Hello, this will be my first time purchasing any audio equipment whatsoever. I am moving my 42" LCD TV into my bedroom for the first time, so I really want to make it a theatre/music listening area for myself. My room is roughly 12.5ft x 12.5 ft, so yes, it is kinda small. It has my computer, bed, dresser etc. but i have one wall (where my window is) dedicated to to putting my TV there as well as all the front speakers.

 I have been looking around and searching as much as I can, which led me to this site and the Intimus 4T Hybrid SD, which I was planning on getting. But looking more around these forums, I see that you guys mix and match speakers to fit your needs, and since all the speakers are the same price regardless if you buy in a package or seperate. So i need help deciding what is best for me.

I will be using this to experience movies, music, and gaming. I would say about 35% gaming (xbox 360), 35% Music, and 30% movies (DVD and blu-ray). So those are my main focus areas, I really would want good surround sound for movies and gaming, but looking around i see people prefer 2.1 setup for music listening, so i was planning on just turning off rear speakers for when i listen to music maybe?

It might help list some music i listen to as well i suppose? I listen to alot of indie rock and indie hip-hop music mostly. Also post rock. Some of my favorite artists are tonedeff, cunninlynguists, radiohead, elliott smith, sigur ros, common, ben folds, neutral milk hotel.. etc. Hopefully that gives some sort of idea.

I have plenty of room for tower speakers for the front, and for the rear i have my computer desk on one corner, and my dresser on the other which i was planning on putting the rear speakers ontop of.

 

Anyways, that is my setup and needs,  and along with the speaker system, i need your guys help picking an AV receiever as well to go along with it. I want my max budget to be $2000 for speakers + receiver, maybe a little more if it is absolutely worth it. I want to get the most bang for my buck, as I'm a student, junior in college, so money is hard to come by for me. I want something that will fit my room perfectly, and give me a wonderful audio experience. I dont know a lot about speaker audio, but i am learning.

 Hopefully i have provided substantial information about my situation and needs so that you may help me!

 Thanks!

Hey Ahmad, with a room that size the 4T Hybrid SD would be perfect IMO.  Check out the specials they have bundled with the Onkyo a/v receivers.  I would get a receiver with the advanced sound codecs(great for blu ray movies).  Make sure it has enough hdmi inputs for all your gear.

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24 hours in a day ... 24 beers in a case ... coincidence?

Hey, I have a 12'x10' room with the 4Ts, 4Bs, 5C... and it could easily fill a larger room with more than enough sound. The towers are an excellent choice for music/games especially, plus cost about the same after stands for the bookshelves. Since you said you will probably turn it to 2.1 for the music I would definitely go with the towers. When I turn it to stereo & sit in the sweet spot I still swear the others speakers are all on.

As for a receiver, everyone has their own preferences, after doing alot of reading I went with an Onkyo 806 (although 606 would have been sufficient as well), but others will recommend Yamaha, Marantz, etc.

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-Bill

How much of a difference is there between the 4C and the 5C? What would suit me better?

Still not sure on the receiever, the 606 is $680 on amazon, are they supposed to be cheaper?

I've never heard the 4C though that is what is recommended for that room size usually. I just went with the 5C because the 4C was backordered.From what I've heard the 4C is a pretty great speaker too.

The 606 msrp is only $600 I think... the 607 (the 2009 version of the 606) is only $515 here. And if you spend $450 on speakers you get $75 off so it would be $440. You may find the 606 cheaper than that, but $680 is definitely way too much.

 

The 4T Hybrid SD ($1569) + the 607 ($440) would be just $9 over your budget 

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-Bill

can someone explain to me video upconversion? thats what the reviews said was lacking for the 607, but i do not know what that means.

 

also, would it be better to get the 607 for 440, or the 507 for 340, which is 5.1, since im only getting 5.1 system?

 

If you are running video signals from components (DVD player, Cable box, Video Games) through your AVR to your TV then you might be using video converison

Lets say you have your AVR video out HDMI output connected to your TV HDMI in.  Any component you have connected to your AVR with a video cable other than HDMI will require some video conversion.  Any component you have connected to your AVR via an HDMI cable will not require video conversion.

For example if you have a playstation 3 hooked up to AVR with HDMI cable and HDMI cable from AVR to TV then you don't need to worry about it.  However, if you have PS3 hooked to AVR via component cable and HDMI from AVR to TV then you will have video conversion.

Most mid grade mainstream AVR's do video conversion, but sometimes their capabilites/processesors arent as strong, meaning you may not get as sharp a picture as possible.  When you jump up to the high performance AVR's then you get better video processing capabilites.

However, video conversion is a moot point if your running the same video cables for everything...it's just when you've got different video cable types running between your AVR and components.

Make sense?

 

Ahmed:

How much of a difference is there between the 4C and the 5C? What would suit me better?

Still not sure on the receiever, the 606 is $680 on amazon, are they supposed to be cheaper?

 

Ahmed, we primarily recommend center channels based on how far back from the TV you normally sit.  If you are about 10 feet or so away, we start recommending the 5C over the 4C.  That said, the 5C has larger woofers (at 5.25") over the 4C (which are 4" woofers), which means the 5C can reproduce lower frequencies over the 4C.  Also, the larger woofers give you a larger sound stage - so the 5C's "sweet spot" is deeper and wider than the 4C.  Which is why we do a lot of our recommendations based on distance.  Also, if you have people sitting on the sides - in other words to the left and right of your primary viewing position say on chairs to the left or right of the couch for example - they'll be more likely to be in the sweet spot too with the larger center.

Since you indicate that most of your sound will be movies and games based, the center is the key speaker in those modes since all the dialog and those sounds meant to be coming from in front of you come over the center.

One of the most common upgrades we recommend on the 4T Hybrid system is the center channel upgrade to the 5C. 

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Mark
Aperion Audio Guru

Thank you Dan, yes that made perfect sense. So I am good to go, since I will be running my TV/Xbox through HDMI anyways.

 

I  will be sitting about 5-6 ft away from the front speakers, so its safe to say the 4c will be sufficient enough to hit me.

 

so right now i am leaning towards the 4t hybrid sd, with the tx-sr607 combo.

Yeah, you won't have to even worry about video conversion then if everything is HDMI, it will just pass the signals through.

5-6 feet away should be great for 4-C.  I sit 12 feet away and use the 5C.

I think you will really enjoy your movies with that setup in that room size.

Best of luck.