Between quitting smoking and my savings on health insurance, I now have a new chunk of cash (no debts, so no worries) that I'd like to dedicate to some new HT equipment. The main issue is that I'm only going to be in my current apartment for anywhere from 4 months to 3 years. After that, I'll probably be moving into a more permanent location and will (hopefully) build a higher end HT system. But I'm ready to jump into HDTV now as well as HD-DVD (and at some point later perhaps Blu-Ray.)

My current apartment is a warehouse conversion on the 1st floor in Brooklyn. Cement floors. 15' ceilings. The "living room" area is roughly 20' by 35' and is in no way an ideal viewing area. Uncontrollable light (sans some curtains) behind the TV stand. My viewing position is anywhere from 8' to 13' back. It's loud out on the street, and there's a recording studio the next apartment over. Wheee!

So, I'm looking for suggestions that will get me the best combination of the following components. My budget is ideally no more than $4k pre-tax, but saving money beyond that is always nice.

1) HDTV - I currently have a 25" Panasonic 4:3. I've been thinking about the new Sony A3000 series. I'd like a TV between 50" - 60" and part of me is thinking that maybe for my situation, I shouldn't be spending over 2 grand and should maybe look at a TV in the $1500 range. Things that seem good about this set are the 1080/24p, 120Hz, HDMI 1.3a, etc. I understand that some of these things (1.3a) aren't always necessary.

I want to use the TV with an HD-DVD player as well as with my Tivo Series 3. I watch HD OTA.

2) HD-DVD player - Currently have a Pioneer DV525, standard dvd player. I'm thinking about the HD-A35 which will give me 5.1 analog out, HDMI 1.3a, and the ABT scaler. I have a DVD collection of about 1400 DVDs and would like to have something that scales SD really well. The other possibilities are the XA2, or going for a lesser model (like the A3) and splurging on a receiver that has a great scaler in it.

3) Receiver - I currently am using a Sony STR-DE935 that is on its last legs. Later on in a more permanent setup, I'll opt for separates and whatnot, but for the time being I would like something to match up with the new tv and player. Originally I was thinking about the Onkyo 605, but the 705 gives one more HDMI input (total of 3... 1 for Tivo, 1 for HD-DVD player, 1 for future piece of equipment) but going to the Onkyo 805 would give me higher ampage (from 35A to 60A). The 905 gives a Reon processor, however without the ability to tweak the picture as is available on the XA2 and, I believe, on the new HD-A35.

4) Speakers - this is really where I have no idea. Currently using the JBL SCS125, home theater package. I sorta believe that investing any real money in speakers will currently be a waste because I'm in a big echoey cement apartment. One of my current satellite speakers is dead, so I don't have full surround right now. But the options I suppose are to buy a whole new surround package (like the Polk RM6880?), put the money to two good fronts and a good center and use the satellites I already have, or just to keep what I have and replace the broken satellite.

5) Power - I have terrible electricity in my apartment. My lights are always shorting out. The S-video monitor on my receiver no longer works. I just noticed faint rolling lines on my TV. During the winter, whenever my furnace would come on, it would send a pop that could be heard on the speakers and seen on the TV. I don't want these things happening to any new equipment. Not quite sure what to look for here.

My plan is to purchase at the beginning of November. That will also allow me to start enjoying everything and then if Black Friday/pre-holiday sales afford any price breaks I can maybe pricematch. But the most important thing is that I'm ready to jump fully into highdef. Although I feel I've done tons of research, I'm looking for suggestions, or possible combinations of the above types of equipment. Except for the Tivo, it's been 8 years since I've done any upgrades so I'm very excited.

Thanks for reading through and for any advice. There's that part of me that always wants to go for the biggest and greatest, but this is stuff that sometime in the near future I will have to move and ship across country and might end up being relegated to a secondary HT setup. I'm looking for a temporary fix before going all out next time. My original plan was the HD-A2 with the Onkyo 605 and the KDS50A2020, but then I thought maybe I should just bump it up a little bit more. I feel that the bump up in models will be worth it but is it?

tlwizard

I have 2 suggestions. The 2nd one is the important one.

1) Skip surround for right now. Get a good pair of speakers. Your room sounds horrible for sound, terrible pun intended. Paradigm, Boston Acoustics, Rockets (online, Google it), NHT make great bookshelf speakers.

2) Fix the power. I'm actually thinking of major appliances more than HT equipment, here, but this would help the TV, too. The rolling lines suggest a grounding problem, or worse. The popping with the furnace suggests the circuit breaker box is not wired properly or parts need to be replaced.

This may cost hundreds, but I would have a good electrician check it over completely. Another possibility could be that the whole box is under powered, maybe you need more amps for the apartment. (that's electrical ampage, not audio)

Yeah the TV definitely sounds like some kind of grounding loop going on.

The TV issue has just shown up in the past few days. It's most noticeable on my Wii which is connected to the TV through the receiver. It's very faint during normal TV signals from my Tivo which is connected directly to the TV via s-video (now that the s-video monitor is fried on the receiver.) Since this has just shown up for the TV, what are some things I could check in terms of grounding?

In terms of the apartments overall electricity, I think that the furnace was the biggest culprit but I have now unplugged it. When I went to check the furnace, some of the electrical wires were disconnected and frayed (scared me!), so I shut off the gas and unplugged the sucker. I'm trying to get my landlord or super to get get someout to look at that and hopefully have them check the electricity as well.

Outside of having the electricity checked, the fluctuation of current (? i'm totally guessing as to that being what's going on) is that something that can be kept in check by something like a power conditioner or a home theater ups? I know that there's a panamax something or another and I know that belkin makes a ups... are these things that would keep the power offering constant to the various HT equipment? My assumption as well is that a UPS, once fully charged, would do this the best, no?

So I'm gonna try and get the electrcity examined. It's a tough call especially since I may not be on the East Coast for more than a few more months but I may be here for a couple of years and if so it would pay off.

But I'd also like to hear more about the above questions re:conditioners, and Spiky I'd also like to hear more your thoughts about speakers... as well as the other questions in my first post.

Re: the speakers. In my parents house in Atlanta, I have my Polk Studio SDA 2Bs or 2Cs. I can't remember the model number but they are tower speakers that belonged to my father and I remember them being exquisite. I do plan to add them to the mix at some point, but was not able to fit them in my truck when I moved up to NYC. (I feel like they are 4ohm speakers and so are a little bit tricky to power.)

But I do like the idea of devoting my money to better fronts. Should I spend the money to truck the Polks up to NYC and then use leftover cash to try and complement, or should I start working on a whole new setup? Part of me also feels like, if I buy new fronts now that they're not gonna be as good as I want when I get a more permanent place and so won't necessarily be so upgradeable (which is part of the reason I was attracted to just a simple all-in-one temp solution). But for the brands you recommended, do you have specific product lines within them? Would $1000 be a good start for a pair of front ends?

But I'm here to listen to the pros and I'm gonna start working on getting the furnace fixed and the electricity checked. So where to now?

I'll say that I know very little about electricity and home wiring because I've never had to deal with it.

The normal cause of ground loops is current running from one component to another to use it's ground. It normally shows up as hum in speakers (60Hz to be exact and will probably sound similar to a single coil pickup in a guitar if you're familiar with those) or as rolling lines of static overlaying a video image. The normal way to remove ground loops is to make sure all your A/V components are using one ground. This means plugging them into a single power strip if possible, plugging components into each other (receivers usually have one or two power jacks on the back) or if neither of those are possible, attempting to plug everything into the two outlets in one power box. If none of those are possible I think it's sometimes possible to eliminate them by moving connections around, but that certainly may not guarantee success.

If you really want to debug you can try unplugging certain connections until the problem goes away. Your best bet is to unplug everything from the TV, ensure that the problem doesn't happen at that point, and then slowly add connections until the problem comes back. Then you can isolate or move connections around. It's always possible that the problem is related to faulty wiring in the walls or something else and then you may be SOL.

You can buy power conditioners, but they are often pretty expensive and I have no idea how well they might work in conditions such as yours. Spiky might have a better idea.

All those are good products, but expensive. Monster makes a fairly capable machine that essentially re-creates the electricity called a Voltage Stabilizer, but it's $1500 last I knew. But the real issue is that bad electricity will eventually damage those UPSes, protectors, etc, also. I don't know how well they would work at stopping your problems. With what you describe, finding the source of the problem would be my first task. Then you can decide what to do about it.

You want to listen to speakers to judge what is best. The brands I mentioned start at very nice sound quality and get better (and more expensive) from there. $1000 puts you in a very nice place, to be sure. I don't have any product line names in my head, though. If you like those Polks, it seems the cheapest, short term solution would be to get them back. It's always tricky when you don't know your exact situation.

Many audiophiles will find a bookshelf speaker they really like, then use 5 of them plus a good sub for HT audio. This also lends itself to buying in waves, as long as they aren't years and years apart so a model doesn't get discontinued. This was one thing I was thinking about when I wrote my first post.

I've just finished playing around with all the components I have plugged in and have solved the looping issue on the TV. Once I unplugged my roommate's PS2 the looping completely disappeared. I think it was partly the receiver's fault but the PS2 was also slightly affecting the Tivo signal which was not connected through the receiver.

I'm gonna try and find a dedicated audio place here in Brooklyn or in Manhattan to try out some various speakers. Would you recommend going for floorstanding or for bookshelf speakers? For example, the Rocket site has the RS850 floorstanding for $1000/pair and then the complementary bookshelves for $400/pair.

(re: the polks, I haven't listened to them really since I was a kid, so I may have been impressed that they were simply taller than me.)

Any thoughts on the receivers?

And again, thank you for all your and Mordred's help.

re: Power Conditioners - I'm ignorant on them myself and need to learn more. However, I was just browsing last night and came across the following.

http://www.onecall.com/ProductDetails.aspx?id=28686

Price looks very good from what appears to be a fairly high (?) price for a power unit. Perhaps somebody else can chime in.

My recommendation follows some of the other advice above. Since you're in a very bad layout/surroundings:

1) Go with two good speaks and a subwoofer for a solid foundations. You can add to these later when you're looking to expand and spend more. If you do it right you can move what will be your fronts (2.0) to become your rears.

2) I think I've seen the 608 mentioned before, so I'm sure you can't go wrong with that or the higher end unit you mentioned. I haven't looked into these too much lately, so I can't say with any certainty.

3) Personally I wouldn't bother with an HD-DVD player (or BR) just yet. If you can wait, you may as well do so. Stick with what you have, or buy something good ($60?) to hold you over that is a moderate upgrade from what you have now.

4) TV - tricky I think since you have a large area to deal with. I'd say go smaller and higher qualtiy so you have some nice for later (larger surrounding/more rooms). For example, you could move a 32" or 37" into a bedroom or office. It would be somewhat all the small side now, but would a) let you save some money now, and b) allow you to come in under budget.

If I had to insist on one item above it would be #1 - same as what Spiky said.

Honestly, I think you could get a really nice setup for $2750-3000 and still have some left over for a rainy day. $1k tv, $300 Tivo S3, $600 receiver, which leaves you 1k for 2 spearks, a sub and misc items (wires, power, etc.).

hey superman07, thanks so much for your response!
yeah, hopefully someone can chime in as well. that seems like a great price (based on the discount) but as to what the thing fully does I'm not sure.

the one i had been looking at was this guy... the Belkin AP30800 UPS

I'm more and more liking this idea. Do you have any speaker recommendations? Floorstanding or bookshelf? And for the sub?

I also just saw that there is a deal on the Denon 2808CI for only $800 ($100 cheaper than the Onkyo 805). Any opinions on the quality of the Denon v the Onkyo? The Denon does only have 2 HDMI inputs though.

When I was 12, I saved up all my money from animal sitting, went to HiFi buys and bought myself a Denon receiver for $800. That was an awesome and fun moment.

my current dvd player is a champ and has held up the best out of all my components.

i really would like to get an hd-dvd player though. i already have the new kubricks and blade runner pre-ordered.

if it weren't for all the SD DVDs I have, I would just opt for the HD-A3 because it's the cheapest. but I feel I should bump up to the A35 or XA2 to help with the conversion.

i can definitely see the reasoning in this, and maybe i will ultimately adhere to it. but if i'm gonna get a new tv I want to go big. I watch movies all the time (usually at least one a day) and really want to watch them on something that i will find more enjoyable. If I had controllable lighting, I would probably look at getting a projector.

since i will be out looking and researching in the field, it's no added trouble for me to take a look at some of the 32" or 37" sets. Do you have any recommendations here?

Just to make it clear, I already have the Tivo S3. Wish I had only paid $300 for it though.

Some of these things will also be tax write-offs for me, which will make it all a little easier and comforting.

Well I'm not clear on HD/S3 yet, so whichever is the cheaper unit was the one I was referencing.

If you really want a large set 60" probably would be the way to go since your place is so large - especially how open it is. However, I think that alone would eat your entire budget! To avoid this you could always go Vizio, but personally, I'm rather a very high quality small set vs a large so-so unit.

I also have a couple hundred dollars worth of Amazon GCs which will help take care the HDDVD player. And I feel like I can get the Sony 60" HDTV for around $2000. So... that would give me around $2000, give or take (take, i know), for the receiver and speakers.

Anyone have thoughts regarding the Onkyo SR805 vs the Denon 2808CI? Right now at 6thAve.com the Denon can be picked up for $800 ($400 cheaper than oncecall's price)

Also, Spiky or other sound guys, right now the Rocket RS850 can be had right at $1000. Also, the Swan Diva 6.1 can be had for right around $1000. There are also the new Polk Rti A7s that are in about the same price range.

Any thoughts on those three speakers?

Haven't heard the Rockets or Swans, but people I trust love them and consider them to be a great value for the sound quality. I'm considering an upgrade to something like that myself. Frankly though, unless you are planning on being an audio guy, too, spending this much ($1000/pair) isn't real necessary for movies. They (Rocket) have the Onix bookshelf model for $250 each if you buy 3 or more speakers right now, $200 each for the base Rockets. If you are doing this mainly for the TV/movie setup, those would be plenty. IMO.

Industry experts say to use the sub for 80Hz and below, so your fronts should be able to handle at least down to there. My experience says to get speakers that do a good job down to 50Hz, which means they should be rated to 45Hz or a little lower. The sub does 50Hz and below. Although the Rocket 850s almost make the sub not necessary, unless you are used to seriously low bass. (see below)

The Denon 2808CI offers 1080p upconversion from Faroudja, the Onkyo 805 does not. If you end up with a 1080 TV, that may matter. Now, if you could get to the Onkyo 875, that offers HQV upconversion, which is superior to the Faroudja. Audio quality is likely very similar from all of these models. They may even use the exact same Burr Brown decoders.

And of course, no advice would be complete without: http://www.svsound.com/products-sub-box-10nsd.cfm

For home theater setups I almost always recommend Klipsch. They are relatively cheap, extremely efficient (read loud), have a wide sound stage and sound great for movies. Plus you can listen to them at your local Best Buy/Magnolia so you can easily return them if you don't like the sound. They also perform admirably with most rock/pop music, although you might want something different if you're big into classical.

Also, in case you missed it, those Swans are $939/each in the cheapest price config.

My one regret about my home theater setup is that I hadn't heard of SVS when I bought my sub.

Thanks for the response, Spiky.

While I'm mainly right now an HT person, that's more due to living with a roommate and being in an "apartment" building. But I do have a vinyl collection with three to four hundred records and I do love listening to music... not much gets better than kneeling before the beauty of an amazing classical or jazz piece and letting that music overwhelm you. My point I guess is that once I move, the music will definitely come into play much more. Also, I always listen to music while I work. When the roommate's gone, I try to do that in the living room. When he's here, back to the old bedroom for me.

But it also won't change the fact that I still watch movies at least once a day.

I wish I could go for that Onkyo 875 but I feel if I start hitting that price range, I may as well start looking for separates. The only SD-upping I will need, afaik, will be from my Wii and then the SD DVDs (but hopefully the HDDVD player would take care of that for me.)

Do you feel that SVS sub would be better than the one Rocket would offer?

Would those base rockets be good fronts now and then could later be relegated to surrounds if I picked up the 850s? Part of me sees the sale and wants to take advantage of that, especially for the larger fronts and make those more of a permanent purchase rather than a temporary one.

Thanks again for all your help.

The wording on the site is unclear and it's apparently for a pair of the Swans. At the bottom of the page it says that they're also available as singles.

Their sister site has it more clearly: http://www.ozhometheater.com/ozht_pr...anding_6.1.htm

My bad then!

SVS is pretty much impossible to beat at the price they charge. Hsu Research is another company in the same price range with comparable subs. Or Outlaw Audio. Rocket's subs are not quite in this class, although they probably beat most.

That's certainly a good upgrade plan if you ask me. Regardless of what brand you look at.

I also have to agree with Mordred about Klipsch for HT. Horns are great at recreating voice, and that is what TV and movies are all about, so Klipsch are excellent. My setup right now is Klipsch, although I want to upgrade to something better for music, too. Classical music shows Klipsch's weaknesses, at least in this price range.

I've never heard of a single person not blown away by SVS. Hsu gets almost the same praise, but I'm not sure they have quite same quality to price ratio.

Wow, Spiky, I had no idea. I always feel like the lone Klipsch banger here.

Get yourself a nice pair of LaScala's or Klipschorns and I think you'd be hard pressed to find sonic flaws. Unfortunately they're about the ugliest speakers I've ever seen.

I'm really appreciating all the advice.

I'm heading to J&R this afternoon to check out some speakers and to get a first hand look at the various receivers. At least according to their website, they don't have the specific Klipsch models mentioned but have others I can listen to.

Since I would rather put money to speakers than electronics, do you think the Onkyo 705 would be "worse" in driving any of the speakers we've discussed? The 805 is $900, the Denon 2808CI is $800 plus tax, and the 705 is $600.

Also, looking at the Swan site, they have a specific model for rear speakers. Are these types of speakers better for surround/rear than these? The first appears to be a "dipole" speaker.

The Onkyo 705 is a fantastic model and there has been a lot of praise bestowed upon it. The price is right also. As far as.....

You can't go wrong with either the A35 or the XA2. The A35 is ready to go right out of the box, comes with 300 and Bourne Identity discs inside, and has a fantastic scaler. I would get the A35 seeing as how it is ready right away and will not depend on firmware updates. They are both great in their own right though.

Yeah, and I'd have to widen my room by 4', or narrow my TV. The first one can't happen, and the latter won't. Actually, my bro-in-law just got a pair of Klipschorns for free. He let a coworker have them, though.

I have Ref 3s all around. I think comparble to the RF-62 and related stuff in today's lineup. The other great thing about Klipsch and horns in general is the efficiency. Even with just a receiver, I can get clean power well above where I want to listen, plenty of headroom.

It depends on your room, and your taste in sound. Dipoles or even bipoles are pretty popular for surround speakers that go on the side in a closed room. Dipoles esp, and bipoles also, rely on the walls to make them sound right.

If you plan to have a 5.1 setup, and plan to put the rears in the corners behind you in a standard 4-wall closed room, monopoles are probably better. If you have an open setup with missing or far away walls, which I think is what you described in your current apt, monopoles are going to be far superior to dipoles.

Thanks for all the great info here. Will probably pull the trigger on the receiver in the next day or two, followed by the speakers. Gotta start working on the video side of everything after that.

Does anyone have other 50" HDTV varieties to look at under the $2k mark?

Also, any thoughts on the Panamax 5300 or the Belkin AVR UPS?

An update!

Ordered the Denon 2808. Was a mouse click away from ordering the Diva Swan 6.1s and then found out last night that I'm moving. So in the next two months I will be in a new place, with new dimensions, and new acoustics. Can't decide if I should return the receiver for now and then get it later.

Thanks for all the help. Will still be doing research in case anyone has any thoughts between now and then.