I plan to start piecing together a HT system. I have about $1,000 for an initial investment. Rather than purchasing a "kit" or a HTIB system, I want to choose my components carefully and buy the right gear over time. For my first purchase, I plan to pick up a receiver and a pair of speakers. I have narrowed it down to the Harmon Kardon AVR 125 or the Denon 1608. This leaves me with about $600 to spend on speakers. My thought was to purchase front speakers, then add the center and surrounds as $$ allows. I was considering Bose Acoustimass 5, which would provide a front left and right and separate subwoofer, or I was thinking of a pair of floor standing Polks or Boston Acoustics. My really question here is this: will floor standing speakers give adequate bass response, or will I wish I had the separate sub. I would be interested in hearing any recommendations on this subject.
Derek
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Floor speakers actually can produce superior bass to a single sub. For $600-$700 you can get your hands on an entire 5.1 speaker system from Athena, Energy, Paragigm, Infinity and others. If you are realy a bass fan, you may have upgrade your sub at a later date.
I once has an HSU VTF-2 Sub ($450) and an Energy Take 5 system (<$300) that would be realy hard to beat. I now own an Athena Point 5 system w/subwoofer I paid $280 for and am quite satisfied.
Hope this helps.
AC
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Thanks for the advice!
Leigh
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Floor standing speaker will give fine bass for music, but you will miss the LFE of the movies. I recently replaced my Advent speakers with a Boston Acoustics HT set-up. I listened to a lot of speaker and realy liked the Boston. They are warmer than many of the new speakers. I felt they were a good balance between Music and movies. My new HT system is Boston Acoustics CR series matched to a Yamaha RXV630. I paid $1500 total. If you want the next step up, the Boston VR series are great!! Hope this helps
Mengzhe
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A. Ciosek: Fry's electronics has HK AVR225 on sale $299. Very good deal. Regular price is 499. Actually they still sell HK AVR125 with $399.
Anonymous
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Hey derek,
Since youve owned both, which speakers did you think sound better, the Energy Take satellites you owned or the Athenas you have now?
ac
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FYI: I went with the Denon AVR 1603 a pair of Boston Acoustics sats (CR65), and Boston sub (PV 600). The items are on order. Can't wait to get my hands on them...
Idealconcepts
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I would stay away from Bose and look at the other options. When the HT Bug hit me, I was first looking at Polk Towers, and eventually purchased Paradigm Monitors, 9's in the front, Paradigm CC-370 for the center, Velodyne CHT 12 for the sub,and 9's more likely 7's in the rears. Now I'm looking to replace my Yamaha receiver with either the Integra DTR7.3 or one the following Marantz (SR8300, SR8200, or SR7300ose) any suggestions or comments on these receivers is welcomed. I do have Boston's in my car, a pair of 6.5 Pro Series separates in the fronts, 2way 6.5 in the rear, and 12 inch Pro Series Sub, sound is clean with very tight bass. I'm spending more on my HT system than I planned, but having fun getting there. Your decision should be based on only a few things; what you are willing to spend, what your ear's and mind tell you sounds good, and research on the brands you like. Hope this helps.
Derek
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Anon, the Athenas are better. I actually have purchased 3 sets of Take 5s. One I left with a house I sold along with the HSU sub. The other two sets are on my PC and my bedroom TV. In continue to be impressed with the Take 5s. The other night I was watching Starship Troopers witha friend on my computer through a cheap Sherwood receiver and was amazed how good it sounded.
The Athena are simply better. Amazingly the sub woofer box for the Take 5 is actually bigger than the Point 5's sub but the Point 5's sub is MUCH cleaner and goes down further. The Satelites for the Point 5s are again unusually clean and extended (verified with and Audio Technica AT-822 mike) and, because they are larger, can handle more power with ease.
I keep buying from Brandsmart. The first set of Take 5s without the sub was $500. The second set with the sub was $250. The last set that I picked up last month with the sub was only $180. The Athena Point 5 with sub - only $240.
Amazing! Much cheaper and better sounding than the AR/JBL sextuplets and let's not even talk about Bose.
Hope this helps.
ac
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I went with the Boston Acoustics, but out of curiosity, what is the problem with Bose?? A great part of my decision was based on negative feedback on this and other sites regarding Bose products...
Derek
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There is nothing "wrong" with Bose. They just have a sound. If you become familiar with some recordings, there will always be things missing that you can never get back. They are also VERY overpriced. The Sherwood, Energy, HSU system with a Philips 724S DVD player was about $1000 and could easily run rings around anything Bose makes, even at twice the price, while retaining the small satelite size of the Bose cubes.
ac
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I guess that's what I heard, they lack strong mid range sound.