Home Theater Decisions.. HELP?

Question

I am looking for a home theater system has great sound for music AND video.. Can someone please tell me what to look for .. Something about DTS? What is all that and detailed answers are much appreciated.. KUDOS

Answer 1

With sound and home-theater, you pretty much get what you pay for. The more expensive systems are generally going to sound better than the less expensive systems.

A few pointers when looking for a system, though:

1) Systems with smaller "cube" type speakers generally can perform well for movies without significant performance challenges when compared to the larger bookshelf sized or tower type speakers; however, these smaller speakers, even when paired with a sub-woofer (or bass module) often struggle greatly with their music performance.

2) Without getting into a lengthy discussion regarding advantages/disadvantages between analog and digital, make sure that the system you are looking at has several digital inputs such as digital optical or digital coaxle. Generally speaking, without using this type connection, you will be unable to get true surround sound and your system will be stuck having to simulate surround sound using Pro Logic or Neo sound processing. DTS and Dolby Digital processing are essential to getting digital surround sound like you would get from a movie theater, as well as what the director intended.

3) When shopping for a system, keep in mind what you are paying for. For example, two similarly priced systems may vary greatly in performance depending on what is included. For example, a system which is an audio receiver only and speakers for $500 is generally going to sound significantly better than a $500 system that comes with a DVD player and wireless speakers. Like I said, you get what you pay for, so audio quality wise, the full $500 goes towards the audio portion in the first system; whereas, in the second system, a significant portion of the price you pay goes towards the DVD player and wireless speakers.

Hope this helps,

Mike

Answer 2

I'm not going to type a lengthy answer to this question, BUT I will point you to a site that I always use when I have similar questions... Good luck!

http://www.crutchfieldadvisor.com/S-ojwK...

Answer 3

Don't buy Home-Theater-In a box setups because they will break down and when they do the dvd player is built-in to the receiver so you're out of 2 devices if it ever needs to get fixed. The sound is ok but not great and speakers are not interchangeable meaning it is made to work best with the speakers it comes with and no other speakers will work good with it.

A seperate receiver with some Paradigm speakers would be a good way to go. If you're looking for great sound on the cheap their cinema series is what you're looking for, if your budget is a little bigger then check out their Monitor series or one step up is their Studio series. I'm a quality nut and I am very satisfied with how good my Monitors sound. For a sub-woofer I would recommend at least a PW-2200 as you want something that can reproduce bass frequencies as low as 20 Hz as this is the lowest possible frequency that humans can hear. This sub will have the depth and range that you need to feel like you are in the movie theater or at a live concert.

A good receiver brand that is not overly expensive is Yamaha, some people might recommend Denon but I find you get the same features and power output for a lower price from Yamaha.

Consider adding a Blu-Ray player in there if you are looking for the best sound and picture available. I have an LG dual format player that plays HD DVD as well. If you're not aware of the competing high def disc formats Blu-Ray and HD DVD, there are different movies available on each format which is why I recommend a dual format player if you are buying now. Blu-ray is eventually going to win so you can get a standalone player. If you are getting a standalone Blu-Ray player get a Playstation 3, even if you aren't going to play video games it is the only Blu-Ray player that you will be able to upgrade to the new 2.0 Blu-Ray profile. Current players will not be able to upgrade.

If you are getting either a dual format or standalone player there's more you will need to know. DVD currently uses Dolby Digital and DTS for audio while Blu-Ray and HD DVD have new sound formats Dolby True HD and DTS HD Master. The older Dolby and DTS are compressed just like MP3's and as good as they sound have some loss of quality. Dolby True HD and DTS HD Master are lossless formats which give you the same quality as the original master recording.

With that said.....you will need a more expensive receiver, usually about 1,200$ or more to be able to listen to these new sound formats at their full potential. Most receivers under that price range will only decode the regular Dolby and DTS. I provided a link to the cheapest receiver I can find that can decode the new formats and will have more than enough HDMI connections for all your audio/video components.

It's fine if you can only afford a receiver with regular dolby and dts for now....just consider that you will probably want to upgrade later on to take full advantage of these new technologies and in my opinion it would be better to just buy the one receiver now instead of buying one now and another later on.

I hope this is all the information you need, if you ever have any more questions or something isn't quite clear feel free to email me.