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Home entertainment system ?

Colonel Angus

Colonel Angus

Monkey
Feb 15, 2005
921
424
land of the green chiles
I am going to remodel my family room this year. We don't watch any TV or do gaming but we do watch a lot of movies. I will be able to wire speakers anywhere I want. The problem is that I am not up on the current or best technology. Looking for recommendos on type and size of TV, types and sizes and locations of speakers, and anything else that will give us a good movie watching experience.

TIA
 
Kevin

Kevin

Turbo Monkey
Sep 6, 2004
4,540
1,007
In Holland sticking my finger in a dike...
The main question is this.
How big a tv will your spouse allow you to buy?

I would want a size movie screen curved OLED and a sound system to match it.

You should probably be more apecific about size of living room, size of budget etc...
 
Colonel Angus

Colonel Angus

Monkey
Feb 15, 2005
921
424
land of the green chiles
I can do that. The room is about 22' by 22'. We can get a big-azz TV if we want, but I don't think we want huge. 40" to 48" diagonal should be plenty. Budget is not an issue. But this is not a theater and we don't want it to look like one. Nice big HD smart TV on the wall, comfortable furniture, and great sound.
 
Toshi

Toshi

Harbinger of Doom
Oct 23, 2001
38,369
7,766
FWIW I just built out my basement with a movie corner. (I say only corner since the rest is dedicated to kid stuff.)

I went with a Vizio M80-C3 TV ($3598 on Amazon), Yamaha RX-V677 receiver ($380—last year's model), and a Pioneer Andrew Jones 5.1 speaker set (~$555). The wiring is in the walls.

One can certainly go higher end on the speakers (or lower end) but this seemed to strike a reasonable balance overall except for that giant TV.

For the eagle eyed: I'm indeed running a 5.1 speaker set with a 7.1 (7.2?) receiver because two channels drive speakers upstairs in the kitchen.
 
Serial Midget

Serial Midget

Al Bundy
Jun 25, 2002
13,053
1,896
Fort of Rio Grande
Will your wife allow a live in girlfriend?

I kid...

I recently bought a smart TV for the bedroom, we went wireless all the way. My sound box can use a fiber optic cable but my ear is not good enough to notice a differance so we are full bluetooth for sound and wifi for Internet and cable. I personally will never mess with wires again.

EDIT 1 smart TV, 1 4 channel sound plate, 4 mid ranges and a subwooder, total cost was probably less than 3K but I don't know for sure as we paid cash and bought over a series months. If I had to do it over I would skip 2 of the mid range speakers as they were pretty expensive at around 300 each.

In the entertainment room I went full on 1970s HI FI driven by Tandberg and Altec Lansing. I much prefer the retro system for sound quality, don't dump your old system until you are sure you like the sound of the replacement.
 
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jdcamb

jdcamb

Tool Time!
Feb 17, 2002
19,844
8,450
Nowhere Man!

  • Four Dual 10" Line Array Speakers
  • Two Pro Audio 10" Speakers in each Cabinet
  • 560 Watts RMS; 1120 Watts Peak Power each
  • Bi-amp Switchable / Wired at 16 Ohms
  • Hanging Frame not included

  • Model: Magnitude 2400
  • 800 Watts RMS per channel (8 Ohm)
  • 1260 Watts RMS per channel (4 ohms)
  • 1600 Watts RMS per Channel (2 Ohms)
You will need one of these also...


Kramer VP-728 9-Input ProScale Presentation Scaler/Switcher because of awesome!
 
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G

gratefulbiker

Chimp
Dec 3, 2007
75
33
Decent size room and the ability to run wires where you need them should make for a pretty nice system.
First suggestion, visit as many proper A/V shops (read not Best Buy) as you can to check stuff out. Lots of good gear out there and most good shops will be able to point you in the right direction.
If you're thinking 40-48" tvs, bump up to a 55" 4K from a well respected brand, Sony's new XBR stuff is nice.
Since you don't want it to look like a theater, in wall speakers for the front left, right, and center and in walls or in ceilings for the surrounds and surround backs. Splurge on the front speakers as well as a quality subwoofer. Nothing worse than a floppy sub in an otherwise good system.
Add a good 7.1 receiver to go with your blu-ray and or streaming media box and you're good to go.
Also, if you can get hard wired internet to the gear location, do it. Wired connection beats wifi every time.
 
Serial Midget

Serial Midget

Al Bundy
Jun 25, 2002
13,053
1,896
Fort of Rio Grande
gratefulbiker said:
Wired connection beats wifi every time.
Click to expand...
I cant tell the difference I have one set up that is hard wired with fiber-optic lines and and the other is WI-FI, so whatever it beats is a measure I cant appreciate.

Or maybe I'm blinded by convenience and ease of installation.

Meh, either way whatever you wire into your house will become obsolete in 10 years, like room to room intercoms from the 50s.
 
CBJ

CBJ

year old fart
Mar 19, 2002
12,881
4,226
Copenhagen, Denmark
I would put some real speakers next to the TV plus I am not a big fan surround sound and I would make it a good place to listen to music too if you are into that. I would also make sure the acoustic or make them better.

Good advice from the wirecutter is don't buy the 3000 TV. Get the 1500 and in two years another 1500 would be better than the one you could get at 3000.
 
blackohio

blackohio

Generous jaywalker
Mar 12, 2009
2,773
122
Hellafornia. Formerly stumptown.
Honestly, want solid sound from speakers wit ha decent price. Try this Canadian company Fluance.

Im running the xl7f towers and my front mains with def. tech center speaker. two 6.5 mids and down firing 8" sub, 1" silk dome tweeter. Nice cabinet, bi-wirable gold posts, vibration isolating feet. the towers are $500/pair.

Im not a huge fan of overly booming lows or too crisp highs that end up with powered subs and smaller speakers set-ups. I like a nice even tone with enough low to fill a room without drowning it. These speakers do that job well. Everything sounds great be it music or movies.

Not the greatest speakers in the world but they'll pretty much kick the shit out of anything in their price range.

http://www.avrev.com/home-theater-loudspeakers/floorstanding-loudspeakers/fluance-xl7f-loudspeakers-review.html

 
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G

gratefulbiker

Chimp
Dec 3, 2007
75
33
Serial Midget said:
I cant tell the difference I have one set up that is hard wired with fiber-optic lines and and the other is WI-FI, so whatever it beats is a measure I cant appreciate.

Or maybe I'm blinded by convenience and ease of installation.

Meh, either way whatever you wire into your house will become obsolete in 10 years, like room to room intercoms from the 50s.
Click to expand...
Reliability is the main reason for suggesting a hard wired network connection. If a Cat-6 cable or cables can be easily run to the equipment and not have to worry about potential wifi interference and/ or latency issues, seems like a no brainer to me.


StiHacka said:
Good cable makes all the difference!
http://www.amazon.com/AudioQuest-Diamond-52-49-Braided-Cable/dp/B00IL3TZSQ/ref=sr_1_1?s=aht&ie=UTF8&qid=1454467546&sr=1-1&keywords=hdmi+cable+diamond
Click to expand...
Well, I was talking about network connectivity, but your sarcasm is coming through loud and clear.
And a good cable can make a difference, more so in analog applications than those in the digital realm.
I'm not advocating spending thousands of dollars on interconnects, but I wouldn't recommend hooking up a bunch of high dollar electronics with shit cables either.
 
jdcamb

jdcamb

Tool Time!
Feb 17, 2002
19,844
8,450
Nowhere Man!
Anything less then Queesnryches full concert rig is just well I don't know, I would pay attention to Craigslist in Seattle to see if I could hook up on some cool queensryche gear. Thats what I would do. Kids love pyrotechnics. Most household fireplaces can handle quite the barrage. Failure to utilize pyrotechnics is quite simply a failure.
 
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Toshi

Toshi

Harbinger of Doom
Oct 23, 2001
38,369
7,766
gratefulbiker said:
Reliability is the main reason for suggesting a hard wired network connection. If a Cat-6 cable or cables can be easily run to the equipment and not have to worry about potential wifi interference and/ or latency issues, seems like a no brainer to me.
Click to expand...
I think Serial Midget bought a wireless soundbar. The rest of us are talking about network connectivity. Apples and oranges.

/me has a wired gigabit Ethernet switch behind the TV console, with the TV, Blu-Ray player, and receiver, all wired into it. The switch is in turn hooked up to Cat 5E in the wall that terminates centrally by the router, with the IPTV box on its own direct in-wall run to the router. Wireless is just for phones and laptops in my house.
 
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jimmydean

jimmydean

The Official Meat of Ridemonkey
Sep 10, 2001
41,256
13,377
Portland, OR
I miss my nice setup :(

I have been thinking about putting together a stereo setup for my TV using an old 2 channel tube amp to power my Infinity towers.

Something like this:


To power these:
 
JustMtnB44

JustMtnB44

Monkey
Sep 13, 2006
841
114
Pittsburgh, PA
Colonel Angus said:
Looking for recommendos on type and size of TV, types and sizes and locations of speakers, and anything else that will give us a good movie watching experience.
Click to expand...
Colonel Angus said:
I can do that. The room is about 22' by 22'. We can get a big-azz TV if we want, but I don't think we want huge. 40" to 48" diagonal should be plenty. Budget is not an issue. But this is not a theater and we don't want it to look like one. Nice big HD smart TV on the wall, comfortable furniture, and great sound.
Click to expand...
That room size is fairly large. How far away from the TV do you plan on sitting? Honestly a TV less than 60" would be too small for me, and they are so cheap nowadays that there isn't a good reason to go smaller. My TV area is half the size of yours and my 52" TV is the absolute minimum that I would consider acceptable, and I sit about 8 ft away.

There are tons of speaker options, I like floor standing or nice bookshelf speakers for the front. Most important is to have a solid subwoofer to fill the large volume of your room. SVS is well recommended and has some nice options that aren't crazy expensive. http://www.svsound.com/pages/subwoofers I have the previous version of the PB2000 and it's impressive. Two subs are better than one for more even bass response throughout the room, if you will have a variety of seating positions.
 
Toshi

Toshi

Harbinger of Doom
Oct 23, 2001
38,369
7,766
Colonel Angus said:
Thanks for all the replies. Looks like I've got a lot of learning to do.....
Click to expand...
I'd take the specific product recommendations from that Wirecutter article with a grain of salt. Things I'd look for in general:

- binding posts on speakers and receiver instead of spring clip as a general sign of quality (I'll be damned if there's an actual, perceptible sound quality difference)
- AirPlay support is a big plus for me on the receiver, but if you don't care about streaming music from your phone then ignore this. Same for zone 2 support.
- 4k on the TV unless doing OLED
- local array backlight dimming on the TV if not OLED: this is why I went with that Vizio M series
- at least Andrew Jones level speaker setup. That's the setup I mentioned in my first post and also gets a mention in the Wirecutter article (look for "Pioneer"--they refer to it by its alphanumeric name instead)

I looked at doing the 5.0 Andrew Jones speaker set + an SVS sub but realized that was splitting hairs. I can't play things that loudly anyway due to movie time being after the kids are to bed usually so it'd be for my own smugness.
 
Serial Midget

Serial Midget

Al Bundy
Jun 25, 2002
13,053
1,896
Fort of Rio Grande
Toshi said:
I think Serial Midget bought a wireless soundbar. The rest of us are talking about network connectivity. Apples and oranges.
Click to expand...
True, it's a SONOS system with 4 3 series speakers and a subwoofer, everything I have that makes sound can connect to it, the the ease of installation and no need to wire allowed me to buy better speakers, but in hindsight having 4 mid range speakers is overkill. I probably do not have the same sound quality as a full wired unit but I'lol probably never notice.
 
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jdcamb

jdcamb

Tool Time!
Feb 17, 2002
19,844
8,450
Nowhere Man!
Well if pyrotechnics are off the table. Then maybe a fog machine and some cool lights. Maybe one of those lifts for the couch like Tommy Lee has for his drums. That would be so cool. American DJ has a lot of cool stuff. A Pinball Table, you know the one. Naked chick holding the swords. Naked chicks all over the deck. Everyone likes Naked Chicks and Pinball.
 
jdcamb

jdcamb

Tool Time!
Feb 17, 2002
19,844
8,450
Nowhere Man!
Serial Midget said:
How easy is it to hard wire a naked chick? Are hand wired naked chick's more entertaining that WiFi chick's? Are WiFi chick's Bluetooth enabled?
Click to expand...
I don't know. When I pull out the tool chest most reasonable women will put their top back on and leave. The few that have had the courage to stay usually regret it. However I am intrigued....
 
Westy

Westy

the teste
Nov 22, 2002
54,481
20,284
Sleazattle
jimmydean said:
I miss my nice setup :(

I have been thinking about putting together a stereo setup for my TV using an old 2 channel tube amp to power my Infinity towers.

Something like this:


To power these:
Click to expand...
My old man used to have that old Pioneer amp. When I got my classic high end turn table I asked him if he still had it. He had just thrown it away. I loved that thing growing up. Old man has owned about three nice things his whole life, he's tossed them all away.
 
ALEXIS_DH

ALEXIS_DH

Tirelessly Awesome
Jan 30, 2003
6,147
796
Lima, Peru, Peru
go >55in for the tv, and pioneer andrew jones or klipsch for the speakers, and pick whatever yamaha/denon receiver is on sale for under $500
 
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