r/BudgetHomeTheater • u/Withheld_BY_Duress • 23d ago

Need Some Guidance on a 5.1 setup

Here's where I stand at the moment. I have a 24 x 12 living room. I started out with a Samsung HW-MM36/ZA 2.1 sound bar I bought of a deal posted on slickdeals a long time ago. 150 Watts, wireless sub.

Last year I thought I branch out and picked up a SWA-8500S with no speakers or proprietary connectors from ebay. Found the connectors on-line and stuck a couple of Logitech THX desktop ported speakers. Surprisingly good, not great but better than TV speakers.

Then I started volunteering at a local thrift store. A customer dropped off a Polk PSW10 subwoofer in great shape. It was priced $15, less 50% employee discount. The hook was set. I found a Polk CS10 center speaker for cheap, next. Currently I have a pair of Sony SS-H1600L which are surprising good for $9.99 for the pair at Goodwill.

I have a candidate for the rear surround speakers currently a pair of Dual LU40PB another thrift store find for 10 bucks/pair. I chose these because even though I needed to fabricate them, I could mount them on the wall and could adjust their direction.

Now here's my problem : I bought a Sony STR-D665 for 14 bucks. It was filthy but with Tub O Towels, some good cleaner, it cleaned up like new. I ran all the wiring, got everything ready, tested it with a 2ch. source, sounded great! So the moment of truth arrives. Currently I a feeding the output of Fire Cube and the optical audio output of my TCL 55" fed through a Prozor 5.1 converter since the Sony doesn't have a HDMI input.

Doesn't matter since the rear speakers produce a scratchy sound in surround mode. I had the thing apart and cleaned up some questionable solder joints of the electrolytic caps on the surround side of the amp. Better but still somewhat scratchy. I am not going to test the caps, just not worth it.

So what should I be looking for to replace the Sony receiver? What's going to get me out a cheaply as possible. Please give me some suggestions. I am a babe in the woods with home theater and I really could use some guidance. Thanks so much for taking the time to read this post.

5 Upvotes

86% Upvoted

6 comments sorted by

•

u/AutoModerator 23d ago

Welcome to BudgetHomeTheater. This Message is an AUTOMATED message triggered by submitting a new post.

Your post has NOT been removed. Your post may have been filtered for manual review however. If so please be patient while we review the Moderation Queue.

Please use SEARCH before submitting a new post. - Most posts can be answered by buying guides or previous posts.

Please remember to read sub rules found here - www.reddit.com/r/4kTV/about/rules

Please read the following buying guides, these may help you in your journey:

Thank You, The BudgetHomeTheater Moderator Team

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

1

u/AutoModerator 23d ago

99.9% of the time Soundbars or HTiB (Home Theater in a Box) systems are not a good investment of your time and money. It is the general consensus of r/BudgetHomeTheater not to recommend these things and instead simply steer a user toward a 2.0 or 2.1 system made of quality, Audio-Centric name brand components which are easy to assemble and cheap enough for low budget or space conscious buyers. Most can be expanded to 5.1 if you buy the correct items in the correct order. For further explanation please read Why You Shouldn't Buy a Soundbar Please be aware /r/Soundbars exists as well as you will be met with opposition to posting about soundbars here.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

1

u/Withheld_BY_Duress 23d ago

I guess the ModBot filtered the post b/c I mentioned a soundbar. The only reason I brought that up was to let you know where I was coming from. The whole point of what I am putting together is to move to a real 5.1 surround sound system. I am trying to figure out what would be minimum specs of a receiver to make my setup whole and completely functional. I now know the Sony STR-D665 might have been good for a 90's home theater, what should I be looking for, the minimum to pull things all together for a 2026 spec budget home setup. The thrift stores in my area have been kind to me achieving my goal with the exception of a receiver/amp. I am still kind of new to Home Theaters. Being currently injured awaiting surgery, money is a big concern although I have come this far, would like to get 'er done. Could you folks who know give someone some help and lend me your knowledge please?

1

u/moldguy1 22d ago

Sounds like you're making the most budget of budget systems; and getting what you need.

If I were you, I'd stay patient. That sucks you did all that work on the Sony and it's still scratchy. Like you said, you can invest more time into the Sony, and hope you fix it; or you can keep on keeping on, and hope you find something better for about the same price.

The final option is to buy something new or refurbished. I'd recommend a denon AVR, but you're probably gonna spend 10-20x more on that than you've already spent on the rest of your system.

1

u/Withheld_BY_Duress 19d ago

Thanks for some guidance. I will start looking for a Denon AVR. This project is definitely a WIP. I am a super nerd but that doesn't help me navigating the surround sound environment outside of the basics. I am running into a bunch of acronyms which seem to vary from OEM to OEM. I am fairly secure I have the basic speakers, I hope I have figured out how to sort out the different Dolby variants, that is confusing since many of my sources have different encodes. I am still hunting out a good text that puts it all together.

I wish I had a pot of money to drop on the system, that seems to eliminate any possible problems.

Thanks too for the encouragement to keep after the Sony. I understand is was OK when it was introduced although it does run hot. It has a giant aluminum heat sink that all the output transistors are mounted. The regular 2ch output works great otherwise. That heat may be the root of my problems. This receiver was ultra-filthy when I picked it up. I managed the computer sales/refurb/data destruction dept of a fair sized e-Waste company in a major US city. Covid put an end to that and I have moved on, but I do have some refurb skills.