19
This is not a home stereo blog
19 June 2007
by
damonnoisette
Filed under
Our House
But I’m going to use this post to compare different home theater in-wall speaker and A/V receiver options.
Speakers
Basically we need a good-sounding, reasonable cost, and reliable set of speakers for the studio/presentation room. I’m not sure what the configuration will be, but I think we’ll end up going with something medium-end with a preference on price and ease of installation over building, like, The Most Awesome System Ever. I won’t launch a tirade against the home theater industry, but I’ve always been a bit dumbfounded (emphasis on dumb) by the difference in price between virtually identical sounding systems. It is my position that the audible difference between McIntosh ($10K+) and Bose ($3K+) and Sony’s Home Theater-in-a-box systems (< $1K) is a lot smaller than audiophiles and custom home theater experts would lead you to believe.
I mean the difference between really really awesome (McIntosh), pretty awesome (Yamaha, Bose, Polk), and pretty good (JBL, Ultralinear) is not worth thousands of dollars when you're just going to be playing Internet radio, listening to MP3 files, and showing slideshows (set to MP3s).
With that said I’m thinking we’ll go with a combination of Polk Audio in-wall speakers, some other manufacturer’s ceiling speakers, and a center channel from somewhere else.>
The Polks are apparently a great-sounding speaker and look pretty easy to install…but they cost roughly $400 for the pair of in-wall ones + another $45 for pre-construction brackets. I’m torn between keeping with my pretty good design credo and going with something a little less expensive, like these $180 Infinity speakers at Crutchfield, or the $280 Polk Audio RC85i speakers instead.
We’ll probably go with the Polks because they can be mounted in the drywall and have a much better reputation.
I guess a matching Polk center channel may do the trick since the screen will drop down pretty far, but then again I’m not really sure!
A/V receiver
After having an Onkyo receiver for so many years I’m definitely going to stick with that brand. B&H sells a model for ~$500 that seems to be the one.
From B&H:
The Onkyo TX-SR674 Home Theater Receiver packs a punch with 7.1 channels at 95 Watts…blah blah… the TX-SR674 Home Theater Receiver will look great and, more importantly, meet your home theater and audio needs.
Key Features
• 95 Watts of Power/7.1 Channels…
• Dolby EX, Pro Logic IIx, DTS-ES, DTS Neo:6, DTS 96/24…
• Component Video Upconversion…
• XM Satellite Radio Ready…
• Powered Zone 2
Enjoy an independent stereo audio source in another room with the two dedicated channels playing a second source. For example, play a full 5.1 channel movie in the living room while sending the audio from a music CD at the same time to another room.
That sounds pretty slick!
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