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Originally Posted by RawAlex
They actually outperform $1000+ sony surround system that I use for home theater...
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A while back, a friend of mine and I were talking HT systems. He asked me what receiver I was looking at, he bought the next one up. Had problems, returned it and got another. Same problems, returned it and got a Denon something-or-other. The problem turned out to be some bad speakerwire that he had purchased. He had wiring put in the walls, got the big subs (which he overdrives. its annoying watching and feeling the newscasters talk), but, its a great system, he says he ONLY spent $50k on it for a really nice 5.1 system.
Meanwhile, I did the research, found what I wanted, didn't have quite the budget, did most of the wiring and mounting myself, surfed the internet, bought parts and pieces, put things together and ended up with a 6.1 system with a total cost of $8k (not including the TV). DTS-ES is completely awesome. In Se7en when swat is going into Sloth's room, you feel like you are inside the room with them.
We talked about it, he joked about me not getting Mirage subwoofers and using 'cheap' speakers (well, the fronts were sort of expensive, ~$2k for the pair)
He came up for my birthday, I slapped a few DVDs in and went to the parts that he used as his 'references' on his system. He has since spent almost $40k upgrading his system to handle 6.1 and every time he comes over, I can tell he's a little irritated that my 'cheap' system sounds better.
I've never been a fan of Sony for certain things (speakers being one of them). Friends that have and rave about their bose systems come over and always say, 'well, you spent more than we did'.
Let me tell you the trick I learned.
Spend $70 and get a sound level meter. Learn where the sweet spot is and the types of speakers you have. Your ears are very sensitive to minute differences that you would never recognize. I engineered my room for almost perfect placement. We have 5 seating positions and they all get great sound and you can easily tell when something pans from left to right.
Its really all about math -- and its not difficult math.
I tweaked a friends system by moving some speakers based on his preferred seating position and he says that his system sounds twice as good as it ever did.
The basic ratio is:
take the width of your left and right front speakers, multiply by 1.5, measure that far back from the front of the speaker. That is your perfect sitting position. L/R/Center should all be at ear level when you are seated.
Center surrounds and rear surrounds should be 1.5-2.5 feet above your ears. I don't remember the ratio, but I think that the rear surrounds should be 90% the width of the fronts, and 1x their width from your seating position.
If your speakers are placed properly, and at the same levels and distances from the 'center', you might be amazed at the difference moving speakers can make. Bookshelf speakers mounted on a bookshelf are really bad. A speaker works by moving air -- by putting it in a bookshelf, you are creating another speaker cabinet. I'd bet that if you took 15-20 minutes, did some rudimentary sound level checks to make sure everything is being heard at the same level from 1 point near where you like to sit, you'd probably find that your system performs considerably better. Learn those distance settings on your speakers too. That delay they add for channels does make a considerable difference.
My friends system, well, its just not engineered well because he's got issues with speaker placement and his home design. Without him building an architectural bridge, I don't think he could get optimal placement on his rear surrounds. And his center surrounds would never be equidistant from his seating position without some goofy looking hardware.
Note: speakers shouldn't be considered electrical devices because they are low voltage. Imparting this knowledge does not acknowledge any justification for changing my nickname to Sparky.