....expanding from car audio into home...need help

I second all of the recommendations above. I would add to what one writer suggested. Center Channel speaker for a Home Theater setup is VERY important! Many who are novices think that they should save money on two items that seem less important when they are in fact vitally important. The one is the center channel speaker and the second is the subwoofer. Don't try to save money with a cheap subwoofer. Finally, the receivers mentioned above are IMHO, all about the same. I would add the Rotel receiver to the mix. Don't have the same power ratings but sound better.

LOL...don't worry...i won't be nixing the subwoofer. i've got 2 10's in my truck (diamond) oz audio components, a nakamichi head unit, arc audio amps, and audiocontrol xover. i'm not going to be skimping. :)

i understand soundstaging....a while ago, people tried center channels in cars...but, since we're so *close* to the speakers, you can get a great soundstage from the kickpanel area, and sometimes some supplemental tweeters in the a-pillar area....just play w/ phasing a little bit, and you're good to go.

anyway...all of this advice was exactly what i needed. i'm sure that i'll end up going w/ speaker brands that also have car audio lines, like focal or dynaudio, but if i'm not going to get a nakamichi reciever (which i still might, though noone mentioned it??) i don't know where to look. if anyone happens to see a great deal anywhere now, let me know.

grace,
shawn

ah...i forgot to answer. i'll probably be going relatively slowly. my roommates and i have a piecemeal system at the moment...it's a stereo setup w/ an old sony reciever, and some technics towers, a new toshiba dvd and toshiba 50" projection. my first purchase will be the reciever, then probably a center channel, then the rears. i will probably end up building my own front mains, like i said, w/ focal or dyne or something i know (can i ever use car audio stuff at home? do any recievers run 4 ohm speakers?)

so...i'm worried about the reciever right now. i'd really like to find a nak av-8.

do most movies come w/ dts now, or is that still rare?

I just made the same step you might possibly make...I was always a big car stereo buff & swore by Nakamichis old stuff such as the pa304 amp and many other Nak components that made up my system. In the car audio realm, Nak is one of the better ones out there, however, in home audio, I dont think they will quite have the sound you are looking for and are definitely not really high end IMHO. I got rid of my prized car stereo when I sold my car in 1995 and have missed the sound ever since. I built a couple systems since then and still couldnt match the sound...however, since you are moving from high end car audio to high end home like myself you may find what I am doing interesting. I first bought a pair of decent speakers. You can find plenty of great speakers that you have probably never heard of used for 500-1000. I then bought a used Bryston B-60 on a Dr's recommendation (he has 4 systems totalling over 250k) The amp was a little over 800 and let me tell you...I would trade this 2 channel sound with home theater (since I use it for music equally) for any Denon NAD Nakamichi etc etc. I originally demoed my B&W CDM1nt's with a Denon AVR5800. The 60 watt (mine specs at 70) BLOWS the Denon away...I know that I have only just entered the realm of high end audio and am pretty close to the bottom of the ladder but If you think that car audio can be addictive, wait till you have a taste of this candy.

Enjoy

one thing I beleive is important is that the center's sound matches the mains. For this reason, I would stick with the same brand/line for these 3 speakers. Also, I have a pretty high end Yamaha receiever, and I can tell you that although there are some very good 4 ohm speakers out there that you would be better off getting 8 ohm speakers if your going to drive them with a receiver. I love dynaudio audience speakers but frankly they just don't mate that well to receivers in opinion because of this.

There are a ton of speakers out there that would be a good match for the system it appears your trying to build. first you need to decide if you want direct or dipole speakers. For dipole I would chose Definitive Tech, but I prefer direct speakers so I'd recommend Paradigm. They are great for modest priced home theater, and thier studio line is actually pretty good with music too. They are not really considered high end by alot of people on this board, but they do offer a good price to performance ratio. I have a feeling they will offer the sound your looking for.