New to Home Theater

[Tempestking]

Hello Everyone,

I am new to these forums and I have lots of questions to ask. First off, I am very inexperianced with Home Theater, especially sound. I have always been a fan of Klipsch sound and now I am thinking about building my own system around the WF-34 floorstanding system, however given the type of investment this is I want to make sure that I have all my ducks in a row.

So first off what componet list should I have for this type of system?

Second, what should I be looking for in a reciever for this type of system? My initial thoughts were to go with an Onkyo SR806, but recently I have been hearing problems with regards to some buzzing sound when using this reciever, so I may need to change this up.... well see.

And I guess lastly I should provide some information, I will be building this system in phases since I just don't have 3-5K lying around but that is about the price range that I am looking for with regards to this project.

Thanks,

~TK

[jamesV]

First off, Welcome to the forum.

Now I see that you mention spending 3-5k on the system. Does that mean for everything, speakers, components and TV? Do you currently have equipment, DVD player, TV..., that you will use for the HT setup.

What size room are you looking at putting this into? Are you looking for a 5.1 or 7.1 system? Is this going to be for HT only or are you going to be playing a lot of music, a ratio of HT to music would be nice?

James

[Tempestking]

I guess I should have described a little more, currently we already have nice Samsung 6 series TV, we are using a Playstation 3 for Blu-ray. So the 3-5K would be spent on everything else that I need from cables and speaker wire to Speakers and the Reciever.

The Room is about 700 sq ft, however I would like to have a system that would work when I expand to a larger living area. As for now the WF-34 suggested system on the Klipsch is a 5.1, which would be more than enough for me right now. Lastly as for a ratio I personally listen to lots of music however I do have an extensive DVD and blu-Ray collection so I would say probably 35:65 Music to HT.

Hope that helps,

~TK

[jamesV]

Well if that is the case then you should be able to get more speaker for the kind of money, 3-5k. You should be able to find a local place that has the RF line to listen to. If you do I would say to go and check them out, and strike up a conversation with the employees, I am not talking about a chain store like BB or CC. Then when you decide what you want you have a friendly place to go into that you know will treat you right, plus if you have cash you might get a discount of 15-25% off MSRP you might have to ask and when they see the cash in hand they just might. Worth a shot, when I got my setup I asked about a discount if I paid cash and their eyes got wide and said "yes we can give you a discount".

With that said you can go here for some good quality wire and cables for a cheap price.

As far as receivers I can't say... I know people here like H/K, Denon and some others. I currently have separates, have you thought about that?

James

[Tempestking]

Thanks James,

Honestly I haven't thought about separates, just because I really don't know enough to put together an adequate system. Thus, I was hoping that a reciever would consolidate some of the devices.

~TK

[jamesV]

Well not knowing it you just hit it right on the head, the receiver is doing what the separates will do. Separates will give you the option of upgrading just the processor without upgrading the amp or upgrading the amp, for more heading room, without upgrading the processor. The processor is just like a receiver, it will do all the decoding that you need and supply all the hookup connections that you are looking at. Plus with separates you will get a better power source then dealing with a receiver. With a receiver you are demanding it to do everything at once with a separate amp that is all it is doing, suppling power to your speakers.

Another way to go is getting a receiver that has all the hookups that you need then down the road getting an external amp, as long as the receiver that you get has the line out of the speakers.

We always like to spend other peoples money.... []

James

[falcon20x]

I will second James statement. You should look into the reference line and do a comparaison if you can, the WF and RF lines are some what different speakers to me. Speakers such the RF 82 or RF 63 set will do an outstanding job for music as well as HT and they should fit in your budget.

Music seems to be very important to you so I would suggest that you take a good look at the HK receivers. There warm sound is a very good match with Klipsch speakers.

For cables, mono price.com or bluejeans.com are very online companies to buy from. Vanns. com is another very good retailer, I have bought mumerous times from them with no problem.

Let us know what you end up with

[Arky]

I agree with these 2 guys.

Welcome to the forum.

[falcon20x]

So first off what componet list should I have for this type of system?

You already have the blue ray player and the TV, so obviously the speakers (front, center, surround and the subwoofer) and the receivers are the next in line.

Previous statements already gave you a place to look for the accessories

Second, what should I be looking for in a reciever for this type of system? My initial thoughts were to go with an Onkyo SR806, but recently I have been hearing problems with regards to some buzzing sound when using this reciever, so I may need to change this up.... well see.

Assuming that you will start with a 5.1 system then build up from there. If you are under a $1000 as I said look into Harman kardon but the Pioneer Elite and the Denon are also solid receivers. If you go above a $ 1000 I would look into separate, companies like emotiva.com or outlawaudio.com will have something for you

Most of the receivers will have the same basic features such 1.3 hdmi, Audessey calibration system, cross over settings etc ... so choose the one which sounds the best to you.

However, the Harman Kardon (the manual sucks though) and the Pioneer Elite are some of the easiest receiver I ever had to set up

[Tempestking]

Okay well since I am currently limited and really would like to get this system running realatively soon I think for the time I will go with a reciever in stead of separates. Now what kind of wattage, on the reciever, should I be shooting for with regards to either the WF-34s or the RF 63 floor standing speakers? Both of them are 125W at 8ohms but they have different peak wattages.

As for cables I think I pretty much have that taken care of, I will be using 14 or 12 gauge speaker wire and my understanding is that the HDMI cables really have little to no affect on performance, of course this is all from various resources on the net.

~TK

[jamesV]

Now, just talking about wattage from different manufactures is a whole new conversation. Each manufacture has a different view on the wattage output. Like mention above you might want to look at H/K and somewhere in the 70 and above watts. Some manufactures are better in the wattage game and H/K is one of them. You might also take a look here, it's H/K on-line store.

As far as speaker wire, 16 ga should be fine as it all really depends on the length of runs you have. I like over kill and have 12 ga for all of my runs. The thing about HDMI is that it is only one cable that you have connected. So it cleans up the maze of cables that you are running to your TV. If you have the connection then you should look at using it. It was stated but Mono Price is a great place to get wire from and the prices are great.

James

[InVeNtOr]

james and falcon have pretty much summed it up for you.

i personally have owned a very old sony receiver and now i have an onkyo 805. i bought it because i got it for $503 total. at first i didnt' like it, but i have worked through a couple of it's wrinkles. with what you plan on doing, i don't think you will even see those problems. now that i have played with the eq a bit and used it a little, i can say, for the money, there may not be a better deal. i don't listen to music so i can't give any input of how it sounds with 2ch. even if i did, my opinion would be tainted a bit because i also have an emotiva amp bi-amping the front 3 speakers. i have heard some people say is it's not that good for 2ch music though. it has all the latest features and upscales pretty good. my ps2 is upscaled through hdmi to 1080p (i think) and it looks really nice while playing the game.

as far as speakers go, if you like music 35% of the time i would look into the rf-63's before anything else. i have heard the 82's at BB, and wasn't all that floored by them. have you considered getting any of the older line up of speakers?

[winchester21]

I think that I can offer some advice as I have been doing the same thing in phases. My 444Es Sony reciever died so i started looking at new stuff. I had a patchwork home theater system of mismatched components of different brands which i thought sounded OK?? until I started replacing a few components with new stuff. Receiver- I found a DA4300 ES Sony-one notch below the flagship- on a Tweeter closeout for half price- 650.00. Very pleased with it. Try to find a higher end Sony-Marantz- Denon-Yamaha-whatever brand you like- that is being upgraded to a new model or from a going out of business sale-plenty of those going around now. Make sure that whatever you choose has plenty of HDMI inputs and a pre amp out option for all channels. 100 WPC would be a minimum rquirement IMO. Be patient and look for a deal- more bang for the buck. Speakers- I like the RF82 or the RF63 at your price point for fronts. I have been heavily shopping Rf 83s myself to replace my older RF3s. I have seen some Rf 63s discounted down to 1300.00 a pair which is very attractive. Either of the RC 62 or the RC64 would do very nicely for the center channel requirement. I have seen the 62 at 300-400 and the RC 64 for 600-750.The 62 is adequate but the 64 is sooo good and pretty much upgrade proof but somewaht of a budget buster for where you are heading. These are both 8" high centers so check out your space issues.For rears/surrounds there are deals floating around on RB 61s and RB 81s. I bought my 61s from Vanns for 300 delivered and my 81s for 500 out the door from Tweeter when they closed. There are also some deals on surrounds on surrounds if you want to go that route in place of bookshelfs. Do not mix brands with fronts/rears/centers/surrounds. Been there done that. Stick with all klipsch.. As for a sub you can look at other options. I am running a Definitive but I am still looking. The Klipsch subs are considered overpriced and under performing by some on this board. Listen to as many as possible and make your own decision. The Sony BDP-S550 is a killer Blu Ray/DVD player if you are buying one. I found one for 300.00 at techonweb.com

I concur with the positive opinions expressed comcerning separate power amps for everything. I went on E-bay and bought a mixture of older Bob Carver, B&K, and H&K power amps in the 200-250 WPC range for 1200.00. Extensive research is necessary if you decide to try this. There is some really nice gently used stuff out there, but there is also a ton of raggged out junk.The difference in going from 100 WPC to 200-250 WPC is night and day. Best 1200.00 that I have spent to this point. This is something you can do later if so inclined. As for speaker wire there is an excellent recent thread that you should read in the technical questions forum. I opted for the 14 ga cheap stuff from lowes.Seems to be fine. Bottom line- I spent 2450.00 for a new receiver, a new blu rayDVD, an RC64 center,2-RB81s for rears, and 2 RB61s for sides. I spent 1200.00 for the separate amps(optional but not mandatory). I plan to spend around 1600-1800 on a set of RF83s when the right deal pops up. I already had the sub for which I paid 500.00. So after it is complete I will have 5800.00(not counting the TV)Trust me when I say that this system-even with the older RF3 fronts sounds way better that several 10k plus systems that my frineds had professionally installed in their houses. So - Eliminate the separate amps(until later)-drop down to the RC62-maybe cut a corner on the rears- and you are there at your 3k target figure. I really like your idea of buying your stuff in stages as you can look for deals and end up with a killer setup for not a lot of cash. The bad news is that this becomes an expensive disease. I am now also looking for some used Khorns and a MAC275 for a second 2 channel setup!!!!!! Good luck with your search. When you get some cash together check out Vanns and Crutchfield on a daily basis.They get some real deals on Klipsch but the sell out quickly.

[Tempestking]

So this is what I am thinking as for my home theater set up....

Pioneer Elite VSX 92THX $800 - $1200

2x WF - 34 Klipsch Icon Floorstanding Speakers $1100

1x WC - 24 Klipsch Center Channel Speaker $500

1x XW - 300d Klipsch Subwoofer $700

1x WS - 24 Klipsch Surround Speakers (Pair) $750

Expected Total Cost: $4300 with wires and accesories.

So will I be fine with that reciever? Or are the speakers too much for it?

~TK

[InVeNtOr]

sounds good. you should be able to get the pioneer elite a little cheaper. it's been upgraded by their new line. klipsch subs are good, but not great. i have an Elemential Designs sub, i really like it. it only cost $315. if you like things to "match" (i mean by looks only) then i would stick with the klipsch sub. don't forget to go to www.monoprice.com for cables, it will save you hundreds.

[falcon20x]

Very nice and welcome to the madness! The pioneer receiver will do just fine with that set up.

I agree with Inventor regarding the price, for that matter you should be able to get at least 15% to 25 % discount on the speakers as well if you shop at the right place at the right time.

The only thing I would be concerned about is the sub, 270 watts might be a little short. I did listen to the WF speakers before and the bass did not seem to be there strong point. Now granted I did not give them a full listening session and bass is a matter of taste, so take it for what it is worth

[willland]

1x XW - 300d Klipsch Subwoofer $700

Welcome to the forum. One item I would consider changing is the sub. If you want to stay with Klipsch I would suggest getting the RW-12d(12" woofer) instead of the XW-300d(8" woofer). More wattage(350w RMS,825w peak),more volume(116dB) and sometimes can be found discounted at authorized dealers. And yes the Pioneer receiver will be perfectly fine.

Bill