VIV

Heh, 12 guage will work with some shaving, but it is kinda overkill on the Pro's In comparison, in my setup, I'm using 16 guage, and it's more than good enough for the job.

Acoustic Research 206HO's for the mains, and the rears (each 6" driver with 3/4" tweeter) - $75.00/pair Acoustic Research CS25HO for the centre channel (dual 5 1/4" driver, 1" tweeter) - $75.00 Sony SAWM40 sub (12") - $150.00 Yamaha HTR 5250 reciever (500w total, 100w/channel) - $365.00 All prices are USD, and reason I'm suggesting it over the Quintets is because for about 375 USD, you get a system that would best the Quintets in every way (the speakers are so cheap because they're discontinued (not the Sony), regular price/pair was about 250), and provide MUCH better sound. If you go with the Quintets, you'll also need to buy a reciever, unless you already have one, so factor that into the overall price as well.

My AR speakers would mash the Quintet speakers into tiny little minced plastic/metal . I tested out the Quintets for about 1/2 an hour in a sound room, and while they were better than the Pro's, they come nowhere NEAR to the quality of my AR's. Basically, they have two choices to go with if they choose a HT setup. They can buy a packaged system (either with a reciever or without), buy a reciever if without, and get some good sound. The advantage to that method is that all the speakers are designed to match up with each other to create a good sounding experience. The disadvantage is that with packages like this in the sub $1,000.00 range, they usually cut corners in terms of quality, and you might end up with good speakers, but a crappy sub, or any other combo. The other choice is a component package like mine. My setup consists of hardware from 3 different manufacturers, but I did my homework before buying, and I ended up with a setup that matches together perfectly. The advantage of this setup is that you get to select the components you want. Basically, think about it like computers. If you buy that system from HP or Compaq, you'll get a decent price tag, and it's all a good package that'll work perfectly out of the box, but they might skimp on things like the sound card or video card, thus giving you sub par performance. If, on the other hand, you made your own computer, you could shop around, find the best prices, possibly match those pre-built systems for price, but end up with better components. It's the same thing here. If you want better performance in that price range, a component system would definately be the way to go.

Yep! Altho, I must admit, the difference between using the SPDIF and the Analog isn't that great, so I keep it on analog all the time.

Ok, ya talkin' to DA man on the subject of the AE now I have a Yamaha HTR 5250 reciever, and in my setup, I have each of the analog outputs of the AE (mains, rears, centre/sub), going to the external decoder inputs on my reciever. If you want to connect the SPDIF to the reciever (altho the analog IS quite good), just hook it up from the AE's SPDIF out to the reciever's DVD in, and set it up, and BINGO! As for the SB Live 5.1, no can help there, since I'm not familiar with it's connection types.

Heh, it would help if you gave the MODEL of those Bose speakers you were talking about. The thing with Bose is, while their speakers DO put out an amazingly large amount of sound for their small size, the quality can't come NEAR that of va similarly priced product from say Klipsch, AR, or other competitors. Bose is all about looks, and some people actually buy the speakers just for that! There are people who don't want massive speakers in their living room, but want quality sound, and that's the buyer Bose targets. As for comparing a $1,000.00 Bose setup to the Pro's (I assume you're talking USD), tell them to get the Pro's. If they want better sound though, look at a couple of other posts of mine near the top of this page, and you'll find my system. To put it simply, it's a component system (made of components from different manufacturers), it costs about 750 USD, and it could beat the holy hell outta the Pro's and ANY legal Bose system for 1000 bux . Of course, in my setup, the components are quite a bit larger than what you'd find in a Bose setup, or the 4.1's, but still, it's not really much to give up for the sound quality. As for the Pro's, if they decide to go with it, and watch dvd's, listen to music (well depends on their style for that one), and so forth, then the Pro's should hold them over. The Pro's will cost a little less than 1/2 of the component system I suggested, and will deliver pretty good sound. The phantom centre channel will simulate an actual centre channel in a 5.1 setup. As long as the 2 front satellites aren't moved more than 5 or so feet apart, the phantom channel should be intact. Of course, from trying out speakers in a 4.1 and a 5.1 setup, I can personally attest that a centre channel DOES make a large difference!

$75.00 USD/pair. Go find me a better set of speakers for that price, otherwise, don't open that yapper of yours. Anyways, AR speakers AREN'T crap, and amongst audiophiles, is quite liked (ps. NO, I'm not an audiophile). If ya wanna take pot shots, back it up with some heavy artilery, otherwise, you're only shooting blanks

Avoid home theatre packages in a box at ALL costs. 99.999% of them are complete garbage, and for the same price, you could build a MUCH better system. I have my HT setup in my room, and it actually looks quite nice (if ya have room for it all), so don't discount it on that alone. As for Videologic speakers, they're good, and in some regards, better than the Pro's, but a HT package would STILL blow the Videologic speakers outta the water. My setup cost a total of about 700 - 750 USD, so by shopping around, it should be pretty easy to locate good components. My setup consistes of 2 pairs of Acoustic Reaearch 206HO's for the corner speakers, an Acoustic Research CS25HO for the centre channel, a Sony SAWM40 sub, and a Yamaha HTR5250 reciever, all hooked upto a Philips Acoustic Edge. By shopping around, I managed to find those AR speakers, which were discontinued, so the price of one pair of the 206HO's went from 250 USD to 75 USD. Same deal with the centre channel, and the sub, while fairly cheap price wise at 150 USD, is EXTREMELY good, and can pound hard enough to shake your foundation

Oh, teehee, I just kinda skimmed through that one Anyways, I'm dead tired, so no energy to search for specs on your speakers. Are they amplified or are you using something else to power them? As for soundstage thingy, well, at normal sitting position, it does provide a very real feeling that you're actually there, when music is being played (like your experience). Heh, but mine's louder, so

For clarity, the only reason ya beat me out is cause my setup IS gonna be used for DVD's, music and gaming, so I had to get a more appropriate card Heh, as for soundstage, ya haven't experienced anything yet till you take my setup, with all the volume controls on the computer at max, have the volume knob on the reciever at the 12 o'clock position, and open a high quality file, and just sit back, while the entire house literally shakes, and someone on the SIDEWALK outside your house can hear it (PS. at those volumes, it's so damn clear, it's frightening!) And ya still haven't answered the question about which reciever ya have Hopefully it's a good one, otherwise there's not much point in having that kickass card of yours.

If you're talking 600 USD, go HT instead. Well, that is if you have the room. If you do, for 600 USD, you can get a good reciever, and a 5.1 speaker setup

Ok, it's on then My 2 pairs of AR 206HO's, a AR CS25HO centre and a Sony SAWM40 sub vs. your Aegis Two's If yours had a sub built IN, then maybe, but from the looks of it, and reviews, it'd have a hard time matching mine What you DO have over me tho, is the sound card, yours being an audiophile card. One thing I couldn't find on the specs of it for some reason, how many channels does that card support? Anyways, my Acoustic Edge does the job QUITE nicely. Also, what reciever you using? As for the Pro's being all you COULD need to get the most out of a computer... BWHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAH! Ok, while the Pro's are EXCELLENT multimedia speakers, and sound amazing, they are by NO means a match for an actual home theatre package hooked upto a computer. One of my friends has the 4.1's, and listening to his system compared to mine is almost like comparing a clock radio to a high quality car stereo, in other words, there is no real comparison.

Heh, name your setup

Heh, since this seems to be a bragging post, *I* take home the crown with my perdy lil' setup Yamaha HTR5250 Reciever Acoustic Research 206HO x 2 Acoustic Research CS25HO centre channel Sony SAWM40 sub Heh, you haven't heard what a computer can do till you've heard them on thes babies

No, Klipsch won't be comming out with a system like that anytime soon, prolly gonna be about a year till we possibly see anything like that. As for similar setups, what's your budget?

If you're talking 600 USD, then you could've gotten a complete HT setup for about that price! What type of currency are you talking about?

Well, I've only listen to the SB Live 5.1 on a HT setup like mine (the speakers in that case were better than mine), but I gotta say, my Acoustic Edge sounds SO much better, and made a HUGE difference and allowed my system to sound better than the higher end speakers my buddy had. Never heard the Game Theatre XP, but from the reviews, it seems to be pretty good, but from my experience with the AE, running a home theatre system, it is EXTREMELY good. Take that for what it's worth...

lol, for the price of 3 pairs of 4.1's, you could buy a KICKASS HT setup which would completely obliterate the Pro's . More sats and subs doesn't equal better sound, and more than likely, as Paragon said, would in fact screw it up.

Since you're getting a 4.1 setup, there's no need to go with a 5.1 card, so just go with an original Live card (be it Value, X-Gamer, MP3, or Platinum). On the other hand,a 5.1 card IS nice to have around, if you decide you want more later, so depends on if you want more later

Since you're getting a 4.1 setup, there's no need to go with a 5.1 card, so just go with an original Live card (be it Value, X-Gamer, MP3, or Platinum). On the other hand,a 5.1 card IS nice to have around, if you decide you want more later, so depends on if you want more later

k27-R: the main difference between the Gforce and the Gforce 3's, in this case are that Nvidia and ATI are THE only major players left in the 3D graphics scene, while back in the day, there was ATI, Nvidia, 3DFX, and SORTA Matrox. Back then, every company had it's own agenda, and it's own technologies to push, so game developers were all oever the place with what they would add to their games. Both Nvidia and ATI are now striving to make their newer products MUCH more compatible with DirectX 8, even to the point in helping MS along with DX 8's production. Since the only new cards out there will be designed for DX8 use primarily, and will offer a lot more options for effects and ways to create worlds for games to exist in, developers are gonna be switching over to these newer technologies, because they want their games to look their best, and not be left in their competitions dust. So basically, we can say the industry is going in this specific direction (the way the Gforce 3 is designed to go), because Nvidia made damn sure that by choosing alternate routes would lead to more work on the part of the developer (take longer to do the same thing on older technologies), and a sub par result compared to older methods (graphical techiques on the Gforce 3 make games look a LOT better (DOOM 3)).

k27-R: the main difference between the Gforce and the Gforce 3's, in this case are that Nvidia and ATI are THE only major players left in the 3D graphics scene, while back in the day, there was ATI, Nvidia, 3DFX, and SORTA Matrox. Back then, every company had it's own agenda, and it's own technologies to push, so game developers were all oever the place with what they would add to their games. Both Nvidia and ATI are now striving to make their newer products MUCH more compatible with DirectX 8, even to the point in helping MS along with DX 8's production. Since the only new cards out there will be designed for DX8 use primarily, and will offer a lot more options for effects and ways to create worlds for games to exist in, developers are gonna be switching over to these newer technologies, because they want their games to look their best, and not be left in their competitions dust. So basically, we can say the industry is going in this specific direction (the way the Gforce 3 is designed to go), because Nvidia made damn sure that by choosing alternate routes would lead to more work on the part of the developer (take longer to do the same thing on older technologies), and a sub par result compared to older methods (graphical techiques on the Gforce 3 make games look a LOT better (DOOM 3)).

*sigh* While the T-birdz beat the holy hell outta the P4's in most benches, you also have to realize that those benches the T-birdz are beating the P4's on are not optimized for P4 use. This is basically the same thing that's going on with the Gforce 3 card. In some benches, the older Gforce 2 Ultra card will beat the Gforce 3, but then you realize that the tests being performed aren't optimized for the technology that the newer hardware uses. While I hate to say it, cause I prefer AMD over Intel, in about a year, when software is out that WILL take advantage of the P4's architecture, everyone will be singing a different tune, because the P4 should handily beat out its competition, unless AMD's next gen cpu's have more punch to them. So to wrap it all up in a nutshell, the P4's are about a year ahead of their time, so are the Gforce 3's, and when they DO meet up with a more appropriate market for them, doubters will be silenced.

Audax drivers ARE more efficient than the ones found in the Pro's by far. The Pro's make up for the difference in driver quality with more power, but in the case of Videologic's Digitheatre and Crossfire lines, they beat the Pro's quite soundly in efficiency, and in the ability to reproduce neutral sounds. Of course, the Digitheatres and the X-fires cost quite a bit MORE than the Pro's, so it's a tossup of weather you want more neutrality in your sound (a trait very commonly found in European countries, where Videologic is located), or if you want a more coloured sound (something that seems to be heavily favoured in North America).

MURDERER!!! Heh, I'm happy! My rear speakers should be here tomorrow, and I'm gonna order the centre channel soon!! Ahhh, speakers, how I lub thee