Hello,
I’m looking to upgrade my TV / living room audio experience. I’m a newbie when it comes to HT or speakers in general. I only have Edifier r1280dbs for my PC setup and I did not have anything before that. I have a semi-decent headphones setup for my PC, but that’s probably not really relevant.
As I stated in the title, I am looking for some basic advice first. My budget for this setup is ~ €500. I really don’t know if it’s possible to put together a usable surround setup with this kind of budget or if it will be better to build stereo, or stereo + sub setup (basically a soundbar equivalent). You tell me…
Here is some (hopefully) useful information:
I live in Europe and I want to buy everything locally. I am not importing from US. (It’s a hassle)
I live in a flat, so I have to take neighbors into consideration (sub rumble), but the house is pretty solid (brick) and I rarely hear anything from outside my flat.
I have LG C1 55 inch TV. It is on a cabinet (not wall mounted). There is not much space on the sides (on the cabinet) for speakers. However, there is plenty space next to the cabinet. Here is a photo:
There is not much space next or behind the sofa for potential rear speakers.
I mostly watch movies and YouTube on the TV, but I also sometimes listen to music there. The sound from the TV obviously isn’t something special though. I also use the TV for playing games. On PC and on a PS3.
I most probably missed something so don’t hesitate to ask me anything.
You could do a jamo setup with the 800 series in either bookshelf or towers. Grab a sabaj a10d amplifier and a ifi air DAC and you’d have a sound bar killer 2.0. Later you can save up and add a sub.
This would get you by for a good while and you can save up for a massive HT system without missing good sound.
If you can find a good used set of these…then I can highly recommend them.
I’ve had this system as my surround sound since they came out…never had a problem and don’t be fooled by their size.
These are properly high quality speakers.
They can be wall mounted either vertical or horizontal.
If you want to save even more money just get 2 + a sub .
Just add an amp and there are plenty good amps that will work with these.
I’ll never sell mine.
Occasionally the subs pack up on older models if the caps dry out but just get another brand of sub in the unlikely event that happens. Or just replace the cap.
Would the setup make sense without the sub or is it more like I basically have to buy it as soon as possible for it to be a decent setup?
Is there maybe some cheaper option which would facilitie both speakers and sub within my budget? I’m not even sure if I want to go the “buy now, upgrade later” route.
Also, it’s not that I don’t have the money to buy a more expensive setup now. It’s just that the €500 is about what I’m willing to spend for a better audio solution for the TV (which itself cost me a bit less than €1000).
It’s more it could work and be a solid base to add too. You won’t have deep movie subass but for music it should be decent.
If you have an AVR already then the amp and DAC can be omitted and start adding speakers to the limit of your budget.
Cheaper options would from Dayton audio but I’d pay the extra for better sound of the jamo.
After the jamos you have to start looking at $500 a piece for towers to start hearing an increase in sound quality.
Thats a later version with a bespoke centre channel so should still sound pretty good.
I think the versions were, 2005, 3001 and 3005.
All use the same concentric drivers.
If you can find any of those at a reasonable price you cant go wrong and if you really dont like them youd get most if not all your money back.
Thanks for your opinion. Well, I’m into some more bass heavy music such as EDM, so a sub would be very nice even for music. However, music is not the primary focus here.
What do you think about buying a used set? Any recommendations there? I guess that could be a lot more bang for the money.
If you have an AVR already then the amp and DAC can be omitted and start adding speakers to the limit of your budget.
Sadly, I do not have anything except the TV itself.
Used is a good way to go. Speakers can last decades if they are taken care of and I wouldn’t have an issue buying used. Used AVRs are different since in the handful of years there has been a lot of units with defective HDMI and power supplies.
There is a solution for this using a store like accessories4less can get you into a decent AVR for cheap and retain some factory warranty.
Cool. The biggest problem there is that there is a lot of used options and many of those are some local brands, which I can’t get much information about.
Does your country have craigslist or something similar? Never hurts to try meet up for a listen. Or see if there’s a local hifi store that sells the used brands you want to try.
Yeah, there are some sites including FB marketplace I often use for buying and selling all kinds of things. The thing with having a listen is that I would not be able to tell if it’s worth the cost when I can’t compare it, since I haven’t really heard many higher quality setups. I would be able to tell if it’s really bad, or really good. But I wouldn’t know if there is other set which could sound a lot better for the same price.
Trust me anything is better than TV speakers and the 3 most important speakers are going to be your LCR.
Really the only thing that is important is that it sounds good to you and with lack of experience you do have to bite the bullet and listen to a set one way or another. We can give you recommendations all day but they might not meet the expectation you have in your head.
For the full 5 speakers and the sub, that sounds reasonable. This was originally about £1000 of memory serves.
Might be worth haggling… nothing ventured nothing gained
Sure, I will try that. The only problem with this listing is that kinda far away so I would have to blindly buy it (not sure if he’s even willing to send it out).
