Let's talk surround sound systems and what Sup Forums uses

Let's talk surround sound systems and what Sup Forums uses.

I've been using a $70 Logitech system, and I've been using them for a few years. It has worked great especially since I was in college and just needed something I could use in my small apartment room. However, I can definitely tell it's not the best sound I could be getting. I do notice that the rear speakers aren't as pronounced in sound and I have to keep those closer to me from the rear as opposed to the front speakers which I can keep at my TV.

I'm now a working man and I've bought my first home, with the extra rooms, I intend to build a home theater and install a legit surround sound system, rather than using these PC speaker type system.


What do you all use and what is your expirences with the products you have?

Other urls found in this thread:

boston.craigslist.org/sob/ele/d/onkyo-71-surround-system/6398895760.html
twitter.com/NSFWRedditGif

I have all these 5.1 downloaded torrents but no surround sound system, what's the best for my computer?

budget?

If you have just a PC system, the Logitech ones served me well
Under $1000 preferably

A pair of headphones with a 5.1-compatible driver.

See, I have a wife and kid, so we'd be watching stuff together

Then get a REAL home theater, and don't have a budget of $1000 if you want 5.1. A price point of one grand is doable for a stereo system, but not for a surround sound system. It just isn't possible if you don't want to chinkify your home theater.

surround sound is a meme

get some low cost really good speakers -- two of them (wharfedale diamond)
and some very low cost surround speakers -- two of them (qacoustics 2010)

then go to goodwill and find a cheap 100 w surround receiver -- usually by sony -- for under $50

as you get the feel of your system, add on a subwoofer, or upgrade your primary speakers

once you find primary speakers you really like, add on a center

if you don't have time to fuck around with audio like this, and just watch movies, just get something from a big box store -- sony is actually a good company for this kind of thing

or go on craigslist and buy any shit with real speakers, for under $300

for example:
boston.craigslist.org/sob/ele/d/onkyo-71-surround-system/6398895760.html


i run quad 21L as primary, martin logan motion as surrounds, and a REL for subwoofer; the surround is through an older cambridge audio integrated amp with 7.1, but the power is from a dual monoblock SAE amp rated at 180 wpc in stereo -- total cost of my system is about $1200 -- i don't use a center because i don't like the center for some reason

i actually rarely use surround because the primary speakers sound better in stereo, and surround has a cheesy signature at times

the quality of the primary speakers are the most important thing, since amplifier technology is about optimal unless you go nuts off the audiophile cliff

and good audio doesn't have to cost alot since there's very good 15 year old stuff on the used market

not true. I have a 5.1 I put together myself with BostonAcoustics speakers (from the 80's) and a Marantz SR5001. BA A60 for the front, BA A40 for the rear, BA VR10 for the center, and some JBL sub. Got it all on ebay for ~$400.

You can get the vintage speakers with disintegrated foam surrounds and buy the replacement surrounds + glue for a couple of bucks. Easy fix.

Shop around a little, and find some quality old shit.

Doesn't not having a center fuck up speaking lines in a lot of movies?

You think a guy that fell for the college meme is going to be smart enough to fix some vintage speakers? You must be more optimistic than I.

i actually found the center really annoying because it was too "in my face" -- but that's just me

running 5.1 without the center sounded fine to me -- and it didn't mess with the imaging -- but maybe its because i'm so used to 2.1

if you go to a best buy with a Magnolia substore they will let you experiment with the sound when you take out satellite, subwoofer or center speaker(s)

How is it a meme? I have a pretty nice stereo system and a very nice surround sound system I paid less for and I much prefer the surround sound system over stereo.
Stereo muggles the channels together and makes movies absolutely horrible. You really should not be mixing channles deisgned to be run on their own speaker.
Fucking idiots on the board. Everything they don't understand or can't afford is a meme to them

how hard is it to glue some rubber to a cone (without twisting the spider)? cmon man

not hard. I fell for the college meme too, and did a really shitty job but it still came out fine.

so, not that poster, but a few things:

1. surround isn't a meme with the recording is excellent

2. if the recording is excellent, the 5.1 sounds odd

3. "stereo muggles the channels" -- this is sometimes the result of low quality speakers and insufficient amplification, not the result of not having 5.1

corrections because auto spell check
1. *when the recording is excellent
2. *if the recording is not excellent

Yea there's usually no imaging issue, the center just doubles the other front speakers, then left and right take care of spacial shit.

This brought up a good point actually, it would be harder to find a vintage speaker that could work conveniently as a center, so you'd have to get something more modern. That means having a totally different sounding speaker right in front.

it's a dumb fad. not everyone wants to watch movies/tv glued to their fucking sofa. and alot of media half asses positional audio streams anyways. the hardware is a waste of space.

what's actually fun is to look for cheap $3 vintage single speakers at thrift stores and patch them into the center -- the difference between old and newer speakers brings out certain timbres in voice which some people may enjoy -- i hooked up a 25(?) year old advent with a 10" woofer to my system as a center and it made the system sound tube-ish

got sick of it after three weeks and gave it to my uncle

you can post the surround speakers into the corners near the ceiling -- the sound travels with you as you walk

also, certain games can creep the fuck out of you when the surround makes it seems like something coming out of the other room, especially when no one's at home

you definitely can have a decent 5.1 setup on a one grand USD budget. look up ZeosPantera's guides on reddit. great place to start.

>b-but leddit
grow the fuck up

Awesome thanks, yeah I don't really have the time or experience building one up and finding the best tuning, I'll honestly just buy a commercial set from somewhere. Just looking for a real solution over my $70 PC speaker system

I prefer stereo. surround sound is distracting

Soundbar with dolby atmos is the shit.

too much trouble. and if you need that to get immersed into a movie or a game you have shit imagination. try reading a fucking book once in a while.

what can a poorfag do to get a spdf input to RCA out???

basically i want to use a digital source with RCA plug

also is it posible to get 5.1/7.1?

Autism - The Post

>muh 5.1
>muh positional
>muh cornermount
>muh dolby streams

in other words, bingo

i have that shitty hyperx gaming headset with the virtual 7.1 surround, does that count?

...

>not having a center
It depends on your surround receiver. Simply put, if you have one that passes 5.1 to five speakers and a subwoofer then you'll get no dialogue on most movies. But that's not the case with most surround receivers. My old Pioneer VSX 1011 let's you configure your speaker setup. Set it to two front speakers and two back and the bass and dialogue is mixed into the front speakers.

Anyway, my setup is a Pioneer VSX 1011 which is more than 15 years old now. It's connected to my computer with SPDIF and the alsa AC3 plugin. This isn't ideal, Dolby Atmos, DTS-HD and everything else for that matter is converted to AC3 which is then passed to the surround receiver. The speakers are normal stereo speakers as front speakers, a center and two small back speakers. No subwoofer, and I can't really have one because the bass carries too much through the floor compared to sending it out through the front speakers.

You can't do spdif to RCA. SPDIF is optical, that's light you're sending over the cables.

Go Dolby Atmos or go home. Also for home theater, Dynamics are key.

You can either get the new Klipsch rp line for cheap, or build your own speakers from diysoundgroup. The volt coaxial models. would be ideal for this application. High spls and atmos ambience models available.

That being said, make sure your receiver is Atmos enabled.

So, Pajeet, when did you first realize you were on a technology board?

So out of those amps which do you use most often? BAT tube amps were the only ones I've listened to that I could live with imho, and the NAD amps were my fav overall.

...

Dumb gimmicks are dumb gimmicks you consumerist whore

...

Have DACs improved in the last ~5 years? I have a V-DAC II which I got years ago, is there anything I could get which would provide some audible benefit, say in the $300 (or less) range?

no.

Buy a good receiver, then buy good fronts, then add more speakers when you feel the need for them or when you have enough.

Don't cheap out, it'll be more expensive in the long run if you decide to upgrade instead of just complementing your sound.
5.1 BIG fronts, medium rear (whatever size the center is)
7.1 BIG fronts, medium sides, small rear(lifted so the speakers are not blocked by the sofa.

I went with something I had money for and bought all Zensor speakers (pre-Zensor 3 era) and the Zensor 12' sub.
Too bad I'll never have a "good" room to place them in since my whole place has a long wall that is angled so sound bounces off in stupid ways, luckily my receiver has a audio calculation mic so I can configure speakers that way.

can you post your home setup
i want to laugh too

>$70 Logitech system,
The classic x530 works great in a small apartment.
The new Logitech models are shit.
Nowadays if I were to build a 5.1 I would build it from scratch with monitors (2.0 for the back and front, a bigger mono and a high quality sub)
Systems imho are kinda shit since they have shitty satellites and sub and the sound is filtered.

I second this

Get Fluance's AVHTB with some decent receiver, maybe some Yamaha one, thst should be in your

>different sized sides/center/read

yeah, no. They'll all sound different which will play havoc on you on panning effects. Get identical speakers, preferably some wide little box that has a proper woofer and tweeter on it at the same time, so you don't need an extra subwoofer (unless you have a very big room, preferably in your own house).

Who ever decided to come up with this separate subwoofer shit is a moron, If I'm ever getting a system up spend most of the money on giant floor standing cabinets with actual woofers and room treatment IMO.
Any old receiver would do until you wanted to add more speakers

Yup, figured as much. They don't seem to have come up with any useful extra features either.

Zeos is retarded and knows jack shit about acoustics. Leddit has plenty of competent resources dedicated to this (/r/audiophile and diysound have actually useful and well read posters) but pointing towards a fat affiliate farm idiot is not constructive.

I don't really care either way but if you want to attack the guy's credibility I'm going to need more than some unsubstantiated allegations

Upside down waveguided speakers make 0 sense. In reality. It makes no sense for most speaker designs.