Home Audio - What is the best I can get for least amount of money?

[iPen]

Hello all,

Background
I'm a bit of a noob when it comes to my PC-TV-monitor speakers.

I've realized that my tv speakers really don't compare to the headphones that I sometimes wear.

But, I don't really want to be wearing my headset for most of what I do, which is for watching movies, YouTube videos, and FPS gaming.


Goal
I'm looking to upgrade my home audio from my TV speakers to a surround sound experience, with I'm guessing two bookshelf speakers (to the right and left of me) with a sub woofer (?), for the minimally best, worthwhile quality at the lowest price.


Which one?
I researched this a bit online and it looks like I'd want a bookshelf speaker due to space constraints. Furthermore, from what I've read, it sounds like a sub woofer makes all the difference, as long as they're "quality" ones, though I wouldn't know what that means. Can you please let me know which speakers are the minimally best, worthwhile quality for the lowest price? I know there are a lot of bargain brands out there and many at Wal-Mart and big box stores, but I don't want to just buy something without researching.


Positioning
This home audio setup would be for a small, enclosed room of roughly the size of 12' x 15'. If I can get by with two bookshelf speakers to the right and left of me, I think that I would need sound coming out of the bookshelf 6"- 8" directly to my left at ear level, and speakers to the right of me (either 2 feet right and to the back or "SE" of me at chest level, or about 7 feet away from me to the right at "S-SE" of me at neck level). Are the speakers to close to my ear? If so, I can put the left speaker higher up at the very top of the bookshelf, and the right one 7 feet away on a stand.

If the positioning of the sound can be best achieved some other way (e.g. different combinations of location and number of speakers), please let me know.


Thanks for all of your help in advance. I greatly appreciate it and I look forward to experiencing what all this sound quality is about.

 

[americanaudiophile]

At the absolute minimum entry level price range something like these
http/www.pioneerelectronics.com/PUSA/Home/Speakers/Pioneer+Speakers/SP-BS22-LR would be a decent start.
and a sub would be a good starting point.
What makes a sub good quality? A sub should produce flat unboomy bass so you can hear musical notes and sounds without exaggeration. The room and sub placement is a huge factor in this too. Higher priced subs have built in digital room correction because of this. The "matching sub" to these satellites is not very good because the speaker itself is downward firing and the port (or opening) is aimed forward. This arrangement tends to be boomy and hard to make work without flipping the bottom forward and the port up or down. Try to get a sub with a forward firing speaker. Don't worry about the amount of power since they pretty much make that number up and what you care about is not the amount of power but does it play as loud as I want it to play.
You will also need a surround sound receiver. At the low end I would suggest Onkyo as good value.
If you have a quality audio store or custom installer in your area visit them and ask them to make suggestion and listen to the sound. Even if your budget may not stretch that far at least you have some idea of what better equipment sounds like. They may have some used or demo gear that would make sense for you.

 

[WFang]

I've always felt Denon has some great value options too. For example this $199 AV receiver, 5.2 channels with support for 4k video and 140W per channel (more than enough to play your ears off in a small room, and more than enough to handle even 4Ohm speakers reasonably well. I had a Denon AVR like 15 years ago with 75W per channel, hooked up to Dali 9 series front tower speakers (4 ohm speakers) and it sounded great no matter if it was music or movies or games:
http/usa.denon.com/us/product/refurbishedprocat/avreceiversref/avrs500bt

as far as sub-woofers, you could even make your own, lots of diy guides on the subject, but if you don't have the tools you suddenly spend more on getting tools than just buying a decent one.

[Edit:] The AVR (Audio-Video Receiver) has dvi input/outputs so you can switch audio and video sources from one location, in case you wondered why I mentioned 4k support on an 'amplifier'. This lets you use the AVR to choose if the TV/monitor and speakers are fed signals from e.g. your x-box or your pc or your dvd player, using your AVR remote control.. [end of edit]