About home theater systems?

Question

hey guys...i have a sony hd tv...however, i dont have home theater system...i will be getting playstation 3 so i'll have dvd/blu-ray dvd player combo in playstation 3.. now i only need the receiver for home theater systems...and speakers obviously...i'm thinking of getting 5.1 or 7.1 channels receiver...my question is what should i look for in the receiver to get the best out of it....should i look for more watts, number of input output ports in the back, etc...?

Answer 1

For me it's all about inputs and outputs.  Decide how you want to connect all your equipment, whether you want to use the amp to process all signals or if you want to bypass some to save on inputs.  

The second thing that comes up is the ability to drive my speakers and sub-woofer.  Matching a receiver to speakers is pretty easy since you're simply making sure the amp is rated equally to the total amount of power your speakers are rated for.  Ideally you should exceed this, but that usually pushes the price up as well, but you'll also move into more features and inputs and outputs too..

Also unless you like buying new receivers every couple years plan some future-proofing into it.  Do you want ipod connectivity or extra inputs that you don't need right now, but what if later you buy something else?  

Also things like turntable inputs and XM/Sirius Radio capabilities may be important to you also, or perhaps you'll add a PVR in the next while.  Some amps even have Wi-Fi built in for networking.

Lastly, I go by price.  So once I've picked a few models that meed the first criteria, I'll reduce that list a bit with the second choice, and usually price is where it narrows down to a couple models. Here it becomes a matter of preference or even brandname.

Answer 2

Most professionals will choose between these brands in the $300 to $2000 price range when installing for their clients: Yamaha, Denon, PioneerElite, and Onkyo. They will a provide the feature set you deem important and , you guessed it, the more features you want, the more it will cost. Signal processing is important, and these brands do it well.

I would recommend getting as many HDMI inputs as you can afford. It doesn't take a lot to use them up. At my house:

1 Satellite DVR

2 Bluray/HDDVD

3 Xbox 360 Elite

4 Vista Media Center PC

I'm already out of inputs so my Cable DVR has to be connected with Component Video.

You didn't mention a PC, and your PS3 will double as a Bluray player, but HDMI has become the standard for transporting HD video and audio between components. If you want to future-proof as much as possible, having spares is a good idea.

I would also recommend an Ethernet port. We are quickly integrating into networked homes, and a surround receiver can be a benefactor of this technology. For example, my Yamaha RX-V3800 receives Internet radio, for free, from stations all around the world--hundreds, if not thousands, of them! I've never counted, but it's vast.

If you have a digital camcorder, you may want an IEEE1394 (firewire) input, and maybe an Ipod dock, XM Radio, etc... It all depends on what you would like to be able to do. So far as basic inputs such as audio left/right, video, component video, digital audio, there will likely be plenty on whatever you choose.

Power, these days, is not as important as in the past since speakers, for the most part, have become much more efficient. There is one glaring exception. If you plan to purchase your receiver from an etailer or a discount chain, be aware that the manufacturers, in many cases, make special models for them and the power rating system is different. They publish the peak power output instead of the RMS output, which in short means that the Internet retailer's 120 watts is closer to the real world's 80 watts. There's no advantage to rating peak output, it's just marketing hoopla. It allows the discounters to seemingly have the same thing for less money.

7.1 will give you a more realistic surround effect than 5.1. In a proper set-up, the surround speakers are placed to the left and the right of your ears. The two additional speakers are placed behind you (like in the old Dolby Pro Logic days) filling in the rear for a more complete envelopement.

Finally, you can't shop for speakers on the Internet. There are literally hundreds of fine speakers on the market and the only way to shop for them is to hit the street. I would recommend choosing a price range for a speaker set before you go shopping. The $10,000 set is obviously going to sound better than the $2000 set, so I wouldn't waste time listening to things that are out of your range. If you visit all the retailers in your area, you'll hear something that will fire your rockets.

Answer 3

One OTHER thing to look for:

Built-in "DolbyTrueHD" and "DTSHD Master Audio" decoding.  Here's a link explaining the benefits of these new HD (Blu-ray Disc) audio formats and a list of of receivers from various manufacturers which offer these features.  

Capable receivers start at $549 retail and are probably much cheaper around the net.  Click right here for that information: http://www.avtruths.com/uncompressed.htm...