....expanding from car audio into home...need help


i certainly need help...tons of opinions desired...

alright...i've spent about 3 years forming great and wonderful opinions on car audio.

however, none of the brands that i use in my car make home stuff.....well, i take that back...nakamichi does. i'm sure that car audio stuff wouldn't work as well in the home as home audio would....

however....i don't want to jump into the higher end stuff for my apartment that i have in my car.

i'd like to get a *decent* reciever/tuner (i don't even know what the difference is) that i can hook up to my new bigscreen. (my roommates and i went in on a new toshiba 50" projection)

so...about what would i be looking to spend for a quality, low priced *thing* that will get me surround sound (and i assume that the new digital thingy is better than 5.1 surround?)

so...help me out guys. :) i know that it's all INCREDIBLY subjective....but, i'm pretty sure that i don't want to buy anything that they sell at best buy or circuit city, so i gotta get on the web to get help.

i appreciate it. :)
onlyshawn
I don't agree with Bwyoung, as I have stated in many threads in the past, I don't feel a center channel is a must have for HT. With properly set up quality speakers a center channel simply isn't needed, as long as you don't have a coffin(TV) between them. Also more money doesn't equal better quality in the subwoofer department, that being said I would rather have a good REL sub then a Wilson Audio XS subwoofer.

I used to be huge into car audio too Onlyshawn, my last car system consisted of Clarion DRX-9255 head unit, zapco signal processors/eq's(eq-30sl's), C2k-6.0x Zapco stereo amps, Focal Audiom TLR tweeters, Focal Audiom 6W mids, and Focal utiopia 27vx subs, the component set had a super sounding custom cross over network made for them(hovland, and solen components), the components where in custom kick panels. Total price of the system was close to 30k but it was nice, I have since realized true hi-fi simply isn't available in a car, and in my latest car I just have the upgraded factory system(I must be getting old) and am happy with it. I'd rather invest money into home audio, better results and much less risk.

Glad to have you here at Audiogon,
Tim
Let's see, do you wanna hear the voices or the BOOM BOOM's better? Tim, yer such a guy! I bet you can make all those guy explosion noices, too!
So tell me how would you set up a 5 channel HT WITHOUT having the bloody TV in the middle? I just don't get it...aj
Angela you make me laugh(in a good way), I have a front projector with a screen that mounts on the wall more than 3ft behind my speakers, its not really that much of a trick!
;)
Tim
most of the sound on movies is through the center channel. True you can get all the dialogue through the mains, but why?

Not saying that your doing this Tireguy... but I find it amazing that alot of audiophiles look down on HT like it's somehow less than 2-channel audio. Audiophiles talk about imaging and accuracy all the time but I swear they would do away with the center channel and even if the TV if possible. I guess voices comming from 6 feet to the right of the TV doesn't have to match the character on the screen to be accurate.

One of the things that influnced my decision to buy the main speakers I did was if there was a good center to match them. Right now I'm doing without surrounds, sometimes I make do with only the TV's speakers, but for true HT, all the speakers, especialy the center is needed.
well...let me reiterate....y'all need to think *not* highest end. :)

like....if anyone knows car audio, what i would be looking for is a reccomendation of crossfire amps, and idq subs, possibly audiocontrol stuff, because it can be had easily for a great price. great quality, low price