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50.90.4.94
Hi Video inmates!
Help!!!
My first post here in the Video Asylum. I admit to being so far behind in video technology that it's embarrassing. My wife and I still watch TV on a 27" Sony Trinitron with a standard DVD player. Streaming movies, yeah, ah, no.
We'll be moving back from our 3-year temporary home in Indiana to our real home in Flagstaff, AZ at the end of March and will be donating the Sony to Grandma before we leave. That means we need to enter the 21st century when we get home.
My Maggie based audio system will have it's own room so I will not be trying to integrate my Stereo and Video systems.
So here's the deal. I want to budget about $1500 (plus or minus a couple hundred) to buying a nice enjoyable video system for our family room. It's just the wife and I and we like equal amounts of standard TV fare and movies. The seating position is only about 10 feet from the TV wall.
We're talking a screen (maybe 47" or so), HT receiver, Blue Ray player and speakers. I know I'm being cheap, but we're saving for a motorhome and a backyard observatory, too. So the budget is what it is.
Things that are important to us:
1) My wife and I both hate the current mixing on soundtracks (both movie and TV) that use ridiculous levels for music and sound effects which drown out the dialog. I'd like for the TV, or the HT receiver to allow me to control the mix. I think I've read that the dialog is usually in the center channel. What I've read so far confuses the hell out of me.
2) Would like to see the screen decently well in a rather bright room during daylight hours (lots of windows and skylights).
3) Would like to use Netflix for streaming movies and maybe use a Roku box for that kind of stuff.
I know nothing about soundbars or HT speakers, but I'll reiterate that we would like to be able to actually hear the dialog over the sound effects. I will be fine with a left/right/center channel setup. I don't think we care about 5 channels. There's no room behind the couch, just a wall.
I will appreciate all suggestions and comments and happily chuckle at the "you need to spent at least $3000-5000 to get anything decent" comments. Now maybe that's true, but let's see what we can come up with first for about 1500+ bucks. I seriously know squat and I'd hate to put myself at the mercy of the blue box store. I'd rather beg for your mercy.
Thanks to all in advance for helping me out.
Follow Ups:
Thought I would do a follow up to this thread for all of you who offered suggestions and advice. The home theater system is complete and looks and sounds wonderful. The prices of a few items dropped (the receiver by $100) between research and ordering, but I ended up adding a subwoofer and spending $1000 on the HDTV. I couldn't pass up the deal at Best Buy the day I walked in. I also upgraded the Sony Blue Ray player to a more recent model because the TV I bought had active 3D. I blew the budget and spent about $2000 on the whole shebang with cables and speaker stands.By the way, the 3D on this thing is as good as at the theater. I'm not kidding. We've watched Avatar and Gravity in BlueRay 3D and it's unbelievable.
Both of us are extremely happy. The picture is extremely good with or without 3D. The sound and voices are very clear due to (1) the center channel speaker (2) the Yamaha receiver's built in room sound analyzer and (3) the receiver's sound program called "Clear Voice". No more, "what did he say?"
Anyway, here's the final list of components and a pic. The hula hoop is not included in the HT system. I think my wife put hat there while I wasn't looking. ;-)
HDTV: Samsung 55" Model UN55UF6400AF (Got a deal at $300 off)
AV Receiver: Yamaha RX-V475 5.1
Speakers: Two Infinity Primus P153 (left and right channels), one Infinity Primus PC251 (center Channel) and one Yamaha YST-SW012 subwoofer.
Blue Ray Player: Sony BDP S5200
Speaker Stands: Sanus SF26 for the left and right channel speakers.
Universal Remote: Logitech Harmony 650(Sweet!)
HDMI Cables: A two-pack of Amazon's high speed cables
Speaker Cables: 100' roll of C&E 14AWG Enhanced Loud Oxygen-Free Copper Speaker Wire to make my own speaker cables.
Banana Plugs: 3 sets of two Sewell Direct SW-29863-2 Deadbolt 2-Pair (these are the easiest plugs to assemble, ever!)
If you're in the market for a new HT system and have a $2000 budget, that's your shopping list.
Edits: 04/14/14 04/14/14
Looks like you got a lot of bang for the buck. Good to know if anyone asks for my advice (they rarely do, though, after seeing thousand dollar components in my system). Now you just need to hide the cables and the hula hoop ;-)
Thanks for the suggestions guys.
This is where I am right now. Prices are from Amazon.
HDTV - Still up in the air. Samsung, LG and Vizio all have 47"-55" models in the running with good reviews. Prices will shuffle a lot in the next 3 months, so I'll take a loser look later.
AV Receiver: Yamaha RX-V475 5.1 ($399)
Speakers: Two Infinity Primus P153 and one Infinity Primus PC251 ($230 for the three)
Blue Ray Player: Sony BDP S5100 ($98)
That leaves about $773 for the HDTV.
Throw in another $100 for cables, etc. and we have what looks like a decent HT system for $1600.
The receiver, speakers and blue ray player all get top reviews from consumers and experts alike. The expensive cables will wait for a while. I think the separate speakers will perform better than any soundbar that I've read about.
Anyway, I have a couple of months before purchase, so everything is subject to change.
Thanks again!
I just added the following speaker systems to my "for consideration" list:
Energy 5.1 Take Classic ($369)
Energy RC-Micro 5.1 ($349)
Martin Logan MLT-2 ($349)
Polk Audio TL1600 ($399)
All of these will exceed my budget by $120 to $170 so I need to see if any of them are worth the extra for the sub and the back speakers. The sub I will use, but the rear satellites, I may not.
Anyway, that's it for now.
With your self-imposed budget I think you're being silly to separate music from HT. You may not need a center channel. We use a setup with two mains, two surrounds, and two subs. Dialog is clear and tracks the location of the voice or voices. I assume your maggies image well.
db
Yeah, I considered using my Maggies and then decided to leave my audio system separate and in another room. I have that system working exactly as I want it and don't want to screw it up. The audio on HT is not nearly as important to me or my wife. It just needs to be balanced and reasonably clear with clean dialog, that's it. No audiophile requirements.
Have you experienced opera on Blu-ray? Opus Arte has a nice sampler. Or jazz, e.g. the Legends of Jazz with Ramsey Lewis?
db
No, not yet. I've never owned a blue-ray player. I've heard a lot of these performances are very, very good on blue-ray, but this still won't make me combine my systems. Stubborn, I am.
If I was starting from scratch, I would look at combining audio & HT, but not with what I have now.
Looks like you have a decent system mapped out. I would stick with the Infinity if you aren't sure you'll do the rear surround. Samsung is one of the leading TV brands but you may want to shy away from Vizio, they are basically throw away units if you have a problem. More than one friend or acquaintance has had the same scenario of issue arising with TV but no available parts for it to be fixed. I also crossed Sharp off my personal list after seeing a local TV station try to help a viewer with a warranty issue. The TV went out not long after purchase the people had trouble getting Sharp to take care of it and when they did they would only replace it with a refurb. You may want to pay $10 or $20 more to get a Sony BDP with the Wyfi and avoid paying more to have it as a TV feature.
Thanks for the helpful comments on the Infinity speakers and the Samsung brand. The Sony BRP I have listed has the Wifi. Seems like the TVs, AVRs and BRPs all have a lot of the same features, so you end up paying for 2 or 3 of the same features on different components. Thanks again.
Pretty quiet forum here. That's OK. I got a lot of help on my favorite astronomy forum. I'm all set to go.
I hope they gave you good advice! $1000 for the flat screen TV with smart streaming. $150 for a Blue Ray player. You may have to get a sound bar with what little remains though.
I'm going to try to get by with about $800 for the TV. I think I can be quite happy with a good unit in the 50" class. Prices on the 1080 sets could drop further in the next couple of months as the 4K stuff makes it to market.
Thanks!
I got sick of the awful sound set-up at my daughter's house and so bought her a sound bar for Christmas. I got her a vizio 5.1 that actually sounds pretty good. this one sells for about $300 and has surprisingly good sound. This one lets you get by without buying a lot of speaker cabling or a receiver, letting you put more of your budget into the TV and Blueray player. I strongly recommend that you spend an additional $60 on a lifatec glass cable to run fro the TV to the Vizio, and a high-quality HDI cable such as the $165 version from Mapleshade.
Good luck.
Everything is going to the dogs
Thanks for the soundbar recommendation. In another post, I've mentioned that I've decided to go with separates unless I can be convinced otherwise.
I think the receiver is important for us because of the microphone based sound level self-tuning that it can do and the dynamic range control to help control extremely loud sound effects and annoying commercials. Actually, I wasn't even aware that I could operate without one.
I'll have to research cables more, but they can be upgraded after the initial install.
Thanks!
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