I Built an INSANE Surround Sound Setup for Under $250
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People still continue to buy the Bose TV Speaker even after we made a dedicated video on it…. To get you to stop, we took to facebook marketplace and gave ourselves the SAME budget and managed to buy a 5.1 surround sound setup with dedicated receivers!
Discuss on the forum: https://linustechtips.com/topic/1589638-i-built-a-home-theater-for-the-price-of-a-soundbar-and-it-slaps/
Buy a Sony HT-SF2300 Home Theater System on eBay: https://ebay.us/qNGOKk
Buy Philips FWB-MC50 Bookshelf Speakers on eBay: https://ebay.us/tIZAhd
Buy a Sony STR-DA1000ES Home Theater Receiver on eBay: https://ebay.us/n4wMWR
Buy a D-BOX David 302 Subwoofer on eBay: https://ebay.us/Fpu6ji
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CHAPTERS
—————————————————
0:00 Intro
1:33 Solution 1
2:29 Setting up
4:08 Testing Setup 1
5:00 That’s what she said
5:12 Tuning the Setup/Retesting
6:45 Modularity!
7:15 Swapping Left/Right channels
9:00 Receiver Upgrade
12:10 Testing our mixed setup
13:40 Final Form
15:15 Did we beat the Bose Speaker?
17:40 Outro
Recently got myself a 7.2 setup with 2x 200W RMS Harman/Kardon subs, 8x Harman/Kardon SAT-TS2BQ’s (of which 2 serve as center) and a Denon X1100W for a total of €115 which is $130 at the time of writing. Cost me a tank of gas to get the stuff, and the amp has a broken HDMI output though. But i felt the need to flex this deal on Linus when i watched this video 🤣
Seriously who went over to Facebook marketplace or their local Kijiji etc after watching this video😂
I mean for those who are married, good luck with telling your wife that you gonna put 5 speakers and wires in the living room. I dont think most of the ladies would choose that over a simple soundbar
As if you’d buy an expensive t-shirt with Linus Tech Tips printed on it 🗑️😆
That’s my sound system (the Sony) – probably had it since it came out and it still works a treat !! I’ve doubled up on the bass unit (split cable) and put one behind the sofa – as well as a couple of extra surround speakers . Love it !!
Sound bars are overrated and are for people that have never heard a multiple speaker surround system, or people with no other option. Cheap Multi speaker systems in a box are better than almost any sound bar. You cant replace sound coming from behind then traveling to the front without having speakers behind and in front.
Appreciate evergreen content like this. How about a scrapyard wars home theater episode?
Thanks for this video! Searched "how to build a budget basement sound system". Great reference and knowledge for someone looking to learn. Thanks Linus!
That bad audio is like 8pm call of duty multiplayer and some dude with a shitty mic breathing heavily into the microphone while eating cheetos and all you can hear is the bag crinkling and chewing as well as lip smacking or the one kid button mashing so loud!
7.1 Surround sound. for 220
nice
Use a bad amplifier
I just sold my soundbar bought Klipsch towers and receiver – Better having great stereo than meh soundbar and still doesn’t have inconvenience of putting cable speakers in back
half decent…not decent…half decent sound bars like the samsung Q990x are extremely expensive at $1500 on sale while retailing for $2000. no sound bar is worth this much money and is a complete ripoff. but it does provide wireless convenience and much less time to set up. there’s still rear speaker positioning and calibration that AI now handles. for $2000, i can buy an onkyo 9.2 channel beefy receiver and some nice klipsch speaker sets that would blow any soundbar out of the water.
Use both together…Soundbar for tv sound, surround sound for movies 👍
these dudes are baked
Typical – no highs no lows, must be bose
I got my denon 1314 for 38 dollars
lol i just hooked up a car radio and car amps to a pc psu
The concern when buying 10+ or rather 15-20+ y.o. audio components is their real condition.
Speakers will do fine.
Amps may not and will require service. While functionally operating, sound might be severely degraded as I have experienced with Sony AVR which I got new dirt cheap in sale, didn’t use much and then tried after like 10 years. It was "fine" when I bought it but turned into pumpkin after years on the shelf, bass and warmth were somewhat missing. $30 TPA 3116 amp just destroyed it in comparison.
I spent 300 bucks to buy a used 5.1 system plus AV receiver to replace my nearly 2k Sony Soundbar/sub/wireless rears and the sound quality is significantly better. We’ll want to save up and purchase a receiver with eARC and 4k120 Dolby vision support but honestly not in a rush to do so. The lifespan of good speakers is decades, buying used is such a cheap and easy way to get into hifi and home theater stuff.
Thanks
I tend to find the sound production sucks in modern media the dialogue is never loud but the crashes and bangs and music are
Is there a version of this video for beginners because 90% of this went over my head and I’m extremely passionate about sound quality
Ima be honest while older smaller surround sound speakers sucked like the ones in the video, klipsch has a budget 5.0 kit that I’ve been using in my home theater setup that have really good output for their size I often forget they’re small because of the sound output plus for the price you are getting 5 speakers all of which have a dedicated tweeter for high frequencies so you’re not relying on the midrange driver attempting to reproduce the high range frequencies which I love however I went a step further and my receiver out for a 5.1.2 setup because I wanted atmos I think my next potential upgrade will be a larger subwoofer, right now I’m rocking the klipsch R12-SW which is a 12 inch 200wrms powered subwoofer which extends down to 29hz and as high as 120hz!
If money is an issue, Buy a cheaper multi speaker system, and spend more on a better sub. The better sub will make your system that much better. No one likes crackling bass
did you guys ever do the @SpectreSoundStudios guitar/game rig setup??!!??
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04r9Kzx8u6g&ab_channel=SpectreSoundStudios
All the Stereo / Home Theater / Car Audio / Professional Audio / Instrument Amplification gear, except for a few choice pieces, I have ever bought, In my entire life, have all been second hand used or tossed items I have saved from the side of the curb.
I have had some astonishing finds and extraordinary deals and yes sometimes I have had to do some repairs or live with some age worn appearances but quite often I end up with gear I could never have imagined at the cost and in many cases that are in pristine condition.
That being said over the last 10 years I have witnessed people in the used market including at Goodwill and many online market places like ebay really cranking up the prices on some garbage items that do not merit the prices they are asking for them.
For me this was a necessary way of life when I was young and broke that turned into a hobby and I have a real eye and knowledge of the value of the things I take interest in and do decide to purchase.
There are a lot of people out there that don’t know the value or quality of what it is they are looking at.
This includes on the buying and selling end.
They go online to price match an item and have no clue about what might make something more valuable, desirable or sought after and in many cases they are selling something at a ridiculously cranked up price.. sometimes they are giving treasures away for nearly free.
More often than not with the onset of checking online prices it’s the first because there are way too many people buying real junk for way too much and a lot of morons who think that it is the new high bar to set the price point of that specific junk item now.
Thank you interwebs.
Watching this video I see the cringe factor in full force because you have no idea what you are grabbing outside of a few desired prerequisites which you named and in a few instances still seem to miss the mark altogether with (a pair of Phillips stereo speakers??? And you didn’t even try to run them 2.1).
Buying the crap like you did, how you did, aside from the first example throwaway theater in a box, propagates the online price circus we now live in.
I like the premise of the video and the fact you are showing people there is a viable option to go digging around in the used bin for a great deal.
I got no problem with that part at all.
As usual the choices you picked, aside from the better surround receivers (which were way too much btw), are more then likely going to all end up in the garbage anyways.
Worse then this is the way you used the equipment you did manage to get your hands on.
Quite like a person who doesn’t know a thing about any of it but that it hopefully makes better sound then the soundbar did.
In the end you cobbled together a hodgepodge "theater" experience as good as any of us low budget welfare monkees are capable of scrounging at the local thrift store. And you still payed too much. WOWEE!
Especially when you run a proper slappin’ set up in your home theater on the regular already you know how much doodoo you are spewing to sell this narrative.
Well for people who don’t know much of nothing about nothing other then you have to go out and buy new what it is you think you want for way too much because they hate the thought of second hand used anything it gives them something to consider maybe.
Us poor bastitches just gotta do it by outr nature I guess.
05:41 Should’ve been the thumbnail on the vid.. just sayin.
please help me. my sony 3d Blue ray player decicded to stop sending rear sound to the back unit. I’ve had it since it came out. I bought a used rear unit on ebay, it didn’t do anything. I finally messed up my sheet rock to hide the wires, and now this! I can’t find anything that is decent! I need my surround!
I’ve watched this video like 3 times already. It just makes me feel good seeing them just messing around with audio stuff.
I use mini componant speakers instead of home theatre speakers speakers
Temu ?
In defense of soundbars, they are never intended for an actual home theater. I think they work fine for the modern American den, with soaring ceilings, hardwood flooring, adjacent to a tiled floor. All anyone wants in those echo chambers is to hear the words clearly, which basically means pointing the speaker at the sofa(s). None of these 5.1, 5.1.2, 7.1.4, yada yada, nor room treatments, achieve any positive WAF.
For those of you not in the audiophile game, WAF means spouse’s approval factor.
I can say that maybe a pair of powered speakers and baby subwoofer still rule, even in the echo chamber.
That beginning of the video is exactly what my teacher in audio engineering told you: You can have terrible video with great audio but you can NOT have great video with terrible audio.
Pioneer vsx 916 very good!! And TV dexp 43" very nice from films 📼 😍😍🤣🤣
Great knowledge for the new friends! Decent immersion is only really achieved with dedicated surround.
Spongebob and Patrick doing sound tecu
Play old Sega games on it.
Audio>visuals
Impedance is not a constant value, it’s frequency-dependent, and basically any 8 Ohm rated speaker hits about 4-5 Ohm on some frequencies.
A lot of 4 Omh models go to 3 and lower.
So you can basically count any speaker as "4 Ohm" and it’s OK for any proper amp.
Most of those will hadle 2 Ohm load as well but chances to go into protection are much higher.
sound bars are so bad compared to any cheap stereo speakers you can setup
Bose is garbage, always has been.
So funny, i just started a project like this myself! I found an epic deal on a receiver in good quality, with lots of channels available and 120 watts per channel. Cant wait to find some decent speakers and get started, going to start with the front and sub, then get a center and rear channels later when I find something
I payed £650 for £3800 equipment, pioneer sclx 82, focal cc700 centre speaker q acoustics 3050 L R, wharfdale 150 sub and Cambridge audio s30 side speakers the sound is pretty impressive
Surround sound on a budget? Now that’s a challenge! I had R&N Technical set up my sound system, and they made sure everything was positioned perfectly for that cinematic experience!
Sound bars just suck… Long story short I have one and relegated it to the exercise room, pumping out gabber 25 mins a day. Even for that purpose, just to make it sound good via a BT receiver, EQ, subwoofer etc i’ve spent almost as much as the cad$220 MSRP of the soundbar itself*.
bruh i got a bose sound bar thing (different model) it sounds AMAZING as long as i use optical audio cable. AND it was FREE (old lady only had the soundbar, no cables or remote xd).. good luck buying USED SPEAKERS
My rule is buy the best front speakers you can buy and the bare minimum amp to drive them. Later on you can upgrade the amp to a much better one because speakers age very well and sometimes get better over time as they loosen up. Also try to invest in a very good sub later on and your system will kick ass.
Wow not only are Mikey Day and Bobby Moynihan great comedians but they are saving me a bundle on my home theatre!
It’s really true.. sound bars are ridiculous and expensive.. when you get yourself a receiver.. you can get one used and get yourself some used speakers you can get yourself a real surround sound system that will blow your mind.. but it takes work to make your wiring look good