For a home theater system what do you need?

Question

Do you just need speakers or is a reciever reuqired???

I'm a total newbie

Answer 1

For a basic home theater, you will need a 5.1 reciever.  Five speakers (hopefully all matching for timbre matching-equal sounding speakers) A subwoofer for deep bass.  A DVD player, cables and speaker wire.

Bluray and the now defunct HD-DVD players have something called Lossless audio which is audio that matches the master recording tapes without compression.  For this you will need the above mentioned HD players and a reciever that is HDMI compatible.  This will allow you to hear the new audio formats which are just short of breathtaking.

I would buy your cables online at places like Monoprice.com, BlueJeanCables.com or Partsexpress.com  An HDMI cable in the store will cost you 50.00 or more (Wal-Mart has em for 20.00) but internet has a six foot HDMI cable for 4.00

I would plan on spending minimum of 1,500 for a very soundworthy basic system that will give you great sound.

Reciever with the HDMI processing, if budget is a concern I would recommend an Onkyo 606 for about 450.00

Speakers and sub I would recommend an internet company SVSound.com you can get fantastic HT speakers and a sub that rivals subs costing thousands more in stores for 1,100

This would be a great start and have a great HT system.  I don't recommend HTIB (Home Theater in a Box) systems because they all pretty much have lousy power a passive sub instead of a powered sub.  Passive uses your recievers power to drive the sub which can deplete power to the other speakers, and your chance of lousy sound or blowing the speakers increases.  With a powered sub, the sub has it's own integrated amp so does not require any power from the reciever, so your speakers will get all the power they need.

I would recommend a reciever that at minimum has 100 watts per channel.  Although companies fudge on the power numbers (alot) companies like Onkyo, Denon and Harmon Kardon do not.

Example HT Magazine tested the latest budget reciever from Pioneer where it claimed 100 watts per channel (five speakers driven) in actuality it only had 34 watts per channel (which sucks) Onkyo on the other hand met it's advertised numbers.

I would do alot of research online about HT before buying. I always recommend sites like AVSForum.com or SoundndVisionMag.com and check out their forums, to learn from great people about all aspects of HT.

Good Luck.

Answer 2

daniel b sure knows his stuff. you simply wouldn't get a better answer than that.

Answer 3

Dear SQ,

As far as components you will need:

1) A DVD player and the necessary cables. HDMI carries both sound and video, but don’t buy into the hype of super expensive HDMI cables like Monster cable.   I’d hold off on a BluRay player until prices come down unless you have a Playstation 3.

2)a) signal processor b) amplifier.  Note a receiver will do both processing and amplification.  If you get a receiver make sure it accepts HDMI and can process Dolby TrueHD as well as DTS Master Audio.

3) Speaker wire.  Use larger gauge for longer runs.  Don’t use skinny cables period.

4) Speakers, see below

I've been into audio for years now and have learned that you need to match the level of sound quality you are looking for with your wallet.  The previous answer is good, but assumes you have a certain budget to spend.  You might have $700, or you might have $10,000.  Also you might think a $700 system sounds good until you hear a $3000 system and then have buyers remorse, or visa versa.  You need to first go listen to and price some systems at big box stores like Best Buy or Circuit City.  Then go to a smaller High-Fi shop and listen to some higher end equipment. Then make a decision on what you are willing to spend based on what you heard.  Some people don't really care about little musical details, all they want is loudness and 5 channels surrounding them.  Some folks, like me, are into the details and quality of sound reproduction and thus budget a larger portion of my income on equipment that meets my expectation.  It’s all about what you like and what you are willing to spend.

Here are a few guidelines:

1) In general, the more packaged a system (speakers included with DVD player and amplifier) the lower the sound quality and versatility of connections.  These systems do cost less however.

2) "Separates" is a term you will hear in audio circles that means separating each component of a system in order to maximize quality and flexibility, however this usually means more equipment and required space.  A typical audio video receiver has an internal amplifier as well as tons of inputs for video switching and other functions.  So in a sense a receiver is a packaged signal processor and amplifier.  But you can buy a dedicated power amplifier for a little less that will crush any receiver in sound quality and power.  If you have the money and space, it’s hard to beat getting a separate preprocessor and amplifier instead of an audio video receiver.

3) What you hear in the store will not be what you hear at home. A room makes all the difference in the world because sound reflects off walls and other objects in a room.  For a quick example ask someone to stand against a wall (facing away from the wall) and talk normally, then ask them to move 5 feet away and speak normally.  With this you can easily see that location of sound and proximity to walls plays heavily into sound characteristics.

4) Spend the most on the center channel speaker and subwoofer because these two carry the largest load for movies. The center channel carries all the voices which you want to be clear and crisp.  Skimping here will be evident.  Don’t underestimate the impact of a really really good subwoofer.  Larger rooms eat up bass while you can get by with a smaller sub for smaller rooms.

Good luck