The last week has been pretty eventful:
My personal email account was hacked and a spam email was sent to pretty much everyone in my personal contacts list (730). What is scary about this one was that the email shows up in my sent items folder – needless to say, all my passwords have been changed.
I bought a 52″ TV on Boxing Day – my first Boxing Day purchase that I can remember. I had just bought a PS3 so I figured, might as well get something that can show 1080P! (For all the audiophiles or home theatre geeks out there [Cajun?], I don’t actually want a 5.1 or 7.1 system to complement the TV but rather a 2.1 or 2.0 – any suggestions for a receiver and set of speakers for less than $650?)
I’m in Santa Monica right now with Fiona, visiting my brother and his new wife Yuki. Our parents are down too and the weather is great. However, my mother somehow finds a way to make me eat until I pass out – I swear it’s all HER doing. :)
I’m not back until January 5th, but I’ll make a few posts before then I suspect. If you don’t hear from me by then, I’ve gotten too caught up in the sleep-eat-sleep cycle. ;)
I hope everyone has a prosperous and healthy 2010!
Preet
That stinks your email account was hacked! :( I am dying to buy a new tv!
I know it’s a little over 650, and I guess the receiver would depend on your input and output needs, but Crutchfield Canada has a pretty good deal on an Onkyo TX8555 Stereo Receiver, and Polk Audio RTiA7 Cherry floor speakers. The speakers are 549, and the receiver 349 . . . but you also get a free polk audio PSW111 powered subwoofer with it. That’s a pretty nice system for 900 bucks.
However, I would probably recommend you get yourself a nice 5.1 receiver with all the inputs and outputs you could conceivably want, and get two nice main speakers that are possibly part of a set and just do 2.0 for now. If you want to expand out to 2.1 or 5.1 later you’d have that option.
If your feeling up to it, Madisound has some cool speaker building kits that they send you all the parts and you put them together. Plus, then when people ask where you got them you can say “I built them” :)
@Traciatim: that does sound like a good deal. After doing some reading, I agree that a 5.1 or higher receiver might be the way to go since it can be used as many (or few) speakers as I want and it leaves options open.
I’ll definitely check out madisound – that would be pretty cool to say… :)
I just noticed too that Parts Express (US bases) has a pretty nice deal on a pioneer receiver and 2 tower speakers.
http://www.parts-express.com/pe/pshowdetl.cfm?&Partnumber=250-513&scqty=1
http://www.parts-express.com/pe/pshowdetl.cfm?&Partnumber=303-420&scqty=2
I’m not sure of the quality of the speakers as I don’t recognize the brand, but that should be right around your price range and leave your options open for 2.1 or 5.1 later.
I know very little about home theatre, however I am willing to learn from your mistakes! :-)
I await the sound system connected directly into my brain, that way I don’t have to rely on my damaged hearing!
@Traciatim: turns out those RTiA7’s are priced per speaker, but I suppose if I bought them separately I could get two subwoofers. But then I would need a 7.2 receiver. You’ve created a monster. Thanks for that. ;)
Wow, Sorry about that, usually I’m pretty good at spotting things like that. I must have missed the lack of the ending s on speaker. It doesn’t seem like such a great deal now since they are listed at 629 + 629 + 399. I think that’s a little much for what you are trying to do.
There are also these neat speakers I stumbled on over at treehugger ( http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/01/ceramic-speakers-joey-roth.php ). Though I stand by my comment I made there that it needs to be matched with a sub, cutting out at 70hz isn’t cool in my book.
Have you ever thought about just using a set of computer speakers like the ones I use on my computer? ( http://ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=12963&vpn=970118-0403&manufacture=Logitech )
The PC speakers aren’t quite the same as tower speakers, but they are well under your budget, make decent sound, and then you can wait to get something that you really want later instead of throwing it together a piece at a time. Plus, then you could move these speakers over to a PC or another room later. Since they just use an 1/8″ jack you could put them in any room and plug an mp3 player or other media player right in to them.
Still tons of options open. If nothing’s jumped out as the option so far I’d suggest a home theater store and let them know what your looking for. I’m sure if you visit two places to keep them honest you’ll end up with a fine expandable system.
My house has the new TV bug lately too . . . I don’t think we’re going to be joining you for quite some time though. Much more pressing issues going on here that need to be taken care of first.