# Looking to begin building a home thester system



## bgrant (Apr 15, 2013)

*Looking to begin building a home theater system*

Good evening wonderful gurus!

I've been perusing this site for the last month or so, and you all have gotten me excited to get in to putting together my first home theater. 

I'm NOT looking to buy everything at once. I figured I'd start with an AV Receiver, get a set of nice front bookshelf speakers, then a center speaker, thirdly a sub, and finish with a nice set of surround speakers, with an ending 5.1 setup. Is it possible to do it this way? I'm not ready to put down a few thousand dollars at once, but I do want the quality!

A little background. I have a HTiB (came with my tv) and I watch movies on it, or stream Netflix, multiple times a week. I don't listen to a ton of music through the speakers, but do have Apple products and am not adverse to streaming through my iPhone or computer. I may just grab an Apple TV, so this is not a feature that HAS to be included with the AVR.

My living room is not large (maybe 20 feet by 20 feet) but I expect to buy a house within the next year, and will be looking for a theater room that is slightly larger. I have an Ethernet Internet connection literally one foot from my tv, so although wireless would be nice to have in an AVR, it's not a necessity.

I like a lighter sound with my speakers, with a focus on movie dialogue, though when the score kicks in, I don't want to be underwhelmed. I've looked, and listened, to a KF set of Klipsch speakers, and one of Martin-Logan. Both sounded nice, but were fairly low quality, although I did enjoy the sound. 

Pricing is not set, but here's my general range:

AVR: $500 or less, preferably a 2013 model, though I've been fairly underwhelmed with this year's selection. 
Speakers: maybe $400 each speaker
Sub: not sure? Somewhere around the others reasonable?

I won't buy any item until late fall (coinciding with a nice bonus check from work), so I'm hoping to see some nice $600 or so AVRs drop into my range. It doesn't seem like speaker prices tend to change much?

Lastly, thoughts on from where I should buy? I'll definitely need a company that allows a return policy so I can set them up and try them out.

Sorry for the long winded post. Did I miss anything? You guys are amazing, and I'm hoping for some great responses! Feel free to disillusion me with any of my misconceptions. I'm a newbie to this field. 

Thanks,

Bryan


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## 8086 (Aug 4, 2009)

A thousand dollars is an awfully hard budget to work with, typically in this price range people buy HTIBs which I normally do not recommend. However, there are two systems that come to mind which break this rule, It wouldn't bother me to own either of them: 

Onkyo HT-S9400THX it can be had for $600 from Accessories for Less (refurb, w/ warrenty from a good seller) or $779.75 at B&H (New)
Paradigm MilleniaOneCT $1,100 at crutchfield.com  :bigsmile:

If you want to be blown away with out of this world quality sound the Paradigm are going to be your friend (trust me). If you want to compromise some sound fidelity and ummph for that 5.1 experience, then I would go for the Onkyo, which was last years model, recently discontinued with in the last month or so. Personally, I would go for a 3 or 3.1 system and be done. Surround speakers are generally overrated, since it is the three fronts that do all the work. Subwoofers and rears can be bought later on clearance or ebay when you have the extra cash to expand.


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## bgrant (Apr 15, 2013)

8086 said:


> A thousand dollars is an awfully hard budget to work with


Hi 8086!

Thank you for the prompt response. I think my original post (as a bit long) was slightly unclear: I'm willing to spend about $400 PER speaker, not $400 total.

I like your idea of a 3.1 system to start, and then purchasing the surrounds at a later date. So, if I were to go this route, with a budget of $500 for the AVR and then $400 (times 3) plus a currently unmentioned sub price (around the same range as the others, though), I'd be more looking at $2200...ish for just the 3.1 system.

Is that a better price range to explore, or does it still merit a Home Theatre in a Box?

Thanks again for helping me along.

Bryan


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## 8086 (Aug 4, 2009)

bgrant said:


> Hi 8086!
> 
> Thank you for the prompt response. I think my original post (as a bit long) was slightly unclear: I'm willing to spend about $400 PER speaker, not $400 total.
> 
> ...




Some very select HTIB systems from _select manufacturers_ are worth consideration. But if you have the cash, go for cherry picked separates. 

Since you have the cash, Not to be confused with the CT model, I would go for the MilleniaONE 5.1 for $2600 with subwoofer. I know this is $400 over budget but you can buy these speakers À la carte. 
$600 is the minimum I would spend on a receiver go too low and something has to give. . Because it uses Audyssey and is compatible with airplay, Marantz SR5007 would be my choice for Amplification. Alternative suggestion would be Sherwood Newcastle R-972, both of those receivers can be had for $599-ish. 


I highly recommend you find a Paradigm Dealer in your area. Go see why so many Paradigm is a top favorite among most Audiophiles. And don't let the small package fool you.


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## bgrant (Apr 15, 2013)

Thanks again for the fast, informed reply. We do have a Paradigm dealer in the area, and I'll use next weekend to check them out. I think I'll watch the Marantz SR5007 over the next few months and see if the price drops at all.

Out of curiosity, what do you think makes the MilleniaOne sub worth buying over a cheaper sub? Is it due to being the same brand as the speakers and simply integrates well with the rest of the system?


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## 8086 (Aug 4, 2009)

Your trip to the dealer should be an eye opener for you. If they have one on demo, ask if you can hear the SUB 1 or SUB 2 or the SUB 25, sub 15 would work fine too.. but its a tad out of yours and my reach! 


For many reasons, yes the Millenia sub is worth buying over a cheaper sub. For one, you won't get the clarity or tonality of bass from a cheap sub. With a good subwoofer you can easily distinguish between two different stings on a bass. Voices and explosions will sound life like and intelligible. . A cheap sub will make all the strings sound like the same exact brrrzzzzrrrbuzzz. 


I know the human voice doesn't quite extend in to the subsonic frequency range but if it could or if you set a filter to convert human speech to an ultra low sound; a good sub would allow you to clearly understand the dialogue, a poor quality sub would just blur everything in to one single monotone. Hope this explanation gives you some sort of mental picture of why it costs as much as it does. Paradigm is one of those companies that tries to keep features & performance high at a cost that is at least 2-4x less than the competitors.

Lastly, the MillenaSUB was designed to match the main speakers for a seamless audio image. 

Oh, if you want 7.1, just add a Millenia 2.0 system to the Millenia 5.1.


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