Best Surround Sound system?

Question

We have our eyes on the BOSE28 life style, any others? The BOSE sounded amazing in store, but its expensive and it doesn't have a HD dvd player and we have recently discovered there are HD surround sound systems. Can anyone help and reccomend a good set up please?

Answer 1

Before you buy Bose, I recommend you read this:

http://avtruths.com/bose.html

Next, do you have a HD TV? If you don't, a HD dvd player will not make any difference in your viewing quality.

I'm not sure what you mean by HD surround sound, so I can't help you there.

Last, what is your budget?

Edit = I install HTs for a living so I don't deal with cheap equipment anymore. What I usually suggest to people is to go and listen to equipment at a serious stereo store (not BestBuy or Circuit City) where people know what they are talking about. They usually have some systems that are affordable but again it all depends on your budget... My local store has a super little speaker for $400. Times five that's $2000 already and you still need a subwoofer, an amp and a BluRay player (hd dvd).

If that is too much, than get yourself a 5.1 receiver from Yamaha. They are quite nice and not too expensive. No need for 6.1 or 7.1 since most movies are in 5.1.

Then check out Polk Audio for a speaker set. I'm pretty sure Circuit City sells those and they are quite nice for their price.

Stay away from all-in-a-box system. They are rarely any good. The Japanese have yet to make decent speakers.

As for the BluRay player, maybe you can wait on that. If you have a bunch of regular DVDs you could start with an upconverter. That's a player that "makes" regular DVDs into HD. Here is the one I use in my personal theater/demo room: http://oppodigital.com/dv981hd/dv981hd_f...

I got mine modified and you can barely see the difference with BluRay. Then again it is my job and most people would see no difference whatsoever. But straight from the factory it is still an amazing machine and cheaper than BluRay.

Hope that helps.

Answer 2

agree with walyank.

do you have an HD TV? is it capable of outputting 1080p?   is you cable or dig sat hooked up to your tv and capable of output at 1080p?  

i'm not sure what HD surround is.  Maybe you are referring to dolby digital surround?

you definitely need a set budget.  

plan on $400 for your blu ray player

receivers can vary, i would recommend this:

marantz sr4002: $430  http://www.accessories4less.com/make-a-s...

speaker:

lots of choices here, but here is what i would recommend:

Rocket X-series $996 5.1 system

http://av123.com/index.php?option=com_vm...

Energy 5.2 $900

http://www.hometheatersound.com/equipmen...

If you want to go less expensive, take a look at these, they get some ok reviews:

The Speaker Company HP-600 $320

http://www.thespeakercompany.com/servlet...

Hope this helps