KrazyKid's first home theater BUILD THREAD

**krazykid** · **12-04-08, 08:59 PM**

Well here is my first post. Short and sweet to start: I just purchased this home back in July, and I have yet to sleep one night(well in a bed) in the house! With the help of my family, friends and my loving fiancé, we have close to 3,000 hours invested into this home. The floor plan is very open. The kitchen, dinning room and living room is wide open. I will upload pictures and floor plans soon. The living room is 18X16, with dinning room being about the same size directly next to it with only two 4 foot long knee walls and 6x6 posts separating them. We will be listening about 50% music, 20% TV and 30% movies and PC gaming with 7.1. Ascetics are high concern, big and bulky is out of the question. I have a good background with audio systems in general, so I am looking to build a reference/sound quality setup. I know the large volume and shared space floor plan will be hard to work with, especially in the subwoofer department.

I will start off and list the equipment I already purchased.
Onkyo TX-SR805
Four Mirage Omnisat V2 satellites. LR/RR & LC/RC.
2 Athena LS500 floor standers for LF/RF.
Samsung 6 series 50" Plasma.
Samsung BD-P 1500 Blu-Ray player
Gaming PC: E6850@ 3.45ghz, Asus P5n32SLI, 2gb Dominator, 500gb sata, GTX260, Xfi Extreme Gamer audio card...

Equiptment I still need, and have thought about:
Center Channel: no idea yet
Subwoofer: Custom built by me. single driver, 2 drivers, single and PR, plate amp, rack amp... dont know yet.
Media Center PC: no idea yet

**tonyvdb** · **12-04-08, 09:17 PM**

Hi Mike, again welcome to the Shack!

What do you have for a budget for a receiver? I highly recomend going with an Onkyo TX SR 805 or even better the Onkyo 876. Thes are by far the best bang for the buck right now.

**Space** · **12-04-08, 09:31 PM**

Quote:

krazykid wrote:

... and I have yet to sleep one night(well in a bed) in the house! With the help of my family, friends and my loving fiancé, we have close to 3,000 hours invested into this home.

Hi KrazyKid.
So what is it that you guys are doing?
That is just a lot of time to have to work on a place you recently purchased!

**krazykid** · **12-04-08, 10:02 PM**

Budget for reciever is $400-$700.

The 3,000 hours spent so far is total man hours. Usually it is myself, fiance, my father and 1 or 2 others each day. Average weekend "work" day on the house is 7A-9P or later, sat and sunday. We completely gutted the house, and re-framed alot of it. total remodel project!

**tonyvdb** · **12-04-08, 11:18 PM**

Ok, for $700 you can esaly get the Onkyo 805. Do not get the 806 as it is not built as well.

How large is the room going to be where your setting up the system? do you require a sub and sorround speakers in that $700 budget as this will not be an easy thing to do and still have decent quality.

**krazykid** · **12-05-08, 12:35 AM**

Quote:

tonyvdb wrote:

Ok, for $700 you can esaly get the Onkyo 805. Do not get the 806 as it is not built as well.

How large is the room going to be where your setting up the system? do you require a sub and sorround speakers in that $700 budget as this will not be an easy thing to do and still have decent quality.

The $700 budget is receiver only. sort of. Well I don’t have a "budget"... I will piece things together as I go along. Receiver is first. So that I can use the speakers I already have. I have a 720 32" LCD, I am using for out appt bedroom/my PC gaming monitor! That will work for the mean time. new TV will be second then woofer and center channel.

I know it is a noobish comment but power outage. My floor standers state 250w power handling. They don’t mention RMS, and in my car audio days that meant maximum recommended input is 250w... and RMS was usually half that. The omnisats say 150w power handling BUT 10-150w RMS??? Which again confuses me. Now I know power isnt everything, physical excursion and speaker enclosure is what I look at more for power handling, not just a watts measurement, but I still use it for a ball park. I always look for an amp that could over power the selected speakers. Reason being the amp generally will stress much less trying to output xxxxx power and still have a clean SNR.

**tonyvdb** · **12-05-08, 10:17 AM**

The wattage numbers really mean very little. I can assure you that the 805 will have no issue driving almost any speaker. The main reason I recommend the Onkyo is the huge power supply that they packed into this receiver. The entire unit weighs 52lbs and thats almost 15 lbs heavier than any other receiver in the same price range. What allot of people don't realize is that if the PS is not large enough it wont be able to drive all 7 channels simultaneously at the rated wattage.

I personally have the 805 and so does Sonnie who runs the Shack and we both really like it.

**krazykid** · **12-05-08, 07:17 PM**

Here is the comparison of the 805 and 806

I like the Independent Crossover the 805 has over the 806. but what else am I looking at. What are the key features I am looking at?

Anyone have any experience with the Yamaha parallel?

**tonyvdb** · **12-05-08, 08:03 PM**

One of the bigest flaws that the 806 has over the 805 is that they cheeped out on the power supply. The 805 weighs 15lbs more because of the larger and better PS. I have a closer look at the other differences here.

**krazykid** · **12-05-08, 08:46 PM**

Well I was sold... I updated my OP. I picked up a 805! I am fliping through the manual now. Wont be hooked up to anything for about 2 weeks or so... I cant wait.

**tonyvdb** · **12-05-08, 09:37 PM**

Wow, that was quick! Did you get a decent price on it as its last years model.

**krazykid** · **12-05-08, 10:28 PM**

$559... not bad I guess

**tonyvdb** · **12-06-08, 02:11 PM**

Very good price, Let us know what you think once you have it up and running.

**krazykid** · **12-08-08, 09:00 AM**

Quick update on the house... Hardwood floors are going in this Sat. Start moving my stuff in sunday.

I will install the Ominsat's this week. Looking for furnature and TV stand of sorts.

Speaking of which, I need a nice looking stand to hold the reciever, DVD player, Media Center PC, Cable box, Center channel speaker. Am I missing anything else? I plan on wall mounting the TV and placing the center speaker just below the TV on the stand where the TV would normaly sit. Problem is there is a window screwing thing up a little. I should have taken it out when I gutted the place! lol. I am uploading pictures of the room so you can get a better idea of what I m talking about. Ill post them up later.

**krazykid** · **12-15-08, 09:17 AM**

onkyo 805 is DOA! I powered it on last night, with nothing connected pressed the power button and nothing. When I first plug it in it makes 3 relay clicks, after the 3rd relay click 7 seconds go by then a 4th and final click. None of the status lights next to the power/standby button are lit up at any time. I tried the remote too thinking maybe it was the power button it self but no luck. I guess I have to return it and get another one.

Unless anyone here has any ideas!?!?!

**krazykid** · **12-15-08, 09:46 AM**

Here is what I am working with.

I got the floor, base trim and windows trimmed out over the weekend. As you can see the floor plan is wide open.

I installed the four Omnisats and carried in the LS500's. I did not mark out the wires so I figured I would fire up the reciever and identify each wire as I went, but that didnt work as stated above! So now I wait for another reciever. Wed we will try shopping for a couch and what not again, and look for an entertainment stand as well.

**krazykid** · **12-18-08, 10:41 AM**

Samsung 50" 6 series will be in on Tuesday. Leather recliner sofa and love seat are being delivered tonight. Reciever is RMA'd and new one will ship out to me tomorrow.

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