Home theatre solutions? your thoughts wanted.

[Matt H]

Funny you mention those, I was inspired to get some new speakers after I went to a mate's place and listened to his audioengines. One day i'd love to have something like a cambridge audio amp with some high quality speakers + amp, but that'd be tripling my current budget.

 

[LJohn]

They are a good solution for the nomadic student. It's a pain lugging around a full stereo rig. I bought a huge storage tub and that fits my two monitors. Much easier. They will also be a good investment as when you upgrade (And it's always when with audio), they are still great computer speakers.

 

[SilverSP]

I also use Audioengine speakers for the family room/dinning/kitchen TV but only have the 2's although they are impressive for their size.
In this room there is simply a Windows 7 Media PC and feeds into an 4 year old 40" LCD @ 720p with the Audioengines doing the sound.
Computer has a remote as well as a dual tuner so it's also our VCR as well as playing downloaded content off an NAS in the garage as well.
This room setup doesn't have to be fancy as the TV is used mainly for watching stuff when preparing dinner and eating. I will upgrade the TV as well one day and maybe do away with the media centre as today's TV's do pretty much the same thing as the computer. At least the speakers will plug into the TV as well which is why I got them in the first place.

In the living (relaxing) room there is an wall mounted 55" Samsung series 8 LED also driven by another media centre PC like the above that does everything including Bluray's and DVD's.
Remote is Logitech harmony and does everything even turning the PC on and off via the macro I have setup in it (well sleep mode anyway).

Sound is by Yamaha which is around 8 years old and sticking to this brand as ownership over 20 odd years this is only my second receiver Yamaha as the first Pro Logic one didn't have Dolby Digital hence the upgrade. It still worked 100% when I sold it.
The amp is fed from the PC as it has been setup to throughput full Dolby Digital and DTS via the optical connection and it works really well.
PC feeds directly to the TV via HDMI @ 1080p. TV has a stunning picture which blows people away esp when I tell them it's all done via the PC.

Speakers are an 5 speaker set one off specials made by DB Dynamics which are also around 8 years old.
Gloss black with yellow 4" cones which are a bit weak bass wise but have good sound in the mids and treble. Brought them cheap from Eastwood HiFi because not everyone agreed with yellow cones on an one off. Cabinets though are gloss piano black and look great.
The floorstanders are an narrow 3 way ported desgn with 4 speakers per box.
But I think I've damaged one of the drivers as one of them has a slight "rattle" after the remote when nuts and turned the amp up to full one day.
Chances of getting a matching driver for an one off is about 0...

The 8" sub that came with the speakers isnt used and just sits in the corner of the same room looking the part while the bass is brought back via 15 year old 12" M&K V75 MkII for those in the know about this brand. Once one of the great sub's one could buy back in the late 90's and still commands a premium in eBay today.
It's old and not the best looking box out there but I cannot go pass it's woof as it's clean, very deep and effortless considering it's tiny 75WRMS rating. Had it since new.
I would like another M&K one day as the room in question is 6x4 metres but the other half says it has plenty of woof already.
I like to feel a bit more woof as well as hear it. lol.

The room isnt setup for music only bang bang thump.

I would say I've spent around $10-15k on speakers and HT stuff over the years but back then it was horribly expense which I brought my first decent stereo in the late 80's early 90's. My suggestion if doing it today is not to build it up like I did but as stuff is so much cheaper today go in and buy the best your budget will allow.

 

[MasterOfReality]

MOR, maybe contact these guys:

http://www.eastwoodhifi.com.au/

I don't have the audio budget or experience you need, but these guys will. I have dealt with them in the past, and they know the good top line brands well.

Well I have been corresponding with these guys are they are great.

Very helpful and have great prices. They recommended the Paradigms combined with a Yamaha RX-A1010 Aventage amp. The price they gave me, including delivery, is cheaper than what I can get the Cambridge Audio gear for locally.

I'm auditioning the Paradigms and Cambridge Audio satellites this weekend.

 

[Matt H]

I remembered I do have a vintage old hitachi stereo receiver kicking around, and I've got space under my desk for it to sit so there's no problem with clutter. So I'm thinking I might save a bit of money and get the passive P4's. The only problem is I've forgotten how all the ohms stuff works, so I don't know if they'd pair well. The amp I've got says on the back that it's 8-16ohms, and the speaker specs say that it's 4-8ohms. Is this going to work ok?