OT any home theater buffs? I need help

[slick]

Here is the situation. I am building a room to house my new 240 in the wall and a nice home theater in the room. All this room will have is a couch and the home theater. Now I know the basic stuff but need some help on a few things. I will be using Polk Audio speakers. I already have the rear surrounds. Now for the front I want to use the RTi150's. They are 8ohm speakers. Now the center I want to use is the LSic. But it is a 4ohm speaker. Not to sure the difference between 4 and 8 ohms. I assume 4 is better?? How would I run a 4 ohm speaker from my reciever? I don't have my new reciever yet. Any recomendations would be great. I want a high level reciever not a mid class one. Thanks

 

[wamp]

How much money do you have??
The ohm rating is the impedence of the speaker at a given frequency. Usually 1khz.
The lower the OHM rating the less impedence it will have. You will want to match the speaker to the reciver for the best sound. In the car audio realm, people run their speakers parallel or "gang" them togther to lower the total impedence on the output of the Amp.. This is not advised in home audio. It is not uncommon for center channels to be 4ohm. Most Amps I have seen will handle that just fine.
Next topic... Why Polk?
Do you want an intergrated reciver or seperate amp, preamp, reciver, etc....
This is where I have gotten a few things back in my days of audio. I have built a few Tube amps for customers... If you really want something nice... Get yourself a Tube Amp..

 

[bacardibombillo]

Check it out first! For some reason car audio is 4oms or less... And house audio is 8ohms dont know why... just saying...

 

[simm]

My reciever is a DENON. As said. Most speakers are 8ohm. A lot of recievers will have a 4 or 8 ohm switch to switch between 4 or 8. My speakers are paradigm. Good recievers would be, DENON, INTEGRA, YAMAHA, Pioneer elite series. Just a few examples.

 

[wildmike]

Hi I work for Circuit City and do home delivery. I set up a LOT of different systems every week. With my experince I would only go with these 3 brands. Onkyo, Harman Kardon, and Denon. I have set those up the most and have had very few if any problems with them. (Some people might think I am just saying the brands the CC sells but I am not they do not carry Denon.) They will not have a problem running that center!! Hope that helps!!
Mike

 

[sammystingray]

Just a side note.......sound travels MUCH better through water than it does through air, so any loud music may have adverse effects on your tank. Although there have been debates on this site and others on the subject, I don't think any concrete proof was given on either side of the debate.......life in the tank will DEFINATELY get hit with vibrations though. The effect? I guess you will find out.

 

[slick]

Yeah sammy I have thought of that too. Hopefully it won't cause to much of a problem. I will only be watching movies in this room on the weekends. Still I will have to watch and make sure I'm not stressing the fish to much. What are some of your speaker suggestion?. Wamp I was planing on staying with Polk Audio because I already have the rear surrounds and I have heard that a system will sound better if the speakers are vioce matched.

 

[simm]

Originally posted by slick
speaker suggestion?. Wamp I was planing on staying with Polk Audio because I already have the rear surrounds and I have heard that a system will sound better if the speakers are vioce matched.
Yea IMO DONT mix and match speakers. Stay presistant.

 

[deuce biggalow]

Have you guys ever heard of B&W speakers??

 

[simm]

I have. B&W's are awsome. I may go those next. But a little on the pricy side.

 

[bigeyedfish]

yeah definitely dont mix and match speakers, especially ones with different Ohm ratings. it can do damage to the receiver, and if you have really good ears, the sound quality probably wont match.
an mtx sub under your couch would be cool though

 

[wamp]

B&W's are awsome
They are nice but IMO overpriced. There are alot of speakers out on the market that have a prestige price tag with a trash can sound. They do sound good, but a little harsh on the bottom end for me.
I like a nice 4"-6" front stage woofer with a 10" down fire sub. As far as center speakers, most out there are of good quality for the price you pay. The are alot overpriced, espically for centers.
There used to be a compay out called NHT. I am not sure if they are still around or not. They made a great pair of front stage speakers which were switchable from Audio/Video mode. It change the X.over point in the speaker. Don't rember the model though.

 

[simm]

I agree Wamp. They are over priced as I said a little on the pricy side. I have paradigms and have been very pleased with them. I have kevlar cones with mine.

 

[rogeta]

I really have nothing to add...just curious what everyone thinks about Bose?

 

[simm]

Bose? Hrmmm. Well Bose is good but IMO they are just now really getting out into theatre systems. I have a friend who has a "nice bose" system. These in the box theatre systems they come out with just dont seem to put out. Iv compared my system to his and he cant seem to crank it as I can without any distortion. For a big room IMO they dont work well. For little rooms they are fine.

 

[wamp]

Also, bose is another overpriced speaker system. I do like the sound, but there is nothing special about them. Same engeiring in their speaker systems for years. If your talking High End, the first name that comes to mind is Merlin. Any one heard of them?
I don't know for sure if they are even made still. The have a very nice sound and the price is inline with it. They are expensive, but if your into life like turntable sound, they are well worth it!

 

[pyro383]

If you are only using it for the weekend movies and are listening to it at the specified sound levels of a movie theatre or THX level which is usually above the 86 decibal mark you may want to rig a insulation board to cover the front glass of the tank to lessen the direct vibration of the front glass. I know you can't prevent the wavelengths completely but you can deflect some of it.

 

[slick]

Yeah I was thinking of doing something like that anyway because the light from the tank would reflect off the tv.

 

[krux]

i saw a post on another board about a similar situation. one suggestion was to place a layer of that felt used in car audio applications to deaden sound in the trunk for instance between the tank and the stand. the person who posted it reported that this cut down significantly on vibrations in big tank setups. i have a smaller tank, which sits on high density foam, so i am not sure on a big wall install, but there might be merit to it. anyone else heard of using that, or a similar product?

 

[simm]

As said... There has been heated debates over this. My 100 gallon reef is in same room as my theatre. Iv had it in there for over 2 years and I have had no problems with it.