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The Best 5.1 Speaker Systems You Can Buy for $800 or Less |
Sound & Vision Names Best Speakers in Every Class |
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Gizmodo 
12/10/09
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12/11/09
C'mon. You can make sound out of a computer as high end or low end as you want. Anything labeled "computer speakers" are low end. Period, end of story.
12/10/09
Part of me is ashamed, while the other part just got an 80's film chubby.
12/10/09
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$758
12/10/09
I was expecting to be disappointed and see some Klipsch or other commonly known speakers... but the ones listed above would definitely outperform them.
12/10/09
Never heard of these brands, you?
I have a NHT, JBL and Pioneer in my setup.
12/10/09
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The reason I ask is, I'm guessing a traditional Component receiver wouldn't work, given that the Logitech speakers probably accept line-level input not speaker input that a receiver would give you. So what would you use to switch the outputs? Plug the Blu-Ray and the DVR in via HDMI and let TV strip the audio out and pass it on to the speakers?
12/10/09
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you can switch between them with the included remote or by utilizing the knob on the control panel.
12/10/09
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12/10/09
Are there any receivers that accept audio over HDMI that are priced where normal people can buy them? Is Optical sound better?
12/10/09
12/10/09
My setup:
Polk Audio TSi300: $338 on eBay
Polk Audio TSi100: $150 on Amazon
Polk Audio CS10: $100 on Amazon
Polk Audio PSW110: $200 from Frys
Though my set runs $788, it's far better than what a simple box set would give you.
12/10/09
[www.mtx.com]
12/10/09
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[www.aperionaudio.com]
12/10/09
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12/10/09
The difference between 87 db and 89 db as far as speaker efficiency is that noticeable??
12/10/09
If you really want ear splitting, go with horns. The old Westinghouse movie theater systems were folded horns powered by a whopping tiny (10 W) tube amps. Get some older klipschorns and you can make your ears bleed. But seriously, you really want that?
At the mid-fi/low-fi level, Watts RMS seems to be a proxy for quality only in the sense that people expect more power in a "better" system. That isn't universally true though, and especially not at the high end. There is nothing you can buy at Best Buy that will sound better than an Ongaku matched with the right set of speakers. The Ongaku clocks in at about 8 W and has a price tag of $80K. That is a bit extreme, however.
My point is don't listen to the hype. Hook it up. If it is a high end store, ask them what you should be listening for when you compare different amps--if they can't tell you why one is better than the other (and you can't hear it), then why buy more. If their answer is that it is better because it has more power, leave immediately.
12/10/09
uhhh.. YES!!!! I want my face to melt like that dude's in raiders of the Lost Ark. I want the cats to run in sheer terror, I want the neighbors to call the cops when I play the climatic shootout in Heat.
I am quite a way off from buying a high end custom set and while I do want to upgrade my 10yr old (wow..has it been that long?") Kenwood HTB, I am afraid that it will be another HTIB system.
I do realize that watts per channel is not the be all end all.. but in my case, lets say that I was eyeballing a couple of Denon HTIBs on the Crutchfield website. If I am comparing a system with 100wpc to another with 150wpc, hell yeah I will lust after the 150wpc more. I am still in my loud explosions, gunfire, crashes stage.
I am looking into upgrading my speakers now and just get a better receiver later. Better to have a budget receiver and kick ass speakers than a kick ass receiver and shitty speakers.
12/11/09
More on to what you said though. Watts don't mean a whole bunch to me either and it really is a hype point. Especially if you look at how the power output on some of the junk out there is tested. I don't really care if a HT receiver can pump out 150 WPC with a 1kHz signal applied. I like to listen to a wee bit broader spectrum so I like my amplifiers to be spec'd using a bit more realistic bandwidth.
12/11/09
I just think this whole wattage thing is like a pointless dick measuring contest.
12/12/09
That said, I have nothing but sand amps in my arsenal but damn if I don't want some of the glass and glow to play with. I even have a very tube friendly pair of speakers finished that beg to be tried out with a decent amp. No dips below 6 ohm and the impedance phase is darn near flat outside of the swings present around the port tuning.
Wattage specs are fodder for the ill-informed. More is better is their mantra and that's what most people go by when purchasing audio gear. I've met only one chain store sales gerbil that understood the truth and that is sad but as he pointed out to me, the higher the number, the higher the sales. 1080 is better than 720. 240 Hz is better than 120 Hz and so on. It's a means to a moneygrab end.
12/10/09
12/10/09
The one downside is that there's only 1 optical-in (plus 1 coaxial, 1 direct 6-channel input and 1 stereo input), and that for music listening purposes, these connectors aren't really useful. But for a HTPC, or any computer or console, I think these are definitely worth a look.
12/10/09