Looking For Your Experiences With 5.1 Audio

[DVDR_Dog]

I am starting to think about updating my current home theater 2.1 audio setup to 5.1 surround sound.
Seriously, I am looking for your experiences with setting it up. What hardware did you consider and what did you finally end up with?
Not sure I am willing to sink a fortune in this setup. My GF and I have a good living room arrangement that is suitable for a permanent 5.1 speaker setup placement. Anything you could contribute would be most welcome. Thanks!

 

[Diguelo]

7.1 5.1 2.1 1.0 and 2LO I do audio Mr Dog.

Updating, at 2.1 Id say you need fitstly to look at the room you have it in.

What size of room is it for a start. I have a 5.1 system in my living room. Speaker bar under the TV, Bass Speaker in the under tv area. Two satellite 3 speaker towers in the corners to the side of the TV and two 3 speaker towers in the rear of the room.


My living room is 5m x 5.5m

I use a THX sound system, its ancient as hell but I havent found a better and more deifnitive sound system to replace it.

Depending on where you are on the blue marble (Earth) depends on what you have avaialble to purchase and of course you will need some Money/credit.

Recommendations:
1. Buy a sound system with integrated BluRay Player and sound system. Reason being some remote players have a few milliseconds of lag between vision and sound. Its noticable if you dont like that sort of thing whereas the integrated player is perfect.

2. Look at the speaker sets and sound bars to make sure you can have them floor placed with ease and space or wall mounted.

3. Wiring, this is tne bug bear that affects installation. Routing of the wiring. Your 2.1 system is good and the 5.1 and 7.1 has the same speaker layout plus 2 more or 4 more speakers for the back of the room.

4. Cooling, make sure there is plenty of space around the main unit, these 5.1 and 7.1 come with a fan in the unit.

OR.............................

Prior to absconding this THX set I used to use an AIWA 400W Quadraphonic amp. This had a stereo output and the Back speaker towers had a bass driver in each to really add some depth to the surround sound image. But with the THX it controls the delay betwen front back and side speakers to make the sound effect of two people talking have one one side of the room and the other on the other side of the room. Surround sound cant be beaten.

You can get second user kits on the market EBAY for $75 but personally Id check before purchase. "Yes mate it works perfectly" doesnt quite cut it when you want to go surround..

My THX system had single cone speakers in it when purchased but these soon got changed to 200W towers with bass drivers on the two back ones and boom speaker in front. The actual sound driver control box was modified to work with a PANASONIC BT 2000 DVD Player and Surround system. Being a soldering Iron WIzard it seemed the right thing to do. More power less noise. And when the sudden scary sound hits it still send the popcorn flying.

 

[Diguelo]

As an update to this I had a wander around a local superstore for electronics. I asked if I could see one of their "Surround Sound" systems. "Whats that?" came the reply from a spotty faced college undergraduate that is studying for a degree in wallpaper.

I walked off looking for an older helper, haviong found one he took me to see the 5 units they had in stock. My THX has 4 sattelite speaker towers and a Bass driver. Runs the 5.1 or 7.1 chipset and is fully configurable for volume levels, Bass, Treble, Presence and Colour. (Yes Colour, back in the day Colour referred to a non complex Tone/Bass mix)

Anyhow all 5 units had a 250 x 250 x 250 bass driver with two 200mm x 200mm x 200mm Sattelite speakers. The most basic of amplifier boxes with non adjust able features. All driven by the TV HDMI or Bluetooth

So looking rather glum at the prospect, I asked for prices and was greeted with sales patter basically, bottom end unit £499, top end unit £1299. I just walked out seeing as all 5 units had nothing special about them and all exactly the same look.

Total Audio Customisation just for Mr Dog to fully enjoy.

As you know I am a fan of DIY and fully believe in getting exactly what I want, so with that in mind I will givew you a list of items to get your juices follwing audibly.

Sound quality is the best to have more power = less background amp noise. Case in point I use a 2kW amplifier to drive 100W speakers on my PC audio. Its that quiet when its on and theres no sound present. And if it hit the volume with a touch of Black Sabbath to shut the neighbours rap out the neighbours know Im up.

However.
Most if not all TV sets these days have a stereo headphone jack that takes the sound out of the TV and sends it down this wire. The cable having two Phono plugs on plug into my Amplifier with its THX gear and a sweet 500W AIWA amplifier in it. (Amp was a standard one just took the guts out of it This then got split into two right and two left channels in the THX unit and took the coding from the 5.1 output from my BluRay Panasonic SA-BT2000 player
All this outputs to four speaker towers and the bass driver.

Theres lots of second user Audio out there, a decent 200W amp will set you back around $75 £70 etc, dont knmow the price in Bitcoin sorry.

Speakers, get 8" cones with nice boxes, rated around 300W this way youll never be able to harm them. Wall mount for Treble sound preference and floor stand for Bass. Spatial sound the amplifier needs to have a HDMI link to your TV.

Customised stuff means you can tune it to your own satisfaction and needs not have some hooray with a degree in washing machine cycles tell you what is best.

PM me if you want specialised info / advice, always glad to halp.

 

[DVDR_Dog]

I am slowly easing my way in. I picked up a Polk sub with 5.1 capabilities for almost nothing. Right not my main system has a decent 2.1 integrated system on it and I am trying to figure out speaker placement and a good 5.1 amp I can get for cheap.

 

[Diguelo]

Bass bin central and on the floor.

Front speakers again depends on the room, but at least a metre away from the TV.

Rear sattelites, on the wall in you dont have flooor space.

The Codec in the Surround sound generally will shove

60 - 75% Bass signal into Bass bin with remainder in mid frequ

10-15% Bass 40% Mid remainder mid to high

Back 20 - 30% Bass Ditto high and rest mid.

Thats what my THX setup does and it sounds like you are in a cinema and it keeps the grandkids quiet so they can watch the movie.

And of course the exploding popcorn sound that make audiences jump is audible with great effect.

Enjoy making it, it is the best part.

 

[Yobbo]

As an update to this I had a wander around a local superstore for electronics. I asked if I could see one of their "Surround Sound" systems. "Whats that?" came the reply from a spotty faced college undergraduate that is studying for a degree in wallpaper.

I walked off looking for an older helper, haviong found one he took me to see the 5 units they had in stock. My THX has 4 sattelite speaker towers and a Bass driver. Runs the 5.1 or 7.1 chipset and is fully configurable for volume levels, Bass, Treble, Presence and Colour. (Yes Colour, back in the day Colour referred to a non complex Tone/Bass mix)

Anyhow all 5 units had a 250 x 250 x 250 bass driver with two 200mm x 200mm x 200mm Sattelite speakers. The most basic of amplifier boxes with non adjust able features. All driven by the TV HDMI or Bluetooth

So looking rather glum at the prospect, I asked for prices and was greeted with sales patter basically, bottom end unit £499, top end unit £1299. I just walked out seeing as all 5 units had nothing special about them and all exactly the same look.

Total Audio Customisation just for Mr Dog to fully enjoy.

As you know I am a fan of DIY and fully believe in getting exactly what I want, so with that in mind I will givew you a list of items to get your juices follwing audibly.

Sound quality is the best to have more power = less background amp noise. Case in point I use a 2kW amplifier to drive 100W speakers on my PC audio. Its that quiet when its on and theres no sound present. And if it hit the volume with a touch of Black Sabbath to shut the neighbours rap out the neighbours know Im up.

However.
Most if not all TV sets these days have a stereo headphone jack that takes the sound out of the TV and sends it down this wire. The cable having two Phono plugs on plug into my Amplifier with its THX gear and a sweet 500W AIWA amplifier in it. (Amp was a standard one just took the guts out of it This then got split into two right and two left channels in the THX unit and took the coding from the 5.1 output from my BluRay Panasonic SA-BT2000 player
All this outputs to four speaker towers and the bass driver.

Theres lots of second user Audio out there, a decent 200W amp will set you back around $75 £70 etc, dont knmow the price in Bitcoin sorry.

Speakers, get 8" cones with nice boxes, rated around 300W this way youll never be able to harm them. Wall mount for Treble sound preference and floor stand for Bass. Spatial sound the amplifier needs to have a HDMI link to your TV.

Customised stuff means you can tune it to your own satisfaction and needs not have some hooray with a degree in washing machine cycles tell you what is best.

PM me if you want specialised info / advice, always glad to halp.

I'm very impressed with the information you provided.

 

[Diguelo]

Many thanks.

 

[garibaldo'']

hey , mr Dog,
if you have a good pair of headphones, go to youtube and hear some of 3d audio clips...
I used to have a Onkio 5.1+ 2 and never had a spatial sound experience like that...
now I have a pair of godd headphones, and that is it...

 

[IDontHave1]

I never got around to setting up a home theater system, I am to lazy to buy a TV. But my computer is running a Creative Labs Audigy FX 5.1 PCIe card with Logitech Z5500 5.1 Speakers.

The living room is 15 ' x 22' Main system has 2 36" monitors and Mini has a 43"
monitor. At my age I don't need loud, as I live alone but the neighbors think they live here as well. When I can feel the floor vibrate and have to turn the vol down to hear everyone, then I think it's load enough for me.

Now if I were 30 years younger then the story would be different.

 

[Diguelo]

Neighbour issues?

Noisy ass problem over the road?

Hearing needs clearing out?

Heres the perfect solution

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Amplifier-Bluetooth-Control-Entertainment-Speakers-Black/dp/B0FPC4JWK3/ref=sr_1_4?crid=2M8S0HQTXM5TS&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.5UdKrvaAVLossrJmHZ_juZycRAzpX2hcQf4M15Dthy5oXu4klr9BJ3TPsApVP5NhS_5ZZXHskk2MprgI_FzocQr4UYJ-1-vACSr6H5A6uSxoJXIMUd3gP2cwDetWQYyfL4P9Wa7-UveoZSYHofJfa6-exjShml2usZ9hmiDG5guWpm99a9ejmyOgIApWWcj9OlYP1uvSOO2KPt6IckR8EBLZUbcBb4DC6WfuwewZ8AM.pwPT962LywS9HB7u-lAGj4v0EzccWjHrqCFL9mZgh2g&dib_tag=se&keywords=sunbuck+amplifier&qid=1775127156&sprefix=SUNBUCK%2Caps%2C239&sr=8-4

2000W of digital amplifer.

thats the ad, heres mine all set up to wake the town council if needed. Rock Concert volume and quality. Being digital it doesnt get stupidly hot and makes more noise than your neighbours can deal with.


Thats mine all ripe and lovely.

WARNING:

Using speakers over 500W Use the correct gauge of speaker wire. they do tend to get a tad warm over 200W constant output. I have used this unit daily now for the last 3 years as my home pc sound output device. My family member has used it a few times for rock shows and discos he has done, 4 inputs fro 1/4" stereo jacks 8 inputs for Phono jacks and sound quality that is pretty damned good for the price. As you can see the volume on the right is less than20% on this gives me ambiant sound out of a pair of 200W speakers of around 10w rms. My family member likes the "Spinal Tap theory of turn it to 11 and see if the roof is held on.

I have sold a few of these for entertainment venues and they are incredibly reliable and being digital residue noise and amplifier hum are none existent.

Highly recommended to keep those noisy neighbours in check. Balcks Sabbath at 2000W sounds awesome and you can happily have it on at home AND listen to it at work if less than a mile away. My locla law enforcers love it. I dont get noisy neighbour issues, I am the noisiest neighbour around.

Special need for this unit. A decent quality power lead, figure of 8 with a 10Amp fuse and cabling is recommended if you are going for the "Heads down, no nonsense mindless boogie" approach the graphic equaliser is really delecate and takes a bit of setting up.

compelling music to set up any sudio system.

For my home studio as mentioned before, the THX audio is on a pc card and is attached to an amlifiers input points and then into a custom sound board with THX logic on board for CODEC usage.