Budget Home Theater

[GAJ]

As much as I’d like to drop a grand on a new setup that would be infinitely better than any bar, I just have a hard time spending so much for something so unnecessary.

For most a soundbar is certainly good enough, for sure.

The sad thing is that many who take the "plunge" to invest $1000+ on an Audio Receiver based system "assume" that the microphone based EQ is flawless and that once completed they are "set" and good to go.

Such things are NOT plug and play, the microphone based EQ is good at setting distances of speakers from your listening position and applying an EQ curve to the signal but it almost always fails to set speaker size and crossover points correctly.

Two Denon receivers after running Audyssey based microphone EQ had the following settings:

Front three speakers set to "large" with a 40hz crossover with Dynamic EQ "on" and on "Audyssey left/right bypass" which is completely wrong even though the speakers in question for the front left and right were small tower speakers in both cases.

I had to go into the manual menus and change that to this:

Front three speakers set to "small" with 80hz crossover to the subwoofer, Dynamic EQ "off" and set Audyssey to "reference."

The difference in sound goes from wooly/boomy/muffled to crystal clear and punchy.

But I fear most users don't know enough to make those changes.

 

[FXCLM5]

For most a soundbar is certainly good enough, for sure.

The sad thing is that many who take the "plunge" to invest $1000+ on an Audio Receiver based system "assume" that the microphone based EQ is flawless and that once completed they are "set" and good to go.

Such things are NOT plug and play, the microphone based EQ is good at setting distances of speakers from your listening position and applying an EQ curve to the signal but it almost always fails to set speaker size and crossover points correctly.

Two Denon receivers after running Audyssey based microphone EQ had the following settings:

Front three speakers set to "large" with a 40hz crossover with Dynamic EQ "on" and on "Audyssey left/right bypass" which is completely wrong even though the speakers in question for the front left and right were small tower speakers in both cases.

I had to go into the manual menus and change that to this:

Front three speakers set to "small" with 80hz crossover to the subwoofer, Dynamic EQ "off" and set Audyssey to "reference."

The difference in sound goes from wooly/boomy/muffled to crystal clear and punchy.

But I fear most users don't know enough to make those changes.

Quite the opposite with the new gui screens to help setup speaker sizes and crossovers. Some even have settings for how far away the speakers/subwoofer are.

Super ez and intuitive now with gui interfaces

 

[NorCalAthlete]

I’m still on a Bose 5.1 system from 2008 or so. I had a nice Cambridge Soundworks 5.1 setup for a while but moving it from place to place was a PITA. The Bose System all fits in one small box, doesn’t take up much space when setup, and sounds perfectly fine for movies and TV shows. I know it’s not audiophile quality but it’s a lot of bang for buck imo. Paid $2,000 for it and it’s lasted me for 12+ years with no issues. Granted the Cambridge setup would have still been going strong probably (and I bought that one around 1999) but I do like the compactness of the Bose for small living rooms / apartments / etc.

Once I get a townhouse / house with a bigger living room, I’ll probably replace the Bose (once it eventually dies) with a couple of towers, a center channel, and some rear surrounds. Not sure I’ll even need a separate sub at that point - I’m thinking proper towers with some side firing 10”s should be more than enough.

 

[GAJ]

Quite the opposite with the new gui screens to help setup speaker sizes and crossovers. Some even have settings for how far away the speakers/subwoofer are.

Super ez and intuitive now with gui interfaces

They had that 10 years ago and yet people still think it's "plug and play" which it most certainly is not.

Audyssey Multi EQ is 10+ years old, Multi EQ XT is 5 years old and yet they still make the same mistakes that must be manually corrected IF you know what to do which most do not.

They set the size of the speakers incorrectly and the crossovers.

"Small" and "large" designations are part of the problem because folks don't want to call their tower speakers "small" when in fact they need to if using a subwoofer and the crossover should be at 80hz unless the speakers are very small and then 100hz or 120hz is appropriate.

People are enamored of the GUI and think it knows all.

 

[FXCLM5]

They had that 10 years ago and yet people still think it's "plug and play" which it most certainly is not.

Audyssey Multi EQ is 10+ years old, Multi EQ XT is 5 years old and yet they still make the same mistakes that must be manually corrected IF you know what to do which most do not.

They set the size of the speakers incorrectly and the crossovers.

"Small" and "large" designations are part of the problem because folks don't want to call their tower speakers "small" when in fact they need to if using a subwoofer and the crossover should be at 80hz unless the speakers are very small and then 100hz or 120hz is appropriate.

People are enamored of the GUI and think it knows all.

i guess if your saying ppl dont read the manual, its pretty clearly written, run the setup, identify your speaker specs and change the crossover settings

if ppl were able to read into how to setup the mic and get it into the sound calibration screen/modes - i think they can figure this out, but i can see that some expect to plug in mic, hit 1 button and think its all set, but if one has gone far enough to spec in his receiver, spec in his speakers, buy the speaker wires/stands and place the speakers, i sure hope they look into the freq ranges for them as well.

Also i just settled on a $200 2.1 system, i have had systems anywhere from $50 - 2k, they may sound good, but my friends were always like oh ok.... nice bass..... im like you cant hear this symbol until now, and the voices are coming crystal clear from center channel, they like : |