Home Theater System

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SweetSpot

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Sep 18, 2011
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Great advice all over but I think one other crucial part of information is your listening room / home cinema room and the acoustics within. :) An old/cheap system in a good room sounds better than a new/expensive system in a bad room. I´d suggest you have a peek here:

Sounds Of Science
 

stillerfan15

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Jun 28, 2010
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Polk makes some nice sounding small bookshelf R150s that you can get for around $100 per pair for your cheaper system. I have a pair and they sound great for that price.
Dave
 

musical marv

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Feb 26, 2011
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I guess you are the 1%
 

mikesorensen06

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Dec 22, 2011
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We could not agree more. The room accounts for at least 50% of the total sonic presentation. One must find speaker location/listening position that produces the most desirable balance and trade offs in overall frequency response. Side wall primary, secondary, and tertiary reflections must be minimized at the listening position to achieve a balance between the direct sound from your loudspeakers and the room boundary surfaces. Low frequency < 100 Hz. must be dealt with in any room size unless you are fortunate to have a large room with at least one 30' dimension. Rear wall reflections must be controlled through diffusion/absorption to minimize rear wall interference at the listening position. Ceiling surface treatments add height to our sound stage.

We always tell people that you can take a $3,000 system and put it in an untreated room and it will sound like a $500 system, probably worse depending on room surfaces. One can take the same $3,000 system and place it in a room that is acoustically treated and the system will sound like a much higher priced system immediately.

Amplifier and speaker technology have come along way in the past 10 years, especially speaker technology. Unfortunately, room acoustic understanding and its importance to overall sound quality has lagged behind the technical advancements in electronics. You can have the most expensive speaker in the world that produces the"best" sound possible, but if your room is not acoustically correct, you will not hear many of the sounds your equipment is capable of producing because of your room.
 

DsmithBFL

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Aug 22, 2013
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There are several types of home theater systems. Each system needs special attention. But if you manage to connect your system with h-fi digital surround music system then the effect of watching movies will be awesome. To add on some luxury, you can add home theater seating and turn your living space into a mini-theater.