Electronics Advice, Please

[Bad-example]

My neighbor up the street occasionally asks me for computer or electronics advice. Last year I helped him target and find a good price on a 32" Samsung LCD. Now he is asking me to help him with adding a sound system to go with it. He and his wife are in their seventies and don't need anything fancy or complicated.

Their tv room is pretty small, with an open archway into a larger room. With a pretty tiny budget of ~400 bucks, I think I have an idea of what to get.

The speakers I am considering are the Polk Monitor 40's, currently selling through Amazon at $142.22. Not big but I am thinking they may be ok in this setting. If they decide they need it, adding a subwoofer later should be an easy move to make.

The receiver is more of a challenge. I think, considering the age of the users, that a simple (non-home theater) stereo receiver would be best. They don't really have the room for a multi-speaker surround setup. Maybe the Onkyo 8255B or 8555B would be adequate.

Any thoughts/advice are most welcome.

[gstelmack]

What's wrong with the speakers on the TV? Given their requirements, I'm not sure why they're spending any money at all.

[Bad-example]

The LCD tv speakers are not cutting it. I guess at 75ish their hearing is going.

[Kodos]

If hearing is a problem, a center-channel speaker could be a big help, since it makes dialogue louder.

[gstelmack]

So what exactly are you trying to connect up here? Cable box? DVD player? What? Does the TV have an audio output? You may or may not need a separate receiver.

Onkyo is a decent brand, and yes those look like they may work. It won't be any more or less simple than a full home theater setup; the complicated part is selecting the proper input on the receiver to hear whatever you are watching, a step you skip with the TV. On the other hand, a full home theater receiver can manage the video as well as audio, so you leave the TV alone and instead select everything through the receiver. Your simpler receiver may make things more complicated for them, not less.

The basic question when adding a receiver is: what inputs do you need, and what outputs do you need?

However, I still think they just need to turn the volume up. I think they are complicating their TV watching experience for very little return on investment.

[Raiders Army]

Not old people, but us.

We need something for a good sized great room, about 800 square feet with high ceilings (14'). We have a 52" Sony XBR4 and I was considering a soundbar since I don't want to hook up rear speakers. I know that the soundbar won't give true surround sound, but considering that we won't have wires going behind us, we can deal with it.

[gstelmack]

I'm not good with speaker advice. I've got a set of $100 Sonys up front ($100 for two speakers + a center channel), and another cheap set in the rear, and a $100 subwoofer, and I'm fine with them.

For receivers, I bought this one with my Economic Stimulus Check:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16882120064

I bought it because it had plenty of HDMI inputs for me, plus has an automatic sound setup routine where you put an included microphone in two locations in the room most used for listening and it sets up the sound field correctly for your speakers and room. The sound quality with the same speakers vs my old receiver improved noticably. And pricewise it compared favorably with others out there.

[Bad-example]

Originally Posted by gstelmack

So what exactly are you trying to connect up here? Cable box? DVD player? What? Does the TV have an audio output? You may or may not need a separate receiver.

Onkyo is a decent brand, and yes those look like they may work. It won't be any more or less simple than a full home theater setup; the complicated part is selecting the proper input on the receiver to hear whatever you are watching, a step you skip with the TV. On the other hand, a full home theater receiver can manage the video as well as audio, so you leave the TV alone and instead select everything through the receiver. Your simpler receiver may make things more complicated for them, not less.

The basic question when adding a receiver is: what inputs do you need, and what outputs do you need?

However, I still think they just need to turn the volume up. I think they are complicating their TV watching experience for very little return on investment.

I am certain he has decided that simply turning up the tv isn't the solution. Pretty sure that is the first thing he tried.

The TV does have audio outputs but just line out, not volume-adjustable.

They will be connecting only the single source, the cable box. The cable remote has a setting that will set the receiver as the only component that governs volume/muting. That should allow them to use the single remote without accidentally switching sources or turning on the tape monitor.

[gstelmack]

Originally Posted by Bad-example

I am certain he has decided that simply turning up the tv isn't the solution. Pretty sure that is the first thing he tried.

The TV does have audio outputs but just line out, not volume-adjustable.

They will be connecting only the single source, the cable box. The cable remote has a setting that will set the receiver as the only component that governs volume/muting. That should allow them to use the single remote without accidentally switching sources or turning on the tape monitor.

Then I think you're on the right track. Onkyo is a decent receiver brand, and that one is a nice simple basic stereo receiver. As I said above, I'm not a speaker expert, but I suspect that nearly anything will do here; they are not going to be audiophiles, so walking into your local electronics store and finding whatever they have on sale would probably work fine.

[gstelmack]

Oh, and the other thing with some of the TVs is they actually have audio settings that change the soundfield some. I know my Vizio does. It could be they just have a weird audio setup, and tweaking it in the setup menu for the TV could fix whatever issue they are having. But yes, the speakers in the TV are dirt cheap, and I'm certainly not using them for our main TV (but the Vizio in the bedroom works fine for the light viewing we do there).

[Bad-example]

Originally Posted by gstelmack

Then I think you're on the right track. Onkyo is a decent receiver brand, and that one is a nice simple basic stereo receiver. As I said above, I'm not a speaker expert, but I suspect that nearly anything will do here; they are not going to be audiophiles, so walking into your local electronics store and finding whatever they have on sale would probably work fine.

Thanks for the advice. The speakers are the part I am more confident about. Bought a lot of Polk Audio speakers over the last 25 years and never been disappointed. Very efficient and great imaging, Polk is generally great for A/V work.

I will ask him about the tv audio settings.

[Bad-example]

Back to square one. My own receiver just went belly up and it looks like I will have to replace it. Looking (again) for a two-channel receiver that won't break the bank. Not interested in surround sound as the tiny room I live in doesn't lend itself to a multi-speaker arrangement.

I will take some time with this as $$ is pretty tight these days. Currently top of my list is the Harman Kardon HK 3390.