Speakers and receivers, which one should you get?

In today’s retail environment, it can be very confusing to pick out a new home theatre system, only because the range is getting bigger and bigger and every sales person will say something different and just about anything to make a sale, so what sales person can you trust these days… It’s only going to get worse. So what system is the best system for you?

This question can be answered in many different ways and of course the biggest influence will be price. Here is a scenario, you walk into a retail store and tell the sales person you have X amount of dollars to spend, “great” he says and walks you straight to the system in your price range and push the product where they know they will make the most commission on, right!

This is the wrong approach, and to compound this, there are many different cables on the market and a salesperson will try to sell the most expensive cables they have saying “you have to have it, it’s the best cable out in the market and will make a difference” so downgrading the equipment will happen to stay in budget. Only to increase their commission with no quality increase, so now your new system will not be as good as it could have been, then buyer’s remorse will kick in.

Do your homework! we highly recommend that you do your homework before going out and looking at home theatre equipment and not to mention TV’s as well, sales people cannot be trusted these day as it’s their job to sell and are forced to try to upsell other items by saying just about anything to make a sale, we’ve seen this all too many times. Buy a home theatre magazine and read up on equipment then go in armed with ammo instead of leaving yourself open to believe anything they have to say is the best thing to do, many retail outlets clam to be the “home theatre experts” and one comes straight into mind, the truth is they only have really great marketing department.

Earlier this year (2014) Sound+image magazine (an Australian magazine) had their annual awards for home theatre equipment, a fair few winners that were announced are systems we supply. And some of these items we will be show casing at the Newcastle Home Show this year. The results can be seen here athttp://www.avhub.com.au/index.php/News/Sound+Image/soundimage-awards-2014.html

When it comes to picking out a home theatre system, price should not be the only factor so leaving yourself flexible is a must. Look at the room size is a good start, this will dictate what speaker and receiver size to look of, of course if a system is being installed into a large room, small speakers are out of the question, and vice versa. Another major factor is “you pay for what you get”, high end speakers and receiver that are certified for a sound format, where one could pay $20,000+ for speakers and a receiver alone will sound totally different and of course much better than a base model system for a few thousand dollars, to find a home theatre system that will sound great, don’t spend less than $5000 is a must. Installation is important as well, there is a bit of maths to consider when installing a system and this is also where you should not go cheap, many installers just rush the job and not sit down to think out the best positions for the speakers, if this is not done right a system can sound unrealistic and bad, not to mention disappointment and buyer’s remorse as everything was promised but not much delivered by the sales person. It’s never as easy as just putting up speakers and away you go, a bit of thought has to go into it. If the sales person says something different, be very weary of them.

Our next blog will be about HDMI cables, read it when it’s available and save some money so your not having to downgrade your new home theatre system, stay in budget with these tips and get the best you can.