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Looking for a Surround Sound System
TheNomadicCircle
Registered User, __BANNED USERS regular
Registered User, __BANNED USERS regular
I've been looking to get a surround sound system thats goes well with my PS3 and flat screen TV. I've been looking around at local stores and can't find anything too interesting or in the right price range. Hopefully you guys can help me out on this one.
I'm not looking for something too expensive, something in the $150 to $200 price range with good speakers that preferably should be wireless. This is because the wires I've seen are small and I don't know if its possible to extend the wires. For the speakers themselves, I'm looking for at least one speaker on the stand that I can keep near to the couch. So anyone have any suggestions on what I should get?
If this price range is too small, what would be an acceptable price range and what brand? Thanks for your help guys and girls!
I'm not looking for something too expensive, something in the $150 to $200 price range with good speakers that preferably should be wireless. This is because the wires I've seen are small and I don't know if its possible to extend the wires. For the speakers themselves, I'm looking for at least one speaker on the stand that I can keep near to the couch. So anyone have any suggestions on what I should get?
If this price range is too small, what would be an acceptable price range and what brand? Thanks for your help guys and girls!
TheNomadicCircle on
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What is the purpose of one speaker on a stand, near the couch? I thought you wanted a surround setup - Although, if I'm being honest, with the budget you've laid out, its going to be tricky to get even a decent stereo setup going, let alone full on surround.
Here's what I got on Best Buy: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?type=product&id=1218236333141&AID=10474050&PID=3629892&SID=ih-ih&URL=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bestbuy.com%2Fsite%2Folspage.jsp%3F%26type%3Dproduct%26id%3D1218236333141&ref=39&CJPID=3629892&loc=01
Logitech Z506. On sale at 80$ at Best Buy with free shipping. I'm not some fancy audiophile by any stretch of the imagination, but the cheap Logitech speakers I bought were really good and are just starting to show signs that they may need to be replaced soon. If you look around, you may find something nicer in the 150$ to 200$ range you set yourself.
Incidentally, the invisible hand extension for firefox is the best thing ever. I found those speakers on tiger direct for 112$, then some yellow bar appeared at the top telling me better prices were available. You click a button and it shows you the list of all the retailers they found that sell the same item, along with the shipping costs.
If this isn't something you see as an investment and you just want 5 speakers and a sub, browse Craigslist for a used Onkyo set (home theatre/theater in a box/HTiB). Outside of a major sale, I'm not sure there is a 5.1 system I'd recommend at that price point.
edit: Don't get wireless. It will be more expensive, won't be as good, and speaker wire is crazy cheap. There is nothing special about speaker wire, its just wire. You can use lamp wire if you want.
You can also often go to a place like Home Depot and ask for speaker wire and tell them how much you need and how much you'd like to spend and they'll get you whatever gauge best fits that budget and cut it to the right length for you so you don't have to buy a million foot long wire in some bulk thing.
If you're looking at new sets you will probably need to increase your budget a bit - you may be able to find a Coby or Electrohome or some other terribly shitty brand at that price, but honestly it would sound worse than your tv speakers. If you can find about $500 you can start to find some of the reasonable, cheaper 5.1 sets.
If you really can't manage that, this set technically meets your requirements, but is $50 overbudget, but at least it's a Sony and therefore will work. BestBuy
I would really consider getting a receiver on craigslist and buy good speakers (Polks are often on sale on Newegg). Receivers will always have new features added, good speakers are good speakers no matter what.
It'll cost you more than $200, but I'd suggest probably an Onkyo, Sony, or Yamaha home theater in a box for you. You might not end up with the absolute nicest setup that way, but at least it would be easy to setup and get running and not be the worst piece of junk ever.
Edit: You need to have a receiver in the mix, you don't hook speakers straight into the PS3/tv.
"Connect multiple devices via HDMI to your surround sound system, easily switch between them, and then connect everything to your HDTV with just one HDMI cable"
Pretty simple. You'll wire all five (or six - depending on the subwoofer) to the back of the receiver. From there you position the speakers appropriately. You'll run an HDMI cable from the PS3 to to the receiver and from the receiver to your TV. From there it's just about tweaking the audio itself - which you can do by either running the auto-setup with the mic or just do it on your own (which I recommend).
One thing that's going to drive you nuts with the home theater in a box setup versus having a good receiver is that you're not going to have enough inputs into the receiver and you'll likely end up having to physically switch cables fairly often (unless you ONLY have the PS3).
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Sony+-+1000W+5.1-Ch.+Home+Theater+System/9770679.p?id=1218171552661&skuId=9770679
I have a quick question though. From what I can tell, I would not have a way to hook my Wii up to the surround sound? Can I do this with just an HDMI cable or am I screwed on that one?
Looks like there might be an audio in, the pic on that link isn't big enough for me to make out the labels though. You'd have to split the Wii cable, hook the video directly into the tv, and the audio directly into that box.
1) I have not played a movie or a game yet while the sound system is hooked up, but I have played an MP3 on the PS3. When it plays an MP3, it does not use all of the speakers. I plays it in 2.1 I believe. I have gone in to the sound settings for the PS3 and manually set it to use Dolby and stuff as well as the 5.1 stuff it has listed. Should I not click on all of the 5.1 settings? Will the PS3 play MP3's with the right encoding and use all of the speakers?
When we watch tv, it uses all of the speakers just fine though for what that is worth. I am not at home right now, but I will try a blu-ray tonight and also pop in Dragon Age to see if it works in 5.1 or not.
2) Anyone use their PS3 to play mp3's very often? Is there a good way to do it or no? I was looking to move a large part of our music library on the PS3 and use that for our music needs instead of our aging computer. Can the PS3 stream web radio like the pc can? Specifically, we tend to listen to di.fm or sky.fm.
3) The cords for the rear speakers are not long enough to reach the required destination. I have never really spliced cords very much at all, but I don't see how it can be too terribly difficult. What kind of speaker wires should I purchase and any tips on splicing them together to reach around the room as needed?
Thanks!
3) Don't bother splicing speaker wire, its cheap. Just get a spool of it at the hardware store or something and cut it to whatever length you need.
Home now...and yes. I checked with a blu-ray and it used the full 5.1 like it is supposed too. I am guessing that it doesn't support 5.1 when the PS3 plays mp3's. Which sucks, but I am going to keep looking for an answer.
I thought about getting a spool of wire, but Sony put some proprietary hook-ups on the wires where it connects to the receiver. It hooks up to the wires with the two simple wire connections, but it looks more like a LAN port on the receiver end.
You're not understanding about the mp3s. The mp3s only have audio data for the left speaker and for the right speaker. They do not have data for the center or the rears, thus there is no sound to send to those speakers.
AAhhh....I see. That makes sense then. You are right, I did not know that. Thanks.