How do people do home theatre/audio in 2018?
April 9, 2018 1:26 PM Subscribe
What would a decent low-mid range home theatre setup be in 2017? 7.2 surround sound, a sound bar and wireless speakers, something else?
I have about $3,000 (Canadian) in Sony points to spend on a TV and speakers. I was going to spend somewhere around $1,000 on the TV and the rest on the speaker side. In my mind this would involve a receiver and speakers in various places in the room and I think this is doable within this budget but is such a setup necessary in 2018?
No one in our family is into high end media consumption - almost 100% of our video comes from streaming services like Netflix or Youtube, our audio is whatever format is on Google Play, and our current gaming system is a Wii U that may get replaced with a Switch in a couple of years - so it seems like this might be overkill for our uses. Would we be better off with one of those soundbars that go under the TV and then have smart speakers throughout the house so that we could listen to stuff wherever we happen to be instead of all of the speakers in the one room?
I have about $3,000 (Canadian) in Sony points to spend on a TV and speakers. I was going to spend somewhere around $1,000 on the TV and the rest on the speaker side. In my mind this would involve a receiver and speakers in various places in the room and I think this is doable within this budget but is such a setup necessary in 2018?
No one in our family is into high end media consumption - almost 100% of our video comes from streaming services like Netflix or Youtube, our audio is whatever format is on Google Play, and our current gaming system is a Wii U that may get replaced with a Switch in a couple of years - so it seems like this might be overkill for our uses. Would we be better off with one of those soundbars that go under the TV and then have smart speakers throughout the house so that we could listen to stuff wherever we happen to be instead of all of the speakers in the one room?
Surround sound isn't as expensive as it used to be. I have a cobbled-together 5.1 system using a motley collection of speakers and this $150 Sony receiver (literally the cheapest 5.1 one I could find) and it sounds great after running auto-calibration.
However, neither the Wii U or the Switch have even 5.1 sound; they're Pro Logic only. You'd basically only be getting 5.1 from Netflix. You may be better off with the soundbar option.
posted by neckro23 at 1:59 PM on April 9, 2018
However, neither the Wii U or the Switch have even 5.1 sound; they're Pro Logic only. You'd basically only be getting 5.1 from Netflix. You may be better off with the soundbar option.
posted by neckro23 at 1:59 PM on April 9, 2018
There's stuff on the Play Store that has multichannel audio, as do many of Vudu's free movies. So do the..alternate sources, for that matter.
If you do go for a sound bar, get a subwoofer at the very least. That's really the biggest bang for your buck, TBH. And since you have the points, get a receiver with lots and lots of ports. It makes your life so much easier.
Personally, I'd do at least 5.1 and try to get something better than basic all-in-one satellites for the front, but that's because good multichannel music is freaking awesome. Don't get me wrong, plenty of movies are more immersive with rears, but not so much more that a subwoofer won't get you most of the way there.
posted by wierdo at 2:45 PM on April 9, 2018
If you do go for a sound bar, get a subwoofer at the very least. That's really the biggest bang for your buck, TBH. And since you have the points, get a receiver with lots and lots of ports. It makes your life so much easier.
Personally, I'd do at least 5.1 and try to get something better than basic all-in-one satellites for the front, but that's because good multichannel music is freaking awesome. Don't get me wrong, plenty of movies are more immersive with rears, but not so much more that a subwoofer won't get you most of the way there.
posted by wierdo at 2:45 PM on April 9, 2018
I am finishing my basement and doing 7.2 (really 7.1) because its so cheap to do right now (and I have the access).
Your main concern is... where are you going to put your speakers. Do you have access to put the rear surround in? Are you going to run speaker cable across the room? Are you willing to live with 'on the wall' conduit? The access is the most expensive part as well as the 'wife approval factor' that needs to be satisfied.
The second concern is, how you are getting your media. If you don't care about the encoding currently, is that really going to change? Do you want to have 'movie night' where a surround sound experience is really going to fire you up?
If you really don't care I would save yourself the hassle, most of the smaller soundbar/subwoofer setups are really good now and maybe that's going to do it for you. I know that's what I would probably recommend for my parents or anyone else that doesn't want a 'home theater system' but wants an upgrade from a tv speaker or 2 channel stereo setup.
posted by kookywon at 3:52 PM on April 9, 2018
Your main concern is... where are you going to put your speakers. Do you have access to put the rear surround in? Are you going to run speaker cable across the room? Are you willing to live with 'on the wall' conduit? The access is the most expensive part as well as the 'wife approval factor' that needs to be satisfied.
The second concern is, how you are getting your media. If you don't care about the encoding currently, is that really going to change? Do you want to have 'movie night' where a surround sound experience is really going to fire you up?
If you really don't care I would save yourself the hassle, most of the smaller soundbar/subwoofer setups are really good now and maybe that's going to do it for you. I know that's what I would probably recommend for my parents or anyone else that doesn't want a 'home theater system' but wants an upgrade from a tv speaker or 2 channel stereo setup.
posted by kookywon at 3:52 PM on April 9, 2018
seconding ARC and CEC setup btw. The monitor/tv is going to be the most important part. Make sure that you get something that has smart features that you can live with (I prefer roku so I go with TCL, not sure what sony offers). Make _sure_ that the UI is easy to use and responsive. Laggy TV UI can make your life miserable.
posted by kookywon at 3:54 PM on April 9, 2018
posted by kookywon at 3:54 PM on April 9, 2018
TV UI will always eventually suck. If that's an issue, buy an STB of your choice. Sony uses Android TV these days. Supposedly it works pretty well for anything but serious gaming on all but the lowest spec models, but it will eventually get out of date or slow as they all do. In the meantime, OP can certainly enjoy SNES emulation and all the video apps Android TV has to offer.
The aforementioned Vudu app as well as Netflix and Amazon all support some 5.1+ audio or another (and 4k HDR on applicable models), if that's a concern.
posted by wierdo at 6:29 PM on April 9, 2018
The aforementioned Vudu app as well as Netflix and Amazon all support some 5.1+ audio or another (and 4k HDR on applicable models), if that's a concern.
posted by wierdo at 6:29 PM on April 9, 2018
I'm going to be the outlier who says for a low-end setup just get a US$200 soundbar. They are simple to set up and use and sound quite good compared to the built in TV speakers.
posted by zippy at 7:46 PM on April 9, 2018
posted by zippy at 7:46 PM on April 9, 2018
Response by poster: I'm leaning toward a 5.1 option because 7.1 is definitely overkill for my uses. 5.1 might be too, but I think it's a bit more justifiable. I've also come to realize that I don't really have any other good places to put smart speakers in the house so I may as well put everything around the TV. Hiding wires shouldn't be too big of a problem either because the walls are just studs right now so I can run whatever I want to at the moment.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 11:48 AM on April 11, 2018
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 11:48 AM on April 11, 2018
This thread is closed to new comments.
Also there are no 7.2 sources per se, there's only 7.1 on blurays and 5.1 for most streaming services. Unless you have a specific reason I think you'd be better with a better 5.1 system vs a 7.2 system.
To your second question, yeah, I think that (multiple speakers) would be a better purchase. I think money is best spent on the TV panel, some on a soundbar and then some wifi speakers. Units like the SRS-X77 or SRS-X99 have Chromecast built in so you can put them anywhere, stream music to them from Google Play Music. There are also smaller models, somewith batteries for portability.
All that said, there are 5.1 all-in-one kits that are pretty cheap like this, just make sure you buy a TV that has an ARC-enabled HDMI port so that the multi channel sound actually gets to the system.
posted by GuyZero at 1:50 PM on April 9, 2018