treizes1@yahoo.com
08-03-2006, 02:17 PM
Hello, any guidance, and comments welcome!
Looking to get a solid starter home theater that can grow with me. I
also have to consider the "looks" of the system (my wife is not happy
about 5-7 speakers, and sub distributed thru-out the room. Thus I have
been looking at systems that offer a compromise of smaller, quality
speakers and a quality receiver at the $1,100-1,200 price point. I am
thinking strongly about two systems mentioned in the subject line, but
am open to other suggestions.
Background on where I am coming from:
I have been running a mid-range Denon Stereo since 1992, and it's
finally just plain worn out. Now to move into the Home Theater realm my
wife has kept me from entering for years. I was initially wowed by
reviews, and low price of the Onkyo ht703 ($4-500, sound was good too)
but found that I was compromising a bit too much in both of my main
categories, receiver lacked features, and spearkers did not leave
enough room to grow.
Where I think I am heading:
I came across very strong reviews for the Harmon Kardan HKTS 5.1,
nicely appointed enclosures and a powerful sub, and then learned that
the set came as a 7.1 HT package with the solid AVR-335 reciever (ez+
auto-Setup w/mic, HK's 7 ch stereo processing,) a DVD-A player (already
have a good carousel, but the DVD-A would be a bonus,) and 2 extra
speakers, so I'll already have 7 matched speakers for when 7.1 becomes
a more common format (?will it?).
Now that I had convinced myself that I was looking for something a bit
higher end, I came across the Orb Audio site and saw their Home Theater
Express set-ups where they pair their very attractive speakers with a
Pioneer VSX-815k, (upgrade to 1015 for another $179). The basic system
comes 5.1 for $1,219, with a a double module (mod2) center channel, and
4 single modules (mod1), and a sub that is relatively an unknown
quantity.
Orb offers a lot, direct marketing should mean more bag for the buck,
and you can add additional modules as you need/want to, two mod1s
connect together to form a mod2, and they cost the same purchased as 2
mod1s, or 1 mod2. They also sell it with a presumably well matched
receiver which offers many nice features, and more power than the HK
system.
Any comments, suggestions, warnings?
Thanks for your help! Tom
Looking to get a solid starter home theater that can grow with me. I
also have to consider the "looks" of the system (my wife is not happy
about 5-7 speakers, and sub distributed thru-out the room. Thus I have
been looking at systems that offer a compromise of smaller, quality
speakers and a quality receiver at the $1,100-1,200 price point. I am
thinking strongly about two systems mentioned in the subject line, but
am open to other suggestions.
Background on where I am coming from:
I have been running a mid-range Denon Stereo since 1992, and it's
finally just plain worn out. Now to move into the Home Theater realm my
wife has kept me from entering for years. I was initially wowed by
reviews, and low price of the Onkyo ht703 ($4-500, sound was good too)
but found that I was compromising a bit too much in both of my main
categories, receiver lacked features, and spearkers did not leave
enough room to grow.
Where I think I am heading:
I came across very strong reviews for the Harmon Kardan HKTS 5.1,
nicely appointed enclosures and a powerful sub, and then learned that
the set came as a 7.1 HT package with the solid AVR-335 reciever (ez+
auto-Setup w/mic, HK's 7 ch stereo processing,) a DVD-A player (already
have a good carousel, but the DVD-A would be a bonus,) and 2 extra
speakers, so I'll already have 7 matched speakers for when 7.1 becomes
a more common format (?will it?).
Now that I had convinced myself that I was looking for something a bit
higher end, I came across the Orb Audio site and saw their Home Theater
Express set-ups where they pair their very attractive speakers with a
Pioneer VSX-815k, (upgrade to 1015 for another $179). The basic system
comes 5.1 for $1,219, with a a double module (mod2) center channel, and
4 single modules (mod1), and a sub that is relatively an unknown
quantity.
Orb offers a lot, direct marketing should mean more bag for the buck,
and you can add additional modules as you need/want to, two mod1s
connect together to form a mod2, and they cost the same purchased as 2
mod1s, or 1 mod2. They also sell it with a presumably well matched
receiver which offers many nice features, and more power than the HK
system.
Any comments, suggestions, warnings?
Thanks for your help! Tom