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I'm wanting to get surround sound for my tv room...it will be my first one, so i'm not going all out...not that i have the money to do so anyways!
i know you have a couple choices...buy a complete system in the box, or piece it together by buying a receiver and speakers seperately...
if i'm wanting to keep my expense around $500, which would be best for me? and i'de love to hear some suggestions on which to buy, and where to buy it from!
i don't have a big fancy tv...it's a 2001 27" Toshiba, so whatever i buy has to be compatible...
For that budget, just go with a boxed set. Then you don't have to worry about everything being compatible. No matter what TV you have, a boxed set will hook up to it with just a few cables.
GO to a best buy or local audio store and listen to what they have. It will sound different in your house, but you can tell if it is going to be a tinny sound, or not enough bass etc at the store.
I also have a 27" Toshiba TV. Over 5 years ago I bought a clearance model Kenwood surround sound system, complete system in box. It's worked well for me. The box systems are fine if you don't buy them on the cheap. For example, don't go to walmart and buy a Durabrand surround sound system. Walmart does sell name brand surround sound systems but you'll find the salespeople at Best Buy or similar stores will have better knowledge of the equipment and be able to help you. One way to get your own personal system is to buy a quality receiver and two front or bookshelf speakers. Just having stereo surround is still far better than TV speakers alone. When you get together some more money, buy either a center voice speaker or a subwoofer or both. Once you have these two items, you have enough speakers to run your system in Dolby ProLogic. Add the two rear speakers and you can run in ProLogicII or a digital format. Until you get the rear and center speakers, you can still watch the DVD in digital audio but you have to go into the DVD menu options and select 2 channel stereo. I prefer the out of box system because everything is mated together by the company. Thankfully, I got mine before wood box speakers began to vanish and was switched to plastic box. Don't go less than 100 watts per channel. For most TV viewing, less than 100 watts per channel is fine but if you crank it up for big movies, it could sound strained. For your TV room, think about acoustics absorbing material to put on the walls and floor. If you have carpet on the floor, that's fine. If the walls are pure drywall or wood paneling then you should put something up on the wall to improve the acoustics. Things like drapes, taspestry, or geometric shapes cut out of wood and wrapped in foam and fabric will help with the acustics. Some new model surround sound receivers come with a microphone and automatically balance the speakers fade, LR balance, and tone so that all the sound hits your ears at the same time. I had to do this with a tape measure and guessimate with my bad hearing. But it works for me. Connect the digital audio cable from your DVD and or TV receiver to the surround sound receiver for best audio sound. If your TV has enough video inputs for all your components then connect your components' video directly to the TV instead of through the surround sound receiver. Connect your components' audio directly to the receiver. For audio/video cables, use the shortest cable needed to reach your equipment and don't bother with top of the line cables. Midgrade cables will work fine.
Quote:
Originally Posted by rugerjitsu
hello!
I'm wanting to get surround sound for my tv room...it will be my first one, so i'm not going all out...not that i have the money to do so anyways!
i know you have a couple choices...buy a complete system in the box, or piece it together by buying a receiver and speakers seperately...
if i'm wanting to keep my expense around $500, which would be best for me? and i'de love to hear some suggestions on which to buy, and where to buy it from!
i don't have a big fancy tv...it's a 2001 27" Toshiba, so whatever i buy has to be compatible...
thanks!
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