Hello! I am the audio snob that ober had mentioned.
1) Problem with Bose, Infinity, Yamaha, Polk, and their ilk, is that you can get much higher quality sound and far higher build quality for reasonable amounts of money.
2) Odds are if you have heard of the brand name with a few notable exceptions they blow. Poor quality, and sound that grinds on the ears after a very short period of time.
3) How do you know what to buy? Everybody has different tastes, however the best way to determine if you are going to be happy with a piece of gear for the long term, is to listen to
your music on it. Pick a few cuts that you know very well and are comfotable listening to repeatedly. Play at least two of the cuts all the way through. If you have trouble making it through without being annoyed and or bored, keep looking.
You see a lot of these "brand name" manufacturers over amplify a ton of fake highs and mid-highs. Or fake base. Either way they may catch you attention in the showroom, but listening for long periods will be annyoing. You will get restless and want to do other things and be elsewhere. A good component or good system is listenable for hours (remember movies are almost always at least two hours).
4) Actually want a few brand suggestions? Okay. Fine.
Sony ES (only ES), Pioneer Elite (only Elite), Outlaw Audio (for the money they are probably unbeatable these days great personal US service too), Sunfire (Bob Carver from the former and famous Carver audio owns and designs here), Monitor Audio (Silver RS6 are great speakers), Parasound, B&W, JM Lab, Proac, Vandersteen (really amazing for the money), Soliloquy, Krell, Mcintosh, Jeff Rowland, Pass, (last four a bit pricey but as solid as they get good for 40 years trouble free), Rotel, Definitive Technology, Audire, and B&K to name a few. The brands I just mentioned are great across their entire price range and can be trusted to back their products implicitly. Again this is just a sampling of a few producers of really great lasting, sounding, and well backed audio and home theater gear.
5) Where to buy. Look around for a decent audio salon. Sometimes this is a pain in the a$$. These types of companies have few dealerships and watch them closely. I purchase a good deal of equipment from fellow audio snobs at
www.audiogon.com. Great site with great equipment and reasonable pricing (well usually).
6) Got your equipment? Woo hoo. Few things to know…
Do not use crap speaker wire. Go nuts and get decent 10 or 12 AWG Monster cable or better. Even Radio Shack carries decent speaker cable. It should cost at least $1/ft. Same with interconnects. Though there is better out there Monster is a good standard. Interconnects and speaker wire connectors should be gold not silver.
Set the speakers up as far apart as you are from them. Equilateral triangle style. Facint straight out. Listen to a well known cut toeing them in about ½” at a time until solo vocals lock into place in the center of the room and the speakers “disappear”. Now switch the plus and minus connections at the rear of the speakers (with the equipment off), and try it again. It is a personal choice as to which way you will prefer it, however I tend to find the best listening with the +/- reversed. Some preamps and or receivers have a switch for this on the front panel (180 phase in/out).
7) Recommended on the cheap starter system for 2.0 or 2.1.
Speaker cables, power strips, and interconnects = Monster Brand
http://www.monstercable.com/home_av/connectors/audio.aspSpeakers = Monitor Audio, Silver RS6
http://www.monitoraudiousa.com/products/silver/rs_series/rs6.htmReceiver = Outlaw Audio, RR2150
http://www.outlawaudio.com/products/rr2150.htmlSource(s) = Sony ES or Pioneer Elite or Pioneer non-Elite at the higher end of the line
Subwoofer = The Silver RS6 speakers have a great bottom end, but if you still need more base response… try one of these.
Sunfire,
http://www.outlawaudio.com/products/lfm1.htmlOutlaw Audio
http://www.outlawaudio.com/products/lfm1.htmlHope this godawful long thing has helped someone out there!
If you have more questions I will atttempt to be a bit shorter with all future responses.
Knuck