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Are the Pioneer Elites generally a good pick up, in particular the more basic choice of the two? The spec list looks good and the price point is attractive, but somewhere else someone was saying to go Class D and that's only in their $2k receivers (which I'm sure I could pick up an older model for for a similar sum, but I want latest features this time around as Im going 4K, wouldn't mind Atmos etc).
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May 17, 2016 03:10
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Awesome, thanks. This might be the first time I've looked up a product and not felt the need to compare It to a million competitors for months before purchase!
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May 17, 2016 04:25
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I'm in a new place and don't have any audio gear anymore. I'll probably buy a receiver and some speakers for the TV but the onboard sound is actually not too awful and it's not like having a big booming sub in my unit would go down with my neighbours over the next year anyway. Instead I'm quite keen on picking up the Harman Kardon Onyx 3, as Amazon has them available much cheaper than retail (I've seen places like Sprint selling the Onyx 2 for around $120 too). The new one allows you to combine two together which seems neat, and according to some has a better battery life than previous. We have a pool here, as well as a nearby beach, so portably is definitely an added bonus even if it doesn't last forever and in those situations I wouldn't be blasting it due to not wanting to piss people off so would hope the battery life is respectable enough. Anyone have any experiences? I hear the sound quality for the series is generally very good.
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Aug 15, 2016 02:20
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I'll take a look into that one too, thanks.
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Aug 18, 2016 18:06
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Anything I ever owned by Behringer for playing instruments through was the stuff I could keep out of my signal chain. It serves a purpose, but for the majority it is essentially knock off gear.
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Nov 30, 2016 01:05
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That was possible on my Onkyo receiver, where it knew the phono input was an audio only one so I could select my cable box, then press Phono on the remote and it would only override the audio part. Maybe an equivalent on yours?
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Dec 18, 2016 19:39
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For someone with a budget of say up to $250 for desktop speakers for my Mac Mini, what would be the best value of say... 1. Getting a pair of powered bookshelves and running them with a 3.5mm to RCA cable 2. Getting a similar pair, but with an inbuilt DAC and running it via SPDIF 3. Getting a Schitt Fulla 2 and running a pair of powered speakers via 1/4" cables. I feel option 3 will cost the most out of the scenario, but would give me the nice desktop controller for volume/inbuilt headphone amp etc for a bit more flexibility which is attractive. I had an iMac with abyyyyyysmal noise issues over the 3.5mm analogue, so option 1 makes me the most weary.
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Jul 16, 2017 07:16
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Waldo P Barnstormer posted:All things being equal, the powered analogue bookshelves should be the best value. Many come with headphone outs too. eddiewalker posted:Current Mac headphone puts are pretty drat good. I measure mine at silent below -90dBFS on 10' unbalanced cables every single day. Thanks guys. I'm hoping the badness of my old iMac was a one-off issue not the standard. I used to run it through a minidisc deck as a dac and it would sound solid then. Yeah the option 3 was definitely 'do I really need this?' I think I was being swayed by the fact it looks really nice and everyone loves a good volume knob. So, the model I had in mind for option 1 was the Edifer 1280 on Amazon. I've been stung by audio stuff using Amazon reviews as the base. So wondering if anyone has any experience with them. I've never heard of the brand before, which always sets off red flags but maybe it's my fault.
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Jul 16, 2017 15:24
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Awesome, thanks for the first hand experience. I'm buying so many things right now, if I can sort my audio for $100 I'm happy.
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Jul 16, 2017 20:41
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Maybe you could just Sharpie over it?
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Aug 10, 2017 00:43
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So for those who picked up those Mackie CR3s recently, how you finding them? I'm still in two minds between them and something like the PreSonus 4.5 which are about $50 or so more. Budget is tight as I'm redoing so many things, so if the Mackies are well liked they're definitely more pocket friendly. I do listen to music with lots of bass, but I'm also not going to be blaring the things and accuracy is nice for a bit of production/Traktor usage.
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Aug 29, 2017 16:22
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Might be the way forward for me and I can throw the extra cash at something else. Can always sell them for a similar amount in the future too I guess! Thanks
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Aug 29, 2017 18:49
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There’s tons of ultra cheap Chinese amps available these days. This one is $25, for example. Lepai LP-2020TI Texas Instruments TPA3118 Hi-Fi Stereo Audio Mini Amplifier with Power Supply https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071FJF4FF/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_LLDVzbVK31MFN
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Sep 17, 2017 03:10
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We had our hot tub installed today, and it has a Bluetooth audio setup built in. Works great with my iPhone (surprisingly well, as I presumed it would be a gimmick but the addition of the sub means it's actually pretty meaty!). So the plan was to plug in a Bluetooth transmitter to the TV on the deck so it's a bit easier to hear it, but the transmitter is pretty basic - you hold a button and it goes into pairing, you put your speaker into pairing and it joins. However, when I connected my iPhone it asked for a pin (and 0000 worked). Am I likely out of luck given there's no ability to do this with the transmitter? I'm guessing my only real option is to buy a separate receiver, and hook it up to the aux in and hook it up to an Anker battery pack. I'm just hoping it won't add a new level of lag.
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Sep 28, 2017 04:20
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Gut feeling says power supply. I used to have speakers as a kid that did similar, and switching the power supply out fixed it (gonna guess it was a grounding problem with the original).
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Oct 9, 2017 03:40
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Another model for your consideration, which looks to be in a similar price point to the Onkyo: https://www.accessories4less.com/make-a-store/item/yamtsr7810/yamaha-tsr-7810-7.2-ch-x-95-watts-a/v-receiver-same-as-rx-v781/1.html There’s rumors that not everything on A4L is actually a refurbished unit, and this would make sense in this case. The 7810 is a Costco only model that is for all intents and purposes the same as the 817 which is far more expensive. It’s likely these are new and just marked as refurb to skirt that fact. I’m probably gonna get one myself, I’ve just had other priorities. Price probably as low as it’ll ever go. It’ll do your patio speakers (but I’d read into how Zone B and Zone 2 are different things, and might not work like you expect) and gives you some expandability beyond 5.1. Also I’d trust Yamaha at this price more than Onkyo, who have had maaaaajor problems in the past with components failure. Doesn’t mean their new stuff isn’t better, and if they put out something ideal for me I’d probably still get one. I had an older model and it was OK but definitely had issues.
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Oct 26, 2017 01:49
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Not a question, just something for people to laugh at me over. Coming from Europe where funny laws means banana plugs aren’t so common, I thought now I’m in the states and building stuff from scratch rather than buying a long reel of cable I’ll just get some precut speaker with banana plugs at the ends. I also picked up some cheap speakers I can move outside when the budget allows me to replace them with real hifi speakers. Long story short, I now have a set of speakers with banana plugs jammed into the binding posts. It works I guess.
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Nov 29, 2017 02:59
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Yeah it turns out banana plugs are the exact same size as European plug sockets, and I think there was fear someone would plug a speaker in directly and fry themselves. The funny thing is, it’s EU ruling and I lived in the UK where our power sockets were completely different but it still effected us. Amps will be sold with plastic tabs inside the terminals that are ‘mysteriously’ easy to break off. Its no really a big issue, but the plugs aren’t so common due to it and despite owning a ton of cable, I’ve never had any. And yeah, I have them rammed in the spring terminals. Typically one was really tight and I had to bend the metal frame a bit. They were cheap so it’s no big deal, I should’ve figured it out though.
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Nov 29, 2017 04:21
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I know this, as said - I should’ve realized when I bought them they didn’t have the right terminals. Just a brain fart when I was sleepy and buying stuff online. It works okay at the moment (as good as $40 speakers I paid $25 for should sound, anyway) but it made me laugh.
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Nov 29, 2017 15:53
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Does anyone with a good memory happen to know what the difference between JBL S series I and II is? If I mix a I center with II fronts, is that generally gonna be fine? They seem to be a bit easier to find somehow. Otherwise, does anyone know of a good center that will fit in sonically nicely with those fronts, JBL or otherwise.
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Dec 27, 2017 04:52
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Also there seems to be a ton of really basic receivers out now at entry level/speaker package deals. They look to be worth avoiding for the most part. 3 or so hdmi inputs and that’s about it. I paid something like $250 for my Onkyo 656 just before Christmas and it has 7 (from memory) HDMI inputs to hdmi 2.0a/hdcp 2.2 spec, multizone, phono input alongside line level rcas and optical, Atmos etc. The feature set for the price is ridiculous to be honest.
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Jan 24, 2018 03:26
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I’m sure shipping would be horrendous. I wouldn’t buy a receiver or anything like that from out of country unless there was a seriously good reason behind it. Also from memory, A4L only ship to US (and maybe Canada), so you’d have to use a reshipper and the headaches keep building.
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Jan 25, 2018 15:54
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KOTEX GOD OF BLOOD posted:His collection is 100% classical, the vast majority of which is available on neither of those services. iTunes Match could work, but it's only 256 kbps. He wants lossless. 256kbit AAC though, not MP3. If someone of his age can genuinely tell the difference between that and FLAC/ALAC and not just telling themselves they can, then fair enough.
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Feb 14, 2018 15:59
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I have this receiver, I picked it up from Best Buy in a sale before Xmas for $250 which is long gone but this price is still good. Feature set for the money is insane, practically the same as the Yamaha 7810 which is nearly twice the price - and that’s a Costco model of an $800 receiver. From memory it has 3 or 4 inputs that are HDR ready of the 8. Onkyo have had issues with hdmi boards in the past but should be clear and I’ve had no issues personally. https://www.accessories4less.com/make-a-store/item/onktxnr656/onkyo-tx-nr656-7.2-ch-x-100-watts-networking-a/v-receiver/1.html
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Mar 10, 2018 18:09
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qirex posted:Your TV is probably better at upscaling than your receiver. Yeah I’ve left it off personally. We’re far enough from our 65” that SD/720/1080 resolves as good as can be expected.
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Mar 10, 2018 22:10
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This doesn’t look great, but could be a starting point for finding something suitable. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B072L3Z9TT/ref=psdc_280341_t2_B01DPAA0ZQ
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Mar 22, 2018 04:17
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Charles posted:I guess there is no such thing as a real decoder only. There definitely used to be expensive processors back years ago, for straight Dolby Digital and nothing else (DTS probably had one too, and maybe some boxes later on did both). Pro Logic amps would generally have 6ch discrete input and you could rig up one of these to go between your surround source and your receiver.
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Mar 22, 2018 09:24
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Yes that’s been my experience too - everyone who complains about audio balance in movies is dealing with a stereo downmix from multichannel. I only run 3.0 personally, but having the center channel separate is nice to give a little bit more control over the dialog and I rarely have to mess with the volume.
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Apr 23, 2018 01:37
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I was lucky in finding a center matched to my mains, and while the speakers aren’t as big they’re sizeable that dialog hasn’t been an issue despite the fact I don’t have perfect placement. When I had an issue with my tv only kicking out 2.0 for a bit and I was trying to keep the volume down, it was night and day different.
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Apr 23, 2018 17:41
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It’s on my current gen Onkyo too, I’ve never had a receiver that doesn’t do it.
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May 20, 2018 18:12
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I was in a similar position to you a year ago (and up to as recently as last week) so I can share some things I came across that you might find useful. When you say you don't have space for a receiver, do you mean inside/outside/neither? I have my receiver running in the main room and use a phone app to control it when outside. First of all, if you do go the receiver route you might notice some say Zone 2 and some say Zone B. A slight difference in terminology between manufacturers? Nope! Lower priced receivers don't really do multizone audio/video very well and on the lower spec ones you'll find out fun things like anything that's multichannel won't get downconverted to stereo, or you might not be able to run audio from digital sources over HDMI out there. This is the main issue I have, which is why I have quite a few additional cables, and mental steps to follow when I want to use the setup. I'm guessing you want a similar setup to mine - a TV mounted out the back, additional speakers if you want bigger sound, and the ability to (for the most part) echo what's being shown on the main screen. I had an HDMI splitter running fine (my cabling is essentially 2 female HDMI sockets with cabling between them, and a run of speaker wire), and you can see how your TV handles running a stereo pair from it's line out. Some allow you to have both TV audio and that audio running at a time, and you can feed that into a small 2 ch amp or something out the back and run RCAs back there rather than speaker wire. Obviously if you want different things inside and outside (or want to be able to turn the main TV off while outside), that can limit you. Sadly, even when planning these things out I still found I run into a whole bunch of roadblocks. You'd think it'd be fairly straightforward these days, but it was a pain in the rear end.
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Jun 4, 2018 23:07
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For curiosities sake, find out 5 titles that he’d be interested in doing this with.
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Jun 5, 2018 20:59
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Marantz make the smallest receivers I’ve seen from memory. Have a look at what accessories4less.com have, that’ll probably be the best price. Otherwise Yamaha or Onkyo will get you the best bang for your buck on normal sized gear.
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Jun 26, 2018 15:07
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I’ve had to swap out cables on headphones before. It’s the part most likely to break especially if you use them a lot/out of the home.
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Jun 26, 2018 18:19
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I have 10” woofers in my towers, so a sub would probably need to be 12 or 15” land I’m sure I’d need to then start looking into room treatment as it’s in an open plan lounge/dining/kitchen. I’m pretty happy with my setup (split between TV/movies with the wife, concerts/music when I’m on my own) so it’s a pass for now.
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Jun 26, 2018 21:18
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Could just grab one of those cheap $20-30 Chinese amps on Amazon and test with that. I was in a similar situation and everything worked as intended (i could see speaker cable at two ends and just had to hope the runs weren’t interrupted. There’s also a 3rd pair of cables I’m still not sure what are for. Could be a sub but no idea).
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Jul 1, 2018 01:15
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I can't give specific suggestions as my stuff is a bit older (JBL Studio 310s and a matching center speaker), but if you go multichannel and do a 3.0 setup, you'll benefit from having dialog on it's own channel and can further adjust the volume on that. Downmixing surround to stereo seems to be the main reason that people are constantly adjusting volume during movies, because music and FX completely overpower the dialog.
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Jul 25, 2018 16:50
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Yeah, it’ll probably be down to whether it’s a 3 ring connector or if it splits the cable to one for speakers and one for mic. Not everything can take the 3 ring type.
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Aug 5, 2018 02:31
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In that budget, I’d generally be looking at the Yamahas, Denons and Onkyos. A4L used to have the one Yamaha model that was the Costco rebadge of their $800 receiver for like $350, but the model number is escaping me. The good thing is more and more modes should be fully up to date for audio specs and 4K/HDR. E: believe that was the 7810 which they don’t do anymore, but they have the 7790 which I think might be similarly spec’d. EL BROMANCE fucked around with this message at 23:37 on Aug 5, 2018 |
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Aug 5, 2018 23:28
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I can’t imagine spending $500 on a sound bar, let alone $1,000. I’m guessing space is an issue for you though?
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Sep 25, 2018 05:17
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