surround sound suggestions (canada)

[DVD_NDN]

hi
well, I just came into some money and am finally (!) going to purchase a surround sound system. problem is, I dont know my elbow from my ******* when it comes to this stuff. I would imagine its all straight foreward no?
way I figure... so long as it has 5 speakers.. 2 front, 2 rear, and a sub woofer, I should be set right?
my concerns are regarding the whole DTS vs dolby... I'm not sure which gives the best performance, or is the most widely used.

Although I am in Canada, I welcome any and all comments and suggestions..tips, whatever - from people from - anywhere!

the plot thickens a little more. I am not too eager to spend more than $500 (CAD) on a surround sound system... I am posing this MOSTELY to Canadians to get an idea of the market. I am actively searching some online stores to feel it out, but I'd like to hear from the buyers perspective as well.
note - my apt is small. small enough... I'm 6'3" almost anything is too small for me... I'm rambling.

thanks everyone. I Really appreciate this.
(I'll be going out to buy it in about a week - lucky friday the 13th)

[Grimey]

first off, a 5.1 surround system has 2 back speakers, 1 subwoofer, and 3 front speakers; one on the left, one in the middle and one on the right.

If you only want to pay $500, i'd suggest a home theatre in a box system. futureshop has good prices but horrible customer service. if you go in to futureshop and tell them you're not sure what you want, they'll take advantage of you and you'll walk out with a crappy sytem that cost twice as much becasue of all the extended warranty crap they push on you.

If you live in Western Canada(B.C. and alberta i think are the only 2 provinces) check out London Drugs....the prices are nothing special, but they usually have pretty damn good service. they'll help you find what you need and aren't ******** about it. if i were you i start by looking at futureshops website and find systems in your price range, and just do some general research

keep in mind that in general, the higher the wattage of the system, the better the system.

Good luck

[yoda313]

Hi,

It's really 6 speakers for 5.1 - front left, CENTER, front right, right rear, left rear, and subwoofer.

These days most of the big names carry receivers that play both dolby and dts so you really shouldn't have a problem getting one for not much money. DTS is better than dolby as most would agree to. But DOLBY is just fine so you won't lose out if you don't get DTS.

Buy a SEPERATE receiver. DON'T buy a home theater in a box. Buy they components seperately so that you can get optimal quality. Much better than buying them together. And don't buy a receiver with a built in dvd player. Not a good idea in my opinion. You want a quality receiver that JUST does am/fm and process a digital signal.

www.cnet.com has plenty of reviews for all types of surround sound receivers and other equipment. Happy hunting!

Kevin

[Grimey]

Putting together a decent system from scratch would be hard to do for under 500 bucks.

as yoda said, just about avery system will play Dolby Digital, but not all will play DTS, but thats okay, because not a whole lot of movies are made with DTS sound anyways.

[DVD_NDN]

hey, thanks again guys, for responding SO fast.

as to what you had said Yoda, about buying them seperate - after doing some browsing, and reading some reviews from websites, I tend to agree that buying seperate parts would be the preffered method... but I havent come into enough money to do that in any way that would really... get me anywhere. I could buy the speakers... and look at them, or a receiver.... and look at it.. well you get the idea...
yeah I am forced to go the speaker in a box way - and from what IVe been able to gather, its not TOO TOO bad an option...
I mean, my apt IS pretty small... I'd just like to feel like I'm 'in' the movie.. you know? as opposed to 'in a theater'.
I couldnt see myself playing it crazy loud, or testing out my windows with it...

I have found two that look rather promising, if you two (and anyone else out there) would like to ... look it over? maybe? keeps you occupied right? ... yeah?
ok heres the links...

http://www.thebrick.com/Application/Cart/BuyRoom.asp?TraderID=34DC92B9-3DBD-438F-AA0B-...2D3E31FEDBFE41

http://www.thesourcecc.com/estore/Product.aspx?language=en-CA&catalog=Online&category=...roduct=3113950

I'm rather partial to the panasonic... so far.

[Hardcoreruss]

My friend has the bottom one. It is pretty good, plus the back speakers are wireless so you wont have to lay any wires down that will clutter your floor and make your apartment look ugly.

[JSB]

Buy a SEPERATE receiver. DON'T buy a home theater in a box. Buy they components seperately so that you can get optimal quality. Much better than buying them together.

While this my be true... but for $500, It aint going to happen.

I am so very very happy with my Onkyo 760 system. It is a Home Theater in a Box...but you get a mid range (read not $1000) Onkyo reciever with it. You also get a cheap set of very good sounding speakers and some really crappy speaker wire. Oh ya this is a 6.1 system with 100 watts per channel and 150 watt sub.

But the 760 has been replaced by the 770... If you don't believe me check out the comments HERE

Good luck!
JSB

[enstg8er]

YAMAHA HTR5730 Home Theater Receiver 5730 - Silver
5.1 Channels / 100 Watts per channel / 6 Channel External Decoder / Dolby Digital, Prologic, DTS / Remote / Silver ... more info
150.00

http://www.jr.com/JRSectionView.process?N=10946+206030


ACOUSTIC RESEARCH HC6 Home Theater Speaker System
4 Two-Way Satellite Speakers, 1 Center-Channel Speaker, 1 Powered Subwoofer / High-Gloss Black Finish ... more info
270.00

http://www.jr.com/JRSectionView.process?Nao=0&N=10171&Ne=10000


PHILIPS DVP642 DVD Player
Single Disc / Plays DVD, DVD+R/RW, VCD, SVCD, MPEG-4, DivX 3.11/4.x/5.x, CD, MP3-CD, CD-R and CD-RW ... more info
65.00

http://www.jr.com/JRSectionView.process?N=24090&Ne=10000

total:495.00 usd+shipping

substantially better than any all-in-a-box outfit……..

[Xylob the Destroyer]

my sister just got a "home theater in-a-box" despite my repeated 'warnings' against such things....
yesterday I went over to set it up for her and was actually quite surprised that it wasn't total crap
these set-ups have come quite far since they first started showing up

as far as dts vs. Dolby Digital goes, you will never find a true "winner", as each has it's own pros and cons
personally, I prefer dts, but you could go on and on making comparisons between the two...
just get a receiver that does both
the system my sister got is 6.1 and supports dts neo-EX as well as Dolby Digital and Dolby Pro-Logic II
but here's the kicker: if your DVD player can't decode/read the dts or Dolby Digital signal, it just doesn't matter what your receiver can do. though most modern DVD players read both, it's best to make sure - the player should have the logo somewhere prominent on the front of it, as this is a major selling point.

5.1 is cool, but now that 6.1 is everywhere, it just seems kind of old-school...
7.1 just seems like a step backwards from 6.1 almost. why lose the rear center channel just to get 2 "side" channels and "virtual" rear center??
i really want to upgrade to 8.1, but that shit is EXPENSIVE right now, not to mention hard to find and not supported by any current media formats...

my first "surround" system was a Technics, one of the very first receivers on the market that was priced within the realm of reason
i suppose technically it was a 4.0 system (but with 5 speakers)-- separate signals for front right, front left, and front center; one single signal going to both of the rear speakers, no separate sub-woofer channel
it's now doing duty in the bedroom supporting a 19" tv and no rear channel connected