I have started building my entertainment center and currently have 52" panasonic LCD-P hooked up to a media center pc. Now I am in need of some good sound. Budget around 400$ give or take some. Wasn't sure if my best option would be to buy a HTIB or piece a system together...all suggestions greatly appreciated!
Piece a system together. One thing I learned from people buying HTIBs...they are never happy and always looking for the next upgrade. Save your money and do it right the first time.
Im on a tight budget but maybe upwards of 600 for now. Just looking something to hold me off for a decent amount of time while I get some other stuff set-up. Something upgradeable I guess you could say. How much of a 500 dollar budget should go to what parts? What brands? Models? once again all the help possible is greatly appreciated.
The bears need to be played on something better then tv speakers! =)
I received an HTIB from my family as a gift about a year ago. The HTIB was, in retrospect, a bad decision. At the time, we thought that we were on a limited budget, but, as it turns out, we were just unsatisfied enough to decided to replace it. In general, a good way to start is with your old devices. For me, I did a little digging and discovered that my dad had his old (and great) loudspeakers collecting dust in the basement. They made the building blocks for the rest of the home theater system. The only problem is, as Berny pointed out, it is more expensive to piece the system together. Even with my very solid left and right channels, I am still looking at a $600-700 expense. Also, what is the PC for? Is that going to be your DVD/CD player? There are good DVD players for $200 and under. But, I would like to know more about using a PC as a player for your system. That could be an interesting idea. As someone who is just a few steps ahead in the same process, I hope that my experiance will help you and I would love to hear more about building an HT around a PC.
Well I have the Computer hooked up to the TV through an DVI to HDMI cable, but dont have sound hooked up yet, as I have just the computer running off of separate logitech speakers. I basically use the TV as a giant monitor for when we're hanging out and checking out videos or watching G-force on Media Player....if you have never seen G-force get ahold of it asap--it will consume many hours though =P Fun to have all the songs you've ever owned on one source (hopefully an extra for back up lol) and just have people put up whatever songs they want.
it also works as a cd/dvd player currently and puts out a pretty good resolution to the TV for viewing. As you can see though I am lacking in the sound section quite a bit ;-)
Anyway, an important question is, Do you already have any decent speakers? If you do, then you just need a good reciever to power them. If you don't, then unfortunately, you will need to get both speakers and a reciever.
The bad news is you need to decide now on what speakers to get. If you don't go big enough then you will probably just keep upgrading and upgrading until you finally spend more than a great pair would have cost you on the first go around. The good news is, buying a receiver is more straightforward. In the entry level, $200-600 approx., there are many great devices. I was recommended the Pioneer 1016, as well as Harmon Kardon and I finally settled on the Marantz SR4001. The criteria for me was more focused on video though. You seem to be more focused on the audio side. Ask around and look for a receiver that is also focused on the audio. (For a little extra Berny originally recommended me Outlaw Audio Model 1070.) If you need to buy speakers then I am not your guy. Keep asking and you will probably get some good recommendations from others.