High Quality Surround Sound Recommendations

[PsychGuy274]

So I'm going to be in the market for a nice surround sound system in the near future. I had a Phillips HTS3544 5.1 when I lived in San Diego and it was ok. The head unit broke after about a year and wouldn't play DVDs, but could still pump out some sound. I think I spent about $200 ish when I bought it.

I'm looking for something that is high quality and will NOT break after a year. It has to be 5.1 and preferrably have HDMI ports. I don't want anything Blu-Ray or 3D capable or anythign liek that. Just a nice, plain, simple, high-quality surround sound systems.

Any suggestions?

[Sgt Raven]

So I'm going to be in the market for a nice surround sound system in the near future. I had a Phillips HTS3544 5.1 when I lived in San Diego and it was ok. The head unit broke after about a year and wouldn't play DVDs, but could still pump out some sound. I think I spent about $200 ish when I bought it.

I'm looking for something that is high quality and will NOT break after a year. It has to be 5.1 and preferrably have HDMI ports. I don't want anything Blu-Ray or 3D capable or anythign liek that. Just a nice, plain, simple, high-quality surround sound systems.

Any suggestions?

Make sure whatever you get it's HDMI 1.3 or better. I have a AVR that's HDMI 1.1 or 1.2 and it doesn't handle the HDMI 'handshake' well at all so I use an optical input.

[Etihtsarom]

Nice surround system...what does that mean? What's the budget? What's the intended use? HomeTheaterInABox? A $500 set will do very well. More $$ to spend? $400 receiver, $700 on speakers will get you quality stuff. If you want quality, you can't get one of those HTIB sets with bluray/dvd player/receiver and expect it to last that long, or be powerful enough.

Sound system is a dangerous slippery slope, once you get a taste of rich, high quality sound, you're gonna go broke b/c everythign else will sound like crap.

[djleisure]

Sound system is a dangerous slippery slope, once you get a taste of rich, high quality sound, you're gonna go broke b/c everythign else will sound like crap.

Tell me about it. My friend's parents in high school owned a high-end audio store and it broke me forever. I still don't think my ~$15,000k+ home audio system sounds that good...

OP - what's your price range?

[ExtremeX]

PM Sent

[bender152]

Sound system is a dangerous slippery slope, once you get a taste of rich, high quality sound, you're gonna go broke b/c everythign else will sound like crap.

+1

I used to spend quite a bit of time on Audiogon.

[sundayduffer]

Basically what you need a decent AV Receiver..look for Onkyo or Pioneer... As for speakers, look for a complete set with two mains, one center channel, two surrounds and sub... look for Klipsch, Polk Audio or Bose. The complete gig should run about $1500. And youre good for a long while.

[sholling]

So I'm going to be in the market for a nice surround sound system in the near future. I had a Phillips HTS3544 5.1 when I lived in San Diego and it was ok. The head unit broke after about a year and wouldn't play DVDs, but could still pump out some sound. I think I spent about $200 ish when I bought it.

I'm looking for something that is high quality and will NOT break after a year. It has to be 5.1 and preferrably have HDMI ports. I don't want anything Blu-Ray or 3D capable or anythign liek that. Just a nice, plain, simple, high-quality surround sound systems.

Any suggestions?

Take a look at this factory re-certified Onkyo HT-S5300. I've bought re-certified Onkyo receivers from A4L twice and both the transaction and the product have been great. It doesn't have a built in DVD or Blu-Ray player but you can pick something up on black Friday or even at a garage sale to go with it. The nice thing about the receivers included with Onkyo's home theater in a box (HTIB) systems is that the receivers are real receivers and are solid enough to build on should you later decide to upgrade to better speakers or a larger sub. Anyway I've listened to the predecessor of the S5300 and it's a heck of a system for the price and comes with surprisingly good speakers. Here's a newer version for $20 more.

Basically what you need a decent AV Receiver..look for Onkyo or Pioneer... As for speakers, look for a complete set with two mains, one center channel, two surrounds and sub... look for Klipsch, Polk Audio or Bose. The complete gig should run about $1500. And youre good for a long while.

Oh no not Bose! Other than that great advice but add Infinity's Primus line of speakers to the list.

This would make a really good $1200 starter system.
Receiver: Denon AVR-1712
L&R front speaker: 2 Infinity Primus P163 bookshelves
Center: PC251
Surrounds: 2 P153
Subwoofer: Elemental Designs A2-300 or for $100 more (plus shipping) substitute the much better Rythmik FV12 subwoofer.

[djleisure]

Oh no not Bose!

Definitely have to second that one! Bose speaker systems have a hole in the midrange that you could drive a truck through. They intentionally "color" their sound to pump-up the "sweet spot" in frequencies that humans like. (<---that is kinda over-simplified, but gets the point across.) So, in turn, a lot of people LOVE Bose, but you never get to hear the music the way it was intended. Bleh.

I still have no recommendations for the OP, because I have no idea what the budget is.

[bluenoise]

I've got a Marantz SR-8000 to sell, if anyone wants it. It does not have HDMI or ProLogic II, but it's a good-sounding, well-built tank of a receiver.

I have no idea what the OP's budget or technical requirements are, so I figured I'd toss that out there.

[PsychGuy274]

Definitely have to second that one! Bose speaker systems have a hole in the midrange that you could drive a truck through. They intentionally "color" their sound to pump-up the "sweet spot" in frequencies that humans like. (<---that is kinda over-simplified, but gets the point across.) So, in turn, a lot of people LOVE Bose, but you never get to hear the music the way it was intended. Bleh.

I still have no recommendations for the OP, because I have no idea what the budget is.

It'll be around the $800-$1,000 range. It's for a good-sized apartment. I don't necessarily need something that'll blow the windows out; I'm just looking for quality components. Like stuff that won't break or stop working after a year like most seem to do.

[sholling]

It'll be around the $800-$1,000 range. It's for a good-sized apartment. I don't necessarily need something that'll blow the windows out; I'm just looking for quality components. Like stuff that won't break or stop working after a year like most seem to do.

I suggest busting the budget for the Infinity/Denon/Rythmik system that I suggested but if it's not doable then I'd hold off on the surrounds until you can save up a few more bucks. For an apartment plan on putting the sub on some kind of isolation platform because low frequency sounds are easily transmitted by the floor.

[djleisure]

It'll be around the $800-$1,000 range. It's for a good-sized apartment. I don't necessarily need something that'll blow the windows out; I'm just looking for quality components. Like stuff that won't break or stop working after a year like most seem to do.

Okay, cool - then I highly recommend the Denon DHT-391XP home theater in-a-box setup (~$400.) I bought one of these for my work office (which is actually fairly large) and it filled the room with plenty of good sound. Some people have reported that the receiver freezes up after awhile (still plays, but is unresponsive to the remote,) but mine has not had this issue - I think they upgraded all of the firmware.

http://www.amazon.com/Denon-DHT-391XP-Channel-connectivity-650-Watt/dp/B003QP3M92/ref=sr_1_3?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1317921586&sr=1-3

Then all you need is a DVD player, which are getting increasingly hard to find without the Blu-Ray playing capabilities. I actually usually recommend that people get a Playstation 3 for the best, all-around disc playing capabilities. Not to mention all of the movie streaming you can do with it. If you really don't care about Blu-Ray, then you could just get an X-Box 360 and still get all the movie streaming and a fine DVD player.

If you don't want a game system for that, then really any mid-range DVD player should work just fine for you - Sony, Denon, Marantz, Pioneer.

Now, if you want to go a little level higher, then I highly recommend the Paradigm Cinema 90 CT speaker system (~$850) and a Denon receiver. http://www.amazon.com/Paradigm-Cinem...7921376&sr=8-4
I ended up replacing that system above with these speakers, but kept the receiver. As far as bang for the buck, Paradigm has always excelled. I have the higher end Studio series in my surround setup at home and they are just ridiculous.

There are plenty of higher end options (check out www.audioadvisor.com for some great deals on some of those,) but honestly, unless you're really jonesing for the sweet, sweet sound of a multi-thousand dollar setup, you will be perfectly happy with a good home theater in-a-box. Just my two cents.