Jwebb27

About a month ago, I came to these forums with the same questions you have now. I took my time, and found answers to a lot of questions that I didn't even know I had. I finally made the plunge and went with the Reference Premiere line for my 5.1 setup. RP-8000f RP-504C RP-660M HSU VTF-3 MK5 sub I chose the Marantz SR7012 receiver, as my family watches a lot of movies, I play a bit of PS4, and we both listen to music regularly. It seemed to fit the bill for both movies and music, and had the features I wanted, such as bluetooth. I had found a lot of posts that recommended looking at refurbished receivers from accessories4less. I was able to pick up the sr7012 for $1,000, and couldn't be happier with my decision. I'm still breaking my system in and playing with different crossovers, sub placements, etc. As previous posters have mentioned, start with quality components and build your system piece by piece if you must. You will thank yourself in the end. Even if you chose all of your dream components, you may still find something you want to update or change down the road for one reason or another. For me, I'm realizing I like tighter, cleaner bass and possibly should've went with multiple sealed subs, or maybe just need a better location for it. Either way, enjoy this expensive hobby!

Thanks for the tip. I'll be sure to give that a try.

Time for an update.... I finally took the plunge into the depths of the home theater world and couldn't be happier to have a new expensive hobby! LOL Here's the equipment I chose for my first 5.1 setup: Marantz SR 7012 Receiver Panamax MR4300 Power Conditioner Sony X800M2 Blu Ray Player Samsung 75" Q80R Center - RP 504C Fronts - RP 8000F Surround - RP 600M Sub - HSU VTF-3 MK5 Logitech Harmony Elite I have some cable management to do still, but the project is near completion and I couldn't be happier. My neighbors on the other hand, not so much! So, after getting everything setup, and using Audyssey to give me a starting point, I began tweaking the speaker levels. The first thing I did was make the center speaker a few db higher than the fronts, which was an immediate improvement. The next change is one that seemed excessive. In order to really feel like the surrounds were part of the experience, I had to set them to +3 db, while the fronts and center were ranging from -3.5 to -6 db. I have the rear surrounds placed about 2.5' behind our listening area and toed in to point at us. This places them roughly 13' away from the front channels. I'm still experimenting with the sub placement and configurations, but it's shaking our house and probably pissing the neighbors off already. I've been reading about isolation pads and such, and wondered if something like this would help out if placed under the sub and front towers? If so, what would you recommend? I still have a lot to learn, but I wouldn't have gotten to this point without the people on this forum!

This forum is simply amazing! It's so rare to find this level of help on forums these days. Thank you all for the help you've given. I'll be making my first round of purchases in the next week or so, and I'm sure I'll have plenty more questions as I work through setting it all up.

I was considering placing bookshelves on stands behind the couch. It may not be as clean, but it seems like my best option. Otherwise, I would have to place my rears at different distances from the viewing area.

A co-worker informed me that there was actually another electronics store nearby that offered free in home consultations. So, being new to all of this, I figured it could at the very least add another perspective to my research. The first thing they recommended, was moving my setup to the wall in the cat photo. This would give me more space to play with and keep the wife happy that I'm not blocking the built in bookshelves. I gave him no zero input other than a rough budget, which he of course surpassed. This is where things seemed off to me. He suggested RP-502S speakers for the rear surrounds and wanted to place them 6' up the wall, and about 1' behind the couch. This seemed like odd placement for bipole speakers, no? Regardless, several items on his list were things I hadn't considered. The Pro Control remote and power conditioner were two that I wasn't expecting. I'm sure the remote would be nice, but not a necessity. What about the power conditioner? Any feedback is appreciated.

Now that you've peeked my curiosity about a potential future atmos setup, I'm wondering if I'm approaching this correctly. Given the space I have, is there such a thing as too much? I haven't done much research on what rear surrounds or atmos speakers yet, but a quick glance landed me with the following setup: Marantz 6013 AVR RP8000f RP404C RP500M for rear surrounds RP500SA x 4 Not sure on subs or additional 3 channel amp to run the front 3 (recommendations?) Due to my lack of experience, I'm concerned with whether or not this will result in a distorted and overwhelming (in a bad way) sound.

I'll have to take another photo...there's actually another cat and identical stand. All joking aside, I'm actually worried about them damaging my speakers, as they aren't declawed.

@inMotionGraphics You certainly bring up a valid point! I've been so wrapped up in researching my initial purchases, that I hadn't really considered the "what if" scenarios down the road. Unless I relocate my HT, I can say with almost 100% certainty that I won't be upgrading to a 7.2.2 setup. However, I don't want to rule out the possibility of a 5.2.4! Accessories4less offers a refurbished Marantz 6013 9.2 Channel AVR for about the same as what I would pay for the 5013 model brand new. Typically I wouldn't consider this, but given that quite a few members of this community have had positive experiences with them, and actually recommend going that route, I may have to give it some serious consideration to going the refurbished route. Another thing I had considered, was having a professional do the installation to ensure I wasn't leaving "performance" on the table. But after giving it some thought, I want to tackle this project myself, and learn from my mistakes throughout the process. After all, trying new things and tinkering is half the fun! Thanks for the advice! Josh

Thank you for providing a long and thorough response! I feel as though I'm on the right track as far as order of purchases goes. I already own a PS4 Pro and Sony UBPX700 blu-ray player. I took your advice and visited Best Buy and another local entertainment store that I wasn't previously aware of, and listened to various AVR and speaker configurations. I resisted the urge to start purchasing things right then and there, as I wanted to come home and continue my research. Here's where the listening and experience and research has led me. Marantz SR5013 7.2 Channel AVR Klipsch RP8000f Klipsch RP404C Above would be my initial setup. It aligns well with my current budget and should give me a solid setup until I'm ready to purchase sub(s) and rear surrounds, which were hard to get a feel for in either of the stores I visited. Perhaps I will look around for those with similar setups to this and see what they used, liked and or disliked and go from there. Does this seem like a solid approach?

Hey everyone, I'm new to the forums and new to home theaters as well. After browsing around the forums for the last few weeks as a guest, I decided to make an account and reach out for some advice. So here we go. We just moved into our new home a few weeks ago, and one of the first things I told the wife, was that I wanted to build a nice HT in our finished basement (Photos below - Sorry for the mess, just moving in). The space measures roughly 13' from TV mount to back wall behind couch, and 13' from bookshelf to edge of main wall. However, as you can see in the left wall photo, the width of the room is much larger at around 26'. I haven't purchased the TV yet, but I'm considering a 65" or 75" Samsung QLED Q80. I have about $2,500 - 3,000 that I can spend on the receiver and speakers, but I need some help. Unfortunately, we only have a Best Buy near us, and the help I've received in this area has been underwhelming to say the least. I would like to build a 5.1 or 5.2 setup, that I can upgrade to ATMOS later. From what I've gathered from other posts on the forums, it would be best to piece this together slowly, with quality components, and I'm totally ok with working towards my end goal. Previously, we've only had a soundbar and generic sub, so this will be a huge upgrade no matter what. I would say the breakdown for usage would be 70% TV / Movies, 20% Gaming, 10% Music. We would like the ability to stream pandora, spotify, napster etc. Any and all advice is greatly appreciated!