Does anyone have a good recommendation for the best quality home theater platform?
@erik_squires Funny, most reviews I’ve heard has said Onkyo’s amps are better than Yamaha’s; but Onkyo’s room correction is poor and their HDMI board have a history of failure. For something the average consumer can afford, Denon and Marantz are safe bets for surroundreceivers. For projectors, Epson and Optoma are the best consumer brands, with JVC taking the upper market with Sony trailing, not sure for best of the best. |
Hey @mzkmcxv I don't know about their amps, but I've had their processors and, sadly, they were easily spanked by 7 year old Theta processors. They sound exactly like what you'd expect a Japanese EE with no musical background to produce. Very quiet, no distortion and no midrange or bass. This is a comparison with no room correction applied. The almost identical sound produced by Emotiva processor which I sold almost immediately. I can't tell you how disappointed I was in both. I really wanted a modern, inexpensive processor and the Casanova sitting right next to them kept spanking them. The Oppo 103 with no surround processor on the other hand sounds far better than either. |
I went through this when building my home theater system. Read all the reviews, went to every store in the greater Seattle area, listened to everything I could find. Even brought a few things home to audition. Tried everything. Started with A/V receivers, graduated to separates, paying attention to everything- how they sound with movies, with music, with the different codecs. Everything from very affordable to megabuck high end as this was going into a great big home theater room that was the centerpiece of a major remodel. The unexpected conclusion I came to after all of this is that for whatever amount of money you have to spend the best result you can get is with a traditional two channel stereo system. Yeah, I know. Flies in the face of the party line. But its just a fact. Which in hindsight makes total sense. Whatever amount of money you have, it will always buy you a lot better speakers if its two than if its 5. You simply cannot buy a 5 channel amp that sounds as good as a 2 channel amp. Not for the same budget. Speaker cables? Interconnects? Power cords? The situation is even worse. Classic case of more is not better. |
Buy integra/onkyo processor and get an upgrade on this website www.audio-upgrade.com. you will be surprised. |
Your question is a bit vague...What’s the budget #1? is this room already finished or are you starting from scratch? How big is your room going to be? What do you want it to do? Want to watch multiple things at once i.e. sports on different channels? Do you want a projector with a drop down screen or one fixed to a wall ? Would you rather have a big flat panel TV or one behind the drop down screen or multiples behind it? What do you watch or listen to? Do you stream movies or do you have 500 Blu-Rays or both? Do you stream music? Do you have a record player? Is this going to be a combo type room where you want great stereo listening in here as well or do you want it dedicated to movie watching? How about PS4 or XBOX? If it’s just movies and games and it can be done, I would put in a Dolby Atmos, DTS-X, IMAX type system consisting of 7.1.4 as a minimum and maybe wire for some future channels, but again, depends on size of the room. Do you want all built in speakers or free standing out in the room? Free standing will sound better than built-ins and running a pre/processor with separate amps will sound better than receivers and having dedicated 20amp circuits to plug it all in will be a huge help! A lot more questions based on your answers...Hope this gives some direction and things to think about though... |
Home theater is not about sound quality as Millercarbon wrote. It is about sound effects. A home theater processor can not reproduce the sound qualty of a two channels preAmp. what ever is told about ´´ immersive sound ´´ , ´´3D sound ´´ , ´´auro 3D, etc . It is all about sound effect. It cost me a lot of money to learn that. |
Maxiwave we are both really into two channel music as well as home theater our best two channel system is $150k plus and our theater room is $100k. A Music Room is usually setup better than most Home Theater setups in our Music Room we use $14k worth of power conditoners, a $12k rack, various tweeks, into $50k worth of electronics with a $17k dac and $15k music computer. Very rarely have we ever seen a Home Theater rig built with the kinds of detailing mentioned above. Our Home Theater setup all Kef Ref, JL Audio F113, Audio Control Processor, Plinus Odeon, sounds pretty freaking amazing. Is it as good for music no, but many people forgot that Home Theater is more then special effects, Home Theater is also about Music most movie scores are about music which creates the mood of the entire film. One of our clients has Kef Blades, Ayre ampllifiers a Theta Casablanaca and he just bought an Innous Statement Music server a $13k device. Our client listens to really good music reproduction on his "Theater system." It all comes down to how the system is designed and the components you used. Dave and Troy Audio Doctor NJ+ |
Sooooo......Who knows whatever happened to the guy that posted this thread? I replied back on 1/27 and now a couple of more comments, but the facilitator of this thread is nowhere to be found? To @maxwave27 , Dave and Troy are correct! What good is the sound from movies in a surround system if they're not intelligible? It's way more than effects and I'm sorry that you feel, and sound, like you got taken. However, mistakes made can be from a lot of different factors; was this all you (on your own) making these conclusions, or was it a poor dealer who lead you down the wrong path? And I'm not saying that you doing it on your own was a bad thing, but, more just wondering how you came to such a negative opinion about Surround vs. Stereo? Both have their place - pluses and minuses. |
I remember watching Last of the Mohicans on a really good home theater setup. Early on when they first come upon the cabin at night you see the family inside and you hear Chingachkuk calling out something from a distance. I watched it a couple times, never could quite make it out. Until watching it again, same movie, only on my stereo, and you can hear him call out quite clearly, "John Cameron." That is the first you hear of the Camerons name. But not the last. The Camerons host the town meeting, and are later killed and burned out. Which you would never know if you watch it on a home theater. But you will if you watch it on a stereo. Home theater, the whole 5.1 schtick, is a crock. |
To Millercarbon272's comment: A great surround system is no different than a great stereo: they will reveal the differences in recording quality between movies you watch - no budget is the same for any two films when they are mixed, mastered, EQ'd, engineered and produced like no budgets for music being recorded in the studio are the same. The better the system is, the more it reveals the differences in how they were recorded. Stereo in two channels, surround in more...Which version of The Last of the Mohicans did you hear? Dolby Digital 5.1 or DTS Master HD 5.1? I'm sorry that no one has ever been able to show you a truly great surround system, but it also sounds like you are completely locked into your opinion that stereo is the end all for movies. I'm not knocking stereo, I'm a fan!! But to say surround is a crock is like saying the corvette is the best car ever to drive. It is, until you drive something better, however, once peoples minds are made up, doesn't matter at that point because you'll justify your opinion by any means necessary at which point, nothing else will matter. I simply say, which I've told hundreds of people who've only heard mediocre or bad systems; you've just never heard a good one and I'm sorry that you haven't. |
| Post removed |
The way I understand : Stereo : 2 channels Surround : 5.1 7.1 Channels Home Theater : 7.1.4 9.3.6 Channels etc. I was not talking about surround Krell Foundation 4K is , acording to reviews, an extraordinary piece of audio gear. I have looked at it. I do not look down on Surround processor. I once had a 7.1 ( Rotel ) But on a musical standpoint , his sound was much better than my HT processor which cost me 10k. Audiotroy is right. I have built my audio system by myself without asking for advives.A good dealer makes a big difference. I may downgrade to 7.1 surround. |
A recent conversation between me and a highend audio dealer . The dealer : ´´ The pure stereo circuitry, capacitors, power supplies used and vibration control/isolation design of the two channel pre-amps are meticulously designed for pure stereo playback. ´´ The circuitry of HT processor would be different. A lot of people have two systemes .One stereo ( may be Surround) for music quality and one Home Theater for movies. If I want to listen to Mozart, I know which one I will chose. |
