Speaker and amp choices for HT setup

naturallight

Well thanks rebuy for telling me i'm an ****....I'm 60 years old and only understand 2 channel music with pretty much tube amps. If what i say offends you in any way..i'm sorry. I don't understand this HT stuff at all..so all i can say is i'm sorry about that. So if i ask stupid questoins....sorry.

evhudsons

I dont think that's what he meant, I think he was joking because you have some knowledge and equipment. I deal with young and old alike who just want to turn on the tv and have less than three buttons to push and dont know how to hook up multiple sources. My friend who is an attorney in his mid thirties doesn't have a clue how to wire his setup much less work it. So I hooked it up so he and wife only use the tv remote to change sources, as normal, and turn the avr on or off, that's it. If you do it that way everything run to your tv is output with one connection to your avr. You are not alone my friend and there is nothing wrong with stereo.

jbooker82

naturallight wrote: »

OK..let me ask some stupid questions... Right now, all i have is the TV a Blueray player and the cable box. The BR and cable get hooked up to the TV with Hdmi cables..thats it. If i want to see a DVD then have to pick the channel that the player is hooked up to.

If I throw a AVR into the mix...how in the hell do you hook all this mess up??? dose the cable and DVD player get hooked into the AVR...and just 1 HDMI cable go to the TV???
Pretty much how dose all this work???

You hook your blu ray player and cable box up to the AVR with HDMI cables. Then you have one HDMI cable from the AVR to the tv. The AVR takes care of the switching. You leave your TV set to video 1 or which ever port you have the HDMI cable hooked to. Then when you want to go back and fourth between blu ray and cable you just push the button on the AVR's remote. The sound and video change together. One cable for both audio and video.

You can run anything from a 2.0 setup up to a 9.2 setup depending on what avr you buy. If you want a good center channel and be able to hear details in a whisper at low volumes I would recomend a CSI A4 or A6. Yes they cost more but they have nice clear details. Most of the dialoge in movies come from the center channel so a good one should be used. I would take a refurb CSI A4 over a new C20 or what ever monitor seires your looking at.

evhudsons

Yeah both ways are simple. Bookers way is the correct way and the best sound, but you have to use your avr remote, or old school hand selection.

jbooker82

An Onkyo TX-NR609 refurb from accessories 4 less would make a pretty good budget AVR as well. It doesn't have amp pre outs but it doesnt sound like you ever plan on getting an amplifier.

http://www.accessories4less.com/make-a-store/item/ONKTXNR609/Onkyo-TX-NR609-7.2-Channel-3-D-Ready-Network-A/V-Receiver/1.html

jbooker82

CSI A4 for $175
http://www.ebay.com/itm/CSi-A4-CSiA4-BLACK-Center-Channel-Polk-Audio-/230685273430?pt=Speakers_Subwoofers&hash=item35b5e9ed56

Or in Cherry
http://www.ebay.com/itm/CSi-A4-CSiA4-CHERRY-Center-Channel-Polk-Audio-/230637512522?pt=Speakers_Subwoofers&hash=item35b311274a

rebuy

Yes, that is exactly what I meant but thanks evhudsons for taking up for me. I didn't like your snobby attitude about helping your wife get decent sound for her viewing pleasure. Your attitude was "it's all about me and my marvelous rig downstairs". It was not that you asked stupid questions, it was that your attitude sucked. I will be glad, as well as other members of the Polk Forums to try to give you the best advice to help you achieve your goals. I'm almost as old as you are but that does not give me an excuse for treating my wife like a second class citizen because she needed something better than TV speakers. I understand that the new technology can be confusing but you are a smart man and can work with the rest of us to help solve your audio/video needs.

My wife is disabled and spends a fair amount of time viewing the box. To that end, I try to enhance her TV viewing pleasure by giving her the best I can afford in the audio dept. We cannot afford one rig for TV and another one for music, our rig pulls double duty. Besides, we live in a trailer and 2 systems could not survive here as I would have a massive sound room that would vibrate the paint off the walls.

I guessed it just pissed me off a little that you have a great system downstairs and didn't seem to give a crap what your dear wife needed, doesn't she deserve the best too?

The girls at my house do.

Let's start over and be friends, I won't hold a grudge if you don't. :cool:

naturallight

WOW...rebuy..i think you need to take a chill pill on this. My wife is also disabled, she also has been with me when i play..I'm a musician..I play guitar thru a 1/2 stack..I play VERY loud. Yes my downstairs system is where all the money and good sound is...But dose she really care..not much, she likes to see me play...but she has no clue about sound. She really dosn't care...she's heard massive loud music for years.

The only thing i found out (just recently) was she really can't hear or understand the dialog on the DVD's...so the only reason i looked into the HT stuff. If She wants to hear Beethoven...she can come downstairs..but in the end..she really dose not care.

evhudsons

Tribute to DarkKnight, "this is nothing,".

Ha ha, I have lived in more than one trailer park, physically mauled too many times, put too many toe tags on friends too many times, my wife too many spine back and foot Surgeries. My wife loves high end audio but the op was only referring to a bedroom dialog issue. I don't want tv in the bedroom to begin with, but if the wife wants that, bluray, and dialog, and me to join in do be it. It's hard to convey with texting, computers and smart phones what we are conveying. I'm not going to get in between anyone but take into consideration the many facets of audio, desire, budget, and that rabbit hole that is in no fault to anyone other than a cave man Edison.

evhudsons

My .02, my wife is having surgery this morning. Everyone in my house including the dogs deserve the best, even audio. But their level of satisfaction may not match mine. The problem sometimes is that I want more Latin jazz spam allstars style, my wife wants harmon kardon American Idol style, and my snoring gassy noisy dog is goving me the eye for more Diana Krall SDA true watts per channel style.
And then there is my SPCA dog wanting to roll out in the mustang with his doggles picking up stray b&$s listening to some Tool, Creed, and coldplay.

As my friend Chris always reminded me,


Go get you some brother


That means do what makes you happy, and dont worry too much about the happiness of others if it causes grief or troubles. You can never know the story but your own, so don't judge or read too much in words on a forum


Well that was sort of a combo, ,but still, go get you some Brethren! And peace, love, and great audio in your own personal universe.

tonyb

naturallight wrote: »

WOW...rebuy..i think you need to take a chill pill on this. My wife is also disabled, she also has been with me when i play..I'm a musician..I play guitar thru a 1/2 stack..I play VERY loud. Yes my downstairs system is where all the money and good sound is...But dose she really care..not much, she likes to see me play...but she has no clue about sound. She really dosn't care...she's heard massive loud music for years.

The only thing i found out (just recently) was she really can't hear or understand the dialog on the DVD's...so the only reason i looked into the HT stuff. If She wants to hear Beethoven...she can come downstairs..but in the end..she really dose not care.

Maybe instead of a HT receiver and speakers, you should see if she needs a hearing aid. No offense, as I'm getting up there in age also and have noticed voices on movies are harder for me to hear also.
That said, we need to know if you have a HD tv, what kind of blu-ray player you have,and if your cable box is HD. Everything nowadays varries in it's connectivety. Not like the gear you have downstairs with all analog inputs/outputs. Todays stuff all has to talk to each other in the digital domain, unfortunately the way they do that is not always compatable between gear. Yes, I know, it gets complicated for one as yourself who has never had to deal with digital stuff but if we knew what exactly you have, we can provide you with the best cost efficient way to achieve your goal.

ken brydson

naturallight wrote: »

OK guys...now keep in mind, i don't want to spend more then $500-600 or a little over on this system.
Pretty much so my wife can hear the dialog off these blueray DVD's. I figure no matter what, the sound has to be better then what comes out of the TV. I have the Advents sitting here doing nothing at the moment..so i figured they would be good front speakers.

This setup will do nothing but play DVD's..watch movies...thats it. All i want it to do is give my wife the volume in Dialog..so she understands whats going on in the movie. The movie music..thats fine as long as you don't get your head blasted off with it. As long as it dose not sound like junk...then it works. Thats it..pretty much the bottom line.

If i want to hear Mozart, Beethoven, or Hendrix I go downstairs to the big money system.

I still stick by my Surroundbar recommendation in your other thread. Perfect for your application....

tonyb

If his tv had speaker outputs, maybe he could even getaway with a powered center channel and no receiver at all.

naturallight

OK guys thanks for the info. She's NOT deaf..just has a problem with the DVD's.
The TV is a Panasonic 50" Viera 1080 Don't know what model off the top of my head. The Blueray is a Maganavox NB500 MGif....don't know if that means alot.

If all i need is the center channel a CS10 or 20..just use the Advents as the mains...thats works fine for me...as long as she can hear the dialog right..thats all that matters.

Joe08867

OK, everyone just take a deep breath. You are all reading way more into these responses than is really there.

To the OP. check and see if your TV has a speaker output. If it does you could probably get away with a CS10 or the like to add that extra center sound your wife is missing.

Good Luck,

naturallight

Well there dose not seem to be any outputs...just one thing that i don't understand what it is....but.
But if I buy the yamaha...all i need is the center and the Advents..just tell the yamaha what i have.

Then i only plug the cable box and the DVD player into the Yamaha...all with HDMI cables Then i only need to plug 1 HDMI cable into the TV from the Yamaha. So everything should work ..or did i not get this???? The Yamaha is supposed to pass threw the HD to the TV...or I have no clue ....

jbooker82

naturallight wrote: »

Well there dose not seem to be any outputs...just one thing that i don't understand what it is....but.
But if I buy the yamaha...all i need is the center and the Advents..just tell the yamaha what i have.

Then i only plug the cable box and the DVD player into the Yamaha...all with HDMI cables Then i only need to plug 1 HDMI cable into the TV from the Yamaha. So everything should work ..or did i not get this???? The Yamaha is supposed to pass threw the HD to the TV...or I have no clue ....

yep pretty much. If you get a yamaha that has an automatic setup feature then it will tell you what you have.