Help purchasing for 5.1 theatre system

Check out Polk.

Mains and Center: http://www.polkaudio.com/products/series/tsi

Wireless surround: http://www.polkaudio.com/products/series/fx

Subs: http://www.polkaudio.com/products/series/psw
(would recommend anything larger than the PSW10)

I wouldn't bother with wireless rears, they can be a pain. Regular old wire is just as easy (run it through the roof) and is much more reliable.

Receiver: $400
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16882115374

Towers: $540/pair
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16882780081

Center: $230
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16882780085

Surrounds: $360/pair
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16882780087

Subwoofer: $200
http://www.amazon.com/BIC-America-F12-475-Watt-Subwoofer/dp/B0015A8Y5M

Total: $1730

If you're willing to spend the money, that's the way I'd go. You can certainly halve the budget and still come up with a decent stup though.

Don't forget to buy speaker wire.

Paradigm and SVS have some good options in your price range.

If you are looking only to buy then you will be spending about 500-800 on the subwoofer alone that is capable of good output for a lot of movies.

if you are open to the idea of kits there are alot here:

http://www.madisoundspeakerstore.com/speaker-kits/

MTM designs are really good and exagerate the horizontal dispersion really well. AKA wider sound stage.

I especially recommend the Zaph audio designs as they offer great value. his website is here:

http://www.zaphaudio.com/

but if you have to buy from best buy then Polk are hard to beat for the price....

Not exactly. They limit vertical dispersion, not exaggerate horizontal. I don't believe there is a direct correlation between dispersion width and soundstage size as controlled directivity designs(waveguides, horns) can also have a large soundstage. What limited dispersion does do, is interact with the room less. Speakers with wide horizontal and vertical dispersion will have a larger "sweet spot" and will sound good throughout the room more than a speaker with limited dispersion.

As for Zaph's designs, I've heard a few of them, and some sounded great, some were ok. These sound really nice for the money: http://www.madisoundspeakerstore.com/2-way-speaker-kits/zaph|audio-za5.2-tm-2-way-pair-with-cabinets/

Ah, well that could be why it sounded like it was exagerated to me then, I noticed that it was limited vertically compared to my little bookshelfs but seemed to sound bigger when sitting.

Why going 5.1 when 11.2 is on? The room seems big for a 5.1. Take a moment and look where will your earing position be; where will the speakers be placed. What the reflecting walls are, windows. Where the sound will stop or get cought. Theare are lots of 7.1; some 7.2; a few 8.2; less 9.2 and one 11.2 I know from Yamaha; most of them very affordable. A set of speakers also can be choosen from same make. I've been using this make for 13 years now and think is the best You can get for small price.
Imagine using identical speakers, all 5. Sound will be much rich and enough for the room.
On a 5.1 you get main sound on Left and Right; dialogues on Center and just effect on surround. But what if You make the all 5 sound equal? Stero in 5 speakers is possible alltough the Center is not Stereo.
On my Icon, shows a midrange driver for Yamaha 2HX. These are specially designed as effect speakers. They are 6 ohm and come just with this driver an a tweeter (clear as crystal) and handle 60 watt continuous up to 200 peaks (this is PMPO). Actually nobody uses the top of the power, using a third will fill wnough the room, if surrounded the earing position.
Instead of looking at budget, I guess, looking for the purpose: Music or Movies or Games. You will say yes to all, (I guess).
I know hearing is just hearing but when You come to recognize the sound of a singer breathing or the fingerprints moving on the strings of the guitar (not just the ones that where intended to), then You really will be hearing real Sound.
You will hear sounds on the same song that You've been hearing all your life and never noticed that these sounds were in the very song.
There is and old one song from Tony Orlando: "Knock three times" maybe You've heard it but never relized that they are really knocking on a pipe, a metallic (FoFo) pipe when the song says "...twice in the pipe...".
Hope still be usefull this idea. Best choose ! ! !

The main idea here is to match the front channel. The reason for this is lets say something drives across the screen. You don't want to have the sound of the thing driving change what it sounds like going from one speaker to the next. So for the front sound stage you will usually want to try to use the same line of speakers, or at least from the same manufacturer.

For your budget, I think it would be easiest to find and audition speakers from companies like Polk Audio and Klipsch. Both are well known, proven (been around a long time), and pretty well respected.

I feel like in general Klipsches seem to be more "forward" and "bright" (because they use a horn tweeter design), but are also more efficient than most speakers (at the same input power they will be louder). However some people report that they are fatiguing to listen to after long periods of time.

Polk speakers generally are a bit more laid back and "mellow". Personally, I prefer my polks to my brother in laws klipsches.

If I had that budget, I would recommend getting the polk RTI A5 tower speakers from their ebay store (refurbished clearance outlet), the matching RTI A3 bookshelf speakers for the surrounds (put them on stands or something), and the matching CSI A6 center channel.

Front towers: $250 a pop
http://www.ebay.com/itm/ONE-RTi-A5-RTiA5-CHERRY-Tower-Loudspeaker-Polk-Audio-/360494821204?pt=Speakers_Subwoofers&hash=item53ef2a6f54

Surrounds: $280
http://www.ebay.com/itm/PAIR-RTiA3-Cherry-Bookshelf-Speaker-Polk-Audio-/230862973043?pt=Speakers_Subwoofers&hash=item35c0816873

Center: $380
http://www.amazon.com/Polk-Audio-Center-Channel-Speaker/dp/B000V2SEYQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1351404127&sr=8-1&keywords=polk+audio+csi+a6

For the sub I would go with something like this. $800 with shipping
http://www.hsuresearch.com/products/vtf-3mk4.html

Total: Just under $2k without a receiver. I would suggest

Alternatively, you could go with something like this setup. It is conceptually similar, but its a step down in the product line so it saves you some pretty big cash. I have the center channel from this line and its good, but my RTI's are noticably better. That said, if I'd never heard my RTI's I'd still be perfectly happy with the csi line.

Towers: $250 for the pair
http://www.ebay.com/itm/PAIR-Monitor-60-CHERRY-Tower-Speakers-Polk-Audio-/390479826283?pt=Speakers_Subwoofers&hash=item5aea694d6b

Center: $70
http://www.ebay.com/itm/CS1-CHERRY-Center-Channel-Speaker-Polk-Audio-/390298326713?pt=Speakers_Subwoofers&hash=item5adf97d6b9

Surrounds: $100
http://www.ebay.com/itm/PAIR-Monitor-30-CHERRY-Bookshelf-Speakers-Polk-Audio-/360480527248?pt=Speakers_Subwoofers&hash=item53ee505390

Sub: $610 after shipping.
http://www.hsuresearch.com/products/vtf-2mk4.html

Total: ~ $1030

You could save a bit more on the sub, but it really depends on what you're looking for. I picked up a Velodyne VX11 on clearance for just over $100 and its great for the price, but for Home Theater you generally want something that hits down into the 20hz range. However, most music doesn't even get down past 30hz, so once again it depends on what you're looking for, and how price sensitive you are.

Good luck man.

Logan, you make a good point about the center channel but I wanted to ask, how much have your personally found the center to matter?

I have had mismatched LCR and matched and honestly couldn't tell a difference with the transfer. I assume this was due to the fact that such affects were carried out primarily by the LR but they were always similar quality speakers as it was Paradigm Atoms and SVS SBS-01 bookshelf speakers. Even on forums like diyaudio.com you find alot of people who dont care too much about having matching L and R.

Personally, I only care about it if I can have the EXACT same speaker for LCR such as monitors as the traditional MTM center suffers from lobbing and horrid floor and ceiling reflections.

Great question. I'm not an expert, but I can let you know how I see it right now.

Personally, I don't think I would say that you need to have exactly the same speakers for the front soundstage. I will however say that you should try to have speakers with the same efficiency and general design. What this means is that I'd rather have speakers that I don't have to adjust tons to have the same output levels across the front sound stage (or have the amp work much harder to drive certain channels as the listening volumes increase). I also prefer to have speakers with the same design (particularly tweeters).

For instance, my uncles klipschhorns ($8k a pair) sound absolutely wonderful, and I believe that they're among the most efficient production speakers ever available (105db at one meter away with one watt of power). That said, I'd never try to pair them with my current center with its 89db efficiency (it would take something like 5-6 times the power to make this speaker play at the same volume as the klipsch horns at the same volume level). My polk center channel also has a different presentation than the klipsch because of their different tweeter designs (a horn vs a 1in silk dome ).

As long as those two things are similar, I feel that you'll be fine. But your experience might be different, and you might be more or less sensitive to it than I am. I'll just say that its noticable, particularly if you are paying attention to it. A quick example was when my wife and I watched the hunger games last week (I know ). The scene where they were on the train heading toward that big city, and the sound very distinctively traveled from one side of the room to the other when they went into a tunnel.

Anyway, I kind of view it as being similar to having a multi-monitor setup that have their color calibrations off by a bit. Some notice, some don't. They usually don't have to be perfect, but thats the ideal.

Thats my two cents .