Home Theater system 5.1

[chriswhitelaw]

I found this home theater system at Best Buy http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=7965455&type=product&productCategoryId=pcmcat40200050002&id=1153997588854

and wanted to know what you guys thought? I didn't find any reviews on it.
it's going into a smaller room so it really doesn't have to be that powerful. Insignia is a brand made from Best Buy. thoughts and opinions are always welcome from my favorite group of friends.

[tasty danish]

thing is, there are a bazillion ways to skin a cat, i don't know what you want or what you're used to.

i wouldn't recommend that set there but then again i wouldn't dream of spending less than half a G on a sound system, and that's a low end type for me.

what are you doing with the system? if you want an immersive movie/game experience, you may notice that it supports no decoder settings which will severly limit the effects or styles in which it can play audio. it may just blare sound through all 5 speakers equally.

if you just need a way to fill a room with sound, regardless of what the sound is like, sure that would work. if this is going to be your dedicated fun system, i'd save up and do it better.

i guess it comes down to, what's it doing? do you give a poo about positional audio and whatnot?

[chriswhitelaw]

it's going to be used for the PS2 and XBOX game systems in a smaller game room.
I know the xbox supports surround sound not sure about the ps2 so the encoder is the most important factor your ssaying?

[tasty danish]

honestly i don't know a ton about the different decoder settings. for example, i know that plIIx allows stereo input to be mixed in 5.1,6.1, and 7.1. i'm still learning the finer aspects of decoder settings, and which ones do what, but then again i have a receiver that includes every conceivable one so it was never much of a worry for me.

for instance, the xbox only puts out 5.1 but i play in 7.1 because my receiver can mix up. without it, tough cookies.

the fact that the xbox outputs surround means that it should hook up in surround just fine with no mixing needs. other systems that don't will only output stereo as there is no provision to mix them. with a better encoder it could turn stereo into surround.

do some research on the different settings you may want or need. maybe you don't need any. there are a ton, so it's rather overwhelming: dd/ex/dts/es/PLIIx/thx.

just know without an encoder, whatever your source puts out is what you get. and in that price range i honestly don't think that there are really any much better than any others, the one you were looking at seems to have quite a few pieces to it though.

[porsch1909]

Test before you buy is my advice!

[j.m@talk]

Test before you buy is my advice!

Bit like finding a wife then ;)

:t

[tasty danish]

the problem here with that is that he isn't really going to be able to see what all a low end system can do. a system like this won't be hooked up to any of the tv's there and without decoder settings it really depends on his sources as to how it sounds, which for obvious reasons he can't have at the store.

[chriswhitelaw]

I bought it last night and haven't experiences it's full features yet but did really break in the xbox and the 5.1's and have to say it is odd because I'm not used to the surround sound , which xbox does support in it's settings. Played a dvd in the player and made sure the dvd I did play had 5.1 and it was fantastic , the sound , the bass , everything! I know it's a cheap best buy off brand but I did snag the $24.99 4 year plan in case of a problem.

[tasty danish]

i'm glad it lived up to your expectations.
you realize sooner or later you'll be sick like myself right? it's like computers. you started by thinking if you could just learn how to install a few more mb's of ram you'd be good, then you go off the deep end with a new system.

soon enough you'll have over 1000W in 7.1 like me. ;)

[rockinup1231]

I don't care for surround sound myself, personally. I would prefer a 500w receiver w/2 1000w pioneer speakers like my mom has in her room. :D Those things are concert and german.

[tasty danish]

you do realize that speakers don't put out their own amperage right?
if you have a stereo 500watt receiver, you're sending 250 watts to each speaker.
the speakers may be able to handle 1000watts but that has nothing to do with what they actually play. unless they have their own amps, but most speakers (near all) don't (unless we're talking subs, or external amps, but then the power of your receiver is irrelevant).

not that it matters, no one hardly ever uses more than about 30watts anyhow, just though i'd educate, it is off topic so i can say pretty much whatever i want. :r :x

[rockinup1231]

I know that, I have set up those **** things to about 4 or 5 different receivers.

It would be awesome to hear those at full capacity.

[tasty danish]

i hear ya there. my two fronts are yamaha ns-777 floor standing cabinets.

they're about as tall as me and have 2 8" drivers, a 6" and a tweeter.

they're rated for 250W, my receiver can't be sending more than 100W per channel if that.

serves to make one curious...

[rockinup1231]

I had a good setup in my room for a while. I had a Pioneer 300w receiver, and two Pioneer 150w speakers. Each had one 16' woofer, 5' mid range and a 2' tweeter. Great balance I think. The receiver however had no working power button when I first got it, I plugged it in and it wouldn't turn on, so I was moving it, dropped it on the floor, and it flipped on. Magic!

My mom's boyfriend had a really old German Kenwood 350w receiver (well, I'm not sure, I think that is what it was give or take 50w). The thing's recording channel was dead, and it weighed 100 lbs., but that thing was the best at getting a radio signal in, and played music like tapes and such with very little noise at all. It was sturdy too, I once placed a really heavy (REALLY HEAVY) TV on that thing, the table was broken when I finally took it off.