Recommendations - Home Theater

[avatar307]

I admit, I am a relative newbie when it comes to the vast audio/speaker world. Some of you may remember my posts from back when I was putting my subs back in my car, after years of being stored because I did not have time to built an adaquate enclosure. (There are working great, for all those concerned. LOL)

Now I've decieded that I need to build some speakers for my inside needs. A setup that I can use both for movies and for listening to music. A system built around the idea of filling the atmosphere with beautiful sounds, while at the same time not annoying my neighbors off any more than their cranked up playstation annoys me.

Problem is, I have no idea where to start. Basically as far as I have got is 5 point surround sound with a conservative sub. Though I have no idea what I need to do different for a center channel speaker over the side speakers, nor where to even start looking as far as specifcations, brands, sizes, etc. LOL

Thus...

Any suggestions on good speakers for home use that will not cost me my life savings to buy? I will likely be able to handle enclosures without a problem, though I will probably post questions as I come up with more overly complicated ideas on how to impliment them. Thus, any suggestions on enclosures would be greatly appreciated as well.

Thanks all. Hopefully this thread will spike some interesting discussion. I hesitate to put it in the loudspeakers forum, as I am not sure it is where a message like this belongs. However, I can find no better place, and this is where I have seen all the pics of peoples home entertainment setups.

Chris

[creek]

You are probalbly best off building an established design, whether in a kit form or based off plans on the net. Whatever you do its nice to pick something well thought out and tested.

As far as HT is concerned a big thing IMO is finding a design that uses or is compatable with shielded drivers for the center channel if you are using a CRT.
Alot of people like the horizontal MTM look for the center, and a good center design takes horizontal placement into consideration. Last HT speakers I built were regular TM speakers and I just built a third for the center, using it in its normal vert. orientation.

As for price that is a budget issue. If I only had $500 for speakers (not including sub) I would spend $450 on drivers and x-overs for the front 3 channels and find the best sounding mass market speakers for under $100 a pair and use those as temp. rear speakers. Though in an ideal situation all 5+ speakers would be the same. Since you mentioned music putting most of your money into the front speakers makes sense to me.

Here are some links to designs.

http://www.partsexpress.com/projects...homeaudio.html

http://www.madisound.com/audaxhometheater.html

http://murphyblaster.com/content.php?f=main.html