audio setups gaming and home theater

[pceslayer]

How much stock do you put into your audio? For some PQ is all that matters and for others nothing matters as long as they can play/watch their games/movies. Most of my friends have large LCDs or plasmas and blast the sound from those crappy internal speakers... ugh...

Am I a minority who needs the audio equal to the picture quality? Or is it a matter of expense... where a $800 TV is justifiable and  a $800 HTIB is not.

[scott]

If I had a nice place for my gaming set up. I would totally be investing in a better sound system. Sound quality is actually pretty important to me, especially when I'm listening to music. Hell, my headphones for my ipod cost me $130 bucks, I could see myself eventually upgrading to a sound system for my TV one day. But, it's not super high on my list, since I'm sharing a living room area and we'd just end up having volume wars worse than we do now.

[redblaze57]

I use to have a very nice Stereo system I paid $0 for but the stereo amplifier took a shit on me a few years ago and I haven't replaced it since. The speakers in my TV do a great job probably since I normally have the volume around 5-15 and it goes to 100.

[atariboy]

I have 2 Sony receivers with 5.1 surround sound setup in my game room and my living room. I got one of the receivers when my friend updated his surround sound. They aren't the latest and greatest but they suit me just fine especially with the survival horror genres. 

[darko]

I have a pretty nice Yamaha sound bar and sub in the gameroom hooked up to the new systems and a decent system in the living room...Onkyo receiver, Phase center channel (older but hand made), Paradigms for the rear channels and Insignia speakers in the front. I realize that Insignia is typically looked at as garbage but they did make a set that have components of extremely nice speakers (carbon fiber driver, for example). They are the NS-B2111 set. I also have a nice Polk sub hooked up at the moment.

I use Tritton 5.1 headphones for gaming when no one wants to hear all of the noise

I've gone through numerous $100+ headphones for music listening. I'm currently using these which I've really enjoyed: http://sleek-audio.com/products/universal/sa1

[dstone]

I used to use an old Bose Acoustimass 10 system, worked pretty well for what it was. Just stepped up to three JBL LSR2328p studio reference monitors for my center and front L/R, dual JBL LSR2310sp subs and two JBL LSR2325p for the rears. Using an Onkyo TX-NR3009 as a pre/pro right now, looking forward to upgrading to an Onkyo PR-SC5509 to take advantage of the balanced interconnects between the pre/pro and the speakers. I also have a few Aura Bass Shakers attached to the couch driven by an Onkyo M-282 amp (unhooked at the moment while I finish testing the JBLs and move the equipment rack to its new location).

When I lived in an apartment I would primarily use headphones (Ultrasone PRO-750) and the bass shakers to achieve the sound quality/levels I wanted without disturbing the neighbors. The vibrations from the bass shakers really helped sell the "cranked system" image; it took me a while to stop taking off my headphones to make sure I didn't leave the main speakers enabled. Really got me interested in psychoacoustics.

The current sound system sits around a slightly-older Sharp Aquos 52" LCD. Looking forward to upgrading that later this year.

[scott]

I've gone through numerous $100+ headphones for music listening. I'm currently using these which I've really enjoyed: http://sleek-audio.com/products/universal/sa1

Those look pretty nice, but I'm not a fan of earbuds anymore. I am a huge fan of wood finishes though, especially when the body itself is made or real wood. I use these for listening to music, unless I'm in the car or playing off my stereo. http://www.audio-technica.com/cms/headphones/3a7a722cee1e3fe9/index.html

[pceslayer]

@dstone where are you going to mount the sound shakers?

My game room just has a jenky ass durabrand htib from walmart, but truth be told it does a good job with those old consoles.

Living room has a pioneer VSX-1022 which I upgraded from a Harmon Kardon AVR340 due to lack of HDMI. It is pushing 2 Polk monitor 70 Series II (front L/R), Polk Monitor CS2 (center),  2 Polk Monitor 65t (rear),  2 Monitor 30 Series II (rear back) and 1 12" Polk 505 sub. Will upgrade the pioneer in a few years to the reciever I actually wanted... I couldn't beat the price of the pioneer right now.

Bedroom is getting the Harmon Kardon and Infinity TSS 450 speakers/sub to upgrade from the crap vizio soundbar(was $15 *shrug*) and sub in there.

60" Mitsubishi DLP in the living room, 50" Samsung DLP in the bedroom and 36" Sony Trinitron CRT in the game room.

[soera]

If you are looking for inexpensive sound that really is nice, I have http://www.dansdata.com/xa3021.htm They have more than enough volume for any household guaranteed. The only complaint I have is the wired controller but ehhh. I have them mounted in each corner in the back of my room and the sub in the middle just below my DW display. The front of the room has my GX TV http://www.retrothing.com/2009/06/samsung-tv-opens-its-doors-to-retro-gaming.html. Between them both, it really does sound good in my room.

[dstone]

@pceslayer, Two are screwed into the frame of my couch. The other is stuffed into the crack between the back cushions and the seat cushions. A bit of clever wire management and nobody knows they're there until they start kicking. 

[scott]

Ha nice. I wish I could see the look on someones face when they start up.

[tripredacus]

My sound setup is kinda homemade. My "receiver" is a VCR but the speaker system I built myself using 3 other speaker systems. I could still make it better by adding bigger speakers but I haven't done that yet. My subwoofer is so ghetto you don't even want to see what it looks like!

[insektmute]

I consider audio pretty important, and have probably spent more on that aspect of my setup than any single other area outside of games and consoles. Right now, I'm using an Onkyo TX-NR709 receiver with Focal Chorus 706 V speakers - just stereo, no surround or sub, mostly due to space constraints. I made my own speaker cables with Canare 4S11 and some nice locking banana plugs from Blue Jeans Cable. On the PC side, I use Tannoy System 600A active monitors, an Echo Audiofire 2 audio interface, and Denon AH-D2000 headphones.

All in all, I'd say I'm pretty happy with my audio setup... though I would kinda like to have full surround in the living room

[pceslayer]

My sound setup is kinda homemade. My "receiver" is a VCR but the speaker system I built myself using 3 other speaker systems. I could still make it better by adding bigger speakers but I haven't done that yet. My subwoofer is so ghetto you don't even want to see what it looks like!

Explain what you mean by "My "receiver" is a VCR"...

And now I want to see what your sub looks like! lol

[soera]

We did up my best friend's room a while back. We elevated his bed and stuck 4 Rockford Fosgate 12s under there. Then we bought 2 pairs of satellite speakers, opened them up and put in some serious bass blocker capacitors and put one in each corner of the ceiling. His bed sheet set was long enough to still touch the floor after the concrete blocks were placed there so it looked so inconspicuous in there but when it powered on, it was pretty bad ass.