Home Theater/Stereo Thread...

[Indiana]

Yes, those Yamaha receivers are nice, especially great for movies with Surround/ProLogic/Digital/...-sound. But they sound a bit too "sharp" for my ears (at least when combined with Canton speakers) for normal hifi material. I like the Onkyo a bit better in general - and yes, I normally test-hear my components before I buy them (and I'd really recommend everyone to do so as well - and bring your own CDs with you for this!). It's the same as when buying a monitor.
Still I bought the Onkyo (with a Sony being second on my list and the Yamaha third - there was no Harman Kardon, however).

And I don't know if I would trust anyone that mentions Bose in a hifi-related thread - sorry.

[Rakido]

@ Maggi,

have you checked Teufel speakers ?


They win lot's of awards on all magazines and i got their System V a couple of months ago and i'm more than pleased with them.

I'm using the Denon avr-3801 together with the denon 1000 dvd player.


Cya
Rakido

[Maggi]

Thanx, Rakido.

Never heard of those before and I fear it might get pretty hard to find a local dealer for a rehearsal, but if I can find one, I'll give 'em a try.

[KvHagedorn]

Well, Maggi, one of the most important things you can do when building a home theater system is to match your speakers. Five inexpensive matched speakers will sound better than high dollar mismatched ones. It's like buying a pair of stereo speakers.. you wouldn't buy one Infinity and one B&W for listening to stereo, so why would you mix them in your five speaker system? B&W is a fine choice. We sell them and I recommended them to Paul (ALBPM.. we have lots of Pauls here I just realized). He seems to like them a lot too. I'm not really up on Denon equipment at the moment since we don't deal in it, but it's generally pretty good. Check the real current rating of whatever you buy as opposed to the watts per channel, and make sure the receiver has discrete output transistors. If at all possible, listen to the receiver under a 5 channel load before you buy it, preferably with the speakers you are going to buy. Some speakers don't really shine until you put a real amp on them.

[Maggi]

Thanx for feedback, KvH !



Any idea why those dealers have problems with Infinity speakers ?

[ALBPM]

Hey Maggers, I have the Denon AVR-3300. See if you can still find one of these new because they should be discounted by now.

KvH is right on as far as matching speakers.
You could get new Fronts and Center channel and use the old Infinities as rears for now.

I traded in my 1.5 year old DM series B&W speakers for the new CDM series. I also got a 5 X 100W Rotel Amp.

I'm using Audio Quest Interconnects per KvH and "State of the Art" 12 gauge OFC (Oxygen Free Copper) Home Depot speaker wire. I did Bi-Wire the fronts and Center channel speakers.





Paul

[Maggi]

Thanx for feedback, Pauly !

I fear I must have ProLogic II and my Infinity speakers are just too big to be used as rear speakers ... (my living room ain't that big, you know)

Dunno yet, but maybe I'll end up selling my speakers and get a complete new set, since I cannot spend too many bucks.

I hope I can find a local dealer that would borrow me some speakers for home testing or at least give me a decent option to exchange them in case they won't match the rest of my system.

[Liquid Snake]

Thanks for the link, Durango, very informative.

When my father and I put together the theater system, we decided to use his ancient (well it's older than me) harman/kardon amp to drive the mains. Was doing nothing but collecting dust in the closet, so might as well use it Sounds somewhat better than the amps in the Yamaha RX-V1, but I never did any A/B tests to confirm what I heard. The manual was lost ages ago, so I only know that the amp is 150Wx2.

[Jammrock]

Here are two links to some stores around where I live:

http://www.audioport.com/brands.html

http://www.accentsound.com/products.html

Anything in particular that I should be looking at? Maybe I can get some Klipsch reference speakers to match my Klipsch ProMedia's...hmmmmm. Most of these brands I haen't heard of, so this is going to be fun listening to all new toys!

Jammrock

[KvHagedorn]

Dunno why those guys were so down on Infinity, Maggi.. other than that their current products aren't as good as their older ones, and the technology that those older Infinitys used (the emim mids and emit tweeters) are rather old now. The sound of the old RS series is consequently hard to match, because they are so different from anything else out there. Yes, you might see how much you could get for your old ones.. some dealers trade them in, but you might get more on ebay for them.

Looks like Audioport is the serious high end dealer there, Jammrock. Wow, Audio Research.. I sure would like to hear those.. haven't found anywhere around here that sells them.. very expensive tube amps which have a really good reputation. And Wilson Audio! This guy makes some speakers that are around $125,000 for a pair! For that price he flies out to your house with them himself and sets them up, too. The Martin Logan speakers are worth a listen too, but all of that is probably out of your price range unless you are extremely valuable to society and play basketball or something. With B&W, Thiel and Sonus Faber, it looks like Audioport hit almost every serious high end speaker brand out there.. Classe and Levinson are some good amp lines, but Levinson is a bit expensive, and I actually like the Classe better. Looks like a fun place to waste some (sales person's) time. Seriously though, you could walk out of there with a Denon receiver and a set of mid line B&Ws and be very happy.

As for the other store.. personally, I don't like Klipsch speakers. Not to say they aren't good.. I just don't care for the sound. Definitive sells some pretty impressive speakers for home theater, but I don't like them for serious listening. Thorens still makes a good turntable if you want one. Tributaries is a more sensible cable line than Audioquest in many ways, but I would check both out. Paul is right about Audioquest cables.. very good, very high end stuff.. Their good cables are VERY expensive, though. Haven't heard the newer Marantz receivers, but they are supposed to be very good, though for $4500, their flagship is still only a 5 channel. Marantz is now owned by Philips.. Pioneer Elite is good if you want a good rear projection television, and so are Toshiba and Mitsubishi. Velodyne makes some really great subs.. check out the SPL1200.. that's my favorite.

[ALBPM]

This coming Wednesday night I have a reserved seat at our local dealer's for the showing of the new B&W Signature 800's. It's being put on by the B&W National Sales Mgr. So I get to sit and listen and try not to drool all over.....LOL

http://www.bwspeakers.com

Check out the Signature 800 series

Paul

[KvHagedorn]

Wish our store was a big enough deal to get that happening here.. I would love to hear those. Unfortunately, it's all we can do to support ANY kind of higher end audio in a town of 50,000..

[Reverend Maynard]

Howdy all. I know VERY little about stereo equipment. I have a fairly good ear for things, but I have never had the cash to setup a sweet system.

At the moment I am looking for a nice sub for my current system. I want at least a 12", but I would like a 15". I have become rather spoiled when it comes to good bass, and I have finally become fed up with not having it on my system. I want something that will mainly output extremely strong bass. No, not the insane bump that you get from rap, I want to feel it when a cello starts playing. Being able to bump the occasional hip hop song is a plus. Above all the sound must be tight, not the lagged rumbling you hear from most peoples cars (if that makes sense).

I really don't want to spend more than a couple hundred bucks on the sub, but if I have to to get a good one I will.

Suggestions?

[Jammrock]

KvH,

I've been to Audio Port once, and I was floored! I bought my Sennheiser HD570's there. I listened to Martin Logan's on a Rotel seperates there. It was absolutely incredible. I listened to some B&W's, too (but on a Rotel system again), and they were great. Unfortunately the B&W's didn't floor me until I got to the $2000 a pair speakers. The others sounded nice, I just wasn't floored by them. Audio Port sells the Wilson Audio X-1 Grand SLAMM's that wiegh 1200 lbs a speaker. Those cost $215000 a pair...

Tonight I'm going to start hitting those 3 stores and check out some recievers and speakers.
Audio Port is big enough that they may even have the new Signiture 800's in I'll post my findings upon return.

Rev. Maynard,

I don't know a lot about subs, KvH can give you the better info. I have heard Sunfire subs and I really liked those. They can pretty much do whatever you want them to. If you have a local dealer with them, go check them out.

Jammrock

[Jammrock]

http://www.rockusticsinc.com/

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA...

These are cool!!!

ALBPM,

I'm sure the B&W Signature 800's are nice, but according to online reviews they are $20000 a pair. A wee bit out of my price range. They cost more than my car! Maybe I can get some nice Nautalis speakers... BTW, nice setup!

Jammrock