yanhao

Hi,

I am planing to by a kenwood HTB533, an small upgrade to HTB503. The price is very enticing. However, I found that to set up a home theater, I need to spend much more than that. To put the speakers on the ear level, I need four speaker stands, which retails in Circuit City for about $100/pair. Almost everyone suggest to get better speaker cable, which could be more than $50. And I may need a new cabinet to accomodate all the component, potentially another $100-200. These "hidden cost" can very well surpass the cost of the HTB533, and didn't improve anything for the sound (except for the cable).

Now, I have some questions. There are so many kinds of speaker wires, 18, 16, 14,12, 10. Can you guys recommend one that would be enough for the kenwood system and somewhat upgrade-proof?

Where can I find cheap (and not ugly looking) speaker stands and component cabinent/entertainment center?

Thanks!

Static Cling

I know what you mean about the hidden costs in buying an HT. Depending on what height speaker stands you need, you could probably find them cheaper somewhere else... Best Buy, or online.

I used the cables that came with my speakers, and they sound fine... I don't know how much better cables will improve the sound, but I'm not willing to drop $50 to find out.

What kind of set-up do you have? I've got a 32" Wega (heavy!), a VCR, DVD player, and a receiver, and they all fit into a Wal-Mart "put it together yourself" HT stand I picked up for $70 or less... I forget how much it cost exactly. There are more and less expensive models there, though.

I think that, out of the three parts you mentioned, the speaker stands are the most critical... unfortunately, they're the most expensive. Shop around online, go to Best Buy or a specialty audio store, and maybe you can find them a little cheaper.

ckolchak

when i bought my kenwood last week i made the mistake of buying speaker wire at sears w/ it. found out later Home Depot had some nice, flat 16 gauge especially for home theaters in 50' packages, complete w/ wall tacks for 9.95
reduced from $40! another hardware store (and radio shack) sell speaker wire by the foot so if you measure out carefully and throw in a couple extra feet just in case you'll come away better off, IMO.
i'm going to Home Depot today to pick up some wood to make speaker stands. very easy to do if you have a drill or even a hammer (and a hardware store nearby). i built my stereo/dvd cabinet like a big crate only a bit sturdier, for about $60. i like the look of the yellow/tan wood, but in the future might paint it black (with a little grit in the paint to give it texture) and get tempered/tinted glass to use for the shelves. all the cabinets i found that i liked were over $250. i built this one for about $60...with good solid wood.
home made speaker stands should run under $30 for the pair.
and the best part is you can you decide exactly how high you want em.
if you're interested i can scan a sketch and e-mail it to you...i'm not very good at explaining things. or if i can figure out how, i'll post the jpeg here.

juice21

Welcome to the forum yanhao. I purchased a similar unit from circuit city about 2 years ago(V409 HTIAB). I also bought a $400 DVD player as well, and I talked the guy into giving me some floor model speaker stand for free! You know how they ave all those 'open box' buys around the store?, i just asked him to do it with those, but for free, I told him that's the only way I could afford it. It's worth a shot, and it can save you a lot of money. It's a long shot, but worth a try. I got a really nice entertainment center at Service Mechandise for $110. For the price, it's the best I saw. It holds a 32" TV, 3 components, behind a glass door, CD's, and DVD's, and has a storage cabinet underneath. Here are some cool ones for fairly cheapcheck out O'SULLIVAN 20156,BUSH AV33457,GUSDORF 31404 at the bottom of the page)

http://circuitcity.com/frame1.jsp?BV...ductsearch.jsp

Just click 'find my purchases'

And lastly, speaker cable. I purchased original monster cable for mine, and I didn't notice a huge difference. I am slowly upgrading to Polk speakers now, and eventually a denon or Onkyo reciever, so I think they will prove useful then, so I figured why not just buy what I am going to need 2 years from now, now! But I wouldn't say it is a nessecity, I just figured it was better than buying so-so speaker wire now, and then upgrading again later. Hope this helps you out a little. Feel free to email me if you have any other questions.



[Edited by juice21 on 03-02-01 at 05:49 AM]

ckolchak

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(/impg)

the nice thing about doing-it-yourself is you can tailor the design to your own tastes. you can stain it/ paint it/ or leave it natural.
of course, i like to put stuff together, if it's simple enough, you may just want to put the money up for something and not have to bother, but it's really quite easy to do.
-plus you have the pride of craftsmanship

Joel White

As far as speaker wire goes, we run Home Depot wire exclusively. We've run tests to see if the more expensive cable is worth it or not (in our opinion), but we felt this was fine. They will cut it for you by the foot. I run 12 gauge, but that is probably overkill. Try around the 16 gauge, that should work great for the HTB 503.

Cysco

If you have an Ikea store near you they have some good prices on speaker stands. I got some there for $50/pr you can see them in my set up here...

http://www.geocities.com/mrcysco

audrey

Like most hobbies, there are, as noted, many hidden costs associated with HT. Although I'm sure there are some here who will disagree, I want to point out that speaker stands do impact the overall sound of a system. If the stand is not stable, the high frequencies will smear. While the differences between a good stand and a poor one aren't dramatic, they are noticeable on a good system. Also, using stands and moving your speakers away from the walls (unless the speakers were designed for wall reinforcement) generally improves the sound as well. My two cents.

yanhao

Thanks for the replys. They are very helpful. I am going to go to the home depot to pick up the speaker wire as people suggested. Since I am a terrible craftsman, I not going to try building the speaker stand myself.

As for my setup, I have a panasonic 27" TV, an Apex DVD, a Sanyo hifi VCR and a really old but good Kenwood cassette player. I bought the Apex expecting the secret menu, but it turns out to not having one, but I still like it for the mp3 capability. I started to work a few months ago and lost most my money in extremely high rent and the damn stock market. So, economics is high priority for me. Since I am going to move frequently, I am not getting a bigger tv or high end audio system any time soon.

matchpenalty

For the wire, don't run worse than 16 gauge.. That should be fine for most HT's. 14 gauge would be a bit of overkill for the current system, but would make you pretty much upgrade safe down the line.

Entertainment center/cabinet will cost a fair amount unless you get something junky. Try some second hand stores and you could find a bargain on something better built.

As for the speaker stands, it's not critical to raise them, though it will help performance supposedly. You can save some bucks for now if you need to. You will be best off making them yourself if you can. I have sattelite types that are mounted on the wall.

ZenDog

You said you were going to buy stands, but i was just wondering whether you can put up shelves on the side walls somewhere in the room. Shelves are much cheaper to install. Just food for thought. Good Luck

Dr. D

You can place speakers on just about anything, you don't need an expensive stand. I have my rear surrounds on a stack of milk crates with a cloth over them to make them look a little more presentable.