Surround Sound

[Tajtan]

I'd like to get surround sound in my family room. You can get an inexpensive set for like $50. You can spend $2000 and get a fancy Bose system. And you can even go higher than that.

My question is, what do you have and do you like it. I'm not sure what kind to get and is there really such huge differences in all the systems?

[Aratos]

I don't have surround sound, because my room's not large enough. And there's nowhere to put the subwoofer. I can't see the point of a surround sound system without a subwoofer...

[PururinEleven]

My brother has my dad's old surround sound which was kind of expensive when it was first bought back in the 90's. I don't know much more about it besides that my brother uses it for everything and it's completely obnoxious.

[LKK6144]

I agree with Aratos. A surround sound system without a subwoofer is not a worthwhile investment.

Choosing the speakers for your home theater system should be done by trial and error. Which is a hard thing to do in one of the big box stores unfortunately. You should listen to sets of speakers rising in price range in succession. Try listening to the same music / movie track over and over. When you can no longer hear a difference from one price point to the next price point, you've found the speakers you want. Consider getting a better quality speaker for your center speaker since that will carry the bulk of your sound. The 4 side speakers can be a grade lower. Get a good subwoofer.

The critical component of a surround sound system is not the speakers though. It's the AV receiver. Make sure it has enough oomph to drive your speakers. Make sure it has enough inputs & outputs to connect to your theater system. You'll want digital inputs as well as analog inputs. Compare specs. Don't feel compelled to go with the famous brands. Many of the lesser known brands are equally good.

If you're curious, my AV receiver is a Denon. My 5 surround speakers are Mirage with the center speaker being a grade higher than the 4 side speakers. My subwoofer is a Paradigm. I paid around $2000 US when I bought it in 1999 (or there abouts).

[Tajtan]

Wow, thanks you guys. I do have a subwoofer already, but don't know what kind off the top of my head and don't know how good it is. It was about $500 on sale when I got it a few years ago. I have it hooked up to my crappy stereo system and it sits behind a chair. lol The guy at the store said it had to be apart from my speakers so there it sits.

But this is very good info. Thank you! And I didn't know that making sure the receiver is really good would be that much of a difference.

[JimDeVico]

I have a Logitech Z-680 system. I have a small family room and this set up was about $300 (gift from my boss when I turned 40). Works great for me.

[nikitia]

I want surround sound for my bedroom. Not so when i watch movies that the sound is great, i want them so i can drown out the Dr. Mario music/star trek dialouge thats is comming from the living room.

[adichappo]

We bought a Panasonic 5.1 surround sound system when we got our new TV back in November. It was $50 at Walmart and works great. It came with a subwoofer and DVD player/reciever. the only this is we had to get an HDMI cable (if you look, you can find them a whole lot cheaper on-line than they go for in the stores and and appearantly the more expensive ones - up to $100 - don't do much more than the cheap ones - ours was $15 - do) and still need to get a cable so that we can listen to regular TV in surround...right now it's just DVDs.