I am going to need some good advice here. I will be so very grateful if someone can guide me through this. I really don't know much about setting up a home theatre system. A buddy of mine works as a wholesaler and gave me an EXCELLENT deal on some "bass tower" speakers. I bought four of them, (might give the other two to my dad, or set-up the other 2 for myself ). I would like to set-up, and go from there.

These are the speakers: http://www.millenniumtheatersystems.com/2328.htm

These speakers look pretty good to me. Now here is my dilemma. I don't have a TV, I just use my computer monitor to watch DVD's. I would like to use these speakers to run through my computer. I notice that they have no RCA slots in the back like my old 5.1 Dolby setup specifically made by "Creative" for computer use. That set-up sucks, there is NO BASS. How can I hook these speakers up to my computer if they only accept speaker wire? By getting a certain watt reciever would I be able to have DVD audio from my computers DVD-ROM drive come through the speakers or would they be strictly set up for a CD player and other peripheral components.

I would be interested in getting a 100 disk CD changer to reap the full benefits of nice new speakers as well. I have a 5 Sony CD changer that plays CD through the speakers. But it's 2 channel and only comes out 2 speakers and the sub. Again I am not happy with it. Any reccomendations for a 100 Disk changer?

My question: I obviously need a reciever to power these speakers up. What should I get? I am in the dark in this area. Does wattage play a major factor? I am not looking to spend a ton of money either, (I am a college student). I would most likely pick it up from Ebay for cheapused, becuase the market is over saturated with electronics.

Are these speakers strictly for BASS? Remeber I have 4 of them? Should I set them all up? Can I set them all up? Would I need any other speakers to make the sound fuller or will what I have currently do?

Eventually I will get a nice TV to complete the home theatre when I move out either into a dorm room or an appartment. Will I be able to run all my computer sounds through the speakers when a television is hooked up?

If there are any Home Theatre guru's on the site that could answer my questions I will be forever grateful. Any suggestions on components to add or specific models/reccomendations will be greatly appreciated. Thanks so much everyone.

those speakers have high sensitivity, they remind me in specs of the infinity set that has 2 8" woofers. they will get loud on about 50W, 100W would be better.

for about 6 bucks you can buy a cable that connects to the headphone jack of a computer and has 2 RCA cables on the output end. this works fine on a receiver, hook it up to the aux input. i use this method and i'm pretty happy with it, beats the larger bills for the alternative.

wattage can be deceiving. higher numbers sell, but it may not be the best. i'd reccommend getting a good brand receiver, those are premium speakers and you don't want to use a base model receiver. look at brands like onkyo, denon, maybe higher end sony and kenwood. buy from a place like circuit city so you can take it back in 30 days if you don't like it.

those speakers will prob give a lot of midbass, but they aren't all about bass usually, hook 'em up and you'll see. putting 2 in the front is good, bookshelfs at best are all you'd really want for the rear, sell the other 2 and take that money to buy a good sub or 2 rear speakers. then pick up a center channel at some point. for music, all you need is the front 2, so don't worry about the rest except for video.

ok..i will do my best.
these have alot of moving parts and can be slow and hard to organinze unless you get a high end one with a keyboard input and on screen display. i would stick with the cd player you have and put more money into the reciever. oh..all cd players (unless DVD audio or Super Audio CD) will only have a 2 channel output or an optical output


brands i like are Denon, Harmon Kardon and in your range sony. i have a sony and have had zero problems for 4 years. get a mid level one they will all have 55-100 watts of output (all fine for your speakers) make sure it does dolby digital and dts.
i would go with denon for alot of reasons...i have heard it when i replaced a sony with it and it sounded better with easier menus. they are also easer to use than the harmons. most important is "5 channel stereo" push the button and get the same signal from all speakers in your HT. this will work with your setup (sound from all speakers)
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...category=39793

those are full range speakers. set them all up (see 5 channel stereo) you could add a powered subwoofer to add more bass. this will also be better for Home theater. thats what the .1 channel is, the sub. its not needed for music unless your a bass head and would be a nice addition. on your budget you dont "need" it.

yes. everyting will run thru the reciever. just use one of the inputs for your computer. you will need a mini to rca adapter to make it work but i have done it. then say switch to whatever input the computer is plugged into and it will play the sound from your computer.

Yo thanks Alex. That really helped alot!!!


Anyone else have any advice ?

I'm not the only one thats into HT ..... I have a full Marantz setup w/ Paradigm speakers and a Velodyne sub. I've easily spent over $5k on my setup ....

Stereo is 2.0 and uses only the two main speakers.

Surround Sound also called Dolby Digital (DD 5.1) is 5.1 and up. The 5 part is two mains, one center, and two rears. The .1 part is the sub.

To take advantage of the DD 5.1 you need a DVD player connected. Otherwise all you can get is 5-channel stereo. Personally I like this for TV.

First of all to do this you need a Dolby Digital reciever. This will have a power output of 5x60 or something. Really any brand will work. Kenwood, Pioneer, and Sony make some cheaper stuff that would work fine.

As far as speakers if you have 4 of them put two up front and two in the back. Then setup the reciever to be in phantom mode. This means that you don't have a center yet. So any info that would go to the center gets played into the two mains. Then you can add a center later.

To get the signal into the reciever from the computer you can use that headphone to RCAs converter wire like Alex talked about. That will work just fine. The question is can the computer output a DD signal into the cable, or does it just output a stereo signal. Look into the software to see. If it can't output DD then the reciever won't be able to do the surround sound.

Personally I would go get a cheap DD 5.1 reciever off ebay and then get a cheap single dics Apex DVD/CD player for like $40 from Circuit City or something. Then later you can get a TV and a center channel.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...category=39799
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...category=39799
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...category=39799
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...category=39796

Good luck.

The room I have speakers Setup in is about 14x10. Do you guys think it's overkill setting all 4 of these speakers up???

please don't double post.