stink

There's a KS-7800 listed for sale for $250 in Dallas (Though the box in the picture says KL-7800) . We go there quite often. I asked if he had more. It says 400w peak for the KS speakers...can the 707 handle that? The KLs are 150w max continuous, which I believe are out of my power range. http://www.us.onkyo.com/model.cfm?m=TX-SR707&class=Receiver&p=s

I just wonder how shes going to react when I show her the price tags..har! Hrm, ok. I'll try searching the architectural section of the forums and if I can't find anything, I'll start a new topic. Now time for some learnings : Browsing around on ebay, I see there are some R-5650-W and R-5650-S. I'm not totally sure what the W and S stand for. There are some slight differences between the two but I'm not too keen on what they mean. I understand frequency response, but I don't quite know what is "good". I imagine some speakers are purposely designed to have a higher response? Is an 8 Hz difference anything to write home about? The S's are 60-20k and the W's are 52-20k. I have no idea what crossover frequency is. I did some googling but couldn't find anything to explain it where it made sense. Do I want higher or lower? Would the CDT-5650-C be in the same "family" as the R-5650s ? I'm not sure if I should be comparing the first set of letters or the number to determine this. These are some common (which hopefully means I'll be able to find a deal on) architectural speakers on ebay : http://www.klipsch.com/na-en/products/rcw-5-specifications/ http://www.klipsch.com/na-en/products/r-5650-s-specifications/ http://www.klipsch.com/na-en/products/r-5650-w-specifications/

Well, the gauntlet was officially dropped last night and I'm not sure if I want to push the issue any further. "In-walls or those cute little bose speakers at best buy" was the choice given to me when I brought up bookshelves for the mains. So, assuming architectural is better than the quintets, I need to go from there. I think I'll start off, since I'm working on that wall anyways, trying to get the front and center channels done and running the wire into the attic for the rears, which will go in the ceiling. I'm a bit confused on the center channel, though. Will any architectural speaker work? They don't have specific center channel speakers listed for the in walls on the website. Also, which works better, in-wall or in-ceiling subs? Sorry...I know I didn't take much of any of your advice....but the wife decided to play a trump card. It really is appreciated, though. We can start planning the setup for my garage conversion, if you want, though!

Thanks for all the advice! I'm not sure if I'm ready to buy yet....we're still in the planning and demolishing phase. Are you sure he is selling the RB-5's? It looked, from his post, that he was selling his big setup and keeping the RB-5's for himself. For restrictions on the mains.....I'm still pushing and pulling with the wife on that one. Floorstanding is definately out and bookshelf is leaning towards unlikely. She wants totally discreet which means I may have to go with in-wall. I'd rather have bookshelf, personally, but I think I might concede to her on this one for 2 reasons : 1) If we do end up converting the garage, I'll be able to come back and buy just about anything you guys recommend. 2) I think it will be a better selling point, if and when we move (the goal has always been to build our house eventually), if I have architectural speakers that stay with the house instead of saying "Its wired for surround but you have to go buy speakers cause I'm taking these bad boys with me". If I can convince her that the mains will still look good in the room out in the open, though, things may tip into my favor. As for stereo receivers with HDMI, do you have any suggestions off the top of your head? I looked at the ONKYO and Denon websites and couldn't find anything. I might just not be proficient enough at browsing their sites, though. The Onkyo 707 has been the receiver I have been planning on going with. My dad lives in Zephyrhills, which I think is close to Plant City. He's planning to fly over in the next few months, but I doubt the baggage handlers are any better than the postal office. lol Jumping allllll the way back to one of Bill's posts, I may look at this false wall thing and see if its within my capabilities. The only major issue, if I go surround, is that it may be tricky building a pocket for the center channel since the damn breaker box is right behind where the tv will be going. If you mount a tv on the wall, can the center go above or below the tv? Does it matter? A little off topic, but I measured the garage last night. 15'x11'. That sound big enough for a decent little family HT room? Thanks again for you time and patience, guys. You've been awesome.

Once again...with convenience comes sacrifice. If you must go with inwalls/inceilings, I would highly suggest inwalls for at least the front speakers. I went to a parade of homes and a local AV company had done the theater install and they used 5 inceiling speakers. There is something weird about hearing your front stage coming down from the ceiling instead of coming from the front wall. It's just not natural. Rear surrounds might be less of an issue. Oh, nice resource. Thanks again! I'll have to measure it when I get home. Its quite a small room and I hope it will work. The wife has been on me for a couple years now about converting the garage...I think she just decided on a theater since she knew that would be the best chance to get me off the couch to do it. Motivation plays an important part. Yeah, if I did in ceiling, it would only be for the rear. If I do in-wall, I'll probably just drop to 5.1 instead of 7.1 because there is no where to put the sides...unless I also did ceiling and that just doesn't compute in my head. So, in your opinion, from best to worst, would it be : Centers/Bookshelves/Surrounds Architectural HTIB ?

*sigh* The B-3's don't sit well with her, at the moment. She really wants a discreet set up in this room and is reminding me that we're planning to convert a single car garage into a theater down the road (hopefully similar to yours, youthman ) in which I can put all the giant speakers that I want into. Soooooooooo, how do you guys feel about in-wall and in-ceiling setups? When I first started, my idea was to put 4 speakers in the corners of the room so she could rearrange as she wanted (she is constantly moving furniture around) and all I had to do was change what speakers plugged in where to change the setup. It looks like the room is going to be pretty static, now, though...so I think the architectural route may be plausible. Plus, if she is demanding them, she can't fight me too hard on the price. There is an R5 In Wall System on ebay...can't find it on the Klipsch site and the RCW-5 speakers it has have been discontinued. Other than that, any recommendations on in wall? Probably for the front and center channel. In-ceiling for the rear.....I'm not sure on side. Sorry if I'm being a pain and thanks again.

Yeah, it can be a pain out here. Let me ask this, would using a C-3 for the center with a pair of B-3's for the front speakers combined with the quintets for the side, rear and sub be a decent compromise between size and sound power? Maybe even replace the quintet sub with the KSW-10. I could always use the center from the quintet in another room.

Awesome, thanks Bill. Would this sub be a good complement to those? This would put me right at budget too. http://www.vanns.com/shop/servlet/item/details/540349076/klipsch-ksw10 The wife is still resisting pretty heavily on the larger speakers but I think the HTIB is out, I've convinced her of that. Shes pushing for architectural speakers, now. "I don't want those big, ugly black boxes hanging from my ceiling" she says. I don't think they're that ugly, myself. I made a mock up using the dimensions of the S-1 out of paper and hung it off the wall to see what she thinks when she gets back home.

Thanks for jumping in, Bill. I'm near Midland/Odessa, TX. We haven't built anything yet. So far, de-construction (more like destruction) is all we've done. The wall where the TV is mounted in the picture I posted is already there but it extends all the way down to the side wall (the window doesn't exist, yet). I'd knock down that entire wall, but for some reason the previous tenants relocated the breaker box into that giant, massive closet when they added onto the house. Moving the breaker box again really isn't something I want to do. Speaking of that, though.....if you're standing in the living room, looking at where the tv is in the picture, the breaker box is on the otherside of that wall on the righthand side (so right behind the far right side of the tv). Do you think this will present a problem? I know electricity can mess with audio/video signals, but I don't know if it will have an effect on an LCD or LED tv or what distance I need to keep everything from that mass bundle of wires. I plan on placing all the electronics in that closet and using the bluetooth capabilities of my remote to control everything (logitech harmony).

Yeah, I've used Craigslist before, but my part of the country usually doesn't provide the greatest results. Odessa, TX is my goto on craigslist and from the looks of it, speakers are no different. 79760 Dallas has a pretty wide selection, but thats a 6 hour drive.

Thanks! Yeah, thats what I figured and is why I tried to avoid it alltogether. Unfortunately, our trip to best buy hurt my cause more than it helped. No doubt. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't mind going to floorstanding speakers, we just have an odd shaped room we're going to be working with (and 3 sub 10 children) so I was wanting things up and out of the way. I guess I should mention we have low ceilings (8 ft) as its an older house....the room itself is rather large, but its odd shaped. In wall was what I started looking at but the prices on those made me change my search pattern quickly. Polk had some decent priced one but everything Klipsch seemed to be out of reach. Just the speakers. I wouldn't mind. If you could point me in the right direction, that would be helpful. As with any new hobby, I'm guessing finding the right vendors online is key. I've stuck to Amazon and Newegg so far just because thats where I've done most of my shopping. Oh, I'm not sure and shes asleep atm. The dimensions on the bookshelf seem even bigger, no? I can try to find some spots for them. I think I'd definately need something mounted from the ceiling in the rear and possible sides (if I went 7.1) due to there not being much wall to even hang a shelf from. Yeah...I was saving that for last cause I was under the impression it wasn't as important. I guess it's part of my budget as well, but I was hoping to conveniently "forget" about it until I had all the surround speakers....stretch the budget a bit. Can you post pictures here? I've done some of the planning for the remodeling in sketchup and you can see the shape the room will be in. The tv is a little off scale. The two black boxes next to it was me just brainstorming on where to put the the B-3s. The room is 18.5 ft from the base of the fireplace to the tv and 20 ft side to side. Thanks for the help so far!

Hello! While I consider myself pretty competent with electronics as a whole, I'm a complete novice when it comes to sound systems. We've decided to do a bit of remodeling and I figured now would be the perfect time to actually go out and get a decent home theater system to go with out decent tv. After some deliberation, I've decided on the Onkyo TX-SR707 for a receiver but the speaker decision have given me a headache. I have a friend who is into home audio a bit, and he turned me onto Onkyo and Klipsch but our conflicting work schedules prevent us from discussing the topic more in depth...so here I am, turning to the experts. I guess I should start with my assumptions. Correct me if I'm wrong. Most of this info came from said friend with a bit from reading around online. First, he told me be careful buying box sets as they usually skimp out on the center speaker, though he was sure to mention Klipsch is good about providing a decent center with their sets. Second, half of the budget should be spent on the center speaker....I'm assuming that is for 5.1 and if I move up to 7.1 then the center will be slightly less. So, the first thing I did was try to piece together a system. This is where I fell down the rabbit hole. The setup I imagined would be a C-2, a pair of B-3s (I was going to go with B-2s but the 3s are the same price), and 2 pairs of S-1s or S-2s (for 7.1). Now, talking msrp, the C-2 is a $275 speaker. In comparison, the S-2s are $450...this isn't really the price ratio I was lead to believe in. Will the S-2s overpower the C-2? Should I move down to S-1? The S-1s are only 50w, though. Will I be gimping myself by using them with the 100w/channel receiver? Maybe just bump up to a nicer center? Does the bookshelf even add anything or should I go with a complete set of surrounds? Now, then. Thats issue #1. Issue #2 is size. The wife and I went to bestbuy cause we knew they had speakers we could listen to and look at. They had the VS-14 and VB-15 and she was immediately put off by the size (I admit, I was too). The VSs are larger that the Ss, and I tried to show her the difference, but it didn't help much. We have some friends who have a bose surround sound and she went in thinking we were going to look at speakers that size. Soooo, assuming I can't win the fight on the size, I need to start working on a back-up plan. This should be pretty easy. I just pick a set, right? Quintet, Quintet III, HD-500 or HD-1000. Everything I've read points towards the quintet over the hd, so I'm assuming the quintet III would be the pick? Now, would anyone recommend still picking up a center speaker to replace the quintet or hd center with? Also, do they sell the satellite speakers individually or as a pair so I can bump up from 5.1 to 7.1? I haven't been able to find them. Last note, the wife seems happy to spend the $1000 on the bose acoustimass set, so I'd say my budget is about that....if not a bit more if I use the puppy dog eyes. Thanks in advance and sorry for the long winded post.