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flashman posted:We looked at those and considered them but it's just like a speaker on your counter or whatever and didn't really tickle her fancy. Do the in ceiling speakers sound terrible? The Sonos units I've heard sound really drat good and can really fill a room. You can also move them around to outside or upstairs which gives you more flexibility than fixed speakers in the ceiling. A downward firing speaker might sound ok when you're under it but might not sound great when you're across the room. It's really up to you but Sonos are really easy to use and set up and way more flexible. The highish cost would be negated by in ceiling installation/wiring and you don't have to gently caress around with zones on a receiver. Just my 2 cents.
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Sep 28, 2016 02:30
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Ya I understand they are supposed to be quite good sound wise. We don't have any gyprock in our entire house now so installation would be easy. It's pretty confusing trying to sort out what receiver would be needed to power the three on each side though and it's not as simple as I had thought from googling. I'll run the Sonos by her again and maybe she will bite. I think it would be the more practical and quality decision but it's her birthday gift so I'm avoiding pushing the idea.
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Sep 28, 2016 02:42
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flashman posted:We looked at those and considered them but it's just like a speaker on your counter or whatever and didn't really tickle her fancy. Do the in ceiling speakers sound terrible? No. They can sound pretty good. The problem is the tweeters, as you're almost always listening way off axis. If the tweeters can be aimed, you'll be ok. I have a friend who is a sonos dealer and his house is set up with sonos in ceiling speakers plus a hidden subwoofer. It sounded GREAT in his open concept living room. Any quality in ceiling speaker should sound good, however you can't just daisychain the speakers unless you have a good amp. Every speaker you add cuts the impedance in 1/2 (or doubles the current). so 3 8ohm speakers will actually be a 2ohm load per channel. The Behringer and Crown amps mentioned a few posts back would do the trick for cheap, however, a 7.1 channel surround receiver would be simpler, and all you would do is run it in 5 or 7 channel stereo mode. This allows you to have a subwoofer (could mount it in the ceiling also) with proper crossover functionality.
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Sep 28, 2016 03:02
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Buy a cheapo AVR to power them, just run it in Ext Stereo mode all the time...? That way you have your source switching handled too. Polk, Klipsch etc. all seem to make in ceiling speakers, so I'd just get whatever fits in your budget there. What's with all the weird multi speaker questions lately? Edit: drat you, jonathton
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Sep 28, 2016 03:02
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When talking with some other people about my audio needs, someone mentioned getting a 70 volt speaker system, and wiring up my house for 70 volt speakers. Doing some research, it sounds like that's mostly for places like schools and restaurants. Will it have reasonably decent audio quality for music? Is it overkill for home audio? Are there any other caveats?
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Sep 29, 2016 03:38
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I used a school PA system as the inspiration for my home audio system and I have no regrets. Some days I think you can close your eyes and really believe you're in a noisy banquet hall and not my living room.
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Sep 29, 2016 06:14
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Axiem posted:When talking with some other people about my audio needs, someone mentioned getting a 70 volt speaker system, and wiring up my house for 70 volt speakers. Doing some research, it sounds like that's mostly for places like schools and restaurants. It's for long distances so you don't get as much power loss over the cable. Long like many hundreds to thousands of feet of cable. Like if you have to listen to music a mile from your receiver. Or if you have dozens of speakers on a single circuit like in a large restaurant or grocery store or school. quote:Will it have reasonably decent audio quality for music? No, not for a reasonable cost. quote:Is it overkill for home audio? I'd call it ridiculous rather than overkill. quote:Are there any other caveats? You have to either buy 70v speakers, or high quality (expensive) transformers to install at each set of speaker to convert the voltage. 70v amps aren't cheap either. More info: http://www.belden.com/blog/broadcastav/All-About-70-volt-Speaker-Systems.cfm
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Sep 29, 2016 06:50
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Axiem posted:When talking with some other people about my audio needs, someone mentioned getting a 70 volt speaker system, and wiring up my house for 70 volt speakers. Doing some research, it sounds like that's mostly for places like schools and restaurants. Will it have reasonably decent audio quality for music? Is it overkill for home audio? Are there any other caveats? If you need lots of speakers getting the same signal 70v/100v is great. If you're after quality however it's not, you need proper signal distribution and a ~billion amps depending on how many speakers you want to run. Neither way is particularly cheap.
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Sep 29, 2016 12:45
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flashman posted:My wife wants me to get her some in house sound system sort of thing for her birthday (we are remodelling) and speaking with her it sounds like she wants three sets of stereo speakers in the ceiling connected to a receiver. My question really is can I just get any old 2,1 receiver and hook three speakers into each channel? It doesn't matter if they are all one zone as it's along 40 feet of open concept sort of poo poo so it will have to be playing the same stuff anyway. Does anyone have experience with the in ceiling speakers and could speak to a good brand? I know it says in the op to listen to them but we are in the sticks and this will have to be an internet order. You could accomplish what you are describing with a 2 channel receiver and a speaker selector with at least 3 outputs. I do something similar in my house. My 2nd zone of my receiver outputs to a Niles HDS-6 speaker selector. From the selector, I have an output to Definitive Technologies AW-6500s in the garage, an output to Monoprice 10" in ceilings on the patio and an output to a set of JBL L100s in my office. You can play music in one two or all locations. The speaker selector adjusts impedance automatically. As for in ceiling speakers, the Monoprice 10s are decent for the money. In my main listening area, I run Sonance in-wall and in-ceiling speakers. (S625T and S624TR). I've been extremely impressed with them. Prior to the S625T, I was running Mission 771s for the fronts and the Sonance I'd say sound just as good. I bought them used off EBay as they are pretty pricey new.
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Oct 2, 2016 19:02
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The selector you have looks like you have to manually adjust the impedance setting. If you forget, bad things can happen. This one does it automatically and has different volume controls per zone: http://www.monoprice.com/Product?p_id=8232&gclid=Cj0KEQjw4MK_BRC1n6KTtezikbIBEiQA872hYbHMHhGbKI4lLgr0K8Ayj_Zgb7IAeK5sWb8WxRHjAfoaAvIa8P8HAQ
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Oct 2, 2016 19:51
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KillHour posted:The selector you have looks like you have to manually adjust the impedance setting. If you forget, bad things can happen. Mine just had a single button to change. If you're running 1 or 2 it's one setting and 3-6 is the other setting. The monoprice one looks more feature rich, though.
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Oct 3, 2016 01:20
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Thinking on what the thread told us and actually thinking how much more we would use them decided on some Sonos play5. Keeps the line in option open as well. Thanks for the advice everyone.
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Oct 5, 2016 11:59
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flashman posted:Thinking on what the thread told us and actually thinking how much more we would use them decided on some Sonos play5. Keeps the line in option open as well. Thanks for the advice everyone. You wont regret it. I've got a 2nd gen Play:5, and two Play:1s for various rooms in my house. Then I have a Sonos Connect for my listening room setup. It's all good poo poo and the Play:1s even sound incredibly good considering their size. The Sonos app is great and makes it really easy to select what rooms are playing what music and it plays extremely well with Google Music and my own music library from my NAS.
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Oct 6, 2016 15:20
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Smart move, you'll love them.
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Oct 6, 2016 15:24
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Is axiom still good to go? They haven't been bought out by some disposable chinese garbage company in the past 10 years have they?
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Oct 6, 2016 16:21
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Pryor on Fire posted:Is axiom still good to go? They haven't been bought out by some disposable chinese garbage company in the past 10 years have they? I can't tell who is what anymore, since everyone makes friggen Bluetooth soundbars now ~*~MY PURE HI-FI~*~
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Oct 6, 2016 16:46
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I'm having an issue with this Toshiba soundbar I had laying around: https://www.amazon.com/Toshiba-PA5075U-1SPA-Sound-Subwoofer-Black/dp/B0096KEM0Y It's connected via the TV's optical out port. Based on the documentation, I have to set the TV's audio setting from Dolby Digital to PCM for the soundbar to work properly. Which is fine, since I'll only have a Chromecast connected to the TV. The issue is when I cast something to the Chromecast, the sound coming out of the soundbar is heavily distorted and I think is clipping? Don't know how else to describe it. For testing purposes, I played music, movies, etc. from from my laptop connected to the TV, and the audio comes out of the soundbar just fine. What is causing the audio to get distorted when the source is the Chromecast? The distortion is really bad when I cast something from my Plex server that has a 5.1 DTS or AC3 audio track. teagone fucked around with this message at 20:30 on Oct 9, 2016 |
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Oct 9, 2016 20:27
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Do the tv speakers output chromecast input ok? That's a weird one...
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Oct 9, 2016 20:37
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Does the chromecast have a separate volume control? Or what you're casting from? If so maybe one of those is cranked way up...
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Oct 9, 2016 20:42
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Dogen posted:Do the tv speakers output chromecast input ok? That's a weird one... Yep, audio from the TV's internal speakers is fine when watching stuff via the Chromecast. That's how I had it for the past 2 years. Just decided to make use of the soundbar I had laying around this past weekend. [edit] I hooked up a Dreamcast to the TV for shits and giggles just now and audio sounds fine playing games. It's just anything from the Chromecast when the audio gets distorted, especially movies and TV shows with 5.1 audio tracks from Plex. Panty Saluter posted:Does the chromecast have a separate volume control? Or what you're casting from? If so maybe one of those is cranked way up... Volume control on the Chromecast is handled by whatever device the content is being cast from. I had the soundbar's volume level pretty low to test things out, but the distortion is still there. Changing the Chromecast volume on my phone/tablet/laptop doesn't make a difference unfortunately.
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Oct 9, 2016 20:53
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Could you post a short video clip? I'm curious to hear it.
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Oct 9, 2016 20:57
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Panty Saluter posted:Could you post a short video clip? I'm curious to hear it. Not a video clip, but I did record this to send to my uncle who does home theater installations: https://my.mixtape.moe/rlusgk.m4a He hasn't responded yet. It's a snippet of audio I recorded while playing the opening sequence of Batman v Superman on my Chromecast. It has a 5.1 Dolby Digital audio track. You can't really make out the overall fuzziness/distortion, but at around 38 seconds in, that's the first big loud distortion coming out of the speaker. Then at 1:08, there's another big audio pop. More distortion kicks in around 1:16 until the end. Everything that plays through the Chromecast, e.g., movies, music, tv shows, whatever, is subject to some level of distortion like that when sound is coming through the soundbar. Once I turn off the soundbar and use the TV's internal speakers instead, everything sounds normal. [edit] Are those loud pops/distortion in the audio "clipping"? Or is this something else? teagone fucked around with this message at 21:36 on Oct 9, 2016 |
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Oct 9, 2016 21:30
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aliasing Almost sounds like aliasing noise to me, maybe some stream is not reporting its format or sample rate correctly? Not sure, maybe try switching the TV to Dolby Digital just for larfs? Or find a known stereo PCM source (a WAV rip of a CD for instance to put through it). That it only happens with the Chromecast and soundbar is weird for sure.
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Oct 9, 2016 22:32
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Panty Saluter posted:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aliasing Interesting. When the TV audio setting is set to Dolby Digital, no audio comes out of the soundbar at all. Does casting music from Google Play music count as a stereo PCM source? Because while the distortion/popping isn't as bad compared to 5.1 DTS/AC3 tracks, music from Google Play music on the Chromecast still doesn't sound as good through the soundbar when I play music from another source, like my laptop or my phone via bluetooth instead.
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Oct 9, 2016 22:42
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I doubt it, Play is probably AAC. Although if the Chromecast/soundbar/TV have a problem with that I don't even know what to say  I guess it could be a firmware issue? Maybe? This is pure wild-rear end guess though. All I can say is try different audio options and see if something sticks.
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Oct 9, 2016 23:11
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Maybe the soundbar is terrible?
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Oct 9, 2016 23:26
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Dogen posted:Maybe the soundbar is terrible? Go ARC or go home.
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Oct 9, 2016 23:29
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I actually ended up doing optical out from my tv to the stereo... I couldn't get ARC to work right. TV only outputs lossy 5.1 anyway, so no difference there, but it's annoying that I couldn't get it to work right. This is just for built in TV apps so also no big deal there.
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Oct 9, 2016 23:43
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Dogen posted:Maybe the soundbar is terrible? I picked it up cheap a long while ago. Was like $30? I forget from where. It's not amazing. At all. But its better than the TV's internal speakers when its not playing audio from the Chromecast  It's in a guest bedroom, so I'm not too concerned about it not playing well with the Chromecast. I'll probably just put it back in storage, haha. Or drop it off at a Goodwill.
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Oct 9, 2016 23:52
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Does it have analog inputs (and your TV an analog out)? As long as you don't have a ground loop it'll probably sound better.
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Oct 9, 2016 23:54
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teagone posted:I picked it up cheap a long while ago. Was like $30? I forget from where. It's not amazing. At all. But its better than the TV's internal speakers when its not playing audio from the Chromecast My next guess would have been the tv trying to pass a multichannel signal to it and the soundbar not handling it well, but if you've tried passing stereo tracks and they still sound bad I don't know. Trying out analog also seems like a good last ditch effort.
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Oct 9, 2016 23:59
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Panty Saluter posted:Does it have analog inputs (and your TV an analog out)? As long as you don't have a ground loop it'll probably sound better. Dogen posted:My next guess would have been the tv trying to pass a multichannel signal to it and the soundbar not handling it well, but if you've tried passing stereo tracks and they still sound bad I don't know. Trying out analog also seems like a good last ditch effort. The TV only has digital/optical out unfortunately. And yeah, I just played a movie through the Chromecast that has a 2.0 AC3 stereo track and the soundbar didn't make any of those loud pops. It's still a little more hazy than if I were to play it from my laptop instead though, but I guess trying to pass a 5.1 audio stream to the soundbar causes it to freak the gently caress out.
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Oct 10, 2016 00:06
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my gf is looking into a vintage receiver, particularly: Technics Silver face AM / FM Stereo Receiver - Model: SA-200 and Pioneer SX-434 Stereo Receiver but i'm wondering if she should even go vintage considering the possible incommunicability between an old receiver and new devices, let alone sound quality.
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Oct 12, 2016 19:10
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Pask posted:my gf is looking into a vintage receiver, particularly: What new devices would she have problems with? Edit: Pros of a modern stereo receiver: 1) possible bluetooth integration 2) possible spotify integration that may or may not suck 3) probably more inputs if she has a million different things she wants to plug in. but then again possibly not. 4) possibly satellite radio integration 5) HDMI port maybe 6) subwoofer out probably 7) it might be easier to get serviced if it breaks, or it may be covered under warrantee. 8) remote controls Pros of one of those receivers she's interested in: 1) integrated phono pre amp 2) probably a better tuner than in a modern reciever 3) more likely to be built like a tank and will last for a while with minimal servicing. Easier to tinker around with if she's into that. If she doesn't need bluetooth (nobody needs bluetooth, or she can use a dongle), doesn't use/want to use probably badly integrated spotify, and isn't planning on using it as a 2 channel home theater receiver, she might be perfectly happy with a 40 year old receiver. If the unit is in good repair it could last longer without major service than a cheapo modern box. Or it could have problems from the get go. Sound quality is a subjective thing. I don't think you could say any random modern amp sounds "better" or "worse" than an older amp without saying what better or worse means here. Both of those were and are very well regarded and popular receiver lines. And obviously aesthetics are subjective. If she wants to have a retro listening room, she probably wants a retro receiver. BigFactory fucked around with this message at 19:42 on Oct 12, 2016 |
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Oct 12, 2016 19:20
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Does it have to be a receiver specifically? As in, will she be listening to AM/FM radio? Because if the answer is "no", she should be looking at integrated amps, too  Of the two choices you listed, I would go for the Technics, if it's good condition of course. It has 25 watts/channel compared to the Pioneer's 15, and 15 is just too little for comfort in my opinion. It would be fine for most things, but it won't be able to go very loud before clipping, depending on which speakers she's going to use. I use a 15 watts/channel JVC receiver in my kitchen, but I wouldn't use it for my main stereo and/or for playing loudly. KozmoNaut fucked around with this message at 19:55 on Oct 12, 2016 |
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Oct 12, 2016 19:52
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KozmoNaut posted:Does it have to be a receiver specifically? As in, will she be listening to AM/FM radio? Agreed on both counts.
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Oct 12, 2016 19:54
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BigFactory posted:What new devices would she have problems with? Yea, I guess I meant that as part of my question, I wasn't exactly sure and so was making blind assumptions about their communicability. Thanks, that clear up a lot. KozmoNaut posted:Does it have to be a receiver specifically? As in, will she be listening to AM/FM radio? Cool, thanks for the recs, i'll relay the message, is their any inherent benefit to integrated amplifiers over receivers, or is the lack of an excessive am/fm and the associated drop in cost the benefit? She's also looking to get speakers for it.
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Oct 12, 2016 21:39
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Pask posted:Cool, thanks for the recs, i'll relay the message, is their any inherent benefit to integrated amplifiers over receivers, or is the lack of an excessive am/fm and the associated drop in cost the benefit? She's also looking to get speakers for it. A receiver is basically just an integrated amplifier with a built-in tuner, so there's a bit of added cost. But that mostly matters for the original retail price, vintage receivers can be cheaper than vintage amps and vice-versa, because some hifi gear is just more sought after than others, for various reasons. I got my Akai AM-2600 for ~$75 in absolutely 100% mint condition. It replaced a Technics SU-7700, which usually costs at least twice as much, in good but not quite mint condition. The Akai has more power and much better feeling switchgear, but the Technics brand is strong, especially when it comes to the 50+ watt amps/receivers. Sometimes you can get lucky and find a really good piece of gear that has been overlooked for various reasons, that's the kind of gear I really like. I had a Blaupunkt pre-amplifier and power amplifier set, extremely high build quality. After that, I had a Sharp Optonica set of a tuner, an amplifier and a tape deck, all of which I got for less than I would have paid for a middling Technics amp. Both were really nice setups, but overlooked even when they were new. Don't be afraid to look at brands you don't immediately recognize. There's a whole world of quality gear outside of the big brands like Marantz, Pioneer, Sony, Technics and so on. When it comes to vintage speakers, most have the huge drawback that the foam surrounds on the woofers tend to rot away after a decade or two. You either have to find some that have been reconditioned, or buy a set of speakers with busted surrounds without being able to listen to them properly, and have someone recondition them. It's either that, or get a newer set of speakers with rubber surrounds, which will last much longer. Some vintage speakers will have pleated paper surrounds, those tend to hold up pretty well, too. There is definitely something to be said for huge vintage speakers, though. I'm selling my set of JBL 4410s, but it sure wasn't an easy choice to make, because they're probably some of the best of the kind of 70s/80s bigass speakers for proper loud rock music. The kind of speakers we all remember seeing in movies and at Cool Dudes' houses, sort of the platonic ideal of the hifi speaker. If you can find a set of those, or their bigger brother the 4412, or a set of Pioneer HPM-60, 80, 100 or 150, I highly recommend picking them up, if you can find the space for them (they're all gently caress-off huge). Especially if they've been professionally reconditioned. KozmoNaut fucked around with this message at 22:19 on Oct 12, 2016 |
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Oct 12, 2016 22:13
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Not all vintage speakers have foam surrounds, either. My pair of 70's B&Ws have rubber surrounds, and old KLHs have a cloth surround that can be reconditioned really easily.
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Oct 12, 2016 22:34
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I am partial to older 70's Marantz and Pioneer receivers/amps. I run a Marantz 2235b powering my dad's old set of JBL L100s. It's amazing how well made things were back in those days. Growing up, I used to sneak my dad's L100s and Pioneer SA7500 amp down from the attic when they weren't home and blast music at ungodly levels. The L100s still perform great 25 years later.
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Oct 13, 2016 03:56
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