $150 sub
In the short term, option #1 would give you a complete system, but options #2 and #3 would give you better sound quality.
In the long term, you?d have the choice to replace some of all of your basic speakers / sub for option #1. Since you already had a complete set to start with, you now no longer have a use for the original equipment.
In the long term for options #2 or #3, you have the ability to keep all the equipment you already paid for and just add on to the existing system.
Getting a system like #2 or #3 to start would be an especially good way to go if you plan on listening to music on your system as well as movies. With a stereo source like music, the sound is intended to by played by just your front two speakers and subwoofer (if you have one). Concentrating your funds on your front two speakers to start will give you much better music performance from the start and you?ll have a nice path to complete your surround sound system.
If you do decide to start a path like this, I would suggest going in the following order:
1. Receiver + Front two speakers
2. Add a Subwoofer
3. Add a Center Channel
4. Buy Surround Speakers OR Move the original Front Speakers to Surround and buy new Front Speakers
You can move up to 7.1 if you want, but it is not that big of a deal.
Keep in mind while making purchases and upgrading your system that you?ll want to keep your front three speakers timbre matched. To get a set of speakers that are timbre matched, you want to not only get speakers from the same manufacturer, but also from the same speaker series. Timbre matched speakers will tend to have the same tweeter and hopefully similarly sized drivers and thus crossover frequencies.
With matching speakers up front, panning effects across the front will sound right. If you had mismatched speakers, the way things sound would differ much more going from one speaker to the other which would be a distraction. Unless you?re going to be listening to multi-channel music (like DVD-A), matching your surround / rear speakers is not as big a deal. It would be nice if they matched, but with the material that?s usually on surround tracks in movies, it?s not going to be a big deal if they are timbre matched.
Surround speakers also have far less sound to produce on an average movie than the front three speakers. If you have a set of speakers already, you might think about using them for surround duty in your new system. The center channel is far more important and handles something like 70% of the sound from a typical DVD. The vast majority of dialogue will be running through the center channel as well as music and sound effects in many cases. Having a robust center channel will go a long way to making a positive movie experience with your system.
On the subject of matching, getting a sub that matches your speakers is not a big deal. While there is a very wide range of sounds from different speaker options, for the most part, a good sub is a good sub. There are certainly a lot of characteristics of good subwoofers and bad subwoofers, but do not be afraid to get a sub that does not match your speaker brand. I also think that there are often better bang for your buck subs from many different price points that do not really have matching speaker sets. You may be better off getting one of these over a subwoofer that goes with the speakers you are getting.
1.6 ? WAF (?Wife Acceptance Factor?)
No, I did not come up with this term myself, but thought it would be worth mentioning. It is basically the issue of messing up the ?feng shui? of a room. Having 6-8 big black boxes around the room connected by wires to a stack full of electronics can have a decidedly negative impact on the ?coziness? of the room. With so many people using their living room or bed room as their home theater (myself included), this can be an important factor to consider.
Speakers do not have to be big black boxes throughout your room. There are quite a few speakers out there that look pretty darn good and may get you bonus points despite their size. Many manufacturers also offer a variety of finish options including many wood grains as well as solid colors (like white) that could tend to minimize the intrusion of the speakers.
I think a lot of this comes down to size though. You do not have to get huge floor standing speakers to get good sound, but there are some limits to how small you can get before your sound quality becomes compromised. With subwoofers available to take care of the low end, you no longer need the huge cabinets of yesteryear in your speakers in order to house 10? + woofers to get a full frequency range, but at the same time, there are limits to how small the speakers can get and still give you good results.
In order to get the lowest frequencies present in movies, you?ll want to get a subwoofer with a 10? or larger driver to get those frequencies. A dedicated sub can take care of those very low frequencies, but you still want your speakers to produce a decent amount of upper bass. The average human tends to be able to localize bass starting around 80Hz and lower. If your subwoofer is producing much above that level, you will be able to hear that sounds are coming from the subwoofer rather than the speakers as intended. In order to set your crossover frequency low enough for the sub to create non-localized sound, you want your speakers to be able to produce good output down to (and below) that crossover level.
That basically boils down to wanting to have decent sized woofers in your speakers. There are exceptions to the rule, but this would be something to be worried about if you are looking at speakers with less than a 5? driver in them. With the low end covered with the subwoofer and the middle frequencies covered by that driver in the speakers, the tweeters will cover the high frequencies.
Some of the smallest speakers with highest WAF will try to get away with driver sizes in the speakers that try to cover both the middle and upper frequencies. They will certainly be small, but there will be compromises to the sound quality due to the size. Some do this better than others, but if you can possibly do it, try to get ?bookshelf? speakers or larger in your system. Many can be wall mounted to get them off the floor if that?s a concern.
In-wall speakers are another consideration for high WAF. I have not had the motivation or opportunity to consider looking into options in much depth, but there are a lot of options out there. Naturally you?ll be looking at a lot more effort to get things set up, but you can?t get a cleaner looking finished product when they are done well.
If you do need to get a small sized system for your own situation and in-wall speakers are out of the question, there are still some products that offer good results. If you need a system that blends into the room, there are some systems that are a good compromise of price / performance and others that are very poor price / performance. Check out "Bose" in section 2.5 to see why many people (including myself) think Bose should be avoided. There are several alternatives though that will either offer comparable performance for a fraction of the price, or can offer better performance for a similar price while still keeping the small profile of a Bose system.
1.7 ? HTIB (Home Theater In a Box) vs. Individual Components
Home theater in a box sets come in a variety of different budgets from ~$50 to over $1000. The defining characteristic of these sets is that they are complete packages that include everything you need all in one box. Speakers, subwoofer, receiver, cables, and sometimes DVD players etc. are included in these systems. Ease of setup, low price, and components that are designed to work well together are all advantages to getting a HTIB set.
Many of these sets suffer from the small speaker problem mentioned in the WAF section. The speakers tend to be the weak point in these systems, but they still offer good value for someone looking to get a system on a budget. Onkyo is one company that makes above average HTIB sets. The receivers they use with there sets are pretty decent and would serve you well if you wanted to use them in an upgraded system by replacing the speakers that come with the HTIB system.
There are a number of good options out there. One resource to use to find out more information is the HTIB area of AVSforum.
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/forumdisplay.php?f=109
With individual components, you have far more options. You will be able to pick your receiver, speakers, and subwoofer to meet your own needs and preferences. Setup will basically be the same process, but may not be as straightforward as setting up a system with unified instructions. In most cases you can end up with higher quality system going with individual components vs. a HTIB set. There is a certain minimum budget level where it is very difficult to put together a system from components however, so HTIB sets and upper level computer speaker sets become the only game in town for those budgets.
1.8 ? Speaker Roles and What to Look For
If you have not caught the recurring theme already, it is that your speaker choice is very important. If at all possible, audition several options at several price ranges to get a picture of what your options are.
This is intended to be a HT related audio thread, but most people will also be listening to music on their system as well. Particularly with music, your front two speakers are going to be very important. As I mentioned in section 1.5, stereo sources like music are intended to be played back on just your front two speakers (and subwoofer if present). Just because you have a surround sound set does not mean that it is always best to have everything playing. This is a case where more does not necessarily mean better. You can decide for yourself which way you like playing things best, but running music as just stereo will probably get you better results than applying surround processing on it to get more speakers to play.
Leaving the music to be produced by just the front two speakers (and subwoofer) will allow your system to create a realistic illusion of depth and width to the sound. Imaging and soundstage are terms that refer to this creation of a sound environment from your speakers. Surround processing to get stereo to play on more than your front two speakers can really mess up your imaging and soundstage. So, the point is that if you are a music person, your front two speakers are going to be very important. Even if you do not listen to music on its own, music in movies also tends to be mainly played back on your front two speakers. In this case, all the points for imaging and soundstage come into play as your front speakers are asked to playback music from movies.
For strictly movies, the center channel takes the crown for the most important speakers. Again as I mentioned in 1.5, the center handles the vast majority of audio from a typical movie. Getting a good center channel is very important for your movie experience. Sometimes the center channel in systems will be a much smaller and less robust speaker. This can lead to the sound being overwhelmed or drowned out from your main speakers, especially if you do not have things calibrated correctly.
The information on the center channel track of a movie is very important, but there are situations where it is not necessary to have a dedicated center channel speaker. Getting back to the ideas of imaging and soundstage, if you are sitting at the correct location between your two front speakers, it is easy to have sound seeming like it is coming from anywhere between those two speakers by playing the same sounds from both speakers and varying the volume. With both playing the same thing at equal volume, it seems like the sound is coming from directly between the two speakers. In this way, you can have a ?phantom? center that makes it seem like voices are coming from between your two front speakers. Depending on your receiver, you should be able to downmix surround tracks to get the center channel information played back by your front speakers in this way.
In addition to not having to buy a center channel speaker, one advantage to this is that you know that sounds coming from the ?center? will match perfectly with the sounds from your front two speakers. The timbre matching issues are all gone and you have a seamless transition between your front ?three? speakers. As long as you can set up your speakers to image well, you should get good results taking this route.
The problem with this comes when there is more than one person listening or if you cannot sit in a location directly between your front speakers. Moving just a very short distance away from that ?sweet spot? can ruin the imaging of your speakers and it no longer sounds as it should. When two or more people are watching, then it would be very difficult to present each person with sound from those two speakers that create the sense of centered sound (unless you have a strange seating setup of some kind).
This is where your center channel comes into play. For more than one person listening in a room, the center channel acts to anchor those sounds to the middle where you want them. With your front speakers typically to the right and left sides of your display, the center channel will take care of sounds intended to do with things that are happening in the middle of the screen as well as the vast majority of dialogue. From multiple seating locations, sound will consistently match up with the location of the screen.
As mentioned in 1.5, making sure that your center matches your front speakers is important. In order to create seamless transitions of sound between your front three speakers, you want them to match as closely as possible. If you?re able to, getting exactly the same speaker for the front three would be the best bet to getting this seamless sound. Most people are going to end up with a horizontally oriented ?center channel? speaker though, due to aesthetics and placement limitations.
For your surround speakers, there are two main types ? direct radiating and dipole. Direct radiating are just ?regular? speakers that fire straight ahead while dipoles have two sides that radiate sound at angles away from center. There are also some other configurations that offer slight differences between these two arrangements or try to offer the best of both. Dipoles create a more diffuse sound and it?s more difficult to localize them. Try to get a demo of both kinds of speakers for surround / rear duty and see what you like best. Often times, there are situations where one type of speaker may work better than the other due to seating position, distance from walls, etc. Think about your own room and where the speakers could be placed.
2.1 ? Budget + Spending Ratio
As with a lot of things, you pretty much get what you pay for with audio equipment (well? with some exceptions). Your budget is obviously going to determine what kind of options you have. The sky is the limit when it comes to this kind of stuff. If you are the kind of person who wants to spend $100,000+ on your setup, there are products out there for you. From my own experience going into audio related thread over the past few years, the average AT member is looking in the $200 - $2500 range for HT audio systems with the majority in the $400-$1000 range. Most AT HT systems including display seem to run in the $1000-$6000 range.
http://forums.anandtech.com/me...id=38&threadid=1965974
Unless you are going to buy a HTIB set, then a top priority in your new system is going to be how much you are going to spend on individual components. I think that for the price range that the average AT member is looking for, that a 2:1:1 ratio for Speakers:Sub:Receiver is a good starting point.
For example, if your budget is $1000, I would recommend looking at roughly $500 for speakers, $250 for a receiver, and $250 for a sub.
Sometimes there are specific features that someone is looking for (usually with the receiver) that would tend to require a different ratio, but I think this is a good general starting point to getting a balanced system.
My own personal experience has led me to believe that for overall sound quality, your speaker choice is going to have the biggest impact with sub choice #2 and receiver choice making the smallest difference. Having tried a number of receiver, speakers, and subs at a variety of price points, I think spending the bulk of your budget on speakers will give you the best overall results in the end.
Speakers would also tend to be more ?future-proof? than electronics. A good set of speakers and sub should last you a long time and hold their value well. A receiver on the other hand may become outdated quicker, especially with new surround formats and input types. Although it seems like the worst of it may be coming to an end with proper HDMI audio processing making it into mid-range receivers, you are more likely to find your receiver obsolete than your speakers/sub. In addition to the sound quality advantage to investing more in your speakers/sub, I think this factor of how long you are likely to keep components should come into play.
When shopping for speakers, the front three speakers are far more important than the surround / rear speakers. For movies, there is typically much less being played on surround / rear tracks than the tracks for the front three speakers. Take this into consideration when planning your speaker choices. If you?re going to skimp somewhere, do it on the surround / rear speakers.
2.2 ? Speakers
Since budget is really a big factor here, I think I?ll order this by price ranges.
This is not meant to be an exhaustive list as there are hundreds of options out there. These are just some starting points for some products that are generally thought of as good performance value.
I?ll start with bookshelf speakers and then move on to floorstanding options. Often, there will only be one or two center channel speaker options for a given company?s particular speaker series. As I think I made clear earlier, either pick this best matching center channel or use speakers from the same series across the front three speakers at least.
I?m going to concentrate on internet-oriented suggestions since retail options would tend to vary by your location.
JBL
Polk
Paradigm
B&W
Infinity
PSB
Boston Acoustics
Klipsch
Monitor Audio
Energy
Definitive Technology
Etc.
Bookshelf Speakers
Polk R-Series ($50)
Fry?s Electronics / Outpost tends to have good prices on these speakers. (Only buy when they're on sale)
http://shop1.outpost.com/searc...&submit.x=0&submit.y=0
It tends to be ~$50/pair for R150s
http://shop1.outpost.com/product/4965491
The matching center for the R-Series is the CSR, although some people opt for different centers from Polk.
As I?m writing this, Outpost has the CSR for $80
http://shop1.outpost.com/product/4966251
(These prices fluctuate a lot, so if they're not on sale but you're interested... then you can try waiting for the next sale. Amazon also has decent prices from time to time on these)
Best Buy Insignia B2111 ($75)
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/ol...oduct&id=1138085354138
These were very well regarded when they originally came out. The price has since went up from ~$40 to $75 a pair so the value has gone down although they still seem to be a solid choice.
Also, some DIY enthusiasts have used these speakers in upgrade projects that improve the stock sound. Example: http://www.gr-research.com/ind...on=VIEWPROD&ProdID=132
Infinity Primus ($100-$200)
http://www.electronics-expo.co...h_query=primus&x=0&y=0
http://www.crutchfield.com/S-E...&search=primus&x=0&y=0
Infinity could be an option to try out in retail stores to see if you like them while there are some alternative buying options online. The Primus series recently updated from the older XX0 series to the XX2 series.
(Thanks herm0016)
Update: looks like $200 per pair is what they're going for now. Make sure to check the price you're looking at for a single vs. for a pair.
Radiient Europa ($100)
http://www.radiient.com/Europa...eakers?sc=2&category=6
Also a good value for budget speakers are their 5.0 systems that just need a subwoofer and receiver to complete the system.
Update: looks like these are gone... anyone know where to find these again? Seems like Radiient doesn't even sell speakers anymore?
Athena Audition ($100)
http://www.audioadvisor.com/products.asp?dept=49
Audio Advisor tends to have discounted prices on Athena speakers, sometimes b-stock or demo units as well
Update: looks like the Audition series is pretty much cleared out from Audio Advisor
Elemental Designs ($150-$365)
http://www.edesignaudio.com/index.php?cPath=2_42
Elemental Designs has made a very good impression with their subs. They have speakers out now too. I haven't found any real reviews of them, but I've seen a lot of positive comments from users.
SVS SBS ($225)
http://www.svsound.com/products-spks-sbs01.cfm
Formerly just a subwoofer manufacture, SVS started their speaker line with these models. On the horizon are the midrange SVS speakers with much higher quality components and a pricetag to go with it.
HSU HB-1 ($300)
http://www.hsuresearch.com/products/hb-1.html
HSU has also started to get into the speaker business after formerly concentrating on just subwoofers.
Aperion Audio ($260-$700)
http://www.aperionaudio.com/ca...teandbookshelf,20.aspx
One of the internet direct brands with a totally risk-free trial including shipping both ways allowing you to try them out in your home.
Axiom Audio ($296-$470)
http://www.axiomaudio.com/bookshelfspeakers.html
Axiom?s bookshelf speakers start to make it into this range.
Ascend Acoustics ($348-$848)
http://www.ascendacoustics.com...speakers/spkrlist.html
The CBM-170 is the small bookshelf speaker put out by Ascend and is very well reviewed. The CMT-340 and the new Sierra-1 make up the higher-end models.
Swan Diva ($500)
http://www.theaudioinsider.com...ts_new.php?cPath=21_30
Swan has the original Diva speakers and the New Diva series.
Update: looks like the original Diva line is sold out at AudioInsider and the X.2 lineup doesn't have a bookshelf speaker option?
The site also sells the more affordable Acculine lineup
http://www.theaudioinsider.com...s/acculine/cPath/21_32
Era D4 ($600)
http://www.signalpathint.com/i...k=view&id=14&Itemid=46
Quality speakers with high WAF (Thanks for the suggestion s44)
SVS MBS ($1000)
http://www.svsound.com/products-spks-mts01.cfm
SVS's middle speaker options (high-end not out yet)
ACI ($700-$1500)
http://www.audioc.com/speakers1/speakers.htm
Thanks for the addition Tiamat, I knew I missed some good ones.
Floorstanding Speakers
Polk R-Series ($100-$150)
Fry?s Electronics / Outpost tends to have good prices on these speakers. When on sale, they may come to the top of this search link
http://shop1.outpost.com/searc...&submit.x=0&submit.y=0
The newer R300s tend to go on sale for $100/pair from here.
The older R30s and R50s also go on sale regularly. Keep an eye on the finish of the speaker you?re ordering as it doesn?t always match the picture. (Black and Cherry are the finish options I have seen).
Infinity Primus ($360-$600)
http://www.electronics-expo.co...h_query=primus&x=0&y=0
http://www.crutchfield.com/S-E...&search=primus&x=0&y=0
Infinity could be an option to try out in retail stores to see if you like them while there are some alternative buying options online. The Primus series recently updated from the older XX0 series to the XX2 series.
(Thanks herm0016)
Elemental Designs ($500)
http://www.edesignaudio.com/index.php?cPath=2_42
Elemental Designs has made a very good impression with their subs. They have speakers out now too. I haven't found any real reviews of them, but I've seen a lot of positive comments from users.
Aperion Audio ($650-$1400)
http://www.aperionaudio.com/catalog/Tower,28.aspx
Again, risk-free trial on the Aperion products.
Axiom Audio ($780-$1330)
http://www.axiomaudio.com/towers2.html
SVS MTS ($1500)
http://www.svsound.com/products-spks-mts01.cfm
SVS's middle speaker options (high-end not out yet)
This is really just scratching the surface for options. I don?t mean to offend anyone by leaving things out that you think should be on this list, so if you have some good bang for the buck suggestions, I would gladly add them to the list. Also, I didn?t give a lot of options above the ~$1500/pair range.
I did this for a number of reasons including:
- Most of the people on Anandtech looking for speakers don?t seem to be in that pricerange? and those that are, aren?t my target audience with this guide.
- If you?re spending that kind of money, you should definitely be listening in person to your different options although auditioning should still be a priority for any budget
- A lot of your options are going to start to get more exotic and perhaps specific to what?s available locally since Internet-Direct type companies tend to focus on lower pricepoints usually
- I personally don?t have as much experience in priceranges beyond this range besides limited listening sessions to products that I can?t personally afford and thus haven?t had much exposure to them.
2.3 ? Subwoofers
For subwoofers, in general it?s not as critical to go out and demo them to see if one suits your personal tastes as much as your speaker choice. Certainly there are some subs that are better at playing music than others and some that are better at home theater than others, but much more so than speakers, a good sub is a good sub.
Although subs can often be somewhat hidden away in a corner or otherwise out of the way, aesthetics (and WAF) becomes a big factor some of the time for subwoofer choice largely due to fact that a lot of subwoofers are big black boxes. Bigger is often better in terms of subwoofer performance concerning driver sized and cabinet volume as well, so there are some compromises to be made.
Again, I?ll go through some of the popular internet options. There are some good retail options out there and a lot of rather bad retail options out there as well. As a general trend, retail subs tend to be on the smaller size in terms of volume and this can lead to some shortcomings especially in low frequency extension. There are certainly exceptions to this, but from my own experience with comparing to retail options... internet direct, or DIY options especially are a good idea.
Subwoofers
Dayton Basic Subwoofers ($95-$155)
http://www.partsexpress.com/pe...fm?&Partnumber=300-631
http://www.partsexpress.com/pe...fm?&Partnumber=300-633
http://www.partsexpress.com/pe...fm?&Partnumber=300-635
Dayton has gone through a couple revisions on their budget subwoofers and things have changed around a bit as far as configuration and performance goes. My experience with the 10? was based on the version before this and as I understand it, performance has gone down a bit since the previous version. They?re still strong bang-for-your-buck for a budget sub. Price fluctuates a bit and Partsexpress has free shipping sales from time to time making the deals sweeter.
BIC H-100 (~$230)
No link for this one as this one is generally bought off ebay. A search for ?BIC H-100? (without the quotes) should bring up some with ?Best offer? auctions. From what I understand, an offer of around $229 tend to get accepted.
update from s44:
"Well, there are two subs claiming to derive from the H100. There's the F12, which is BIC's direct replacement. The Twister Group and Beach Audio had it for just under $200, but both are OOS right now. You can also get it through Amazon.
There's also the Premier Acoustics PA-120, which seems to be sold by the same ebay guy who was selling the H100 there before. It's a different company from BIC, though it may be the same Chinese source or something as the H100. No one's tested all three subs together, to see how different these similar but not exactly identical items are. This one i still $230 on ebay (search for PA-120, though he's still putting H100 in the auction titles)."
Dayton Titanic Mark III Subwoofers ($550-$900 assembled, $320-$620 unassembled)
http://www.partsexpress.com/pe...fm?&Partnumber=300-761
http://www.partsexpress.com/pe...fm?&Partnumber=300-635
http://www.partsexpress.com/pe...fm?&Partnumber=300-765
Kits:
http://www.partsexpress.com/we...bjectGroup_ID=536&SO=2
Dayton?s higher line of subwoofers combines better cabinets, better amps, and better drivers for much better performance than the budget line. These are available in assembled as well as kit form. Again, watch for free shipping deals on these.
HSU ($300-$1300)
http://www.hsuresearch.com/subwoofers.html
HSU offers a wide range of designs for different priceranges as well as some unique products / accessories like their dedicated Mid-Bass module.
SVS ($430-$1600)
http://www.svsound.com/products-sub.cfm
SVS makes a traditional ?box? subwoofer line as well as a ?cylinder? line. From their basic sub, the PB10-NSD to their new Ultra subs based on their new 13? woofer, SVS offers great bang for the buck through their whole range.
Epik Subwoofers ($550-$1600)
http://www.epiksubwoofers.com/products.html
Epik is a recent addition to the list of internet direct subwoofer companies.
Elemental Designs ($315-$2200)
http://www.edesignaudio.com/edv2/index.php?cPath=2_41
Another one of the newer internet direct options, Elemental Designs is taking what it has learned from Car Audio and applying it to their line of home audio subs offering great bang-for-the-buck.
ACI ($800-$2250)
http://www.audioc.com/speakers1/speakers.htm#subwoofers
Thanks for the addition Tiamat, I knew I missed some good ones.
From S44:
Rythmik ($700-$1000) has made a big splash with their sealed direct-servo subs. Flat and deep response, very musical. They also sell drivers & amps for DIY. You can also buy through Ascend.
Again, these are just some of the options out there trying to cover the ~$100 - $2000 range for subwoofers.
The change in forum software also destroyed the formatting of this post. Perhaps the biggest problem is that this post was long enough that it was basically cut in half as the maximum length set up for the new forum software was far too short to contain all my original content.
I have a slightly updated draft that I could post as a multiple post thread, but I've sort of lost motivation to do so. Sorry
General Home Theater Audio Thread
Contents:
1. General Considerations
1.1 ? Auditioning
1.2 ? Internet-Direct vs. Retail
1.3 ? Used Equipment/Refurbished
1.4 ? DIY
1.5 ? Upgrade Path
1.6 ? WAF (?Wife Acceptance Factor?)
1.7 ? HTIB (Home Theater In a Box) vs. Individual Components
1.8 ? Speaker Roles and What to Look For
2. Product Recommendations
2.1 ? Budget + Spending Ratio
2.2 ? Speakers
2.3 ? Subwoofers
2.4 ? Receivers / Alternatives
2.5 ? Stuff to Avoid
2.6 ? Cables
3. Setup / Other Resources
3.1 ? Placement / Room
3.2 ? Calibration
3.3 ? Other Resources
3.4 ? Who is this Jello Character Anyway?
________________________________________________________________
1.1 ? Auditioning
I wanted to start this off making clear that audio stuff tends to not be as straightforward as some other areas of electronics purchasing. Particularly in the area of computers, it often comes down to cold hard numbers. If Videocard A gets 30FPS on a certain game at a certain resolution and settings and Videocard B gets 50FPS with the same test, then it?s a safe bet that it?s going to be the better card for just about anyone. There may be some minor quality differences between the images etc., but in the case of audio, it?s much harder to get a definitive answer for what constitutes the best option for someone.
In the case of audio, it really comes down to personal preference. There?s a saying that goes ?You can pick your friends, you can pick your speakers, but you can?t pick your friend?s speakers?. What may be the best choice for one person might not fit the taste of someone else. People can offer suggestions for products that give you good bang for your buck at a variety of price ranges, but there?s really no way to tell if it?s going to be something you?ll really like. That said, there are certainly some things to look for in a good sound system and some things are easier to recommend than others. Speakers are where the biggest ?personal preference? factor comes into play since there are so many quality products out there that vary quite a bit in what they sound like.
In order to really get the best match for what you want to get, auditioning different options is the way to go. I know from personal experience here on AT that the vast majority of people looking to get a sound system do not end up auditioning stuff based on any number of reasons (effort / time / distance / etc.). If at all possible, please try to get out and listen to some stuff in person to get an idea of what your options are. Ideally you would be doing the auditioning in your own final listening environment where your system will be, but that is often not the case. The way your room interacts with your system will be critical to how things are going to sound. That said, listening in a store is better than nothing. Especially in the case of some specialty AV stores, there can be some very decent setup jobs that will give you a good picture of what their equipment is capable of. Whether you?ll get the same results in your own home is a different story, but you?ll get an idea of what differences are between different products.
In order to audition equipment, you?ll want to bring your own source material. If you are not familiar with what?s being played, then you will have a harder time judging how things are sounding. There are some different schools of thought for what kind of material works best for auditioning. Some say classical music, some say bring stuff that you normally listen to, some say music is the true test of a system and not to bother with movies etc. When I am testing stuff now, I use a variety of stuff including a few songs that I?m very familiar with that include both male and female vocals and I throw in some well made and poorly made movie tracks to see how they handle things.
1.2 ? Internet-Direct vs. Retail
I?ll start off saying that I?m rather biased in this area since the majority of speaker / sub choices for the systems I?ve put together have been from internet-direct companies and I?ve been very happy with my purchases. There are certainly some excellent retail options out there and especially at high end budgets, it?s going to represent the majority of your best options. In the middle ground of the $500-$5000 sort of systems though, I think that there are some very good internet-direct options that should really be considered for systems in this price range.
Auditioning is the first drawback to purchasing internet-direct. By their very nature, these companies do not have locations setup throughout the country to give demonstrations of their products. Just to be clear, when I say internet-direct, I mean manufacturers that only sell through their own website direct to customers (SVS, HSU, Axiom, Ascend Acoustics, etc.) vs. buying regular retail products from online vendors (buying Polk through Fry?s website etc.)
There are a couple ways that you can audition these options though, and in some ways, it offers the best auditioning test you can get. One way to get an audition of these products is to try to locate a current owner of the same products. Many of these brands have a strong and loyal customer following that is enthusiastic enough about their products to give potential customers the opportunity to test the products in their own home. I have both gone to other owners? homes to test equipment and invited other people to hear my own system for these internet-direct brands. Several manufacturers have forums or other resources to help facilitate these kinds of auditions for potential customers.
A second way to audition these internet-direct products is through their in-home trial periods. Depending on the company, the specifics of their policy will vary, but in general you?ll get about a month to try out their products to see if you like them. During this period, if you decide not to keep them, you?ll ship them back to the manufacturer. In some cases, you?ll be out shipping both ways, some just one way, and others will cover shipping both ways meaning there is no cost to you at all. These in-home trial periods offer the best sort of audition you can get since you?ll be able to listen for an extended period of time, be able to use a lot of different source material, and you?ll be hearing the equipment in your own listening environment.
Of course retail stores will often have good return policies as well. Some higher end stores will also offer similar trial period options. I know I was personally surprised to find out how many small boutique-type AV shops were in my own area. There may be more options than you know about where you live so it?s something to check out. These kinds of stores may have attractive trade-up programs, offer great service, and other benefits.
Note that with retail options, it can be difficult to find list price info (vs. just MSRP, which is often inflated) to really know what your options are. Stores should be able to get you a discount though, especially if you're buying a whole system and more if you're paying in cash.
Some resources to find out how much people have paid for retail speakers might be looking at reviews at http://www.audioreview.com/ to see what people record as having paid for products.
Also, there are some places to look online that do give some figures for retail brand pricing.
This is out of date, but this page for example lists some pricing for Paradigm and B&W which could give you an idea of options that would be in your pricerange and relative prices between speaker lines and individual models.
http://www.bradfordshifi.com/prices.html
At the same time, I do not mean to imply that you cannot get excellent customer service or benefits through internet-direct companies. Due to the nature of their setup, they will often have excellent e-mail and phone communication. Some have forums where service representatives or even owners of the company will post. I have personally had some of my best customer service experiences dealing with these kind of online audio manufacturers.
1.3 ? Used Equipment/Refurbished
Another thing to consider when making purchases is going with used or refurbished equipment. For refurbished equipment, often times if you buy them directly through the manufacturer, you?ll get a new full warranty with the item. For example, the seller Harmanaudio on Ebay sells HK/Infinity/JBL products. ShopOnkyo has good deals on refurb receivers and HTIB sets, etc.
Going for used equipment is also another way to stretch your money. There?s always something better out there in the world of audio and that means that people are always upgrading. Individual manufacturer website forums, craigslist, ebay, etc. are full of used equipment. There are also a couple big AV related places to buy used stuff: http://www.audiogon.com/ and http://www.videogon.com/. I check a number of these places daily looking for good deals on things. If you know what you?re looking for, you can often find it for very good prices. I purchased my subwoofers and virtually the entire setup my parents are using from various used sources. Naturally there are the usual things to look out for when buying used products, but you can easily get products a step above what you?d be able to do for the same price new.
1.4 ? DIY
Do it yourself can be a great way to stretch your dollar in a different way. I have honestly not had the opportunity to do this myself for a variety of reasons, but many people swear that it is the only way to go. Projects range in complexity from easy to put together subwoofer kits to the very complex process of designing your own speakers with a wide range of projects between the two extremes. There are a lot of guides and resources to help you out if you think this is a route you want to take. A couple examples of sites that specialize in selling components are http://www.partsexpress.com/ and http://www.madisound.com/index.html.
Some resources to look at regarding DIY audio include:
http://www.diyaudio.com/
http://zaphaudio.com/
http://www.billfitzmaurice.com/
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/forumdisplay.php?f=155
http://www.htguide.com/forum/forumdisplay.php4?f=6 (Thanks Excelsior)
1.5 ? Upgrade Path
I think this is one of the critical things to consider while deciding what choices you want to make with your system. Depending on your long-term goals for your system, you have a wide range of options for how to start out a system or improve an existing one. Although other considerations come into play, budget is often the primary limiting factor for people purchasing systems. If you are the kind of person who wants to buy something all at the same time and not change anything in the future / spend any more money on it down the road, then this doesn?t apply to you as much. If you think you?ll want to make some changes and improvements down the road and will be able to spend some more on your system in the future, then leaving yourself and upgrade path is important.
If you are starting a system from scratch, you should consider getting an incomplete system to begin with if you want to leave an upgrade path.
For example, if you had $500 to spend, you have options including
1. Buy a $500 complete HTIB set with a decent receiver and very basic speakers and sub
2. Buy a $200 receiver and a pair of $300 speakers
3. Buy a $200 receiver, a pair of $150 speakers, and a $150 sub
In the short term, option #1 would give you a complete system, but options #2 and #3 would give you better sound quality.
In the long term, you?d have the choice to replace some of all of your basic speakers / sub for option #1. Since you already had a complete set to start with, you now no longer have a use for the original equipment.
In the long term for options #2 or #3, you have the ability to keep all the equipment you already paid for and just add on to the existing system.
Getting a system like #2 or #3 to start would be an especially good way to go if you plan on listening to music on your system as well as movies. With a stereo source like music, the sound is intended to by played by just your front two speakers and subwoofer (if you have one). Concentrating your funds on your front two speakers to start will give you much better music performance from the start and you?ll have a nice path to complete your surround sound system.
If you do decide to start a path like this, I would suggest going in the following order:
1. Receiver + Front two speakers
2. Add a Subwoofer
3. Add a Center Channel
4. Buy Surround Speakers OR Move the original Front Speakers to Surround and buy new Front Speakers
You can move up to 7.1 if you want, but it is not that big of a deal.
Keep in mind while making purchases and upgrading your system that you?ll want to keep your front three speakers timbre matched. To get a set of speakers that are timbre matched, you want to not only get speakers from the same manufacturer, but also from the same speaker series. Timbre matched speakers will tend to have the same tweeter and hopefully similarly sized drivers and thus crossover frequencies.
With matching speakers up front, panning effects across the front will sound right. If you had mismatched speakers, the way things sound would differ much more going from one speaker to the other which would be a distraction. Unless you?re going to be listening to multi-channel music (like DVD-A), matching your surround / rear speakers is not as big a deal. It would be nice if they matched, but with the material that?s usually on surround tracks in movies, it?s not going to be a big deal if they are timbre matched.
Surround speakers also have far less sound to produce on an average movie than the front three speakers. If you have a set of speakers already, you might think about using them for surround duty in your new system. The center channel is far more important and handles something like 70% of the sound from a typical DVD. The vast majority of dialogue will be running through the center channel as well as music and sound effects in many cases. Having a robust center channel will go a long way to making a positive movie experience with your system.
On the subject of matching, getting a sub that matches your speakers is not a big deal. While there is a very wide range of sounds from different speaker options, for the most part, a good sub is a good sub. There are certainly a lot of characteristics of good subwoofers and bad subwoofers, but do not be afraid to get a sub that does not match your speaker brand. I also think that there are often better bang for your buck subs from many different price points that do not really have matching speaker sets. You may be better off getting one of these over a subwoofer that goes with the speakers you are getting.
1.6 ? WAF (?Wife Acceptance Factor?)
No, I did not come up with this term myself, but thought it would be worth mentioning. It is basically the issue of messing up the ?feng shui? of a room. Having 6-8 big black boxes around the room connected by wires to a stack full of electronics can have a decidedly negative impact on the ?coziness? of the room. With so many people using their living room or bed room as their home theater (myself included), this can be an important factor to consider.
Speakers do not have to be big black boxes throughout your room. There are quite a few speakers out there that look pretty darn good and may get you bonus points despite their size. Many manufacturers also offer a variety of finish options including many wood grains as well as solid colors (like white) that could tend to minimize the intrusion of the speakers.
I think a lot of this comes down to size though. You do not have to get huge floor standing speakers to get good sound, but there are some limits to how small you can get before your sound quality becomes compromised. With subwoofers available to take care of the low end, you no longer need the huge cabinets of yesteryear in your speakers in order to house 10? + woofers to get a full frequency range, but at the same time, there are limits to how small the speakers can get and still give you good results.
In order to get the lowest frequencies present in movies, you?ll want to get a subwoofer with a 10? or larger driver to get those frequencies. A dedicated sub can take care of those very low frequencies, but you still want your speakers to produce a decent amount of upper bass. The average human tends to be able to localize bass starting around 80Hz and lower. If your subwoofer is producing much above that level, you will be able to hear that sounds are coming from the subwoofer rather than the speakers as intended. In order to set your crossover frequency low enough for the sub to create non-localized sound, you want your speakers to be able to produce good output down to (and below) that crossover level.
That basically boils down to wanting to have decent sized woofers in your speakers. There are exceptions to the rule, but this would be something to be worried about if you are looking at speakers with less than a 5? driver in them. With the low end covered with the subwoofer and the middle frequencies covered by that driver in the speakers, the tweeters will cover the high frequencies.
Some of the smallest speakers with highest WAF will try to get away with driver sizes in the speakers that try to cover both the middle and upper frequencies. They will certainly be small, but there will be compromises to the sound quality due to the size. Some do this better than others, but if you can possibly do it, try to get ?bookshelf? speakers or larger in your system. Many can be wall mounted to get them off the floor if that?s a concern.
In-wall speakers are another consideration for high WAF. I have not had the motivation or opportunity to consider looking into options in much depth, but there are a lot of options out there. Naturally you?ll be looking at a lot more effort to get things set up, but you can?t get a cleaner looking finished product when they are done well.
If you do need to get a small sized system for your own situation and in-wall speakers are out of the question, there are still some products that offer good results. If you need a system that blends into the room, there are some systems that are a good compromise of price / performance and others that are very poor price / performance. Check out "Bose" in section 2.5 to see why many people (including myself) think Bose should be avoided. There are several alternatives though that will either offer comparable performance for a fraction of the price, or can offer better performance for a similar price while still keeping the small profile of a Bose system.
1.7 ? HTIB (Home Theater In a Box) vs. Individual Components
Home theater in a box sets come in a variety of different budgets from ~$50 to over $1000. The defining characteristic of these sets is that they are complete packages that include everything you need all in one box. Speakers, subwoofer, receiver, cables, and sometimes DVD players etc. are included in these systems. Ease of setup, low price, and components that are designed to work well together are all advantages to getting a HTIB set.
Many of these sets suffer from the small speaker problem mentioned in the WAF section. The speakers tend to be the weak point in these systems, but they still offer good value for someone looking to get a system on a budget. Onkyo is one company that makes above average HTIB sets. The receivers they use with there sets are pretty decent and would serve you well if you wanted to use them in an upgraded system by replacing the speakers that come with the HTIB system.
There are a number of good options out there. One resource to use to find out more information is the HTIB area of AVSforum.
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/forumdisplay.php?f=109
With individual components, you have far more options. You will be able to pick your receiver, speakers, and subwoofer to meet your own needs and preferences. Setup will basically be the same process, but may not be as straightforward as setting up a system with unified instructions. In most cases you can end up with higher quality system going with individual components vs. a HTIB set. There is a certain minimum budget level where it is very difficult to put together a system from components however, so HTIB sets and upper level computer speaker sets become the only game in town for those budgets.
1.8 ? Speaker Roles and What to Look For
If you have not caught the recurring theme already, it is that your speaker choice is very important. If at all possible, audition several options at several price ranges to get a picture of what your options are.
This is intended to be a HT related audio thread, but most people will also be listening to music on their system as well. Particularly with music, your front two speakers are going to be very important. As I mentioned in section 1.5, stereo sources like music are intended to be played back on just your front two speakers (and subwoofer if present). Just because you have a surround sound set does not mean that it is always best to have everything playing. This is a case where more does not necessarily mean better. You can decide for yourself which way you like playing things best, but running music as just stereo will probably get you better results than applying surround processing on it to get more speakers to play.
Leaving the music to be produced by just the front two speakers (and subwoofer) will allow your system to create a realistic illusion of depth and width to the sound. Imaging and soundstage are terms that refer to this creation of a sound environment from your speakers. Surround processing to get stereo to play on more than your front two speakers can really mess up your imaging and soundstage. So, the point is that if you are a music person, your front two speakers are going to be very important. Even if you do not listen to music on its own, music in movies also tends to be mainly played back on your front two speakers. In this case, all the points for imaging and soundstage come into play as your front speakers are asked to playback music from movies.
For strictly movies, the center channel takes the crown for the most important speakers. Again as I mentioned in 1.5, the center handles the vast majority of audio from a typical movie. Getting a good center channel is very important for your movie experience. Sometimes the center channel in systems will be a much smaller and less robust speaker. This can lead to the sound being overwhelmed or drowned out from your main speakers, especially if you do not have things calibrated correctly.
The information on the center channel track of a movie is very important, but there are situations where it is not necessary to have a dedicated center channel speaker. Getting back to the ideas of imaging and soundstage, if you are sitting at the correct location between your two front speakers, it is easy to have sound seeming like it is coming from anywhere between those two speakers by playing the same sounds from both speakers and varying the volume. With both playing the same thing at equal volume, it seems like the sound is coming from directly between the two speakers. In this way, you can have a ?phantom? center that makes it seem like voices are coming from between your two front speakers. Depending on your receiver, you should be able to downmix surround tracks to get the center channel information played back by your front speakers in this way.
In addition to not having to buy a center channel speaker, one advantage to this is that you know that sounds coming from the ?center? will match perfectly with the sounds from your front two speakers. The timbre matching issues are all gone and you have a seamless transition between your front ?three? speakers. As long as you can set up your speakers to image well, you should get good results taking this route.
The problem with this comes when there is more than one person listening or if you cannot sit in a location directly between your front speakers. Moving just a very short distance away from that ?sweet spot? can ruin the imaging of your speakers and it no longer sounds as it should. When two or more people are watching, then it would be very difficult to present each person with sound from those two speakers that create the sense of centered sound (unless you have a strange seating setup of some kind).
This is where your center channel comes into play. For more than one person listening in a room, the center channel acts to anchor those sounds to the middle where you want them. With your front speakers typically to the right and left sides of your display, the center channel will take care of sounds intended to do with things that are happening in the middle of the screen as well as the vast majority of dialogue. From multiple seating locations, sound will consistently match up with the location of the screen.
As mentioned in 1.5, making sure that your center matches your front speakers is important. In order to create seamless transitions of sound between your front three speakers, you want them to match as closely as possible. If you?re able to, getting exactly the same speaker for the front three would be the best bet to getting this seamless sound. Most people are going to end up with a horizontally oriented ?center channel? speaker though, due to aesthetics and placement limitations.
For your surround speakers, there are two main types ? direct radiating and dipole. Direct radiating are just ?regular? speakers that fire straight ahead while dipoles have two sides that radiate sound at angles away from center. There are also some other configurations that offer slight differences between these two arrangements or try to offer the best of both. Dipoles create a more diffuse sound and it?s more difficult to localize them. Try to get a demo of both kinds of speakers for surround / rear duty and see what you like best. Often times, there are situations where one type of speaker may work better than the other due to seating position, distance from walls, etc. Think about your own room and where the speakers could be placed.
2.1 ? Budget + Spending Ratio
As with a lot of things, you pretty much get what you pay for with audio equipment (well? with some exceptions). Your budget is obviously going to determine what kind of options you have. The sky is the limit when it comes to this kind of stuff. If you are the kind of person who wants to spend $100,000+ on your setup, there are products out there for you. From my own experience going into audio related thread over the past few years, the average AT member is looking in the $200 - $2500 range for HT audio systems with the majority in the $400-$1000 range. Most AT HT systems including display seem to run in the $1000-$6000 range.
http://forums.anandtech.com/me...id=38&threadid=1965974
Unless you are going to buy a HTIB set, then a top priority in your new system is going to be how much you are going to spend on individual components. I think that for the price range that the average AT member is looking for, that a 2:1:1 ratio for Speakers:Sub:Receiver is a good starting point.
For example, if your budget is $1000, I would recommend looking at roughly $500 for speakers, $250 for a receiver, and $250 for a sub.
Sometimes there are specific features that someone is looking for (usually with the receiver) that would tend to require a different ratio, but I think this is a good general starting point to getting a balanced system.
My own personal experience has led me to believe that for overall sound quality, your speaker choice is going to have the biggest impact with sub choice #2 and receiver choice making the smallest difference. Having tried a number of receiver, speakers, and subs at a variety of price points, I think spending the bulk of your budget on speakers will give you the best overall results in the end.
Speakers would also tend to be more ?future-proof? than electronics. A good set of speakers and sub should last you a long time and hold their value well. A receiver on the other hand may become outdated quicker, especially with new surround formats and input types. Although it seems like the worst of it may be coming to an end with proper HDMI audio processing making it into mid-range receivers, you are more likely to find your receiver obsolete than your speakers/sub. In addition to the sound quality advantage to investing more in your speakers/sub, I think this factor of how long you are likely to keep components should come into play.
When shopping for speakers, the front three speakers are far more important than the surround / rear speakers. For movies, there is typically much less being played on surround / rear tracks than the tracks for the front three speakers. Take this into consideration when planning your speaker choices. If you?re going to skimp somewhere, do it on the surround / rear speakers.
2.2 ? Speakers
Since budget is really a big factor here, I think I?ll order this by price ranges.
This is not meant to be an exhaustive list as there are hundreds of options out there. These are just some starting points for some products that are generally thought of as good performance value.
I?ll start with bookshelf speakers and then move on to floorstanding options. Often, there will only be one or two center channel speaker options for a given company?s particular speaker series. As I think I made clear earlier, either pick this best matching center channel or use speakers from the same series across the front three speakers at least.
I?m going to concentrate on internet-oriented suggestions since retail options would tend to vary by your location.
JBL
Polk
Paradigm
B&W
Infinity
PSB
Boston Acoustics
Klipsch
Monitor Audio
Energy
Definitive Technology
Etc.
Bookshelf Speakers
Polk R-Series ($50)
Fry?s Electronics / Outpost tends to have good prices on these speakers. (Only buy when they're on sale)
http://shop1.outpost.com/searc...&submit.x=0&submit.y=0
It tends to be ~$50/pair for R150s
http://shop1.outpost.com/product/4965491
The matching center for the R-Series is the CSR, although some people opt for different centers from Polk.
As I?m writing this, Outpost has the CSR for $80
http://shop1.outpost.com/product/4966251
(These prices fluctuate a lot, so if they're not on sale but you're interested... then you can try waiting for the next sale. Amazon also has decent prices from time to time on these)
Best Buy Insignia B2111 ($75)
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/ol...oduct&id=1138085354138
These were very well regarded when they originally came out. The price has since went up from ~$40 to $75 a pair so the value has gone down although they still seem to be a solid choice.
Also, some DIY enthusiasts have used these speakers in upgrade projects that improve the stock sound. Example: http://www.gr-research.com/ind...on=VIEWPROD&ProdID=132
Infinity Primus ($100-$200)
http://www.electronics-expo.co...h_query=primus&x=0&y=0
http://www.crutchfield.com/S-E...&search=primus&x=0&y=0
Infinity could be an option to try out in retail stores to see if you like them while there are some alternative buying options online. The Primus series recently updated from the older XX0 series to the XX2 series.
(Thanks herm0016)
Update: looks like $200 per pair is what they're going for now. Make sure to check the price you're looking at for a single vs. for a pair.
Radiient Europa ($100)
http://www.radiient.com/Europa...eakers?sc=2&category=6
Also a good value for budget speakers are their 5.0 systems that just need a subwoofer and receiver to complete the system.
Update: looks like these are gone... anyone know where to find these again? Seems like Radiient doesn't even sell speakers anymore?
Athena Audition ($100)
http://www.audioadvisor.com/products.asp?dept=49
Audio Advisor tends to have discounted prices on Athena speakers, sometimes b-stock or demo units as well
Update: looks like the Audition series is pretty much cleared out from Audio Advisor
Elemental Designs ($150-$365)
http://www.edesignaudio.com/index.php?cPath=2_42
Elemental Designs has made a very good impression with their subs. They have speakers out now too. I haven't found any real reviews of them, but I've seen a lot of positive comments from users.
SVS SBS ($225)
http://www.svsound.com/products-spks-sbs01.cfm
Formerly just a subwoofer manufacture, SVS started their speaker line with these models. On the horizon are the midrange SVS speakers with much higher quality components and a pricetag to go with it.
HSU HB-1 ($300)
http://www.hsuresearch.com/products/hb-1.html
HSU has also started to get into the speaker business after formerly concentrating on just subwoofers.
Aperion Audio ($260-$700)
http://www.aperionaudio.com/ca...teandbookshelf,20.aspx
One of the internet direct brands with a totally risk-free trial including shipping both ways allowing you to try them out in your home.
Axiom Audio ($296-$470)
http://www.axiomaudio.com/bookshelfspeakers.html
Axiom?s bookshelf speakers start to make it into this range.
Ascend Acoustics ($348-$848)
http://www.ascendacoustics.com...speakers/spkrlist.html
The CBM-170 is the small bookshelf speaker put out by Ascend and is very well reviewed. The CMT-340 and the new Sierra-1 make up the higher-end models.
Swan Diva ($500)
http://www.theaudioinsider.com...ts_new.php?cPath=21_30
Swan has the original Diva speakers and the New Diva series.
Update: looks like the original Diva line is sold out at AudioInsider and the X.2 lineup doesn't have a bookshelf speaker option?
The site also sells the more affordable Acculine lineup
http://www.theaudioinsider.com...s/acculine/cPath/21_32
Era D4 ($600)
http://www.signalpathint.com/i...k=view&id=14&Itemid=46
Quality speakers with high WAF (Thanks for the suggestion s44)
SVS MBS ($1000)
http://www.svsound.com/products-spks-mts01.cfm
SVS's middle speaker options (high-end not out yet)
ACI ($700-$1500)
http://www.audioc.com/speakers1/speakers.htm
Thanks for the addition Tiamat, I knew I missed some good ones.
Floorstanding Speakers
Polk R-Series ($100-$150)
Fry?s Electronics / Outpost tends to have good prices on these speakers. When on sale, they may come to the top of this search link
http://shop1.outpost.com/searc...&submit.x=0&submit.y=0
The newer R300s tend to go on sale for $100/pair from here.
The older R30s and R50s also go on sale regularly. Keep an eye on the finish of the speaker you?re ordering as it doesn?t always match the picture. (Black and Cherry are the finish options I have seen).
Infinity Primus ($360-$600)
http://www.electronics-expo.co...h_query=primus&x=0&y=0
http://www.crutchfield.com/S-E...&search=primus&x=0&y=0
Infinity could be an option to try out in retail stores to see if you like them while there are some alternative buying options online. The Primus series recently updated from the older XX0 series to the XX2 series.
(Thanks herm0016)
Elemental Designs ($500)
http://www.edesignaudio.com/index.php?cPath=2_42
Elemental Designs has made a very good impression with their subs. They have speakers out now too. I haven't found any real reviews of them, but I've seen a lot of positive comments from users.
Aperion Audio ($650-$1400)
http://www.aperionaudio.com/catalog/Tower,28.aspx
Again, risk-free trial on the Aperion products.
Axiom Audio ($780-$1330)
http://www.axiomaudio.com/towers2.html
SVS MTS ($1500)
http://www.svsound.com/products-spks-mts01.cfm
SVS's middle speaker options (high-end not out yet)
This is really just scratching the surface for options. I don?t mean to offend anyone by leaving things out that you think should be on this list, so if you have some good bang for the buck suggestions, I would gladly add them to the list. Also, I didn?t give a lot of options above the ~$1500/pair range.
I did this for a number of reasons including:
- Most of the people on Anandtech looking for speakers don?t seem to be in that pricerange? and those that are, aren?t my target audience with this guide.
- If you?re spending that kind of money, you should definitely be listening in person to your different options although auditioning should still be a priority for any budget
- A lot of your options are going to start to get more exotic and perhaps specific to what?s available locally since Internet-Direct type companies tend to focus on lower pricepoints usually
- I personally don?t have as much experience in priceranges beyond this range besides limited listening sessions to products that I can?t personally afford and thus haven?t had much exposure to them.
2.3 ? Subwoofers
For subwoofers, in general it?s not as critical to go out and demo them to see if one suits your personal tastes as much as your speaker choice. Certainly there are some subs that are better at playing music than others and some that are better at home theater than others, but much more so than speakers, a good sub is a good sub.
Although subs can often be somewhat hidden away in a corner or otherwise out of the way, aesthetics (and WAF) becomes a big factor some of the time for subwoofer choice largely due to fact that a lot of subwoofers are big black boxes. Bigger is often better in terms of subwoofer performance concerning driver sized and cabinet volume as well, so there are some compromises to be made.
Again, I?ll go through some of the popular internet options. There are some good retail options out there and a lot of rather bad retail options out there as well. As a general trend, retail subs tend to be on the smaller size in terms of volume and this can lead to some shortcomings especially in low frequency extension. There are certainly exceptions to this, but from my own experience with comparing to retail options... internet direct, or DIY options especially are a good idea.
Subwoofers
Dayton Basic Subwoofers ($95-$155)
http://www.partsexpress.com/pe...fm?&Partnumber=300-631
http://www.partsexpress.com/pe...fm?&Partnumber=300-633
http://www.partsexpress.com/pe...fm?&Partnumber=300-635
Dayton has gone through a couple revisions on their budget subwoofers and things have changed around a bit as far as configuration and performance goes. My experience with the 10? was based on the version before this and as I understand it, performance has gone down a bit since the previous version. They?re still strong bang-for-your-buck for a budget sub. Price fluctuates a bit and Partsexpress has free shipping sales from time to time making the deals sweeter.
BIC H-100 (~$230)
No link for this one as this one is generally bought off ebay. A search for ?BIC H-100? (without the quotes) should bring up some with ?Best offer? auctions. From what I understand, an offer of around $229 tend to get accepted.
update from s44:
"Well, there are two subs claiming to derive from the H100. There's the F12, which is BIC's direct replacement. The Twister Group and Beach Audio had it for just under $200, but both are OOS right now. You can also get it through Amazon.
There's also the Premier Acoustics PA-120, which seems to be sold by the same ebay guy who was selling the H100 there before. It's a different company from BIC, though it may be the same Chinese source or something as the H100. No one's tested all three subs together, to see how different these similar but not exactly identical items are. This one i still $230 on ebay (search for PA-120, though he's still putting H100 in the auction titles)."
Dayton Titanic Mark III Subwoofers ($550-$900 assembled, $320-$620 unassembled)
http://www.partsexpress.com/pe...fm?&Partnumber=300-761
http://www.partsexpress.com/pe...fm?&Partnumber=300-635
http://www.partsexpress.com/pe...fm?&Partnumber=300-765
Kits:
http://www.partsexpress.com/we...bjectGroup_ID=536&SO=2
Dayton?s higher line of subwoofers combines better cabinets, better amps, and better drivers for much better performance than the budget line. These are available in assembled as well as kit form. Again, watch for free shipping deals on these.
HSU ($300-$1300)
http://www.hsuresearch.com/subwoofers.html
HSU offers a wide range of designs for different priceranges as well as some unique products / accessories like their dedicated Mid-Bass module.
SVS ($430-$1600)
http://www.svsound.com/products-sub.cfm
SVS makes a traditional ?box? subwoofer line as well as a ?cylinder? line. From their basic sub, the PB10-NSD to their new Ultra subs based on their new 13? woofer, SVS offers great bang for the buck through their whole range.
Epik Subwoofers ($550-$1600)
http://www.epiksubwoofers.com/products.html
Epik is a recent addition to the list of internet direct subwoofer companies.
Elemental Designs ($315-$2200)
http://www.edesignaudio.com/edv2/index.php?cPath=2_41
Another one of the newer internet direct options, Elemental Designs is taking what it has learned from Car Audio and applying it to their line of home audio subs offering great bang-for-the-buck.
ACI ($800-$2250)
http://www.audioc.com/speakers1/speakers.htm#subwoofers
Thanks for the addition Tiamat, I knew I missed some good ones.
From S44:
Rythmik ($700-$1000) has made a big splash with their sealed direct-servo subs. Flat and deep response, very musical. They also sell drivers & amps for DIY. You can also buy through Ascend.
Again, these are just some of the options out there trying to cover the ~$100 - $2000 range for subwoofers.
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