Compiling a first home theatre setup

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#416453 13-Dec-2010 11:50

Yeah, what he said!

What type of house is it going to be?

Lizard1977

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#416457 13-Dec-2010 11:54

It's a 1920s california bungalow. There is pretty good access to the roof space, but I suspect that we will probably go with stands rather than wall/celing mount to start with. I imagine it won't be substantially more difficult to have them wall/ceiling mounted at a later date, if it comes to that.

Jaxson

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#416466 13-Dec-2010 12:13

1920 probably means hollow wall cavity from ceiling to floor, match lined walls so you can hang a speaker anywhere even if it's not by a stud and with good access under wooden floors; so ultra easy for wiring installs.

Rollux

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#416476 13-Dec-2010 12:37

I have the whafedales diamond 10s, pioneer amp and 2 panasonic plasmas.
I can heartily recommend all these - perfect for what I use them for (Blurays, TV, music - in that order)

Just make sure your music is in a high bitrate - otherwise you'll cringe when you play them thru something decent!

My set up in the lounge (listed in my sig) has cost $7300 inc cables, however I have made this over the last 3 years. Also my HTPC has taken $2k of that budget!

Have fun and enjoy your new setup - whatever it turns out to be. :)

Lounge:
WIN7 HOME x64 HTPC - E6420 2.13Ghz - 4Gb 800MHZ PATRIOT RAM - ASUS HD5670 1GB
ASUS P5B-VM MOBO - LG BLU-RAY DRIVE - BG3595 TUNER - 1.5TB STORAGE
PANASONIC 42" FULL HD PLASMA - PIONEER VSX1019AHK RECEIVER - WHARFDALE DIAMOND 10 SPEAKERS

Man Cave:
XBOX 360 MODERN WARFARE 2 EDITION - PANASONIC 37" PLASMA - SONY MONSTA 5.1 SURROUND SYSTEM

Jaxson

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#416485 13-Dec-2010 12:53

Also, do you have a good UHF aerial at your new house?

timmmay

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#416519 13-Dec-2010 13:46

I bought a Samsung Plasma, nice picture but the ghosting around anything moving bugged me, until I turned off one of the features. It buzzed annoyingly too, but the Panasonic are much better. I found L V Martin to be absolutely fantastic about letting me exchange it. I got a Samsung 55" LCD, which is a really nice TV. It cost about $2800 with 20% off, and came with a free blu ray player.

On the advice of people here and elsewhere I got an Onkyo receiver ($650) and Wharfdale Vardus speakers ($1200 for a 5.1 system). Together they sound awesome. I'm sure there are better systems around but these are a huge jump up from my old stereo. If I were buying now i'd go for a higher up model of the Onkyo receiver, one that directly supports DLNA so I could plug a network cable in and have it take music and movie directly off my PC. Right now i'm doing it with the PS3, which works well but the interface is a bit ugly, and means turning more things on. To play music from the PC I have to have the PS3, receiver, and TV on, though the TV can obviously be turned off later.

My setup cost about $4450 (including 20% off sales), and i'm very happy with it. I'll upgrade the center and sub in a year or three, probably.

magu

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BitSignal

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#416538 13-Dec-2010 14:18

I can vouch for my speakers (Klipsch F3/C3/SUB10) and amp (Yamaha RX-V861), which cost me $6k about 3 years ago. Got a cheap Panasonic 720p Plasma at HN last Boxing Day for $999. Xbox 360 and cables probably bring it to about $8k.

HTPC and NAS, on the other hand...

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Lizard1977

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#416557 13-Dec-2010 14:59

Jaxson: Also, do you have a good UHF aerial at your new house?

When we were inspecting the house, I noticed that the aerial had a few loose parts that flapped in the gentle breeze. It was pretty obvious the current occupants are keen on TV watching - they have a 21" CRT and an ageing VCR relegated to the small second lounge, so I wouldn't be surprised if the aerial is pretty bad. We've budgeted $400 for a new aerial, installed, with cabling routed internally to the room we will be using as the main lounge. So by the time we install our gear, we will have a good aerial installation...

Dunnersfella

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#416597 13-Dec-2010 16:05

It would also be a good opportunity to run the cables to any other room you may need in the future...

Deev8

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#416624 13-Dec-2010 16:59

Lizard1977: ... is it worth it to spend over $200 for 1x0.5m HDMI cable, and 1.3.0m HDMI cable?

As someone else said, buying something that costs a little more than the minimum can get you a more robust, better constructed cable. I avoid the cheapest cables but something like this 1m cable from Rapallo offers decent quality at the reasonable price of $25.95.

Dunnersfella

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#416658 13-Dec-2010 18:15

To be fair the cable you linked to looks pretty much the same as almost every other HMDI cable I've ever seen.
I'd need to clarify the $90 RRP too...

timmmay

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#416660 13-Dec-2010 18:16

I got 50% off my cables at L V Martin when I spent $4K on a TV and speakers. Their markup must be incredible. A friend who worked at DSE said it was something like (from an old memory) 2000% on their standard cables.

Dunnersfella

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#416667 13-Dec-2010 18:21

DSE's home brand cables must be a freaking gold mine...
Going direct and cutting out the importer truly is a great business model if your business can hold the stock!

mentalinc

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#416700 13-Dec-2010 19:35

The 2010 Panasonic range come out in June in NZ so waiting for the 2011 range is around 6 months away plus have no idea what you will be waiting for.

Unless you are moving into a dolls house, 50" is the starting point in size IMHO. It will seem really big for the first 2-3 weeks then it will feel normal and you'll be wondering why you didnt get the next size up.

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timmmay

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#416703 13-Dec-2010 19:47

I have a slightly larger than average sized lounge, the 55" fits nicely. I'm only 3 meters from the screen, and sometimes i'd like larger.

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