(I'm not sure if this should be in music or tech forum, but since there are so many "help me choose parts for my PC" threads here, I'm dumping it in here.)

I'm looking to upgrade the sound system on my TV. The speakers are plenty loud for TV broadcasting, but DVDs are rather hard to hear unless I really crank the volume.

I have a TV, dvd player, and VHS player. The TV and DVd use component video, the VHS uses coaxial so I can record from broadcast TV.

I figure that i'm going to have to connect the VHS and DVD to a receiver, and then have the receiver channel the signal into the tv and extra speakers. I want 5.1 channel sound.

here's what I need:

Receiver
Speakers and subwoofer


Any brand recommendations? My budget is $600, $700 if I really stretch it. I don't need anything audiophile-quality, but it should be better than what I have now.

I'm open to secondhand goods, as well, but not stuff that's been used as store demos. (kids think that it's really funny to flatten tweeter domes on speakers and then stores have the audacity to sell it regardless)

You need an amplifier. Everything plugs into the amp, and will let you change between various devices. with the flip of a switch.

I highly recommend the Panasonic SA-XR55 or SA-XR57 receiver. The XR57 is better, but a little more expensive, and has HDMI support. Both are all digital receivers that can put out a full 100w into all 7 channels with excellent THD and frequency response. The bottom line is that it's the absolute best sounding reciever for the money. Check out the like, 26 page thread on AVSForum about it if you don't believe me. It stacks up to multi-thousand dollar recievers from audiophiles companies like Rotel. Why? Because Panasonic is a huge electronics house with GOOD engineers that know what they are doing. Also because audiophile products are way overpriced.

Anyway. There are a ton of great brands for speakers. At any given price point there's usually half a dozen choices, and they'll all be good. For your price point, Athena offers the best bang for buck. There are others (Paradigm, Axiom, Energy, among many) but you'd have to stretch over $1,000 I think.

From Athena...
Front and rear speakers: AS-B1.2 bookshelves
Center channel: AS-C1.2
Subwoofer: AS-P4000 or the AS-P6000 if you have a large listening room or are just crazy about bass.

Or, to save a bit of money and get things in a smaller package, the Athena Micra 6 system. It'll be more expensive than stuff from say, Logitech, but will sound way better. This is about the only HTIB (home theater in a box) speaker set I've been able to find that doesn't suck. I've been trying to get my dad to buy it for himself for sometime but he's too cheap.

Two very popular subwoofers are the Dayton 10" and 12" from PartsExpress. Dayton is their in-house brand. These two subs are pretty popular for providing deep, clean bass without having to break your wallet.

Also, if you look at Athena's site, you may be wondering if you can buy the AS-B2.2 bookshelves as an upgrade. Don't bother. The only difference is that the woofer is an inch bigger, which provides more bass, but you don't need that since you have a subwoofer. They are otherwise identical.

Another nice thing about Athena is that you can buy them from MANY places online and from local retails. Even Best Buy carries them. You'll have to push your way past all the Bose and Sony garbage out in the front, but they are supposed to carry them. At my local one all they had was a center channel in a beat up box in the way back. :/

Here's a breakdown for you:
Athena AS-B1.2s, 2x - $240
AS-C1.2, 1x
AS-P4000, 1x - $150
Panasonic SA-XR57, $300
Total - $830

Shipping's going to cost you a little, but hopefully you can buy the Athena stuff from a local retailer (they should have a retailer finding function on their site). The AS-B1.2s are supposed to retail at Best Buy for $100, so you could definitely shave off some cost there. I think AudioAdvisor used to sell them for $100, I'm not sure what's up with the price increase.

Or if you just get the Micra 6 and the XR57, the total would be $600. You can also save $70 by downgrading the receiver to an XR55. Or you can buy a much cheaper analog receiver from say, Onkyo. They're a good choice, just not as good of a choice. The Panny receivers have more benefits than sound, too. They just have really nice interfaces with lots of options and great IO for lots of devices. The XR57 especially so.

Personally, I would go with the full Athena setup. You can save some money by buying locally and going with a Dayton sub instead of an Athena one. You could also buy a cheaper receiver, but that will gimp you in the future if you ever decide to upgrade your speakers. The XR-57 is a hell of a device that can be used effectively for MUCH higher end speakers. If you must keep under $700, and you can't get the price of a full Athena set down by buying locally, go with the Micra set. It's cheap but still delivers some nice room-filling sound. It's a steal, really. The full Athena set will get you a much bigger, fuller, room-filling sound, however.

Whatever you do, don't buy some cheap HTIB setup from a retail store. Pretty much all of them suck. I also wouldn't recommend buying Logitech or Klipsch PC speakers. Even the most high end PC speakers don't hold a candle to a decent HT setup like I've outlined above. They're targetted towards gamers who love big bass, and thus are engineered for that and nothing else. And hell, the bass isn't even that good! It just booms and that's it.

You said you didn't need audiophile quality, but what I've outlined IS audiophile quality but still within your budget.

listen to everything emon says about audio, he knows what he's talking about.

Just don't get Bose. Please, god, don't get Bose.

[QUOTE=Cool Matty]Just don't get Bose. Please, god, don't get Bose.[/QUOTE]
Agreed. Bose is overpriced, massmarketed crap. Bose could make good audio systems, but instead they chose to make crap ones and sell them to stupid people for a lot of money. And that's why they're successful. Seriously, their "high end" systems use crappy 2.5" paper cones mounted in thin plastic...their subwoofers are crappy 8" paper cones built in shoddy LDF housing. They charge thousands for speakers that cost a handful (you can buy replacement satellites for $30/pair online).

BOSE = Buy Other Sound Equipment

Bose = crap.

I have a pair of Athena speakers from a beat up box in the back of a Best Buy. They sounds pretty good to me, though I usually listen to my headphones more often.

Speaking of crap-quality paper cones, one of my classmates at Humber found a speaker in Active Surplus (in Toronto) that we suspect may be a Bose, simply from the size of the thing's magnet (it was almost as big as the cone). He got it for less than a dollar (CAD).

Back on topic, another good speaker company is Polk Audio. I've got a pair of R15s (lowest possible end bookself speakers) and they outperform the Athenas on my parents system downstairs (don't ask what model they are though. I have no idea).

That's because you have some disgusting sort of awesome SR-325 woodies with some really expensive cable because Larry doesn't do just woodies alone which is really annoying and kind of a ripoff but I don't care since my DT 880s are better anyway.

? (are you responding to my post? or the post above? If its my post, the setup downstairs is using the expensive monster cable. I'm using the crap that came with their Yamaha system on my JVC RX-R76)

Sorry, that was in reply to Malus.

Oh, and cables don't do ****. Anything large enough to carry the current and not induce some crazy amount of capacitance is fine. Lamp cord works great. 16 AWG is good for even high power applications, although people like to go up to 12 at that point.

And don't buy into the arguments that aftermarket cables help because of shielding. No. Shielding is for line-level interconnects between devices, it isn't need (except in some extreme cases perhaps) between an amplifier and a speaker. Why? Shielding exists on interconnects because any noise picked up will be amplified or processed by the next component, making it audible. When the signal is on it's way to the speaker, none of the noise will be amplified, and thus not audible. Try making a big loop of wire between the two leads on a speaker in an area with average EM noise. Can you hear the noise in the speaker? No, that would be absurd. It's signal-to-noise ratio. The SNR is so high at the speaker that you could never hear the noise. But if you removed shielding between interconnects, it would be low enough to be audible after it is amplified.

Just to inform you if you weren't aware. So you don't buy into "hurr it's for shielding!" arguments.

What's the worst, though, is optical cables with gold plated connectors for "increased shielding and conductivity." dum-de-durr :downs:

Good to keep in mind. Thanx

Technics surround amp, Paradigm sub and Yamaha satelites here. Probably will replace the Yamahas eventually, but everything sounds great to me.