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bob bob is offline
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Default Home Theater Advice - Receivers and Speakers

On Dec 14, 1:05 pm, Steven wrote:
Sometime next year I am going to dive into the world of home theater
and upgrade my 10 year old 32" Sony Trinitron.

I'm looking at all the HDTV's now and narrowing down my choices. My
question relates more to the audio component of my home theater. I
have just read an excellent book on putting together high end audio
systems, "Introductory Guide to High-Performance Audio Systems" by
Robert Harley. The book explains all the aspects of putting together
the best sounding system for any budget. I would highly recommend it.
As a matter of fact, I think I will be buying a copy soon (read my
copy from the library).


Caveat lector: Harley is one of the high priests of audio voodoo. I
haven't read this book, but I certainly wouldn't take it seriously.

Back to my question. Since I am on a budget (which I suspect most of
us are), are their any resources online to find quality reviews of
pairings of 5.1 speaker systems and receivers? Most of the articles I
come across seem to be reviewing either the receiver or the speaker
system, almost never both. I don't have the time to listen to all the
different combinations of speakers and receivers and was wondering
where I could find this information.


Don't worry about this (despite what Harley says). It is important to
get a receiver powerful enough to drive your chosen speakers, but
assuming sufficient power, the idea that a set of speakers will sound
different with every receiver out there is golden-ear bunkum. If you
need some "expert opinion" to back that up, try Alan Lofft:
http://snipurl.com/1vago

He's a former audio journalist who works for a speaker company now, so
obviously he's going to be pushing his brand. But on the electronics
side, he's not so dogmatic. Very good advice there.

My budget will be about $1,200
for receiver and $2-3,000 for complete 5.1 speaker system.


Sounds like a fair budget. Start listening to speakers, whatever's
available in your area. Once you've settled on something, you'll know
how much amplifier you need, and can choose an appropriate receiver
with whatever features/connectivity you need or want.

bob

p.s.--Harley's wrong about cables, too.
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Greg Wormald Greg Wormald is offline
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Default Home Theater Advice - Receivers and Speakers

In article , bob
wrote:

He's a former audio journalist who works for a speaker company now, so
obviously he's going to be pushing his brand. But on the electronics
side, he's not so dogmatic. Very good advice there.


Ha, Ha, Ha!
That's great. I haven't read anything so funny in a while.
He works for a speaker company and is 'objective' because he pushes
speakers, not receivers and amps. Some nice irony there (I hope).

To address the original issue:

In the audio-visual experience the visual experience occupies more brain
territory than the audio and hence is the overwhelming factor. So when
watching and listening, the listening is only important because it
supports the watching. This makes the "choice of/quality of" the audio
equipment less critical.

Listening to music alone of course leaves the whole attention on the
music and it's reproduction.

In your situation I would first audition the equipment listening to
music only and when I was satisfied with that reproduction I would then
try that equipment with audio-visual material.

You budget should easily encompass some good reproduction. Also follow
the other advice regarding room acoustics, this is very influential in
overall music and sound presentation.

Greg
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bob bob is offline
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Default Home Theater Advice - Receivers and Speakers

On Dec 15, 11:17 am, Greg Wormald wrote:
In article , bob
wrote:

He's a former audio journalist who works for a speaker company now, so
obviously he's going to be pushing his brand. But on the electronics
side, he's not so dogmatic. Very good advice there.


Ha, Ha, Ha!
That's great. I haven't read anything so funny in a while.
He works for a speaker company and is 'objective' because he pushes
speakers, not receivers and amps. Some nice irony there (I hope).


Did I say he was objective? No, I did not. Please read more carefully
next time before posting.

While you're at it, you might try reading Alan Lofft's advice. What
you'll discover is that he's completely upfront about what his company
sells, and never claims that it's the best thing out there. As for
electronics, his company sells one brand, but it's not the only brand
he recommends. In short, you know exactly where he's coming from and
can judge his comments accordingly. I'd trust his advice over an
ignoramus like Harley any day of the week.

bob
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jeffc jeffc is offline
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Default Home Theater Advice - Receivers and Speakers

"bob" wrote in message
...
I'd trust his advice over an
ignoramus like Harley any day of the week.


Why? Because you happen to agree with him already?

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bob bob is offline
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Default Home Theater Advice - Receivers and Speakers

On Dec 21, 2:31*pm, "jeffc" wrote:
"bob" wrote in message

...

I'd trust his advice over an
ignoramus like Harley any day of the week.


Why? *Because you happen to agree with him already?


I trust any "authority" who has a track record of saying things that I
can independently confirm to be correct. Alan Lofft easily meets that
test. Robert Harley misses by a mile.
'
bob


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Sonnova Sonnova is offline
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Default Home Theater Advice - Receivers and Speakers

On Fri, 21 Dec 2007 11:31:00 -0800, jeffc wrote
(in article ):

"bob" wrote in message
...

Don't worry about this (despite what Harley says). It is important to
get a receiver powerful enough to drive your chosen speakers, but
assuming sufficient power, the idea that a set of speakers will sound
different with every receiver out there is golden-ear bunkum.


It's not so much a matter of speaker-receiver "systems" sounding different,
it's a matter of different amplifiers often sounding different. There is no
voodoo here.


Actually, if amplifiers could be designed so that their performance was 100%
load independent, I suspect that all decent modern amps would sound
remarkably the same. But they aren't.

True, there can be incompatibilities with certain types of speakers. All
power is not equal. Some amps can deliver more current into varying loads,
etc. So "sufficient power" is not a sufficient condition to base your
buying choice on, necessarily.


Yes, absolutely.

Having said that, most middle of the road quality 5.1 speaker systems will
be fine with most quality receivers.


Yep.

As mentioned, pay attention to room
acoustics if you want more than just clear movie soundtracks. And as
mentioned, pay attention to the subwoofer, subwoofer placement, and
crossover/integration as well.


I have the big Athena SCT 5.1 surround system.

http://www.athenaspeakers.com/v2/classicproducts.php

Two big FL and FR speakers (Model S3) each a three way with an 8" woofer 5.4"
midrange, and a 1.5" soft dome tweeter. Each of those sit atop a powered
subwoofer-cum-speaker stand with 150 watts ea. (Model P3) and a 10"
down-firing driver. The center speaker (model C1) is a 5.4" inch unit - much
like the midrange in the main front speakers along with the same tweeter and
a companion 6.5" passive radiator. The two rear speakers are two-way, ported
(Model S2s) and have a 6.5" woofer as well as the same tweeter as the rest of
the system. This is a CHEAP system, the whole thing was less than $1200. I
drive it with the big Harmon-Kardon AVR-7000. This receiver ($2200 list)
boasted 6X 125 watts/channel with all channels driven and the ability to
source 75 amps of current to each channel with all driven. It was made in
China and I bought it mostly because it's surround features were by Lexicon,
arguably the best in that business. This receiver, which was sold as a an A/V
unit, is by no means a "high-end" piece. It has no pretensions of being an
audiophile unit unlike the similar spec'd Marantz. OTOH, if I had to give-up
my expensive audiophile system for some reason and only have this A/V system
as my only source of music, I could certainly, easily live with it. Does it
have the resolution of my audiophile system? No. But it's faults are sins of
omission rather than glaring sonic aberrations. IOW, its very musical. In
short, whether it's reproducing the latest movie soundtrack or my Apple
Loss-less compressed music collection through my AppleTV from iTunes on my
computer, it sounds DAMN GOOD.

That shows that this class of equipment has come a long way. Here are
(relatively) cheap speakers that will outperform speakers 5X their cost from
just a few years earlier. The AVR-7000 sounds the equal of most modern
solid-state power amps with which I have any experience. This system would
make the fine basis of any surround stereo setup and do it for far less than
the same quality components with more highly touted names.

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