Home Theater Systems (Audio) / Starting Points

[Xog]

Oh, how shall I start this post.. I don't have much experience in this department.

So for Christmas I'm buying a Soundbar speaker with a subwoofer for my fiance's parents' living room (or their basement livingroom) for $250 (orig. price $350). I've never owned a subwoofer, or a speaker system of any kind, save for dinky little computer speakers which I no longer use since I have turtle beaches haha.

I wound up purchasing a Boston Acoustics Soundbar Model 25, it comes with a wireless subwoofer. I tested this little system out at Best Buy on display, and it was surprisingly awesome. The bass was pretty damn good. Real nice thumps and bumps from the sub. The speaker was really clear and had a bit bass as well (it has a mini sub built into it, from what I can physically see).

I also found a picture with the woofer in the speaker, it's on the end of the bar (both ends). The big box is the subwoofer, obviously.



Anyways, does anyone have experience with home theater sound systems? I originally wanted to get a surround-sound system for their living room, but their setup in there is too hard to hide all the wires, so I said f'k it I'll get the soundbar. Does anyone have any experience with these things? I've never used one. But after testing it out on display, it looks like I'll be purchasing another one for my house next paycheck lol.

Their parents don't have any external speakers from their TV, or any type of audio system for that matter. But their living room looks pretty modern and their TV is damn good. So I figured this would be a nice gift, and they can build on it if they want to add some surround sound. A soundbar+sub would be a good starting point, yeah?



I just want to make sure I'm not buying a stupid gift.. never really bought something this expensive and don't want to look like a douchebag for buying her parents something so expensive..

[TagMor]

Do you know if they watch much t.v or listen to music?
If they dont already have any kind of sound system there is a chance that they just aren't into that sort of thing, and as it's not surround it will be difficult to discern the improvement in sound/bass if they just watch the odd episode of Gray's Anatomy.
Cool gift regardless, but it would be a shame to spend a lot of money and then never see it used/appreciated... Maybe give it to your gf and get them a bird bath or something?

[Xog]

Yeah they're always watching TV and movies and stuff in their main living room. They have a second living room in their refurbished basement, it looks like a big entertainment center (very big TV, two couches and very comfy looking).

I don't think they've ever owned a sound system for their house before. I think it's mainly because they're so expensive (good ones are like $4k+ from what i understand?) and they spend so much money on their 2 daughters (they've both been kind of spoiled to be honest). And both of them are in college right now and they're paying their tuition - no financial aid whatsoever.

I'm just curious to see if anyone has any experiences with sound bars and what to expect? I mean I know it's not going to be some full blown awesome theater experience, but it should add a nice touch to their daily TV / movie viewing, right? The only speakers they use are the built-in TV speakers, and their livingroom's pretty big.

Also they already have a birdfeeder

[Pressure Drop]

imo it's a bad present and your a bad xog

well not really , a subwoofer and central speaker can be a good addition but from what i thought it's more important to get a decent amp and quality separate stereo speakers first if they are using the TV speakers. Even good tv's the speakers fail to compeat to hi-fi seperates.

subwoofer adds atmosphere to films or parties but in a poor set up it will dominate the bass too much and sound wonky and awful . An extreme example on budget is i spent £100 on on my pc speakers 2.0 with 10cm woofers and 2.5cm tweeters my flatmate speant £35 on a 2.1 subwoofer and 3cm stero speakers and his is awful for everything, eveything is tinny apart from the bass which just totaly out of place in a small room against puny low watt speakers. Mine isn't that powerful but it's balanced far better.

so basicaly though your sound bar and subwoofer would be much better than my flatmates they could overwelm the inadequate tv speakers which you dont realise are quite as puny as they are till you hear proper ones

like my da has a £1000++ home cinema 7.1 speaker set up , now most of the time he cant be arsed turning it on and just uses the TV speakers but when he turns it on they sound like shit and he has a very good plasma tv , for normal TV the sound system is overkill but for films it's fantastic.


soooo if the central speaker is good then for normal tv it's probably a good present if the subwoofer can be switched off and on easy but the same present would be much better if they had a decent amp and stero speakers allready and watched alot of movies

i rambling totaly and i've lost the plot - stopping now

[Xog]

well the sound from the TV will be redirected through the soundbar so I don't have to worry about that issue (sound coming from TV and soundbar at the same time)

[Tone]

Did you know? at $40 dollars the Koss ProtaPro is the highest quality small sized headphone in the world. (Excluding headphones that exceed the size of a human ear & are professional monitors... in category of on-the-go headphones for portable players). The design has been unchanged since 1984 and has a cult following.

It beats Sennheiser specialty on-the-go headphones which are more than double the cost.

[project dragon]

I assume then that the soundbar powers itself. I guess my only concern would be the effectiveness of a wireless subwoofer. I am not sure how responsive it can be, and if you are losing any sound quality because it is wireless. But you said it seemed to do a good job when you heard it at the Best Buy (though in most cases, with all the noise and distractions at big box stores, testing the quality of their products may not give accurate results on how they actually perform).

Soundbars are relatively new in terms of audio equipment. For your relative low budget, I don't think that is a bad purchase. Ideally, going the PD (not me!) way would be nice (getting a separate receiver, and buying separate speakers), but then it would exceed your budget by quite a bit.

I figure, if they have been listening the movies through their TV speakers, any kind of external sound will be an improvement. Hopefully, your audio tastes matches theirs and that they will enjoy the sound the bar produces. Buying audio equipment for others can be tricky sometimes.

[Zeebu]

http://www.definitivetech.com/Produc...tid=Mythos One

[Xog]

They love it. I set it up last night in their house and it's amazing. I'm buying one next friday for myself.