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I have a Sony STR-DE585 tuner/amp and would like to listen to the radio. When I try FM radio, it has this loud buzzing/humming noise that completely obscures the radio channels. Thus far I've ruled out antenna, location and cables. Amp works perfectly fine when listening to CD music. Quick opening didn't reveal any burned transistors or exposed wiring. Nothing touches the amp casing as far as I can see. Any ideas how I could get the humming to go away?
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Jun 12, 2010 20:08
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JayJay posted:Anyone have any good 5.1 speaker suggestions at around the $500 mark? Klipsch HD 500 5.1 Speaker Set is what I recommend. Klipsch HD 300 Compact 5.1 High Definition Theater system is pretty nice for the price. If you're buying your first sound system, it's really important to listen to speakers before you buy. I still use the same pair of stereo speakers I bought nearly 15 years ago and they still sound great. You're better off buying 2 speakers that you like and whose sound pleases you than 5.1 system that sounds like it has the flu. That said, if you can't hear the difference between a $100 and $1000 pair of speakers, buy the cheaper ones. Remember, you're the one who has to listen to them. For the record, I use these for music and absolutely love them. I've got another slightly smaller set from the same company for home theater plus a pair of crappy Sony speakers for rear speakers. I'd tell you to get a pair of 160's or 260's but I have absolutely no idea where you can buy these outside Finland. Hob_Gadling fucked around with this message at 02:02 on Jun 25, 2010 |
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Jun 25, 2010 01:58
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Amused Frog posted:Is it generally reccommended to get a "HTIB" or look for components seperately, or does it make no real difference? Rule of thumb: listen to the differences for yourself. If you can't hear any, buy the cheaper system. If possible, bring your own movie and/or music with you to the store.
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Jul 5, 2010 11:16
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Klipsch or Energy are solid if you're looking for a ready 5.1. I recommend the linked Klipsch system: the most negative thing I've heard was "this doesn't sound as good as (speakers worth several thousands more) when listening to music". Although I have to say that for $399 the Energy speaker set is a good deal and probably better value for money than Klipsch currently. Hob_Gadling fucked around with this message at 08:47 on Jul 6, 2010 |
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Jul 6, 2010 08:44
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Slowpoke! posted:I know I could get it repaired cheaper if I looked, but the question is whether it is worth it. Find the cheapest amp you can with HDMI in and HDMI out. Compare the price of repair to that. For example, this Pioneer receiver from Newegg should suit you very well for a long time to come. Theoretically, if you were to get your current amp repaired, how would you wire your equipment? Because as far as I can see, that amp doesn't have anything you can attach your PS3 to. And while we're replacing stuff, how about you get a completely new system? This Yamaha receiver and Klipsch HD 300 speaker set is $399 for the whole shebang (you need to get cables separately, though). Hob_Gadling fucked around with this message at 18:45 on Jul 9, 2010 |
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Jul 9, 2010 18:10
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Thirding Denon, I've got 1610 for my home theater and it works well. The manual is abysmal and curses are abundant when setting it up, but once you do it's very nice.
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Jul 13, 2010 12:25
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As long as you know what the basic limitations of cheap subwoofers are, this offer is pretty hard to beat. Considering your other setup, it should fit in nicely.
Hob_Gadling fucked around with this message at 17:49 on Jul 16, 2010 |
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Jul 16, 2010 17:40
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HaterBaby posted:I am hoping for some magic sound card especially suited for 2.1 speakers and will sound really great. Have you tested your sound card with good headphones or speakers yet? I'm pretty sure you'll be satisfied with it and would do better to invest the money into better speakers. There's a known problem of interference with some integrated soundcards which will limit the maximum volume you can get out of the system. Best bet would be to test first and decide on sound card purchase after testing. Speaking of which, what's your budget? If you're willing to spend a little, I think you'll be happy with Klipsch ProMedia 2.1 speakers. If you're willing to spend a lot, get a cheap receiver and good speakers that please your ear: that's what I have done for the past 15 years or so.
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Jul 19, 2010 10:49
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What's your budget? It's impossible to recommend anything without having some idea how much you are willing to spend. For shelf speakers I'd suggest you try out Paradigm Monitors, start from Atoms and go up if you feel you need more depth in sound. They're pretty hard to locate so browse a shop near you from manufacturers website.
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Jul 20, 2010 18:56
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Famicom Bunko posted:I am not sure what what type of subwoofer would actually work with this, does anyone know? Probably any normal subwoofer with in-built amp works. To give you some idea, most any of these should be fine.
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Jul 22, 2010 02:17
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ho mercy posted:That takes off around $30-50 from the total assuming it's worth it, so what would be a recommendation for $200 2.1 speakers? If you get static, it's worth it. Try looking for Klipsch ProMedia 2.1 as your speakers. I'm guessing you need active speakers?
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Jul 26, 2010 23:06
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Can't help you with soundcards, I got the cheapest $25 card I could find and have been happy with that. Sorry.
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Jul 27, 2010 00:02
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Slow is Fast posted:Budget is 450ish. Anyone got any other suggestions or is the Onkyo the good buy. Depending on how you want to connect Wii and old Xbox, you could consider Denon AVR-391 and Sony BDP-S570 Blu-Ray player or some other Blu-Ray player of your choice. With any luck, the linked BR player could also replace the xbmc box you now use, simplifying the setup further (check player details against your usage). Denon AVR-391 is the new entry-level model so no frills there, but it should have all the basics covered. The more HDMI devices you have, the less headache you'll suffer when trying to get everything to work. Then again, the Onkyo has Audyssey which is a good thing and really nice connectivity. You didn't say what you use to hook up the laptops; Onkyo has HDMI on the front panel in case you want to use that. It also has a good number of HDMI inputs in general, which might be important to you.
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Jul 28, 2010 00:20
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Angryhead posted:Is it possible to connect a 3.5 mm plug into a 5-pin DIN ? Couldn't find anything like an adapter with my googling. Yes, but without an amplifier it will probably sound like crap (caveat: I'm not familiar with that record player so it might not). If your local electronics shop doesn't carry a 5-pin to minidin adapter, you should be able to find at least 5-pin to RCA adapter and combine that with RCA to 3,5mm plug adapter.
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Jul 29, 2010 23:18
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eddiewalker posted:Not like crap. It will probably barely sound at all. Also, what about volume control? There's a chance that the record player in question has an inbuilt speaker and thus some amplification and volume control in itself. A lot of old soviet stuff was built to work as standalone units. Can't find the details on that particular player though, so all bets are off.
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Jul 30, 2010 01:02
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Lowness 72 posted:A buddy of mine had these as his desktop speakers for his laptop and they sounded amazing. Of course he had an equalizer/receiver set up with it - so I'm unsure if they would need extra power to be driven? Those are active speakers, they have inbuilt amp. You don't need an external receiver with them. quote:Would they be any good for the TV? If you like their sound, sure. Their bass is limited but that's to be expected of small speakers. There are always alternatives depending on your budget. For a little bit less you could try out the AV30s, for same amount the Klipsch ProMedia 2.1, for a little more an external receiver and passive speakers. If you like the AV40s, go with them.
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Aug 2, 2010 11:30
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Lowness 72 posted:I read last night that they are best when sitting super close to the speakers. I would probably be 6 to 10 feet from the speakers if used as TV speakers. Think that would be ok? Probably, depends on how loud you want them to be. Usually active speakers start to break up when you turn their volume up near max levels. These are rated RMS SPL: 101.5dB @ 1 meter (read: you should get, on average, 101 dB sound pressure at 1 meter when cranked to max). Since 90-95 dB causes hearing loss at prolonged exposure, you should be able to get a comfortable level of volume. As comparison, normal discussion at 1 meter is between 40-60 dB. quote:Any other recommendations for that price range (~$150-$200)? Depending on your actual setup and future plans, you might find a soundbar suitable for your purposes. For example, this Sony soundbar allows you to attach your AV equipment via HDMI or RCA and has an optional port for iPod. Whether the convenience is worth the extra cost you'll have to judge for yourself. quote:Also what's the difference between these and bookshelf speakers? "Bookshelf speaker" is a term to denote speaker size. The AV40s are bookshelf speakers. Compare to floorstanding and satellite speakers. Hob_Gadling fucked around with this message at 20:45 on Aug 2, 2010 |
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Aug 2, 2010 20:42
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Electricians tape is the cheapest fix.
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Aug 3, 2010 01:06
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Can you solder? You could open up the headphones and reattach the loose wire.
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Aug 3, 2010 01:47
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Quizzlefish posted:Will I want to plug my xbox & PC into HDMI ports in the receiver, If you get a separate receiver, definitely this. That way you can listen to music from your PC without needing to turn the TV on. quote:Is it worth buying a 5.1 system at all? Your call. Do you want 5.1 sounds? I like war movies: in stuff like Generation Kill and Saving Private Ryan they are nice when you can hear bullets zinging all around you. Then again, in old B&W movies you only get a stereo track making the 5.1 setup useless. For music anything above 2.1 is pointless and even then I prefer not to use the subwoofer. quote:If so what would be a sensible budget? Depends on what you want. You could get this Onkyo 5.1 home theater set for £339.90 from Amazon. It sounds nice as is, and you can upgrade speakers later on if you so decide: for example, Tannoy Mercury F4 Custom are a nice entry level pair of floorstanding speakers for music. This is what I would do (and actually have done, only with Denon receiver and OR speakers). You could also look at a soundbar. They are harder to upgrade but more compact and tidy in a small space. I don't think they're generally worth the money but from a decorating point of view they're a lot less messy than separate speakers. Price is £200+ Then there are the "home theater in a box"-type of solutions. I don't feel they're really suitable for music, so if that's a priority you want to look somewhere else. They are cheap, easy to set up and contain everything you need for movies though. If you plan on upgrading later, this is definitely not the way to go: you are stuck with what you got. One example here. Price is £100+ And finally, you can go with a stereo system. For example, Renkforce amp with a pair of Tannoy F1 Custom speakers should sound pretty nice for a reasonable price. Price varies greatly depending on the speakers you get; the suggested system comes with a tag of £150. The linked amp is not suitable for home theater, so you might want to choose an Onkyo or Denon entry level model instead. Regardless of what you decide, try to listen to different setups before buying. Also keep in mind that good speakers will sound good ten years from now but bad speakers will sound bad from day one. Please note that I used Amazon simply for examples. If you have a local hifi shop, visit them and see what you can come up with.
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Aug 4, 2010 12:15
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What's the price you're paying for the Paradigm 20s?
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Aug 6, 2010 23:59
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sellouts posted:1300 in store, a guy on audiogon has the V5s for 825+shipping. That's a tough one. The difference is not big between V5 and V6, but if you don't want to buy used then there are not many choices to recommend. Paradigm makes really nice speakers, that's for sure.
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Aug 7, 2010 01:31
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Jadaris posted:Is there anything cheaper, that doesn't sound like crap? Is this one going to sound like crap? Could I get a better price buying a receiver and speakers separately? Thanks for any help. Yes, but not with as good connectivity. It's not going to sound like crap and since it's a "real" receiver upgrading speakers later on is easy. Most likely you only want to upgrade front left and right speakers for music and use the rest as is. You're not likely to get a better deal buying separately unless you bump into a fire sale or something.
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Aug 8, 2010 00:30
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What's the main use? Music, games, movies?
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Aug 14, 2010 02:14
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Fenrir posted:If I plug these things in will I fry my receiver? Maybe. Detailed technical explanation of what is going on: http://www.prestonelectronics.com/audio/Impedance.htm Do the math and see whether it's within the limits of your receiver. Edit: as a rule of thumb, I wouldn't try to run 4 ohm speakers in a cheap 8 ohm receiver. It's too easy to accidentally blow it up unless you know the receiver can take it. Hob_Gadling fucked around with this message at 02:09 on Aug 17, 2010 |
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Aug 17, 2010 02:01
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Fenrir posted:Ok, I checked that out... and so basically, the 4 ohm speakers will draw more power than the 200W amplifier in this receiver is designed to push, right? Basically yes. quote:Now, does that apply no matter what the volume is? Kinda sorta. To produce sound from a speaker element, it must vary the amount of power it draws constantly. The speaker draws more power every time you hear a bass beat, simply because it need that power to move the speaker cone. While the average power consumption of a speaker might be well within limits, the actual instantaneous power can jump over the limit constantly. Of course, if you crank it up too loud you'll draw more power and risk damage sooner. More nitty gritty tech details: http://www.prestonelectronics.com/audio/Speakers.htm
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Aug 17, 2010 11:53
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Amused Frog posted:I guess another option would be to find a Home Theatre set up with two or more HDMI outputs but am I likely to find that for around the same price as this? You'll probably have to pay double the price. When I surveyed the situation 6 months ago, 2 HDMI outs were very expensive. A decent enough splitter is around $30. Don't get the cheapest, don't get one without reviews, get one which can send signal to both outs at the same time without fiddling and if you run into trouble, return the splitter without analyzing it too much and get something else.
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Sep 22, 2010 13:59
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How many HDMI inputs do you need? Fiddling with splitters is really annoying and it's the only way of getting more HDMI inputs barring a new receiver. It's a decent set (I think quite a lot of goons have already bought it based on recommendations here, maybe one of them is reading this thread), it should work with Harmony and unshielded speakers shouldn't damage LCD monitors.
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Sep 27, 2010 10:45
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haveblue posted:I have 4 HDMI devices I'd rather get a HDMI 2-to-1 connector than connect anything with component. Just connect the two least used devices to Onkyo with it and you're set.
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Sep 27, 2010 16:23
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eddiewalker posted:Even though sometimes it works, improperly Y-ing analog signals into one input isn't a good idea. With HDMI there are good reasons that for needing a real switch. You're completely right, adapters are for analog stuff and switches for digital. Still, something like this solves the problem of having to mess with anything except HDMI. I swear I tried so very hard to get my own receiver to work with other cables. The first component to give up was my special other who just wanted to watch movies and thus forced me to go shopping.
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Sep 27, 2010 21:47
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the balloon hoax posted:Two (and a half) questions: 1. Yes, most receivers let you choose how many speakers you actually have. 1.5. It's not worth it. Get one with HDMI, you're going to save yourself so much headache you won't believe it. The Sony you linked is pretty much purely for music. This Sony STRDH510 receiver should be almost the same price but with a lot better feature set for home theater. Composite isn't HD, component or HDMI is. Don't go with composite if you're buying a new system. And most importantly, check what connections your current devices use. It's no fun to buy a new receiver and see that you can't connect anything to it. 2. Yes, connect everything to your receiver. You'll have to switch the channel on your receiver, your TV will always be on the "receiver" channel. Have you given thought to your speaker setup yet? Because speakers are the most important part of your audio setup.
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Oct 18, 2010 22:34
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If you're getting the setup for movies mostly, I strongly suggest you get a center channel speaker. I'd get one at the expense of subwoofer. Why? It's the channel for practically all speech in movies. I tend to enjoy movies a lot more when I can hear what people are saying, even if it comes at the expense of glass-shattering bass.
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Oct 18, 2010 23:01
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the balloon hoax posted:Would it be possible to have two bookshelf speakers, a center channel speaker, and a subwoofer (but no rear speakers?) Yes, that's effectively what soundbars are. I ran my own system like that for 6 months and it works just fine, all you lose are the ambient effects. Rear channels very rarely carry speech or music, they're more for sound effects like bullets zinging or rain dropping.
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Oct 19, 2010 00:12
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the balloon hoax posted:Maybe I'll grab some floorstanding speakers to fill out the 5.1 at a later date, right now I just don't have the space. Thanks for your help! No problem. Money saving tip: generally speaking the surround speakers are the worst speakers in any setup because they get used the least and for the most unimportant sounds. If you have any old speakers available, you can use those to try the 5.1 setup without much degradation in sound quality, it's more a direction than quality thing. So if you bump into a yard sale or someone is about to throw their old tiny speakers out they are perfect for this purpose. If you still think 5.1 isn't for you the price of testing it out wasn't big: if you think it was nice to have, you can upgrade easily enough. Good movies to test if you like surround sound are Saving Private Ryan and Avatar.
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Oct 19, 2010 17:39
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the balloon hoax posted:Well, related to that... You said earlier that "all you lose are the ambient effects. Rear channels very rarely carry speech or music, they're more for sound effects like bullets zinging or rain dropping." Does that mean that I won't hear the sounds at all, or that those sounds will come out of the front speakers? Depends on how you set things up. The receiver you got should downmix the sounds into front channels so you'll hear them from front speakers (or not, since they're probably a lot quieter than whatever the front speakers are putting out at any given moment). There's exactly one movie in the hundreds I've watched where I could tell ambient sounds were missing and that was Fantasia 2000. Otherwise 3.1 would have served the same purpose. A good example of ambient sound usage is Avatar. I really liked how they did the surround channels when moving in jungle. You could hear wind rustling, animals chirping and generally felt like you were surrounded by life. Generation Kill had a good sound mix, hearing the sounds of near misses around you gave a little extra to the battle scenes. Saving Private Ryan has a fantastic rain scene with the men huddled in a church. It's very comforting and calm as compared to the rest of the movie. Compared to the front three channels they aren't nearly as important however, so it's not that big a deal if you're missing them. Standard stereo setup is needed in any case and center channel is just too important for speech.
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Oct 19, 2010 22:42
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Bad insulation somewhere causes the buzzing, bad connection the channel going out. It also sounds like the insulation problem leaks to the casing somehow, if your finger makes it worse. I'd check all the wiring inside the amp for starters, especially everything that has to do with the left channel.
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Nov 1, 2010 03:09
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If it's bad insulation, see if you can duct tape it. Corroded wires or connectors and you might have to change something. Tighten up loose things. One thing I'd check closely is the left speaker connector. It might be broken, split or something like that.
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Nov 1, 2010 10:26
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I'd get the 12" sub. Just because it's bigger doesn't mean you have to play it louder. It's not about volume, it's about quality of sound.
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Nov 2, 2010 15:04
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Bum the Sad posted:Quick question I know this is kind of a PC related question. But I have a set of Klipsch Promedia 5.1 THX Ultras and Windows 7 give an option to select "Full range speakers or not" Should I have this checked? No. Full range speakers means speakers that can replicate sounds from 20 to 20000 hertz. Your speakers should most likely be set up so that subwoofer plays all sounds from 20 to 80 Hz and satellites play notes from 80 up. Check the documentation for appropriate cutoff point.
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Nov 4, 2010 15:04
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Bremma posted:So, me and my mom are trying to get my dad a surround sound system for Christmas, but I don't know enough about surround sound systems to be useful in picking a good set. The baseline set is roughly this Onkyo 7.1 set. If you can find a better deal for the money go for it. If you want to pick the speakers and receiver separately the rough idea is to spend 60% of budget on speakers and the rest on receiver, wires and so on.
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Nov 6, 2010 06:06
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