Our TV has been on the fritz lately where it will just randomly turn off, refuse to turn on, or have no audio when turned on. Sometimes cycling through the inputs will get the audio going, sometimes has to be turned off and on, sometimes only fix is to unplug for a minute then plug back in.

It’s a 65” Vizio we bought at end of 2017, model P65-E1. At the time I believe it was one model down from Vizio’s “top of the line” model, and paid $1500ish at Costco for it. I was torn about just dealing with it til it finally crapped out or go ahead and replace it with Christmas and end of year sales going. My wife has been wanting to replace it as she is not “techie” at all and gets irritated at anything more involved than “turn on and it works”.


So, decided on replacement and are now awaiting delivery of a 75” LG “Nanocell” from Costco that should arrive this week. Amazing how tech improves and prices fall. Top tier brand name, though Vizio is getting close, next size up and better screen tech/picture quality for just about the same price as the last one.


With the increase in size, it is too big for our “console” stand, so it will be wall mounted. Going to a wall mount makes me happy as it will free up space on the console to get what I have been missing for years - a stereo receiver.

We have a kind of unspoken rule when discussing a major purchase, if one of us gets what they want, than the other gets what they want too. I like the sound that can only come from tower speakers and a multi-channel home theater set up. We’ve compromised before with a sound bar for simplicity, but it just isn’t the same. So, I went to researching and I am now also awaiting delivery on a Yamaha RX-V6A A/V receiver from Amazon and a set of Klipsch Home Theater speakers from Costco.

Amazing deal on the speakers (now sold out), pair of Klipsch Reference Dolby Atmos R-625FA towers, pair of R-41M bookshelf (surround) speakers, and a R-52C center channel all for under $900. BHPhoto, Adorama, amd Amazon are selling the R-625FA towers for $690 EACH and the complete 5 speaker system from those places is over $1800. Damn I love Costco!

I’ll just need to get the SW, currently $250 but hoping for it to go on sale sometime soon. Looks like they get to $175 or even less at times, and if it isn’t too long I might just grab two at that price.


Looks like receiver tech is light years away from the Sony 5.1 rig I had 15(?) years ago as well. Holy moly, 385 page manual I downloaded from Yamaha to start reading up on the V6A. Wi-fi, streaming, multiple “zones” etc. I am going to be in heaven, but I fear the Mrs is going to be irritated when it comes to “just watching TV without trying to figure all this crap out!”. I expect I will have to do up a “cheat sheet” for her to go over turning on, selecting input, etc. so she can watch her shows.

Hopefully all the components will be here by the end of the week so I can get the wires run and wall mount done this coming weekend.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: 911Boss,

Skip the Klipsch sub. I went with a Monoprice Monolith 10 ported when it went on sale for 25% off. It makes my Klipsch setup come alive. SVS makes a comparable model. Both are a little more expensive but it is absolutely worth it.

For Klipsch, Paducah Home Theater will give you great prices if you call them.

Our son bought those speakers from Costco and they sound great. He did buy a larger set of surrounds for the back which was a good improvement. He went with a Denon 9 channel amp.

Look at a Harmony remote to run all this stuff. I love my Harmony home remote.

Seconds on the Harmony remote. Your wife will enjoy it.

And remember, two 10" subs will be better than a single 12".

Again on the Harmony. While not completely wife-proof, it really helps. Making a cheat-sheet listing what inputs control what device will help in about 6 months.

I’ll look into the Harmony remote, but tried one years ago and wasn’t a fan so returned it.

Will see what can be controlled by the TV remote and the AV Receiver remote seems to have programmable buttons so hopefully it won’t be too hard to simplify it a little bit for her.

That sounds like a really fun setup.

The receiver will have an auto tune feature. Put your speakers where you want. Put the auto tune mic where you sit & blamo it will calibrate. You'll just have to adjust when you add the sub.

Enjoy !

Cheers~

quote:

Originally posted by 911Boss:
I’ll look into the Harmony remote, but tried one years ago and wasn’t a fan so returned it.

Will see what can be controlled by the TV remote and the AV Receiver remote seems to have programmable buttons so hopefully it won’t be too hard to simplify it a little bit for her.

You're shitting yourself. Get the harmony hub & get the wife off you're ass.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^
This - I bought mine in 2015 and it controls my LG OLED TV, my Denon Amp, my Firestick, my Apple TV 4K, my 4K DVD and switches 4 banks of ZWave overhead lighting - including dimming. Easy, Easy, Easy

https://www.amazon.com/gp/prod..._title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Got the TV mounted on the wall yesterday, speakers arrived today. Got everything hooked up and it’s working well.

Good news on the “complication” factor for the wife, receiver has a “Standby Pass Through” feature which allows the cable box or Apple TV signal to go through the receiver to the TV and play audio through TV speakers without turning the receiver on or having to switch inputs.

No complications and no need for a Harmony type remote.

Receiver also has WiFi and is Airplay compatible so can easily play iTunes and Apple Music through it.

Klipsch speakers sound great, nice and clear. Having the center channel really helps with dialogue as both of us are starting to have hearing issues. We usually have closed captioning on to help, but looks like might be able to turn that off now.

Still need to go through the auto-setup feature for speaker fine tuning and such but for now enjoying the improvements.

quote:

Originally posted by 911Boss:
Good news on the “complication” factor for the wife, receiver has a “Standby Pass Through” feature which allows the cable box or Apple TV signal to go through the receiver to the TV and play audio through TV speakers without turning the receiver on or having to switch inputs.

Want slick? Short press 'watch TV' = pass through mode, long press = Receiver does audio. If you have a firestick, it replaces the bluetooth remote (minus the voice).

I've had 2 other harmony models & I've returned a couple more, the harmony hub is awesome. No typing IR codes. It's not 8ft long. you can use it by feel, in the dark. I can use it from the shitter if I so wanted.
I have 1 in the kitchen so I can hide the sat box & firestick in a cabinet. Got one for granny so she doesn't call me to ask how to turn on the DVD player for the kids. Got one for Mom because the sat remote they had couldn't control their samsung TV volume.

My 3YO can turn the TV/SAT on & tune Disney at any of the 3 houses.

quote:

Originally posted by 911Boss:
(snip)
Klipsch speakers sound great, nice and clear. Having the center channel really helps with dialogue as both of us are starting to have hearing issues. We usually have closed captioning on to help, but looks like might be able to turn that off now.
(snip)

This. For us, the clear audio from quality hifi really helps. Much, much better than TV speakers or soundbars, not to mention the immersive sound effects.

If you are still dead set on that Klipsch sub, it goes on sale at Costco next week.

quote:

Originally posted by Oz_Shadow:
If you are still dead set on that Klipsch sub, it goes on sale at Costco next week.

Actually just bought it last weekend, but will happily get the price adjusted.

Thanks for the info.

Definitely no need for a Harmony remote. The factory remote has programable “Scene” buttons.

“A”- Cable box
“B”- Apple TV
“C”- DVD player
“D”- Airplay

Punch a single button and it does whichever function needed. Pretty simple.

So in the past three weeks, we bought a new TV, Speakers, and Receiver for a “proper” home theater set up. Cost for everything was $3496 +tax.

New Costco sale started yesterday that includes price cuts on the TV we just bought as well as the subwoofer.

TV is now $300 off. Price adjusted, $329 with tax

The Subwoofer I bought last weekend from Costco is now $80 off. Price adjusted, $87 with tax.

The $599 Yamaha RX-V6A A/V Receiver from Amazon ($658 with Tax) is evidently the EXACT same Receiver as the Yamaha TSR-700 that Costco normally sells for $399 (if I had known that, would have bought it instead of going to Amazon)

TSR-700 happens to be on sale for $329, $361 with tax.

Sooo, by my math I put $658 back in my pocket from Amazon by returning the receiver and the price reductions on the TV and speaker covered the cost of the Costco receiver.

$2846 before tax instead of $3496, after tax saving of $713!

Happy as a clam in mud right now.