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fnkels posted:I meant budget for the receiver, not the speakers. Oh. Well, you won't need one if you're using active monitors. You will if you get standard passive speakers though. If you're doing 2-channel, I'd look for old used stuff. For $150 say, you can get something pretty respectable.
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Jan 20, 2008 09:38
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ashgromnies posted:Here's a really dumb question - how do you hide speaker wire? Running down the wall looks really ugly and I don't know what other options I have. I need to wallmount my speakers because I really don't have much room on the floor to put speaker stands. Well, there's a few options: nail the cabels to the wall and paint over them directly, use those plastic cable holder things you can paint over ('kabelgootjes'in Dutch, I've no idea what they're called in English), or hide the cables behind curtains/bookcases/furniture. It really depends on the situation - I helped a friend hide speaker cables in his new home, and since he was remoddeling anyway, we lay conduit through the walls (and the floor, for the rears) and terminated in banana-plug wall plates. From those you had ~10 cm of bare cable to the base of the stands, tops. Most people won't have that luxury, though  .
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Jan 20, 2008 11:46
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My audio sounds very overdriven and distorted on my computer for some reason. it randomly started earlier this morning. I have no idea what the problem is here. e: Now i'm confused. The sound went back to being fine all of a sudden, back to distorted, back to fine. Kilometers Davis fucked around with this message at 16:52 on Jan 20, 2008 |
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Jan 20, 2008 16:46
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Can someone help me find a wiring diagram for a Technics SA-GX670 AV reciever?
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Jan 20, 2008 19:37
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Is there such thing as a compact stereo amp? Right now I have a huge Yamaha CR-450 which I run my computer through, but it's way too bulky for the space I have (takes up half my work space). I looked around on google and couldn't find much; the Kramer 900 seems to be what I need but is a little expensive. Is there anything under 100$? I don't need much power; my speakers are from the 70's, don't even know what brand they are (they're all black). I don't know much about voltage and resistance, I just want to be able to hear my music clearly and loudly. I only need an RCA input and speaker wire out (although a headphone connection would be veeerrry nice). The amp I have now has 2 speaker outputs, an FM tuner, tape monitor, 3 separate entries... I don't need all that stuff! Thank you very much!
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Jan 21, 2008 08:49
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Colonel J posted:Is there such thing as a compact stereo amp? Right now I have a huge Yamaha CR-450 which I run my computer through, but it's way too bulky for the space I have (takes up half my work space). I looked around on google and couldn't find much; the Kramer 900 seems to be what I need but is a little expensive. Is there anything under 100$? I don't need much power; my speakers are from the 70's, don't even know what brand they are (they're all black). I don't know much about voltage and resistance, I just want to be able to hear my music clearly and loudly. I've been looking at a t-amp for exactly the same reasons but I'm still on the fence about whether its got the power I need. Being "from the 70s" doesn't say anything about your requirements, by the way.
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Jan 21, 2008 19:00
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eddiewalker posted:I've been looking at a t-amp for exactly the same reasons but I'm still on the fence about whether its got the power I need. Being "from the 70s" doesn't say anything about your requirements, by the way. Well, what I meant with the 70's comment was only that they are pretty darn old. I don't know anything else about them ^^ They really are black all over.
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Jan 21, 2008 23:08
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Colonel J posted:Well, what I meant with the 70's comment was only that they are pretty darn old. I don't know anything else about them ^^ They really are black all over. And all I meant was that age doesn't mean low power requirements.
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Jan 22, 2008 00:42
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eddiewalker posted:I've been looking at a t-amp for exactly the same reasons but I'm still on the fence about whether its got the power I need. Being "from the 70s" doesn't say anything about your requirements, by the way. My Trends Audio TA-10 can drive my 89 dB speakers to good volumes. If you don't listen at ear-damaging levels, it's got more than enough power. Should be about $150, and is quite a step up sound-wise (and build-quality wise) from the little battery driven T-amp.
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Jan 22, 2008 09:09
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pim01 posted:My Trends Audio TA-10 can drive my 89 dB speakers to good volumes. If you don't listen at ear-damaging levels, it's got more than enough power. Should be about $150, and is quite a step up sound-wise (and build-quality wise) from the little battery driven T-amp. I just ordered the Sonic Impact Super-T. I'm really hoping it powers my inefficient Dayton BR-1 kit speakers in all their 88dB glory. I just want this big receiver off my desk, but now as I wait on UPS, I'm starting to worry about the little amp's capabilities.
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Jan 22, 2008 18:21
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A bit ago I purchased a recveiver and a pair of decent speakers, with the intention of slowly expanding to a surround setup. What's my best 1st upgrade? Should I buy a center speaker or a pair of surround speakers? There's really no need for a subwoofer in my current apartment. What will be the most noticeable upgrade?
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Jan 22, 2008 19:36
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I'm planning on picking up a pair of Paradigm 370 v4 rear surrounds. They've been used for 5 months and I can get them for $300 cash. I've got a few pieces of Paradigm gear already which I love. So...Is there any reason to avoid these or should I go for it?
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Jan 22, 2008 20:03
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eddiewalker posted:I just ordered the Sonic Impact Super-T. I'm really hoping it powers my inefficient Dayton BR-1 kit speakers in all their 88dB glory. I just want this big receiver off my desk, but now as I wait on UPS, I'm starting to worry about the little amp's capabilities. Should be fine up to moderately high listening levels, especially if your speakers are 4 ohm. I'm really interested in your impressions - I've only listened to the little T-amp and my TA-10. Michael Mardis suggests some nice mods for it, if you're into that sort of thing .
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Jan 22, 2008 20:28
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MolluskGoneBad posted:A bit ago I purchased a recveiver and a pair of decent speakers, with the intention of slowly expanding to a surround setup. A center should ideally be voice-matched to the main speakers, so if you can't get an easy match by buying a center from the same series, I'd keep phantom center and get two rears. That'll be more of a surround sound experience than just buying a center.
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Jan 22, 2008 20:31
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Am I right in assuming delivered power will be cut in half if I use 8 ohm speakers with an amplifier that was tested with 4 ohm speakers? Also, what are some average ballpark figures for floor-standing speakers? I have two pairs that aren't labeled and will probably stick with similar speakers in the future so I want to know what sort of output rating to get for for my power amp. Thanks!
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Jan 22, 2008 21:26
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sund posted:Am I right in assuming delivered power will be cut in half if I use 8 ohm speakers with an amplifier that was tested with 4 ohm speakers? Also, what are some average ballpark figures for floor-standing speakers? I have two pairs that aren't labeled and will probably stick with similar speakers in the future so I want to know what sort of output rating to get for for my power amp. Thanks! If you follow ohm's law, that's what you'll get: I=V/R, keep V constant and double R, then I is halved. I'll ramble on a bit because there's a few things that govern what kind of amp power you'll need: How efficient are your speakers and how loud do you want to go? Say your speakers have a 90 dB efficiency, that means they'll produce 90 dB (measured at one meter from the speaker) when fed one watt. The question now is what volumes you want to reach. Here's a comparison chart to get sort of a feel for decibels. Now, say you want to get up to 96 dB, good loud listening level. That takes a 6 dB increase. Rule of thumb is that to achieve a 3 dB rise, power should be doubled. That's two doublings, so you'll need 4 watt for each speaker. If you have no neighbours, want to damage your ears and get to rock concert levels, you'll have to get up to, say, 114 dB. thats 6 further doubling steps, so now you'll need 256 watt per speaker. That's a bit ridiculous, though, so let's compromise at a (still loud) listening level of 105 dB - 32 watt. Allow for an extra 3dB of headroom to prevent damage to speakers or amp, and you'll need 64 watt per speaker. If your speakers are 8 ohm, and your amp was rated at 4 ohm, it would need to be able to deliver 128 watt per channel to drive your 8 ohm speakers to the volume you want to listen on. That said, the TA-10 I mentioned before delivers 10 watt per channel effectively into my 4 ohm, 89 dB speakers and I've never felt the need to turn the volume up further than halfway .Towers are quite efficient as a rule, so a random cheap pair would be about 90 dB. pim01 fucked around with this message at 22:34 on Jan 22, 2008 |
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Jan 22, 2008 22:32
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I had a Logitech z2300 system, but someone turned it up wayy too loud when we threw a party the other night and fried the satellites. So anyway, Logitech doesn't sell replacement speakers (  ) and I'm not rebuying the system as the powered sub still works.I decided that I want to pick up these Insignia bookshelf speakers but I don't know what else I need to use them. My budget is a bit tight here so if I need a receiver it's out of the question I'm guessing I'd need a cheap amp like This one, but what the hell else do I need? Is there anyway to make my sub work with this system? I'd be hooking this up to both a laptop/MP3 player and an RCA TV (but the laptop is the only essential)
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Jan 23, 2008 08:16
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pim01 posted:That said, the TA-10 I mentioned before delivers 10 watt per channel effectively into my 4 ohm, 89 dB speakers and I've never felt the need to turn the volume up further than halfway
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Jan 23, 2008 12:23
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Saukkis posted:According to the specs it's 15W to 4 ohm and 10W to 8 ohm. The THD+noise gets kind of terrible from 10 watt on (0.1% @ 11W 4ohm, 10% @ 15W 4ohm)  . It's very good (0.03% @ 9W, 4ohm) up to that point, though. I just sort of view the last five watt as extra headroom.
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Jan 23, 2008 16:09
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Real Dad posted:I'm guessing I'd need a cheap amp like This one, but what the hell else do I need? Is there anyway to make my sub work with this system? Since your sub is active, you can split the input signal and feed it to the t-amp and sub seperately. See if there's a way to set a crossover point on the sub (60 Hz should do fine as a rough estimate, probably). Keep in mind that that T-amp has only one input, so you'll have to switch sources manually if you want to switch between laptop and TV. That, or buy a simple switcher.
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Jan 23, 2008 16:50
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My laptop doesn't have a line out. It has two headphone outs. Given this situation, I was thinking of getting a nice USB DAC and the klipsch promedia 2.0 speakers. I'm a student that ends up travelling quite a bit, and I like to have a home setup that is better than the horrid sound my laptop speakers produce. I would appreciate a USB DAC recommendation: People have told me about AlienDAC but I'm not much of a DIY'er. Also, if anyone knows of better speakers than those Klipsch that are within that price range (They cost about 50 pounds in the UK) I'd be willing to check those out.
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Jan 23, 2008 19:54
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edit: removed long-rear end post, started a thread instead.
waramp fucked around with this message at 22:45 on Jan 24, 2008 |
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Jan 23, 2008 20:24
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I am now considering these Wharfedale Diamond 9.1 speakers for my budget 2.0 music-listening setup. Any thoughts on these? I've pretty much now limited my choices to either:
Any other recommendations? There's a lot of crap to sort through looking for this stuff.
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Jan 25, 2008 05:03
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I just picked up a nice Denon 38083ci receiver for my setup, and am now looking for speakers that do not look like crap. I am not a fan of typical looking speakers, though I do like the looks of B&W cm1's, Kef's XQ line has me drooling, but they are too expensive. I was not that impressed with the B&Ws when I heard them, and they were 1000 for a pair at my local Ken Cranes, way too expensive. I have found a nice deal online at av123 for three rocket speakers (rs450 towers & rsc200 "bigfoot" center). I paid 1098.00 shipped, they look great but now am looking online to find mixed reviews onthese things, some going as so far as to call them a fly-by-night, "whitevan" scam. Granted most of this is isolated to the fatwallet forums, so I should take that witha grain of salt, but how do these speakers compare to the Kef's? Are they decent otherwise? I don't want to have buyers remorse. Help? I know admittedly very little about good audio, only that my onkyo speakers suck terribly and my wife insistes whatever I buy looks good in the living room. I mostly watch tv/movies, ~25% music.
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Jan 25, 2008 17:21
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Bonobos posted:I just picked up a nice Denon 38083ci receiver for my setup, and am now looking for speakers that do not look like crap. I am not a fan of typical looking speakers, though I do like the looks of B&W cm1's, Kef's XQ line has me drooling, but they are too expensive. I was not that impressed with the B&Ws when I heard them, and they were 1000 for a pair at my local Ken Cranes, way too expensive. I would expect those rs450 towers to sound very good. I've never heard them in person but from everything that I've read av123 is not a scam or anything like that. I can't compare these speakers because I've never heard the Kef's XQ either. I just wanted to say that av123 are a pretty highly regarded internet direct company. They also have a 30 day in-home trial period so if you actually are not satisfied with them you could return them I guess.
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Jan 25, 2008 18:09
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Doctor Londom posted:I am now considering these Wharfedale Diamond 9.1 speakers for my budget 2.0 music-listening setup. Any thoughts on these? I've pretty much now limited my choices to either: I think an important question to consider with a 2.0 system are the types of music that you will most likely be playing on your system. The reason I ask is because you may find the speakers to be lacking as far as low frequencies in certain genres of music go, and may want to add a sub. It is not as though the low frequencies are severely under-represented, it's just that when I auditioned the RTI-A3s the shop had properly set-up subwoofers (it was pretty close to invisible) and I really liked how it sounded. Subs are great for HT, but if you are truly just sticking to music your option would be to get floor standing towers with larger woofers rather than a dedicated sub. Or you could just get bookshelf speakers. It's all about your preferences, and i'm sorry if you know all of this already. It's hard to judge where people are at and what they like. But from your list, I would definitely consider the discounted RC-10s over the others at regular MSRP. What sort of receivers/amps are you looking at also?
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Jan 25, 2008 18:39
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Well, I tried the Sonic Impact Super-T, and my gut feeling was right. It doesn't power my inefficient Dayton BR-1s to the high volume levels I occassionally listen at. I know I'm probably listening way too loud and it would probably do my ears good to listen at levels that the t-amp is very capable of, but I've already put my amp up for sale: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=2753362
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Jan 26, 2008 05:57
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eddiewalker posted:Well, I tried the Sonic Impact Super-T, and my gut feeling was right. It doesn't power my inefficient Dayton BR-1s to the high volume levels I occassionally listen at. I know I'm probably listening way too loud and it would probably do my ears good to listen at levels that the t-amp is very capable of, but I've already put my amp up for sale: I'm sorry it didn't work out for you . How did you like the sound, though?
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Jan 26, 2008 10:29
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I am looking to upgrade my computer speaker setup and was looking at getting a t-amp. I was wondering what would be the best pair of bookshelf speakers I could pair with it for around $100?
Woody4792 fucked around with this message at 22:32 on Jan 26, 2008 |
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Jan 26, 2008 22:29
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Hey I have a question about exceeding the maximum wattage of speakers. My friend brought up a pair of ancient magnavox speakers that have 35W and 8 ohms on the back. My receiver does significantly more than that per channel. And as far as I know, I can't reduce the wattage per channel but I can reduce the decibels. I was just planning on using these as rears because, well, they're free. We consider them to be pretty much disposable, but I don't want to damage my receiver. Is the worst that could happen would be the speakers clipping/blowing?
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Jan 27, 2008 23:32
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Hollis Brown posted:Hey I have a question about exceeding the maximum wattage of speakers. My friend brought up a pair of ancient magnavox speakers that have 35W and 8 ohms on the back. My receiver does significantly more than that per channel. And as far as I know, I can't reduce the wattage per channel but I can reduce the decibels. I was just planning on using these as rears because, well, they're free. We consider them to be pretty much disposable, but I don't want to damage my receiver. Is the worst that could happen would be the speakers clipping/blowing? Decibels are a measure of loudness. Wattage is a measure of power. It takes watts to make decibels. Watts are the product of current^2 and resistance. Your speakers have a fixed resistance so to increase loudness, your amplifier increases the current going to the speakers. In short, keep the volume knob under control and you'll be fine.
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Jan 28, 2008 02:25
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Hi there, not that anyone would remember my post from a few pages back but I am going for the amp + speakers approach for a 5.1 setup. This may be a daft question but do most receivers have the ability to change input based on wether it is active or not? The reason I ask is that I will have a HTPC and PS3 feeding into the receiver via optical and coaxial, however I am wanting to keep the operation side of things as simple as possible for the missus and for lazy people. That and I'm wanting to minimise having multiple remotes without having to shell out for a harmony or something of that ilk.
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Jan 28, 2008 04:49
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I just got a radio with a USB port in my car. When I hook my iPod up to it, the screen stays on 'Connected', and I can't browse or play individual songs, just random shuffles. Is there a way to use the direct connection and still be able to browse the iPod? I don't really want to go back to the FM transmitter. (There's no Aux 'headphone' type jack on the radio, either) Sorry if this was posted before, I skimmed the thread but didn't see anything.
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Jan 29, 2008 07:50
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I've been in the market for a decent receiver/amp for my computer, but due to certain sound card problems I need to find one with a digital optical in. Generally I want to spend under $200, but have been having trouble finding anything worth while. Then on Futureshops website popped up a Yamaha HTR 6025b for $179. However, this is a home theatre receiver, and having little experience with home theatre setups I dont know if this will be different than a stereo receiver. Is there a reason to avoid this for general computer/console/TV use? toolboi fucked around with this message at 02:23 on Jan 30, 2008 |
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Jan 30, 2008 02:21
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I'm looking for a 3.5mm stereo cable, male to male, to use in my car. I have an AUX input (Scion xA), and an iPod. I've been using a lovely cable that I grabbed from some computer speakers, but I can't put up with the background noise anymore, it's too much when I pump up the volume. I have no idea what's good and what's just fake, so I'm not sure what I should be getting, or if I'm looking at the wrong thing altogether. Any pointers would be greatly appreciated 
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Jan 30, 2008 23:50
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Alfajor posted:I'm looking for a 3.5mm stereo cable, male to male, to use in my car. Do you get background noise when you pump up the volume on both your ipod and stereo at the same time? I could see this being a problem if you were only cranking your stereo, but leaving your ipod relatively low or something similar.
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Jan 31, 2008 01:31
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Alfajor posted:I've been using a lovely cable that I grabbed from some computer speakers, but I can't put up with the background noise anymore, it's too much when I pump up the volume. This is most likely an issue with your car speakers' amp and I doubt very much a better cable will change anything at all.
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Jan 31, 2008 02:45
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sund posted:Do you get background noise when you pump up the volume on both your ipod and stereo at the same time? I could see this being a problem if you were only cranking your stereo, but leaving your ipod relatively low or something similar. Hmm... well, since the cable comes out of my iPod's headphone jack, I have the iPod on full volume. Then, my car's stereo is at a normal volume. Meaning that if I switch to radio, or CD, the volume is the same. If I turn my car's volume up, I can start hearing the noise, yes. Pibborando San posted:This is most likely an issue with your car speakers' amp and I doubt very much a better cable will change anything at all.
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Jan 31, 2008 16:58
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Hey all, I'm in the market for a receiver & speakers, and we are apparently having a shopping festival so they are putting together packages. I was hoping to get your opinion on these: Harmon Kardon AVR247 with either the JBL Northridge E80/E10/E150/EC25 or E90/E10/E250/EC25 Onkyo TX-SR605 with Klipsch RF62/RB51/RC52/RSW-10d The 605 with Wharfdale EVO2 series (2-30/CEN/2-8/SW-150) or Diamond 9.6 series (9.6/9CM/9.1/SW-250) The 605 with Jamp C607/C601/C60CEN/SUB650 Mostly i'd be using a ps3 for games and movie watching. I'd read various opinions that say the 247 has trouble powering the sub at times? I've also read that some people had trouble with upscaling content? Does anyone have anything negative to say about these receiver/speaker combos or recommendations to spend a little bit more and get XYZ? Thanks for any opinions. Leempi fucked around with this message at 22:03 on Jan 31, 2008 |
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Jan 31, 2008 21:41
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I'm hoping someone can answer my question about this quickly... I have a Onkyo HT-SR600 HTiB. The only upgrade I've done is adding a powered 12'' MTX Subwoofer to it I got on clearance. My local Circuit City has this Boston VRC center speaker on clearance for $79.  Would adding that speaker totally throw off the whole dynamics of my system? I'd like to get the center channel now but if I HAVE to upgrade my fronts and surrounds too I may pass. Still, for $79 it doesn't seem like a bad deal in the slightest. Should I do it and worry about the other surrounds later?
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Feb 3, 2008 14:55
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