What should I exspect

[itybitybob]

Jeeze I feel pretty dumb,
I am getting a upgrade sunday. I have a new hd tv. (toshiba 46xv545u)

I wonder what should I exspect. As far as I know I'll be getting a new reciever,dish, and a complete install. This upgrade is all free as I am a loyal customer.

What will I get, which reciever(H-23?), which dish (slimline?), What about cables?

Are there questions that I should ask? What's best to get?

I also wonder if someone could advise me on how to improve the sound. Will it be better with the new hd reciever? Should I consider surround sound? Our front room is small (12x12) and so is my buget. My wife isn't happy with the sound quality but I can't tell the difference. Then again if mama ain't happy no one's going to be. Thanks in advance

[Mertzen]

Yup, new slimline dish. Wiring might depend on what is there. If it is RG6 in good condition it might be reused.
Box can be anything from refurb H20s to new H23s.

[BattleZone]

Sound is all about speakers: the better quality the speakers, the better quality the sound. Speaker placement is also important, but you still need to start with good speakers. Spend far more on the speakers than on the amplifier. No Bose, please.

The best quality audio from your sat receiver will be the Dolby Digital feed from either the HDMI connector, or from an optical digital audio cable (TOSLink fiber optic cable), to the AV receiver. The lower-end AV receivers generally can't pull the audio stream out of the HDMI connections; they just act like a switch to route the signals to the TV. For those, you'll need the TOSlink optical cables. Higher-end models can extract audio from the HDMI, and can decode the more advanced, higher-quality audio streams that are available on Blu-Rays.

Obviously, going with surround sound means a lot more money, but it can make a remarkable difference in the movie experience. But if that's outside of your budget, then spending a little more on a quality set of stereo speakers will still be FAR beyond the quality, volume, and range of the speakers in your TV.

For the most part, I don't recommend HTIB (Home Theater In a Box) systems, because you can never expand or upgrade them, and most are pretty limited, but if that's all your budget allows, then be sure to take a few movies and some music CDs that you're familiar with, preferably with some clear vocals, and go audition some systems before you buy.

[Johnnie5000]

Sound is all about speakers: the better quality the speakers, the better quality the sound. Speaker placement is also important, but you still need to start with good speakers. Spend far more on the speakers than on the amplifier. No Bose, please.

The best quality audio from your sat receiver will be the Dolby Digital feed from either the HDMI connector, or from an optical digital audio cable (TOSLink fiber optic cable), to the AV receiver. The lower-end AV receivers generally can't pull the audio stream out of the HDMI connections; they just act like a switch to route the signals to the TV. For those, you'll need the TOSlink optical cables. Higher-end models can extract audio from the HDMI, and can decode the more advanced, higher-quality audio streams that are available on Blu-Rays.

Obviously, going with surround sound means a lot more money, but it can make a remarkable difference in the movie experience. But if that's outside of your budget, then spending a little more on a quality set of stereo speakers will still be FAR beyond the quality, volume, and range of the speakers in your TV.

For the most part, I don't recommend HTIB (Home Theater In a Box) systems, because you can never expand or upgrade them, and most are pretty limited, but if that's all your budget allows, then be sure to take a few movies and some music CDs that you're familiar with, preferably with some clear vocals, and go audition some systems before you buy.

+1 to what IIP said

A good Denon receiver goes a long way. But those are pretty $$$. Yamaha's are pretty snazzy and cost a bit less.

And to add to the connections, newer units like H23's also have the Digital Coax (orange RCA looking jack) which is still pretty good. Personally, I can't tell a difference in sound between the Digital Coax and TOSlink. YMMV.
H20's don't have those.

[BattleZone]

Personally, I can't tell a difference in sound between the Digital Coax and TOSlink.

There isn't any difference. They are just two different ways of transporting the same bits of data between components.

Optical cables are more fragile, so you can't bend them too tightly or handle them constantly, but you can use very long distances with no possibility of RF interference. Coax is tougher, and better if you're going to be constantly unhooking and moving things around for that reason, but could possibly suffer from RF interefernce on a longer run or around very (RF) noisy/dirty devices, such as a flourescent light ballast.

[Mertzen]

For such a small room and maybe only occasional use you can always look for a HTIB. NO need to buy a lot of different components and also way cheaper.

[Scott in FL]

No Bose, please.

I'm curious why you don't recommend Bose. I've never owned Bose, but my son in law does. A pair of 301's, I think. Mounted on two wall shelves on each side of the TV, about 5' high off the floor. I've been very impressed with the sound.

[WestDC]

Every one's ears are different, Bose sound great to me! But others hate them?? That's why there are many brands to choose from :lol:

[armophob]

I'm curious why you don't recommend Bose. I've never owned Bose, but my son in law does. A pair of 301's, I think. Mounted on two wall shelves on each side of the TV, about 5' high off the floor. I've been very impressed with the sound.

Longest running audio debate in history.:lol: :beatdeadhorse:

[raoul5788]

I'm curious why you don't recommend Bose. I've never owned Bose, but my son in law does. A pair of 301's, I think. Mounted on two wall shelves on each side of the TV, about 5' high off the floor. I've been very impressed with the sound.

Most people I know find their sound thin, very little bass. It's hard to reproduce any bass with 4" drivers, no matter how many you have.

[BattleZone]

I'm curious why you don't recommend Bose. I've never owned Bose, but my son in law does. A pair of 301's, I think. Mounted on two wall shelves on each side of the TV, about 5' high off the floor. I've been very impressed with the sound.

I have owned two pairs of 901s, and still have a pair of 301s that I use in the garage. At one time, years before audio engineering school, I was a Bose fan.

There are a couple of different problems with Bose speakers.

First is their "direct/reflecting" speaker arrangement, which was intended to be their biggest strength. The idea was to make MUSIC sound more "natural" by increasing the amount of reflected sound that you hear as primary. Whether that works or not can be argued, but the entire concept plays havoc with the idea of a home theater, where very precise control of DIRECT sound is vital to the mix, already coming from multiple directions, sounding authentic. The original concept for Bose speakers was designed long before there was any realistic ability to deliver multichannel surround soundtracks.

The other problem with Bose speakers is their lack of high and low-end. Lacking low-end isn't new; most speakers in people's homes can't produce low-end sound at listenable levels, which is why the industry has moved to using a separate sub-woofer that can be placed out of the way. The sub does the very low-end work, allowing smaller primary speakers to be used. Notice how much smaller the average modern speaker is compared to what you commonly saw in the 70s and 80s.

With regard to high-end, virtually no Bose speakers use any kind of a tweeter. Instead, they use very inexpensive paper cone midrange speakers which are simply unable to reproduce most sounds above 8-10 kHz.

Bose understands their speakers' limitations, and uses demo material that is heavy on midrange and mid-bass, but not much low bass or crisp highs. Their demo music sounds good to the ear because you have nothing to compare to and because they've selected recordings that don't have the range of the music that you probably listen to normally, not to mention that they rarely demo real movie soundtracks.

The fact is that you can buy much better speakers for the same money, or even less. And for a Home Theater, you're better off with designs that are intended for a direct (instead of reflected) sound path.

Much of the cost of Bose gear is the "fashion" appeal, much the same way a good portion of a Mac's price is the high-fashion design. Most of the rest of the cost is marketing, which is really what Bose is: a marketing company that incidentally makes speakers.

I'm well aware that some folks will feel that I'm goring their ox, but audio is a realm of preferences as much as it is science and precision, so some folks will like what they like, and I understand that. But you'll find that virtually anyone who knows about audio will agree with what I've wrote. I'm no audio snob (and couldn't afford to be one even if I wanted to be), and I know that good sound can be had economically. But Bose speakers simply aren't a good HT value on any scale: cost, sound quality, or suitability for their task.

[Scott in FL]

Thanks for the thorough reply. I really haven't listened to my son in law's Bose speakers that much (they might be 901's, now that I think of it). But I can certainly understand your points. He recently added a subwoofer, so your comments on lack of bass response make sense. Plus, the usual source of audio is a children's DVD.

I used to have a pair of JBL4311's and loved their bass and treble response (some might say too much treble). But a move to a smaller house meant they had to go. Now I have a pair of Denon bookshelf speakers which aren't bad, but I do miss having really good speakers.

[CliffV]

Just a note on my experience on sound.

I've got a Denon AVR3803 receiver and use M&K speakers. I started with a 5.1 system with left, right, center, subwoofer, and two surround speakers toward the back of the room.

The two surround speakers lasted a month before I yanked them. My chair was next to the right surround speaker and my wife's chair was next to the left surround speaker. Anytime any serious sound came out of the one of the surround speakers, we'd be looking over our shoulders wondering what that funny noise was. (Luckily I could re-purpose these speakers in another room.)

I yanked the center speaker about 6 months ago. Originally, I installed it on a shelf attached to the top of my TV. A year ago, I replaced my TV and the shelf no longer fit attached to the TV. Then I put the center speaker on a bookshelf that sits a couple of feet behind the TV. But the sound was just a little off (muffled). I lived with it that way for awhile, then yanked the center speaker and have been happy ever since.

After each reconfiguration, I re-setup the receiver for the correct number of speakers.

Bottom Line: I'm perfectly happy with a 2.1 system with just a left, right and center speaker.