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Let's face it, setting up a home theater with five speakers and a subwoofer is a hassle. Home-theater-in-a-box systems ease the pain somewhat, but you still have to run wires to five speakers and a subwoofer. Single-speaker sound bar systems? Sure, they eliminate the tangle of wires, but they're just glorified stereo bars and never really sound all that good. You can get much better sound from a decent set of stereo speakers. You could put together a much better sounding system with Integra's DSR-4.8 DVD/AV receiver ($600) and a nice pair of speakers and possibly a subwoofer. It's a stereo receiver with 50 watts per channel with a built-in DVD/DVD-Audio/SACD player; video connectivity includes a 1080p HDMI output, one HDMI input, and two composite inputs. (You can multiply the usefulness of that single HDMI input by adding an inexpensive HDMI switcher that multiplies the number of available outputs.) Let's compare and contrast an Integra DSR-4.8 based system with Yamaha's YSP-4000 single-speaker surround system ($1,800). The Yamaha is self-powered so it doesn't need an AV receiver, but it doesn't make much bass. So, you'll need to add a subwoofer, like Yamaha's YST-FSW150 ($280) and a DVD or Blu-ray player. Fifty watts may not seem like much, but Integra components sound pretty good; pair the DSR-4.8 with efficient speakers you'd get a big sound. Klipsch's RB-61 bookshelf speakers ($499/pair) would be ideal and make better and more powerful bass than the YSP-4000, so some of you won't have to get a sub. But if you're thinking about going whole hog, I like Klipsch's Sub-12 subwoofer ($500). That's all together a $1,600 MSRP system, so it's at least $500 less expensive than the Yamaha system. The Integra/Klipsch system would be way, way more dynamic, with vastly greater clarity for movies and music (single-speaker systems never quite sound right for music). To be fair, the Yamaha big claim to fame is its ability to produce a facsimile of surround sound from the single speaker, and it's the best of its type (I've reviewed a ton of single-speaker surround systems for CNET--both units with built-in video connectivity and those without--so I should know). The Integra/Klipsch is strictly stereo, but it'll be really good stereo. Big and wide, with a great sense of depth and spatiality. http://amthanhthudo.com/loa-gia-da-obt But the Integra is really intended for audiophiles; it has good stuff like 192 hHz/24-bit digital to analog converters and plays SACD and DVD-Audio discs. That's a big plus for those of you who already have large collections of high-resolution audio discs. Building a system around the DSR-4.8, maybe for a bedroom or office system, would make a lot of sense. I've written about Home Theater 2.0 before, but to recap: it's a whole lot easier to set up, it eliminates stringing wires across your room, and it focuses your speaker budget, whatever it is, on two rather than five speakers. That way you wind up with better sounding speakers for the same investment as you were planning on dropping on five. It's a quality over quantity approach to home theater. A room full of lower quality speakers will produce more so-so sound; two higher quality speakers will always sound better. Hey, you pays your money, you makes your choices. If five speakers and a sub, or even a sound bar don't cut it Home Theater 2.0 or 2.1 is at least worth thinking about.

In the end of month a friend who is giving a small piano/vocal concert, invited me to play a song of mine before he starts. They are going to use a digital piano and no amplification for the voice. I will play my song on this piano, with a friend playing electric guitar and a woman singing. The female vocal will need some amplification and i don't have any PA equipment, so i was thinking to use one of my krk 5'' and connect a microphone there through a golden age mk2 preamp. http://amthanhthudo.com/loa-line-array I just tried this at home and it seems it works fine. The place won't be too big with 60 people or so attending. Do you think it will get the job done for 5-10 minutes that i need it, without destroying the monitor?

My wife works at an awesome summer camp for kids every year. They write and stage their own play-slash-musical. It's quoite a spectacle, though it's consistantly plagued by being completely inaudible to anyone beyond the first row.The kids aren't great at projecting. Being a composer & sound designer (aka, a guy who knows stuff about audio) I've been tasked with remedying this problem. I'm not a live sound person, so I'm looking for some guidence. I'm mostly looking for help with type of mics and their placement to best amplify the (often mumbed) speaking voices of kids ages 6-12 on a small school gymnasium stage. http://amthanhthudo.com/loa-line-arrayDo I go with shotgun mics? Do I go with some other kind of mics? How many? A left-center-right configuration? Do I suspend them or floor/stage mount them? Looking to keep it in the $200 rental range. I own a Senn MKH416, so I could throw that into the mix. I'll probably just run everythink into a small Mackie with PA speakers. If you, the professional live-sound person, where tasked with making your child's school play audible, what would you do? Many thanks for any suggestions.