Recommendations needed on AV Receivers & Speakers

I'm a novice interested in getting a good receiver for surround sound w
a new flat panel TV for movies and for music. I think I'll be getting
a Panasonic Plasma HDTV.
I'll probably be using 5.1 or 6.1 sound system. I'm looking at the Bose
Acoustimass 10 system. They sound good, look good, and seem to have
good reviews. Any better ideas are welcome.
I'm not so clear about what is important in the AV Receiver. What
features are important to consider? What brand or model is considered
a good quality unit that will serve my needs. There is something about
HDMI that allows a much simpler wirring set up from the TV to the
receiver, but I am not sure I grasp what that is about.
I welcome your suggestions.

--Don

Stay away from Bose systems. The only people that rate them good never tried
anything better.
wrote in message
oups.com...
I'm a novice interested in getting a good receiver for surround sound w
a new flat panel TV for movies and for music. I think I'll be getting
a Panasonic Plasma HDTV.
I'll probably be using 5.1 or 6.1 sound system. I'm looking at the Bose
Acoustimass 10 system. They sound good, look good, and seem to have
good reviews. Any better ideas are welcome.
I'm not so clear about what is important in the AV Receiver. What
features are important to consider? What brand or model is considered
a good quality unit that will serve my needs. There is something about
HDMI that allows a much simpler wirring set up from the TV to the
receiver, but I am not sure I grasp what that is about.
I welcome your suggestions.

--Don

Look at the specs on a Bose system. they say nothing about power out,
inputs, outputs or anything that you need to know.
Will this thing do DD5.1 Does not say?
"BillJ" wrote in message
...
I second the recommendation to avoid Bose. First, many people find the
sound
objectionable. And second, Bose products are terribly overpriced. I
happen to
own a Bose Wave Radio, which I won in a sales contest. It's okay but
hardly
worth the $350 list price at the time I got it. I would not have paid
more than
$100 for it if I were using my own money.

My 5.1 surround system uses speakers from Cambridge Soundworks, including
a
powered subwoofer. They were recommended as a good value by someone more
knowledgeable than me. I have to say I've been very satisfied with them.
Bought them about 7 years ago. I don't know whether Cambridge has
maintained
their quality, but at the time I thought the value was excellent.


In article .com,
says...

I'm a novice interested in getting a good receiver for surround sound w
a new flat panel TV for movies and for music. I think I'll be getting
a Panasonic Plasma HDTV.
I'll probably be using 5.1 or 6.1 sound system. I'm looking at the Bose
Acoustimass 10 system. They sound good, look good, and seem to have
good reviews. Any better ideas are welcome.
I'm not so clear about what is important in the AV Receiver. What
features are important to consider? What brand or model is considered
a good quality unit that will serve my needs. There is something about
HDMI that allows a much simpler wirring set up from the TV to the
receiver, but I am not sure I grasp what that is about.
I welcome your suggestions.

--Don

wrote:
I'm a novice interested in getting a good receiver for surround sound w
a new flat panel TV for movies and for music. I think I'll be getting
a Panasonic Plasma HDTV.

No Bose.

In a year, there'll be a new generation of receivers that work
with HD sound: DD+, TrueHD, DTS-HD. Think about waiting
for one of those, or at least buying something cheap now
that you can replace a little later.

Greg

wrote in message
oups.com...
I'm a novice interested in getting a good receiver for surround sound w
a new flat panel TV for movies and for music. I think I'll be getting
a Panasonic Plasma HDTV.

Panasonic plasmas are a good value, the commercial models in particular.


I'll probably be using 5.1 or 6.1 sound system. I'm looking at the Bose
Acoustimass 10 system. They sound good, look good, and seem to have
good reviews. Any better ideas are welcome.

Bose is a terrible value. In fact, it's junk at any price. They use cheap
OEM speakers and then a DSP to process the sound to make it more appealing
to listeners. Google around, several people have taken Bose systems apart
and looked up part numbers to find $20 paper speakers in their $3,500
system. Scamtastic. They not only spend tons on marketing but they make
stores sign contracts that they will not allow people to compare Bose
systems side by side with other systems. There is a reason for this, it's
because even non-experts can immediately tell in a side by side which is
authentic and which is overprocessed.

Bose, like Sony also uses astroturf, marketing people paid to pretend to be
satisfied customers. They go around asking stores for Bose stuff, posting
positive reviews and attacking anyone who disagrees. They call it creative
marketing. Unfortunately, it is legal in most (all?) countries.
Regardless, it gives you an idea of how these companies think.

Bose can't get THX certification. Now, I'm not saying THX is the end all,
be all, but it does prove a minimum level of performance for movies and Bose
can't pass this minimum with $3,500 systems when others can pass it with
$999 systems.

Google around what actual movie theaters use. You'll find names like JBL,
not Bose.


I'm not so clear about what is important in the AV Receiver. What
features are important to consider? What brand or model is considered
a good quality unit that will serve my needs. There is something about
HDMI that allows a much simpler wirring set up from the TV to the
receiver, but I am not sure I grasp what that is about.
I welcome your suggestions.

HDMI was designed to prevent copying and allow hookups with 1 wire (vs 3
components and 6 sets of audio wires). Unfortunately, it still has serious
compatibility problems and you may just want to wait until this fall for the
new HDMI v1.3 units to ship if you intend to use HDMI.

As to getting something for movies now, the easy answer is a low or
moderately priced THX certified system.

The full answer, and I know I'm getting to sound like astroturf for them
but:

http://www.avsforum.com


X

On 26 Jun 2006 06:37:36 -0700, "
wrote:

I'm a novice interested in getting a good receiver for surround sound w
a new flat panel TV for movies and for music.
....
What
features are important to consider?

* With most digital processing TV:s you need a global (lip-sync) delay
function in the audio processor (because the image processing in the
TV-delays the picture).

* A usable function to get better sound is an automatic calibration
with a microphone and built in equalizers, of some sort.
It can to some extent compensate for tonal differences due to room
accustics and differences between speakers.

I found that the back-centre speaker in a 6.1 setup (or the two
surround-back in 7.1) helped to make the side speakers less dominating
for the outer seats in the sofa (which are rather close to the side
speakers in my setup).

/Jan

If you really want to do some serious research an excellent place to start
would be at the AV Forum:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/index.php
Spend some time reading and ask questions and you will be able to make a
good informed decision.
Bob
wrote in message
oups.com...
I'm a novice interested in getting a good receiver for surround sound w
a new flat panel TV for movies and for music. I think I'll be getting
a Panasonic Plasma HDTV.
I'll probably be using 5.1 or 6.1 sound system. I'm looking at the Bose
Acoustimass 10 system. They sound good, look good, and seem to have
good reviews. Any better ideas are welcome.
I'm not so clear about what is important in the AV Receiver. What
features are important to consider? What brand or model is considered
a good quality unit that will serve my needs. There is something about
HDMI that allows a much simpler wirring set up from the TV to the
receiver, but I am not sure I grasp what that is about.
I welcome your suggestions.

--Don

I have a Yamaha RXV 4600 with HD radio! It works great!
wrote in message
oups.com...
I'm a novice interested in getting a good receiver for surround sound w
a new flat panel TV for movies and for music. I think I'll be getting
a Panasonic Plasma HDTV.
I'll probably be using 5.1 or 6.1 sound system. I'm looking at the Bose
Acoustimass 10 system. They sound good, look good, and seem to have
good reviews. Any better ideas are welcome.
I'm not so clear about what is important in the AV Receiver. What
features are important to consider? What brand or model is considered
a good quality unit that will serve my needs. There is something about
HDMI that allows a much simpler wirring set up from the TV to the
receiver, but I am not sure I grasp what that is about.
I welcome your suggestions.

--Don

"BillJ" wrote in message
...
I second the recommendation to avoid Bose. First, many people find the
sound
objectionable. And second, Bose products are terribly overpriced. I
happen to
own a Bose Wave Radio, which I won in a sales contest. It's okay but
hardly
worth the $350 list price at the time I got it. I would not have paid
more than
$100 for it if I were using my own money.

My 5.1 surround system uses speakers from Cambridge Soundworks, including
a
powered subwoofer. They were recommended as a good value by someone more
knowledgeable than me. I have to say I've been very satisfied with them.
Bought them about 7 years ago. I don't know whether Cambridge has
maintained
their quality, but at the time I thought the value was excellent.

I have a fairly recent (2years) set of the Cambridge T500 Newtons towers
(each front has a 300w sub) with the MC300 Center and S300 rears. I am
quite happy with their performance.




In article .com,
says...

I'm a novice interested in getting a good receiver for surround sound w
a new flat panel TV for movies and for music. I think I'll be getting
a Panasonic Plasma HDTV.
I'll probably be using 5.1 or 6.1 sound system. I'm looking at the Bose
Acoustimass 10 system. They sound good, look good, and seem to have
good reviews. Any better ideas are welcome.
I'm not so clear about what is important in the AV Receiver. What
features are important to consider? What brand or model is considered
a good quality unit that will serve my needs. There is something about
HDMI that allows a much simpler wirring set up from the TV to the
receiver, but I am not sure I grasp what that is about.
I welcome your suggestions.

--Don

OK, Bose is crossed off my list.
If I'm looking for a set of surround sound on-wall speakers for $500 to
$1,000 in all, what brands and models should I look at then? I
realize that tastes differ and I will need to go listen to some
speakers, but the reason I'm posting here is that, I'm busy, I'm a
novice at this, and I'm hoping to profit from the experience and
research of others, then I'll narrow down my range and do some work on
this. I really appreciate everyone's advice.