Does anyone have any input about this subject? I want to get one for a 55" Led Vizio and have absolutely no idea about them? Any help appreciated!
Depends on how serious you wanna get. The first thing you need to know is that the all-in-one box sets are junk...and so is Bose. I was blown away by a buddy's system last summer and set out on a mission to get one for myself... but he's an ER Dr. who spent 30K on his system. I can't (and wouldn't) even dream of that. So he put me in touch with another Dr. that was looking to sell and upgrade. I picked up a $4k system (5.1 Yamaha receiver/NHT speakers & sub w/independent driver) for under $300. I'm one generation behind, by Dobly standards... but dude, I've never heard anything so amazing in my life. I still can't believe I own this thing! lol If I were you, I'd check out the classifieds on some serious audiophile sites before I went into a Best Buy, where some pimply faced kid has no clue about what he's trying to sell you.
Dang.... have you read the reviews on your TV. I browsed through about 150 of them on that TV online. Clearly, 25 percent have nightmare stories of the things shutting down or not working right out of the box. Vizio has been good to replace, send repair techs etc.... but some of these people have gone through 3 in no time before just finally giving up and getting a refund.
I've only got about $7,000 in my home theater system and months of researching before I dropped that much... I might be able to help a little. Tell us your budget first, and what you're looking to accomplish. No way to even begin without knowing that.
Haha! I can assure you it is NOWHERE near that much! I was hoping to stay under $500 but it sounds like I may be asking a lot...? Josh 30K,that just makes me sick..! Ohhh and as far as what I am trying to accomplish, I simply just want a better sound quality for movies throughout the entire room. If I am sitting in the back of the room I want to be able to listen to it without having to blare it?
Let me do some digging for you later ... I need to pick up the lower level of my house as it's a wreck since we had our friends' four kids over yesterday all day, and I need to get it ready for hosting the UFC fights tonight (Bisping vs. Miller). One thing that kind of goes hand-in-glove with a 65" plasma and a system that can literally shake the foundation of your house; you end up hosting the guys' get-togethers a bunch.
Really quick here... A lot of people don't know that some manufacturers like Polk Audio sell direct on ebay. Sometimes, they're getting rid of leftover stock; other times they're selling reconditioned stuff with a full factory warranty. In the case of Polk, you're buying directly from them and dealing directly with them -- no reseller. Something like this is WELL within your budget, and saves a ton of money over what you'd spend at their retail outlet or at a box store such as Best Buy... http://www.ebay.com/itm/RM6750-BLAC...50?pt=Speakers_Subwoofers&hash=item35b6e5d22e You'll still need a receiver, but you'd be under your budget when all was said and done. Like I said, real quick down and dirty... need to get to cleaning.
Follow Greg's lead, Seth.... Polk Audio is amazing stuff! In my 15 years of customizing cars (prior life), Polk is what I used in my own vehicles :D
I have a high quality theater (read: 104" screen :D) setup as well. While I think Greg gave you a reasonable suggestion, I will ask a few more questions. First, What type of room is this going to be in (open, boxed in, big, small)? Where the speakers are going to be, do you have the ability to hide the wires easily (carpet, baseboard, crown moulding)? Are you looking for the full surround sound effect, or just superior audio to what the TV offers? I've recently done a lot of research, as I just finished my theater a few months ago, so I can answer other questions too. I'll make some suggestions on TVs too, but I need to know how much light is in the room where the TV is going. Also, where are windows in that room as compared to a TV. Personally, I don't think you can find a better TV than a plasma. That said, plasmas don't work well in rooms with a lot of light/windows. I find plasmas to have a smoother picture, and an overall higher quality experience than LED. LEDs have very vibrant pictures, but they generally do not handle motion, blacks, or shadow levels as well as a quality plasma. For LEDs, I would suggest Sharp, or Sony. I'd be inclined to look at a sharp first. For Plasmas, I'd suggest Panasonic. Their 2nd best tv is on sale on Amazon, nearly half off. http://www.amazon.com/Panasonic-VIE...E76K/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1322952343&sr=8-1 ..... I would personally pick a 42" quality tv over a 50" low-name tv. (I deleted about 4 paragraphs here, so if you want more information this I'm happy to expand.) Anywho.... On to the speakers Again, I don't know your room layout, so I can't suggest the best setup for you. But.... You should consider grabbing a sound bar with a sub. Those sound bars are so good nowadays that you'll be amazed at the sound quality and psuedo surround sound you get from them. I'd dare say that a high quality sound bar/sub will actually produce a better experience than a low quality 5.1 surround sound system. Not to mention they're as easy to set up as plugging in two wires. Running surround sound speaker wire can really be a pain in the butt, not to mention expensive depending on the wire you use (on that point, buy everything you can from monoprice.com, noone will beat their prices) So not having to do all that is worth a little give in my opinion. What Greg showed above is a good little item, but receivers are the most important part. Even cheap speakers will sound good with a nice receiver. Problem is... receivers worth buying usually start in the $500 range by themselves. To get a really nice one, that prices shoots up swiftly and significantly. There are dozens of brands for everything you could possibly want. Many options for technology, quality, and overall ease of use. I literally spent months on the internet, doing intelligent research on many of the sound/video things discussed here. I had a budget, and wanted to get the best bang for my buck. I have about $5000 in my system, and it's very comparible to my brother's (the ER physician) $25,000 system. It sounds like a sound bar would work just fine for you, given what you posted earlier. You can get a nice sound bar for $200 with a sub.http://www.amazon.com/Sony-HT-CT150...AO2I/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1322953635&sr=8-1
UFC just finished... Vendetta, thanks for covering a lot of what I had in mind for later in this thread (lol, sounds like you and I came to the same conclusions after our research ) I actually linked to a sound bar/sub component first before going to the ebay link... That may be all you need for what you're wanting. As Vendetta alluded to, I've got a Panny plasma with separate components that I pieced together and spent more on my receiver than I did anything else by itself... Although my Oppo blu-ray player runs a close second. (If you've never heard of it, don't worry; hardly anyone has until they start doing real in-depth research on home-theater systems...) And I took off all my baseboards and door trims and ran my wire and sub cables behind everything after removing part of the drywall with a Dremel. It can get time-consuming and frustrating to hide wires if you're going that route. Just something to think about... If you do go with separate components -- even if it's something small like I first suggested -- get all your speaker wire and sub cables from Monoprice. You'll save a TON doing so. I was EASILY able to invest another $500 in my receiver (the heart of your system) just by buying my wire from Monoprice instead of Best Buy or some other equivalent place.
