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Here's the Low-Buck Home Theater Setup

Wigwam Jones

Wigwam Jones

Caesar non supra grammati
This is what I've pieced together. Still waiting on the TV to arrive, but this is the basic setup. Interested in your thoughts, suggestions for improvement, etc. I did this on the cheap...



Components & Cost:

Panasonic Viera 54" Plasma: FREE (used Marriott Points)
KLH 6 Front Speakers: $25 pr (Salvation Army, Vintage units)
Harman-Kardon AVR-2600 7.1 Receiver: $305.50 (eBay refurb from HK Direct)
Insignia NS-BRDVD3 Blu-ray Disc Player: $54.25 (eBay refurb from Best Buy)
Yamaha DVD-S1800BL DVD/SACD Player: $90.48 (Amazon special)
Wharfedale WH-2 Center Speaker: $49.00 (eBay NIB)
Kodak Theatre HD Player: $49.00 (Woot!)
Wharfedale Diamond VI Rear Speakers: $35 pr (garage sale in NC years ago)

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Total: $608.23

I think I did OK, but let me know if I'm missing anything or have any obvious mismatches or mistakes here. I'm still indebted to Toasted Almond for sending me a tweeter for my KLH 6 several years ago that put those speakers back in tip-top shape.
 
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Nothing wrong with that! How large is your room? And how wide is your seating? I say if its wide enough and large enough you may want a center speaker to anchor dialogue.
 
chadnliz said:
Nothing wrong with that! How large is your room? And how wide is your seating? I say if its wide enough and large enough you may want a center speaker to anchor dialogue.
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The room is about 24 feet wide, 15 feet deep, open in the back. It's a basement. There is a center speaker, I'm doing a 5.1 setup (no subwoofer yet). Don't have a seating arrangement yet, looking at a used couch of some sort.
 
I might would try the Wharfedales as your mains, since you use a Wharfedale as your center, and use the KLHs as the surrounds. The Wharfedales might timbre match the center, better than the KLHs. Just a thought. I'm not familiar with either one.
 
emoxley said:
I might would try the Wharfedales as your mains, since you use a Wharfedale as your center, and use the KLHs as the surrounds. The Wharfedales might timbre match the center, better than the KLHs. Just a thought. I'm not familiar with either one.
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Well, that's a thought, but the Wharfedale Diamond VI's are small bookshelf speakers and the KLH's are big old vintage floor speakers, so I thought they'd be better up front. I'd like to go with Wharfedale all the way around, but unless I find some more used ones cheap, that will have to wait awhile.
 
Why do you have 3 DVD players? Wouldn't the blue ray player cover all DVD formats?

Looks like you got some great deals, especially on the speakers, but I don't see the "free" tv as being a "low-buck" find, do you? The only way for someone else to get a $1500 television for "free" the same way you did would be to spend a serious amount of money or business time on hotel rooms to accumulate enough points. Curious as to how long it took to accumulate that many points?
 
newbie72 said:
Why do you have 3 DVD players? Wouldn't the blue ray player cover all DVD formats?
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There's only two DVD players. The Kodak Theatre HD player is a streaming video kind of thing. The Yamaha is for playing DVD's because it upconverts better than the el cheapo Blu-Ray (at least I think so, I'll have to test that hypothesis out).

Looks like you got some great deals, especially on the speakers, but I don't see the "free" tv as being a "low-buck" find, do you?
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Well, it was low-buck for me. My choices were that or nothing.

The only way for someone else to get a $1500 television for "free" the same way you did would be to spend a serious amount of money or business time on hotel rooms to accumulate enough points. Curious as to how long it took to accumulate that many points?
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It wasn't my money spent on hotel rooms. I was a road warrior from 1998 to 2004, racking up 100,000 to 150,000 air miles a year and sleeping six nights out of every seven in a Marriott or Marriott Courtyard. Over the years, my points bought me a Hitachi 53" rear projection bigscreen TV, two Sony laptops, and now the Panasonic. And that is the end of the points. You used to get 10 points for every dollar spent in the hotel, and I've gone though about 2 million points, so figure I spent $200,000 USD on hotels over the years; but again, not my money.
 
Wigwam Jones said:
There's only two DVD players. The Kodak Theatre HD player is a streaming video kind of thing. The Yamaha is for playing DVD's because it upconverts better than the el cheapo Blu-Ray (at least I think so, I'll have to test that hypothesis out).
Click to expand...

Is the Kodak Theatre Player similar to a Roku player for Netflix?

Wigwam Jones said:
Well, it was low-buck for me. My choices were that or nothing.

You used to get 10 points for every dollar spent in the hotel, and I've gone though about 2 million points, so figure I spent $200,000 USD on hotels over the years; but again, not my money.
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Definitely an AMAZING television and that is awesome that you got it for "free". I just saw the low-buck title,and being someone who is trying to put together a low cost system myself, getting a tv like that for free is not something that is obtainable.
 
HOORAY!
as george peppard used to say on 'the a team', 'i love it when a plan comes together!'

have you given any thought to hookup cables; ie hdmi, rca interconnects, and speaker cables?
incidentally, for best picture quality on your new hdtv, from your blu-ray player (and dvd player if it has the facility), use hdmi.

i would suggest monoprice.com for low prices and good quality.
 
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newbie72 said:
Is the Kodak Theatre Player similar to a Roku player for Netflix?
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Yes, but it doesn't do Netflix ;-( But the Insignia Blu-Ray player *does* do Netflix, so ;-)

Definitely an AMAZING television and that is awesome that you got it for "free". I just saw the low-buck title,and being someone who is trying to put together a low cost system myself, getting a tv like that for free is not something that is obtainable.
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Sorry, I see your point. Well, if it were up to my buying one, I'd be using the 22 inch 720p Vizio I got on Woot! for $149 a couple weeks ago. It's not bad, but it is small.
 
jayk said:
HOORAY!
as george peppard used to say on 'the a team', 'i love it when a plan comes together!'

have you given any thought to hookup cables; ie hdmi, rca interconnects, and speaker cables?
incidentally, for best picture quality on your new hdtv, from your blu-ray player (and dvd player if it has the facility), use hdmi.

i would suggest monoprice.com for low prices and good quality.
Click to expand...

I went with 6' HDMI cables from Cables Unlimited via Newegg for a grand total of $4.99 each. Continuing the 'low-buck' theme, eh? And my speaker cable is zip cord that I got at Home Depot. I actually dont' think I'll need any RCA or component video, etc this time. I'm legacy-free!
 
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