# Help choosing a good starting point



## freki (Apr 26, 2010)

First post 

I'm buying my dad's projector from him (InFocus, don't remember the model but it is 1080i, I'll post more later on it if it's critical), so I just sold my 52" RCA behemoth and cheap RCA 5.1 kit and am looking to get something a little nicer. 

I want to start out with a 2.1 solution based on a basic 5.1 or 7.1 receiver, mostly due to budget. What I want to find is 2x powerful tower speakers to start with, so I'm looking for suggestions. I'm sure these aren't designed for HT, but I've used Peavey monitors on a Kenwood receiver and a 400W amp before (don't hate me :dontknow. Blasting-loud sound . I want something kind of similar, but with the option to expand my system to a decent 5.1 setup.

Part of my reason for wanting a simple 2-channel or 2.1 setup is so I can haul this outside in the summer for occasional movie-nights 

Open to all suggestions. This is lower-budget, not sure on a specific amount yet (that's what this is for), but I did get $500 from the old RCA setup which will go towards it.


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## tonyvdb (Sep 5, 2007)

If your looking for good quality and a so called loud speaker and receiver combination your looking at at least $700 for the receiver and another $1100 for the speakers and sub. Anything less and you will be disappointed. 
SVS is a great start for speakers and sub and this Onkyo 807 is also a good receiver for the money.


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## freki (Apr 26, 2010)

thanks for the input so quickly! Those are some nice speakers. I'm not a huge audiophile (just yet), I was pretty satisfied with my $200 RCA setup. I was looking more in the range of $300-400 for a receiver and probably $400-600 for speakers (abt $1000 total). I wish I was in a higher price range rigt now but I'm not


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## eugovector (Sep 4, 2006)

For $300-400 on the AVR, you can get a refurbed Onkyo 607 from shoponkyo.com. For $400-600 in speakers is $150 in subwoofer (dayton from parts express or BIC America from Amazon), and the A6-6T6 from elemental designs.

I'd say that's the best 2.1 tower setup you can get for the money right now. If you went with bookshelves instead of towers, you could get a little more bang for your buck.


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## freki (Apr 26, 2010)

Thanks for the suggestions! Looking on that site, I see a couple of options opening up. I like the Onkyo 607, and only $379 seems like a great deal. Also, looking on the same site, I'm interested in the HT-S7100. I know that's not what I first described, but it looks like a nice all-in-one setup. Squeezing 7.1 into my smaller space seems awkward to me, but I'm sure it could work. 

What about a bookshelf system? I'm just learning here, so I'm pretty easily persuaded. 

Also, what do you guys think of the Infinity Primus tower (P362 I think)? Also was looking at the BIC Venturi DV64. Some of the others that were suggested look like they are no longer produced.


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## eugovector (Sep 4, 2006)

That or the 7200 would be a good place to start. The 9100 is a great HTIB, but not available refurbed so it clocks in closer to $1000. I'd say the downside is that you really don't need 7.1 unless you have a large room with multiple rows of seating. I guess you could use them up front to play around with height channels via Dolby Pro-logiciiz.


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## tonyvdb (Sep 5, 2007)

I agree with Marshall, I'm not a big fan of HTIB systems but Onkyo seems to have a great product and they use real receivers and speakers with normal connectors so upgrading the speakers at some point would be easy if you wanted to do sometime down the road.


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## freki (Apr 26, 2010)

Yeah I really don't have a huge need for the 7.1, but I'm kind of leaning towards that 7100. Also, I'll be running an HTPC into the receiver. Optical audio should work for this right? Any other considerations there?


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## eugovector (Sep 4, 2006)

Optical should work, and if it's a possibility, you may want to upgrade your vid card to one that supports HDMI Audio/video. ATI has some @ ~$50 that get good reviews (5000 series).

Cables from monoprice (but the HTIB should come with some basics including speaker wire). Once you get it, do a little research on Speaker positioning if you haven't already.


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## freki (Apr 26, 2010)

that would actually save me some money probably. I am very partial to nvidia graphics thoug, know of any that could work? I like the 9500GT chipset, but don't know if they do audio passthrough.


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## eugovector (Sep 4, 2006)

Not off the top of my head, but some cursory research seems to lead towards a GT 220 or better: http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/gf-210-gt220_15.html#sect0

Not sure if Nvidia is bistreaming Audio over HDMI if that's important to you (as long as you output LPCM, you'll still get the audio quality, but the little "Dolby TrueHD light" won't light up.)


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## freki (Apr 26, 2010)

Hmm....on second thought maybe I'll just get a good BD player. Seems cheaper and simpler. Just upgrading the video and audio in my computer to get that quality would cost over $250 it looks like.

I'm almost leaning towards getting that 7100 package. Maybe upgrade the speakers later? May actually be the cheaper way to go anyway.


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## eugovector (Sep 4, 2006)

Well, it would be simpler, but a $50 card should get you Hardware HD Decoding and LPCM audio output. Another $80 if you don't have a blu-ray drive. Where are you figuring $250?


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## freki (Apr 26, 2010)

HTPC Case (cuz my massive ATX case wouldn't fit in the stereo cabinet) - $50
Silent power supply for above case - $40
GeForce 210 Video card - $40
PCI Sound card with optical spdif - $22
Wireless KB/Mouse - $32
BD-ROM drive - $60
TOTAL - $244

VS

Sony BDP-S470 @ $199


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## eugovector (Sep 4, 2006)

Well, you can skip the sound card because audio will come out the HDMI in your vid card. But other than that, yes, I can see you calculations are pretty spot on. I think the biggest thing to ask yourself if is you'll benefit from online video, games, media serving functions that you won't be able to access from a blu-ray player.


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## freki (Apr 26, 2010)

Meh...probably not right now anyway. As long as the BD player can access YouTube I think I'll be fine. My computer has a 23" LCD as it is, and my HD MediaBox will pull anything from my hard drive across the network.


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## freki (Apr 26, 2010)

The other thing to consider is that (hopefully) the BD player won't have the potential to be as buggy as an HTPC setup does.


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