My ankle is like totally lame, because it got sprained and like I am pretty much going crazy without being able to move around and get stuff done! The injury has kind of forced me to try and relax and catch up on movies and video games (still haven't even gotten around to Dragon Age, like you care). My Sony surround sound system has served me well but it is hopelessly out dated, time for an upgrade. I spent countless hours researching stuff I know nothing about and $800.00 later I came up with this:

http://www.us.onkyo.com/model.cfm?m=TX- ... ceiver&p=i

with this:

http://www.us.onkyo.com/model.cfm?m=UP- ... essory&p=i

and these:

http://www.us.onkyo.com/model.cfm?m=SKS ... peaker&p=i

Did I do good?

As is usually the case I instantly got buyers remorse. I think I was meant to be married because the only time I don't feel bad about spending money is when it's on other people, but I'm all I got right now and I digress. And know you can't borrow 10 bucks so don't ask! So anyways, if you know anything about this stuff how did I do?

I have a 30 money back guarantee so I plan on carefully unpacking everything and popping in my Zombieland Blu-Ray to see how it goes.

The only question I have is, what kind of speaker wire should I buy? I heard the stuff they sell at Best Buy is crap for whatever reason.

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"I love that you know how to do that." Cheryl/Carol/Crystal

"And I love that I have an erection that doesn't involve homeless people." Kreiger

speaker wire is speaker wire. you just need to match the size for your output. i wouldn't worry too much about it. 12 gauge copper speaker wire would be just fine.

i don't know about the durability of the speakers, but the specs are good.

onkyo heads are okay but i wouldn't buy them. overall it looks like you did well with your purchase.

Thanks, guess I'll find out soon enough. I love the dynamic amplification feature, with that I do not need to worry about scrambling for the remote when loud commercials come on or worry about my neighbors being awoken by gun fire from my speakers.

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"I love that you know how to do that." Cheryl/Carol/Crystal

"And I love that I have an erection that doesn't involve homeless people." Kreiger

For an entry level receiver, Onkyo is good. Much better than Sony. Yamaha are my favorite (the RX-V567 and RX-V667 are comparable receivers), but Onkyo is good too.

I can't really comment on the speakers - Onkyo doesn't really have a reputation for speakers, but they're "entry-level" speakers as well...so it's hard to say. In that general price range, I like Polk...but you definitely couldn't do 7.1 that cheap. But I prefer 5.1 with better speakers to 7.1 with cheaper speakers.

Hook them up though, and see how they sound - that's the best way to judge. Since they don't have frequency response charts, there's no way to analytically tell.

Only thing that matters with speaker wire is gauge. Go to Lowes or Home Depot or wherever and get the cheapest wire of the gauge you want (16 should be good for what you're using). Even lamp cord is fine. Don't pay more for "special" wire (e.g. Monster) - it's all BS. Any added quality from a "purer" wire is easily surpassed by using a gauge thicker. So 14 gauge lamp wire will sound much better than 16 gauge Monster wire.

Just make sure it's of a thick enough gauge and it doesn't matter otherwise.

I'm curious to see what this thread produces because I've considering doing a surround sound setup.

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Proud LGBTQQ Individual

The most important thing I've learned is that wattage or WTC (watts per channel) is important for power, but THD )total harmonic distortion is essential for clarity. The receiver I chose has the greatest combination of the two in my price range and it even passes the rigorous standards set by Lucasfilm (THX). For whatever that's worth. Also, make sure you do your homework if you're using a HDTV with it like I am. And why wouldn't you be?

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"I love that you know how to do that." Cheryl/Carol/Crystal

"And I love that I have an erection that doesn't involve homeless people." Kreiger

Okay thanks! To be honest I got so frustrated and exhausted searching for the right receiver for me that I chose the speakers rather quickly. I'm going to give them a good listen and move forward from there.

My plan is to use the 2 standup speaker towers to either side of my TV. The center one on my top TV stand shelf. Then I am going to run 5 combination of wires through the floor, across my basement ceiling about 15-20 feet, then back up behind my L shaped couch. The base speaker is goign to sit right behind the center of my couch! The other 4 will rest atop the couch around the back, equally divided and then I will eventually wall mount them.

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"I love that you know how to do that." Cheryl/Carol/Crystal

"And I love that I have an erection that doesn't involve homeless people." Kreiger

tooooo small for that power

I hope not, because in one of the speaker reviews it states that the clips allow barely enough room for 14g.

I think this is going to be too much sound for the space I have and I will likely send it all back!

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"I love that you know how to do that." Cheryl/Carol/Crystal

"And I love that I have an erection that doesn't involve homeless people." Kreiger

No it's not. That amp says it's 100W per channel, no way it pushes that much without distortion anyway. And the longest runs look to be less than 30 feet. 16 should be plenty sufficient.



When placing your surrounds, you want the surround to be side-firing (pointing toward the opposite side wall...or your ears) directly to the side of where you're sitting or just very slightly behind. You want the surround back to be lined up with the front speakers, and pointing toward the "sweet spot", which is generally somewhat diagonally.

Subwoofer placement is generally not critical, as the bass frequencies are nondirectional. So putting the sub in the back is fine, however, make sure you set the crossover to an appropriate setting. Once you get above about 80 Hz, you can start distinguishing direction and those sounds really should be handled by the main speakers. Your speakers are rated down to 55 Hz so assuming they have good response in that range you shouldn't have an issue (probably going to be right around the cutoff as the driver is only 3.25"). The sub is rated to 150 Hz but you don't want to send anything that high through it. One thing that is common with cheaper speakers though is sending more through the sub than really should be done, as the speakers themselves may not handle it. You should be fine...just check your crossover.

Be aware that your powered sub will need an RCA cable (you can use coax with RCA ends), not speaker wire. It's also going to need an electrical outlet.

You seem to know a lot about this stuff, so let me ask you something else if I may be so b old. Is 7.1 overkill for a 14x14 room? It's the first thing I tried to figure out-how much power do I really need-but I never could find a direct answer about it. The setup is from corner to corner, and as you're facing the TV there is a 13x13 room to the left of it, adjoined without a wall.

It just seems like the surround speakers are going to be right on top of the couch and too close to the ears. I always feel compelled to get the best of what I can afford even if it's unreasonable.

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"I love that you know how to do that." Cheryl/Carol/Crystal

"And I love that I have an erection that doesn't involve homeless people." Kreiger

Overkill? Nothing's overkill!

I personally would rather have a 5.1 setup with nicer speakers than a 7.1 setup with cheaper speakers. When it comes to speakers in this level though, there's not likely to be a huge difference. 7.1 doesn't offer a huge advantage to the listening experience, IMO, but it never hurt.

Be aware that there is very little source material that is 7.1, most is 5.1. Your receiver can still turn it into 7.1, so there will be an advantage.

Power isn't everything - depends on the speaker efficiency as well, among other factors. You could literally take a course on that stuff. But you should have plenty for the room.

Don't understand what you say by corner-to-corner - the TV's not in the corner, is it?

It is in the corner, it's a 58" plasma that i got tucked away with a corner stand. The couch is L-shaped and it is in the adjacent corner of the room. How is that going to mess with my sound?

BTW I weighed the 5.1 vs. 7.1 and for me it came down to future expansion. I might even wire two of the speakers to the upstairs so I can hear it playing on both floors because it has multi-room capability, and run a simple 5.1 down stairs. Then later on buy 2 more speakers for 7.1. I feel that for the money I am getting a lot of options and I don't want to not have the ability to run 7.1 in case I really want it late. Which I most assuredly would IF I didn't already have it! lol I might be a difficult person but I understand this!

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"I love that you know how to do that." Cheryl/Carol/Crystal

"And I love that I have an erection that doesn't involve homeless people." Kreiger

Ouch, yeah. Corner mounts make for really tricky sound...it doesn't reflect the way it does when the system is aligned with the room.

Your best bet is to set it up as close to rectangular as you can, with the realization that the walls aren't set up ideally for the sound.

If you're looking to use speakers in another room...that's what I'd do. Use the two extra in another room. Although chances are you can't do 7.1 and a second set of speakers, as it's usually those two extra channels that drive zone 2.

K, thanks. This should be a FUN process, spending money on an entertainment system. But it is not! You really do need some kind of degree to feel completely comfortable purchasing this stuff. We didn't even get into talking about what kind of effect the receiver will have on my picture if any!

Ugh.

I'm not very patient with books, I'm a very hands on kind of guy. For me, I need to hook it all up and play with it and experiment with settings and stuff. if it doesn't sound right then I'll get something else and try that out.

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"I love that you know how to do that." Cheryl/Carol/Crystal

"And I love that I have an erection that doesn't involve homeless people." Kreiger

About $1,000 bucks later I gave it a test run last night with the Lord of the Rings on Blu ray. It was sounded amazing! The movie was filmed in 6.1, and I keep my center most rear speakers only about a foot apart, so I wouldn't have been able to tell the difference between the 7.1 upconvert anyways. But it was great, gonna keep everything and make the wiring more permanent soon enough.

I went with a THX certified 14/2 awg wire, it's not easy to work with but it did it's job.

The receiver comes with a microphone that you place in the 3 prime listening areas (1 at a time of course) right at ear level. The receiver runs through each speaker and sets them up, compensation for room acoustics and distances. It was so easy!

The only thing messed up was that sometimes the sound would be heard before their mouths would move. I would say 5% of the time. This could be from the HDMI, maybe if I switch to component cables it will be seamless. I dunno, I'll have to tinker with it.

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"I love that you know how to do that." Cheryl/Carol/Crystal

"And I love that I have an erection that doesn't involve homeless people." Kreiger

Any old 14/2 would have done the job...you probably ended up paying more for the THX certified.

I've tried the setup microphones and they usually don't do a perfect job. Go into the receiver settings manually and adjust them - they should be pretty intuitive (distance of speaker from listener, speaker size, etc).

There should be a delay function in the receiver to adjust the lip sync. But if there was an issue, it should be consistent. Were you using HDMI for audio or optical/coax?