Looking for a home theater system with crispy sound

Crispy?

 

Look at the Martin Logan surround.

 

Welcome to the madness and sorry for your wallet.

Audition Definitive Tech. if you can...pricey but impressive!

Skip the Bose systems - they aren't any good. A few Google searches will turn up a boatload of criticism. Klipsch makes some good speakers, but only the Heritage line which is all two channel.

Though two-channel is not a bad way to go. When my TV gets here (any day now), I'll set it up with just stereo speakers. It's all I really need and you might want to think about it.

For really crisp speakers, try one of the planar designs. For electrostats, I like Quads. You can find used ones reasonably. Magnepan also makes terrific speakers and their MMG ($600 new) might be the best value out there. Magnepan makes center and surround speakers, too, if you're interested.

Finally, buy used. Your dollar goes a lot further. Start browsing Audiogon and you'll find a lot of bargains. Run searches a couple hundred over your price limit - a lot of sellers will bargain. If you come across a model or manufacturer you don't know, run a search for the name and "review," you'll learn a lot.

Just remembered, Erik. Its your first TV in years.

 

Are you excited?

 

In any case, I never understood the attractiveness of 5.1/7.1/20.2/etc. surround sound systems. Granted, I've never listened to a proper one, but I've done 2 channel for the longest time. Anyone care to provide an alternative opinion?

It's a "gee whiz" experience the first time you try it, but after a while the novelty wears off. I know exactly what you mean. I can't tell you that I missed it too much when I simplified my system. It's funny--I bought the HT receiver to "upgrade" from a 70s era Cambridge Audio two channel receiver. Ten years later the Cambridge still gets almost daily use, and the HT receiver is sitting unused in the store room. Before that it had run a secondary system--in two channel mode. The Cambridge, for all its age, general state of disrepair (bad filter caps, so it buzzes), and modest, mid-fi specs and build, just sounds better to me.

 

Multichannel is probably great if implemented well with a high-end system, but I don't feel I'm missing anything by going old skool two channel.

 

Sure, got a budget-fi 6.0 multichannel system (Panasonic XR55 Receiver, 1x Infinity Primus 350 center, 5x Infinity Primus 360 floorstanders. ~ $1400 total) as my HT rig. Is it hi-fi? No. A well chosen two channel system in a properly treated room would be much better for music purposes. But hey, tradeoffs abound. The system was built to deliver a dynamic presentation for movies/gaming and it performs very well for that purpose.

 

Course, WAF for this sort of thing is extremely low. WAF is pretty much why the acoustically terrible mini-sat/mini-sub systems rule the HT market.

It's hard to say without a budget. However, for dynamic speakers, I would try to sample Usher, Dynaudio, or Paradigm. Those three come to mind, for "crisp sound", which I equate as more bright, which is great for movies of course. 

 

--

 

I'm a lover of surround myself, even matrix out a lot of two channel. One thing is that I've encountered few people with properly calibrated surround set-ups,either out of necessity or ignorance. Budget wise, there are many reasonable surround packages available. 

 

For anyone serious, www.avsforum.com or www.audioholics.com are good places to go for advice. 

i found Monitor Audio to be pretty crispy, very crispy if you pair with a brighter amp particularly onkyo

I find Monitor Audio to be rather crunchy.