Home Theater Guys, critique my set up

Beason · 02-01-07, 05:23

Moving into a townhouse this summer and was wanting to build a small home entertainment system. Sadly I can only go 3.0 right now. Everything will be connected up with HDMI through the reciever and I will but converting the exsisting TV cabinet so that it will be able to have a TV mounted in the front.

Main Components
TV - SHARP LC-37D42U 37" AQUOS Widescreen LCD TV

Reciever - ONKYO TX-SR604B 7.1 Channel Home Theater Receiver

DVD Player - ONKYO DV-SP404B Component DVD Player ( Black )

Front Speakers - JBL STAGE Venue Series Speaker

Center Channel - JBL VOICE Venue Series Center Channel Speaker

Power Protection - MONSTER CABLE MPHT800HP Home Theater Power Center

TV Mount - Sanus VM200B

BoxsterCharlie · 02-01-07, 06:12

No worries on the 3-channel, IMHO it is far better to have quality than quantity. This from a guy with a 100" front projector and 2-channel $$$ audio system.

Nimble · 02-01-07, 06:28

Decent set up. Way I see it all set ups like the one you have or Yamaha, Klipsch, Definitive, Denon, etc are 4 out of 5 systems. You gotta hit Kef, Krell, Black Mamba speaker wires, etc to be really set. Of course a decent set up like that would be $20K+. eeks!

Cooter · 02-01-07, 06:50

Just a thought but i would look into buying a DVD player that has the HDMI upconversion. Their not much more than the DVD player you're thinking about ordering. The picture is great. The only bad thing is the cable isnt cheap. The picture will look great on that tv. Onkyo makes some good stuff.

ZaneO · 02-01-07, 06:55

I prefer Paradigm over JBL, but you've picked out a pretty nice setup. Don't forget to budget for quality cables (Tara Labs, Audioquest, etc.). They can make a big difference.

themightytimmah · 02-01-07, 07:27

See if you can free up a few bucks or wait for a sale - we bought a 42" Samsung Plasma for 1299 at BJ's on sale, they're usually 1499. My friend has a pricey 37" LCD (forgot the brand) and the plasma just puts it to shame.

Other than that - pretty impressive. It's better than the setup I've got, to say the least.

Beason · 02-01-07, 07:46

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cooter

Just a thought but i would look into buying a DVD player that has the HDMI upconversion. Their not much more than the DVD player you're thinking about ordering. The picture is great. The only bad thing is the cable isnt cheap. The picture will look great on that tv. Onkyo makes some good stuff.

DVD does upconversion and HDMI cables arent expensive unless you buy them from bust buy about 500% mark up.

Quote:

Originally Posted by themightytimmah

See if you can free up a few bucks or wait for a sale - we bought a 42" Samsung Plasma for 1299 at BJ's on sale, they're usually 1499. My friend has a pricey 37" LCD (forgot the brand) and the plasma just puts it to shame.

Other than that - pretty impressive. It's better than the setup I've got, to say the least.

I would get a 40" 1080P Samsung, but its just a bit to big for the area Im putting it.

PrinzII · 02-02-07, 01:50

Nice setup. The only thing I would consider changing is the speakers. Look at Paradigm, Polk, Boston Acoustics, and B&W.

paco · 02-03-07, 03:37

Speakers are very personal taste.

Where do you plan on purchasing the gear? Make sure you negotiate it with the store that if you don't like a certain part of the system, that you can return it for equipment the same price or more.

That way, if you don't like the way the speakers work in your system, you can swap them out for another brand.

Don't forget to get some good cabling as well for both the speakers n' interconnects. It makes a significant improvement.

If you can, run a dedicated electical line from the breaker to the TV on a split receptical. Top for TV bottom for the other components.

Also, if the basement ceiling is open, I'd also replace the TV cable from where it enters the house to the cable junction in the wall with some high grade XLO. You probably have it split several times to other rooms. What i would do is split the incoming into 2. 1 for the HomeTheathre and the other into a 2nd splitter with however many splices you need for the remaining drops. That is of course, unless you are running High Speed internet through Cable and not telephone line. Then 1/2 the incoming signal should go to the cable router, then split the remaining 1/2 into 2 (1 HomeTheatre) and the other into a split for running the remaining TVs.

Most important, dont' forget to simply just enjoy it!

Paco