[Leo.G (Leo)]

Definitely component system as mentioned, these all in one things soon become a bad purchase.
As stated by everyone, good speakers are your best starting point (match the impedance to the sound gear though) but keep in mind the distance to your neighbours if you're gong to be watching/listening well into the night as my son and I do. I have the other side where my son is 80% deaf so whenever we get a new neighbour I always go explain and tell them to say something if it gets too loud, thankfully there's a huge pain in the *rse tree right up against the lounge room windows which absorbs the sound. Who would plant one of those horrid palm trees next to the house like that is beyond me (previous tenant), and those things they drop that will stall my ride on mower.... I must cut some before it removes the guttering.


Personally I went with a nice Yamaha system, not as good as my older Panasonic Technics system but it wasn't 5.1 and my hearing capacity has somewhat changed with age. The background noise of some server gear running in my lounge room impairs my hearing enough to not warrant expensive sound systems (it controls our TV viewing , smart lighting and other things my son plays with)and my sons one good ear he can hear anything without a hearing aid, he has tinnitus so expensive, quality sound is beyond us.

Another mention, I grew up in a period with friends (house mates too) who always believed big is better, not necessarily so with speaker systems.


Node points mentioned by Sharkbite, the old science of sound bouncing off furniture and absorbing/cancelling the signal, I used to know all that stuff when I remembered my electronics engineering studies, now I can't remember if I ate breakfast and I only got up an hour ago. Node point sound cancellation is VERY real.