[eNCore]

What home theater system would you guys recommend for gaming and doesn't cost more than 1k?

As of right now I am thinking about the Bose CineMate® Series II. What you guys think?

http://www.bose.com/controller?url=/...nemate_series2

[RADRACR]

You can easily do a quality 5.1 for under $1k. Here's my setup:

Speakers: Klipsch Quintet III 5.0
Subwoofer: JBL Balboa 10-inch 100-watt
Receiver: Any latest Yamaha with true HDMI input (not pass-thru HDMI)

[texasmojo]

Find great deals on craigslist. Also check bfads.net. I just picked up the pioneer vsx1021k for $300 shipped new.

[jlstyle]

I have HK AVR with Mirage omni for speakers and they sound lovely in my loft apartment. My set up ran ~$900 with discounts.
I've installed Mirage facing up and down throughout (5) in my 18'+ceiling height livingroom and it completely fills out entire living room and loft without any deadzone.
I can actually hear things much louder and crisper in the loft.

[number335]

I have a cinemate system. The sound quality is good for such a small footprint. You won't get the full surround sound, but it's better than any other 2.1 system or soundbar. It is overpriced though..but that comes with any bose system. You can get more bang for your buck with other systems, but I chose the cinemate because it connects right to the tv and and I didn't want wires running all over the place.

[MetsFan]

shop.onkyo.com has some good deals on their refurbished page from time to time. I picked up my 5.1 system a few years ago for $120 through them.

[daixloxbmw]

I'll just leave this right here...

http://www.intellexual.net/bose.html

[E90SoFlo]

Bose has a fallowing and anytime a company has that they're is people that hate..

They make good stuff

[daixloxbmw]

But in all seriousness, like everyone else has said, Bose is incredibly expensive for what you get. With a $1k budget, you can build yourself a higher quality system. Start with a decent 5.1 receiver with a few HDMI inputs. If you want to make your system future-ready, make sure it is 3D ready with HDMI 1.4. Onkyo, Yamaha, Denon, Pioneer, etc offer some good entry level receivers. Then get yourself a nice 5.1 sub/sat combo. Doing this will give you the option to upgrade in the future when you have a larger budget.

With Bose, upgrading is NOT an option without replacing the entire system. All Bose systems are designed exclusively to work with their own components and are not interchangeable with other brands.

[daixloxbmw]

Originally Posted by E90SoFlo

Bose has a fallowing and anytime a company has that they're is people that hate..

They make good stuff

Bose hasn't made good stuff since the 901. Everything they make now is overpriced, over hyped and under performing.

[BayMoWe335]

Originally Posted by E90SoFlo

Bose has a fallowing and anytime a company has that they're is people that hate..

They make good stuff

Bose makes expensive and mostly mediocre products.

OP, this is a great price on a very solid receiver. Build around that and you'll be happy.

http://www.amazon.com/Pioneer-VSX-11.../dp/B004M8RPBS

Also, www.avsforum.com is all you need.

[TimZ]

Don't go with the bose system. IMO very overpriced and doesn't give great performance.

Go buy a receiver, and start off with two towers and a subwoofer (2.1) when you have more money then get the other 3 speakers to complete the 5.1

Right now i have a yamaha rx-v365 reiciever which i love. It isn't high end but its great for its price. I have two Yamaha NS-777's. My subwoofer is a 10 inch 200 watt i forgot what name brand but i found it. It will be replaced with a subwoofer i just build on my own, a Tuba HT (BFM Tuba HT). It will do 20hz at 100db and louddddd as fck. Only down side is that its huge.

I would use newegg also

[TSM330i]

Bose is okay, not high end, but decent for the money.

I have a Pioneer Elite receiver (130 watts RMS) and Klipsch Synergy SLX satellite speakers with a Klipsch 12" 300 watt sub.
I have 5 of the SLX satellite speakers ($300 ea.), obviously only 1 sub ($300) and my receiver was $950. You can get a great receiver for less money too.

The sound is incredible and my room is huge (15'x25' with 18' ceilings). It's connected to a 65' Panasonic plasma.

Bottom line, if you spend a little more money, you can definitely get a great sounding system.

[The Ghost of Tom Joad]

anything but bose

[Bird_Dr]

Pioneer VSX-1121-k and Energy Take Classic 5.1, under $1000 shipped from Amazon.

[yakev724]

Originally Posted by AW325xi

Bose is okay, not high end, but decent for the money.

I have a Pioneer Elite receiver (130 watts RMS) and Klipsch Synergy SLX satellite speakers with a Klipsch 12" 300 watt sub.
I have 5 of the SLX satellite speakers ($300 ea.), obviously only 1 sub ($300) and my receiver was $950. You can get a great receiver for less money too.

The sound is incredible and my room is huge (15'x25' with 18' ceilings). It's connected to a 65' Panasonic plasma.

Bottom line, if you spend a little more money, you can definitely get a great sounding system.

Nice set up.

Friend's folks just had the Elite 70' LCD installed, and idk, I'm a bit underwhelmed. I have yet to see plasma-like blacks from an LCD.

[RADRACR]

Originally Posted by AW325xi

I have a Pioneer Elite receiver (130 watts RMS) and Klipsch Synergy SLX satellite speakers with a Klipsch 12" 300 watt sub.
I have 5 of the SLX satellite speakers ($300 ea.), obviously only 1 sub ($300) and my receiver was $950. You can get a great receiver for less money too.

The sound is incredible and my room is huge (15'x25' with 18' ceilings). It's connected to a 65' Panasonic plasma.

Wow, aren't you full of yourself? Who cares? This is not a sub-$1K system as the OP requested.

[Maestro]

Originally Posted by daixloxbmw

I'll just leave this right here...

http://www.intellexual.net/bose.html

Speaker are like cars, you have these audiophiles who will tell you what is best and why one is better than the others and totally forget the fact that most people would never experience and lack the knowledge and appreciation to even know the difference.

I have a friend who is a real audiophile and still listed to his music from vinyl since he claims the sound is more pure. He will sit there and tell you how much better and show you how each sound different, problem is unless you have a trained ear you will not hear what he is talking about.

Most people, including me can not hear the things these experts are claiming are important. If you can not hear the difference do not pay or buy it or just buy what you like as you would do with a car.

I do not think anyone would argue that with enough time and money you can put together a system which will out perform any Bose system. However, if you are not a sound engineer or have a trained ear, buy what works for you because you most likely will not be able to tell the difference.

To refute a couple point this guy made on that website, to back up my point, he talked about how the Bose do now work from 20Hz to 25KHz, true but why do you care, he is trying to claim even if you can not hear it you body some how does, interest claim. However here are the facts, and you can look this up, and I can tell you my son did project on this as well, most people can not hear above 15K actually it is age thing the older you get the higher and lower frequencies drop off, kids under 18 can hear 17KHz and up to 19KHz and the few odd ones can actually hear 20KHz, once you hit around 18 or so your ability to hear above 15K decrease quickly. So if you can not hear it why speak money trying to produce the sound.

He also attempted to state that if you listen to music which covers the entire range you losing the highs and lows, again who cares, most music people listen to do not cover such a large range, why because most people can not hear it so most sound engineers do not bother.

Then this person went into what the speaker are constructed of, again who cares and plus he is making statements of fact and does not back them up other than to say it look to him. Did he actually go out and tear all the various speaks apart and send them to a lab and have them analysis, of course not, he just trying to make a point they some how use cheaper material then anyone else. Not sure how much that is true. The best comment was that the speaker box allow emission of EMI and Magnetic field. Yeah all speaker do that, very few actually put shielding of any sort inside them, again who cares, unless you put your speaker next to an old tube TV the magnetic field are not an issue nor is EMI. EMI is only an issue in the 100's of KHz not on the low end.

As with a car go test drive them and stop listen to the experts, because you will end up buying something that cost more, and you can not tell the difference. I test drove a number of speaker and went to sound rooms at a audio store and for the most part I could hardly tell the difference. Bose can fill a room with sound as with many speaker the interesting part is you could hardly tell where the sound was coming from. I know this is what bothers many experts, because the make the comment they want to know and feel where the sound is coming from.

I will tell you this much, generally a package deals are okay if you do not have the knowledge or skills to piece it together yourself. However, Speaker tend to last far longer than the electronics, so my personal view is to separate them, buy good speaker that sound good to you and buy the electronics that meet your needs and update them as time goes on.

I have a couple of speaker systems in my house, and I still like my Bose and they are 20 yrs old so they are not the complete system. and they sound as good today as they sounded when I first got them and they are smaller than any of my other sets and sound as good and I never had any one come to my place and said they sound bad or horrible other than my audiophile friend, but that is a personal issue of his.

[Simsims]

Originally Posted by Maestro

Speaker are like cars, you have these audiophiles who will tell you what is best and why one is better than the others and totally forget the fact that most people would never experience and lack the knowledge and appreciation to even know the difference.

I have a friend who is a real audiophile and still listed to his music from vinyl since he claims the sound is more pure. He will sit there and tell you how much better and show you how each sound different, problem is unless you have a trained ear you will not hear what he is talking about.

Most people, including me can not hear the things these experts are claiming are important. If you can not hear the difference do not pay or buy it or just buy what you like as you would do with a car.

I do not think anyone would argue that with enough time and money you can put together a system which will out perform any Bose system. However, if you are not a sound engineer or have a trained ear, buy what works for you because you most likely will not be able to tell the difference.

To refute a couple point this guy made on that website, to back up my point, he talked about how the Bose do now work from 20Hz to 25KHz, true but why do you care, he is trying to claim even if you can not hear it you body some how does, interest claim. However here are the facts, and you can look this up, and I can tell you my son did project on this as well, most people can not hear above 15K actually it is age thing the older you get the higher and lower frequencies drop off, kids under 18 can hear 17KHz and up to 19KHz and the few odd ones can actually hear 20KHz, once you hit around 18 or so your ability to hear above 15K decrease quickly. So if you can not hear it why speak money trying to produce the sound.

He also attempted to state that if you listen to music which covers the entire range you losing the highs and lows, again who cares, most music people listen to do not cover such a large range, why because most people can not hear it so most sound engineers do not bother.

Then this person went into what the speaker are constructed of, again who cares and plus he is making statements of fact and does not back them up other than to say it look to him. Did he actually go out and tear all the various speaks apart and send them to a lab and have them analysis, of course not, he just trying to make a point they some how use cheaper material then anyone else. Not sure how much that is true. The best comment was that the speaker box allow emission of EMI and Magnetic field. Yeah all speaker do that, very few actually put shielding of any sort inside them, again who cares, unless you put your speaker next to an old tube TV the magnetic field are not an issue nor is EMI. EMI is only an issue in the 100's of KHz not on the low end.

As with a car go test drive them and stop listen to the experts, because you will end up buying something that cost more, and you can not tell the difference. I test drove a number of speaker and went to sound rooms at a audio store and for the most part I could hardly tell the difference. Bose can fill a room with sound as with many speaker the interesting part is you could hardly tell where the sound was coming from. I know this is what bothers many experts, because the make the comment they want to know and feel where the sound is coming from.

I will tell you this much, generally a package deals are okay if you do not have the knowledge or skills to piece it together yourself. However, Speaker tend to last far longer than the electronics, so my personal view is to separate them, buy good speaker that sound good to you and buy the electronics that meet your needs and update them as time goes on.

I have a couple of speaker systems in my house, and I still like my Bose and they are 20 yrs old so they are not the complete system. and they sound as good today as they sounded when I first got them and they are smaller than any of my other sets and sound as good and I never had any one come to my place and said they sound bad or horrible other than my audiophile friend, but that is a personal issue of his.

+1

People don't know what they're talking about.

Want true music? Go to a concert, or get headphones.

[texasmojo]

I'm at 1k right now. Pioneer vsx1021k $300 from newegg. Mint condition def tech bp7004 pair $700 from craigslist. Just found another bp7004 pair on craigslist I might get to build the rest of my HT.
I would suggest the klipsch 500.1 and a pioneer vsx 1021k. Probably around $700 if you know where to look.

[koh0886]

just got the bose cinemate 2 for my parents. they were a very good improvement over the tv speakers but if u can, still go with a 5.1 setup. only reason i didnt get them one was cuz there wasnt any good places to put the 2 back speakers.

[daixloxbmw]

Originally Posted by Maestro

Speaker are like cars, you have these audiophiles who will tell you what is best and why one is better than the others and totally forget the fact that most people would never experience and lack the knowledge and appreciation to even know the difference.

I have a friend who is a real audiophile and still listed to his music from vinyl since he claims the sound is more pure. He will sit there and tell you how much better and show you how each sound different, problem is unless you have a trained ear you will not hear what he is talking about.

Most people, including me can not hear the things these experts are claiming are important. If you can not hear the difference do not pay or buy it or just buy what you like as you would do with a car.

I do not think anyone would argue that with enough time and money you can put together a system which will out perform any Bose system. However, if you are not a sound engineer or have a trained ear, buy what works for you because you most likely will not be able to tell the difference.

To refute a couple point this guy made on that website, to back up my point, he talked about how the Bose do now work from 20Hz to 25KHz, true but why do you care, he is trying to claim even if you can not hear it you body some how does, interest claim. However here are the facts, and you can look this up, and I can tell you my son did project on this as well, most people can not hear above 15K actually it is age thing the older you get the higher and lower frequencies drop off, kids under 18 can hear 17KHz and up to 19KHz and the few odd ones can actually hear 20KHz, once you hit around 18 or so your ability to hear above 15K decrease quickly. So if you can not hear it why speak money trying to produce the sound.

He also attempted to state that if you listen to music which covers the entire range you losing the highs and lows, again who cares, most music people listen to do not cover such a large range, why because most people can not hear it so most sound engineers do not bother.

Then this person went into what the speaker are constructed of, again who cares and plus he is making statements of fact and does not back them up other than to say it look to him. Did he actually go out and tear all the various speaks apart and send them to a lab and have them analysis, of course not, he just trying to make a point they some how use cheaper material then anyone else. Not sure how much that is true. The best comment was that the speaker box allow emission of EMI and Magnetic field. Yeah all speaker do that, very few actually put shielding of any sort inside them, again who cares, unless you put your speaker next to an old tube TV the magnetic field are not an issue nor is EMI. EMI is only an issue in the 100's of KHz not on the low end.

As with a car go test drive them and stop listen to the experts, because you will end up buying something that cost more, and you can not tell the difference. I test drove a number of speaker and went to sound rooms at a audio store and for the most part I could hardly tell the difference. Bose can fill a room with sound as with many speaker the interesting part is you could hardly tell where the sound was coming from. I know this is what bothers many experts, because the make the comment they want to know and feel where the sound is coming from.

I will tell you this much, generally a package deals are okay if you do not have the knowledge or skills to piece it together yourself. However, Speaker tend to last far longer than the electronics, so my personal view is to separate them, buy good speaker that sound good to you and buy the electronics that meet your needs and update them as time goes on.

I have a couple of speaker systems in my house, and I still like my Bose and they are 20 yrs old so they are not the complete system. and they sound as good today as they sounded when I first got them and they are smaller than any of my other sets and sound as good and I never had any one come to my place and said they sound bad or horrible other than my audiophile friend, but that is a personal issue of his.

Since we are on a car forum and you seem to like using car analogies, allow me to refute your points as well.

All cars/speakers are always advertised with precise and measurable specs. For cars, you want to see hp/tq ratings and more specifically dyno charts. The speaker version of a dyno chart is the frequency response chart, which measures the speaker's ability to accurately reproduce sound at the entire audible range (and beyond as you pointed out). All major/legitimate speaker manufacturers will publish this information. Bose is the only one who does NOT, and for good reason, because it is horrible. So would you buy a car without knowing what kind of hp/tq it was making?

A good speaker should be able to accurately reproduce all sound between 20hz to 20khz with less than 3db of variation, this is equivalent to a car making a wide/broad torque band from idle to redline. The independent tests mentioned in this article shows that the Bose Acoustimass System was only reproducing sound from 46hz to 202hz from the Bass Module and 280hz to 13.3khz from the Jewel Cubes and that is with +/- 10db of variation. So it is not capable of making any deep bass (under 46hz), any midbass (202hz to 280hz) and any upper treble (above 13.3khz) and even the frequencies that it can reproduce, it does so at a wildly inconsistent +/-10db when the industry standard is +/- 3db. So think of this frequency response as having a car with a huge torque dip at idle, mid range and at redline.

You also point out that the materials used for the speaker does not matter. Bose's price point puts their products in the high-end/premium range where exotic materials are pretty common, certainly not untreated paper, which is pretty common in cheap boomboxes and alarm clocks. So would you buy a $300k sports car with an iron block engine and low quality steel chassis when you can buy a Ferrari for the same price?

Finally, you pointed out that it doesn't matter that Bose is not capable of reproducing the entire frequency range since most people do not listen to music that utilize that range anyway. Based on that logic, I guess we could just make Ferraris redline at 6k rpm since most drivers won't rev above that anyway.

The one point I will agree with you on is that you should buy what sounds good to you. Most people, 99% of consumers, do not know/cannot tell the difference between most audio components anyway, so ignorance is bliss for them. However, if you cannot tell the difference anyway, I bet I could build a system for half the price of any Bose system that will sound as good if not better. So even if you cannot tell the difference, you can still save a bunch of money by staying away from Bose.

*Background - I have worked at Tweeter (a high-end audio retailer) as a salesperson and custom-installer for several years a long time ago. I have sold Bose along with some other big names in the industry (Mirage, Kef, Klipsch, Vienna Acoustics, Polk, Martin Logan, Sonus Faber, etc) and during down times, I have had 100s of hours of listening time with all of these brands. The top Bose Acoustimass system at the time retailed for around $3k and it could not perform better than most $1k systems I put together.