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I am very much on team “stereo home theater is the correct choice for 95% of people” but AVRs are great value and for people’s first system it’s an easy recommendation for everything but speakers to be in one box.
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Nov 8, 2023 22:23
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FilthyImp posted:I just found out Ken Fritz passed and his poo poo is being auctioned off and God drat is that depressing me. A family friend posted a thread on AVS trying to help figure out what to do with it, it's a weird thread because people were doing things like telling his family to turn the house they live in into a museum and such.
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Nov 9, 2023 16:12
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Wharfedale Diamonds and Triangle Boreas go on sale a lot too.
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Nov 11, 2023 08:18
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At the end of the market there’s going to be some kind of compromise about everything available but cheap JBLs are generally a safe bet.
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Nov 11, 2023 16:33
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Fluance sells combo packs with their powered speakers, might be a good way to save some money. That and a Wiim Mini and you're good for vinyl and streaming.
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Nov 20, 2023 20:48
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If you have that kind of budget it's worth looking into other solutions, the drivers in soundbars are generally too small to do even low midrange effectively. $300-400 on a receiver and a similar amount on two bookshelf speakers will give you much better sound and system flexibility. That said they will be at their best if you can position them properly, not crammed under the tv or in a cubby. If you must the Sonos Arc is probably one of the best options.
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Nov 21, 2023 18:19
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Yeah the 7100 has Dirac, that’s a drat good price.
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Nov 23, 2023 08:33
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One other similar thing to consider would be the new Wiim Amp. I don’t think it’s actually shipping yet [or they didn’t send out review samples] so I haven’t seen much about it yet but their other gear is considered very solid. I have no personal experience with Arylic stuff. Edit: for $65 on their Black Friday sale you’re probably not going to do better. qirex fucked around with this message at 21:52 on Nov 23, 2023 |
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Nov 23, 2023 21:49
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nrook posted:Somebody stop me from buying philharmonic ceramic minis for my TV for Christmas Do you have a good amplifier? 84db efficiency and dips to 3.2 ohms is fairly demanding.
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Nov 24, 2023 20:20
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The Sonos amp would give you more flexibility, you can’t really add more inputs to the speakers on their own.
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Nov 26, 2023 21:51
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Those have 3” woofers, I’d avoid them. I had a 3.1 with the Promonitor 1000 bookshelves and 2000 center, it was ok but didn’t flip my wig. At higher volumes the tweeter sounded bright or sibilant in my room and since they’re sealed there’s not much bass. I’d say they’re ok for their size but they’re priced the same as what I think are better speakers.
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Nov 27, 2023 03:08
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There’s levels of Dirac you can add on for managing multiple subwoofers and the like but it has a good version out of the box.
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Nov 29, 2023 03:11
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Yeah as far as I know the PS4/PS5 controller audio is a dedicated thing you can't configure.
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Dec 18, 2023 20:32
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At your budget I'd personally be looking at a pair of powered speakers, I'm not super familiar with euro pricing but stuff like the Triangle BR03 Connect or Klipsch The Fives might be a good place to start. A speakers' characteristics and capability are defined by the size of the drivers, the size/shape/weight of the cabinet, their position in the room and the electronics inside. In a soundbar they basically put all their character points into the last thing because they let people's desire to not have large, box-shaped speakers away from the TV define every other aspect of the design. Some of them apparently almost sound ok because of all the effort they put into DSP but they tend to be the ones that cost the same or more than a traditional speaker/amp setup. Additionally the subwoofers they come with are generally pretty sad compared to the real thing [this is just physics, a 6" woofer in a five pound plastic enclosure simply can't output bass like a 12" one in a HDF box the size of a mini fridge]. Other options: On the higher end there's stuff like WiSA where you can use a small hub to send audio wirelessly to speakers from vendors like Buchardt, B&O, Dynaudio, Piega, Canton and Dali. Most of these start well north of 1000 euro to get started and go to "gently caress you." There's also compact stereo amps like the Sonos Amp, NAD M10/C700, Lyngdorf 1120 or Bluesound Powernode [plus cheaper options from companies like Wiim and Arylic] that have a HDMI ARC input then drive normal passive speakers.
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Jan 2, 2024 16:56
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distortion park posted:One of my main motivations for looking at 3.0 systems was that the center channel apparently makes dialogue a lot clearer. Will just a stereo setup also work ok for that? The room is 3.5m*5m. Also a lot of things are just mixed with the dialog intentionally unintelligible now, kind of like how they shoot well lit scenes then turn them to mud in post with dark-rear end color grading to look "more realistic." e: as far as a sub if you get decent speakers the bass level will blow away any soundbar sub that comes with a set in your price range.
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Jan 3, 2024 00:09
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One Sonos option a lot of people overlook is the Amp, you can still use wireless speakers for surround but you can buy your own speakers and sub for the front. Sure it's 2 channel but you can get great speakers and subs much cheaper than going full Sonos. I will never understand why they never made a 3 channel version of the Amp, seems like a no brainer product. Also, it's pretty specious to say they have a reputation for dropping support for their products, the whole S1/S2 thing a few years back was because they hadn't dropped support for a single product for the first 12 years they were in business. It was a self-created situation and they handled it badly but eventually got on the right track.
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Jan 6, 2024 01:12
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Fozzy The Bear posted:The problem I have is if the Sonos company goes bankrupt you have a $700 paperweight. I want to own my equipment, not lease it. Counterpoint: if you have an Onkyo, Pioneer or Integra receiver older than 2 years it’s basically unserviceable.
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Jan 6, 2024 05:30
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There's a bunch of "just amps" out there, if you're OK with Schiit pricing there's more affordable options using Hypex/Ncore modules from companies like Apollon, VTV, Buckeye, Audiophonics, DIY Class D, etc. They will be more accurate, efficient and generate a ton less heat then AB designs. For many of the cheap tripath amps [Topping, Fosi, SMSL, etc.] volume control is built into the amplifier chip itself so there's no reason for them to leave it out.
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Jan 8, 2024 16:28
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If that's the case then get a receiver with a max volume limiter, IMO. If other people are going to use it they're going to want to adjust the volume.
qirex fucked around with this message at 17:55 on Jan 8, 2024 |
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Jan 8, 2024 17:46
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emocrat posted:Some of the suggestions above actually lead to the exact type if thing I want, for example: https://www.schiit.com/products/gjallarhorn however getting this with enough power seems like its beyond what I want to spend to solve my somewhat minor problem. I appreciate all the advice that has been offered.
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Jan 8, 2024 20:38
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Sierras are good speakers and I bet they do go lower than something like the Sonos sub or anything packaged with a soundbar. But let’s all continue well, actuallying someone for our own benefit.
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Jan 10, 2024 22:14
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I would probably be a more public Canton fanboy if AC4L still had their speakers, I got an absolute steal on mine but the company that distributes them in the US has decided to price them at a serious premium. I bet there will be some great deals on KEF Q series on that site when the company meta-izes them.
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Jan 11, 2024 20:21
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With L/R that big [RP8000s are loving huge] try running it without a center, there's a good chance it will sound better.
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Jan 22, 2024 21:12
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The JBL 6 series or HDI with the compression driver are worth looking at IMO, they're supposed to be great for home theater. Basically the speakers are going to be the trickiest thing to shop for, if you stick to direct companies the sub [maybe check out RSL and SVS as well] will basically scale with budget and there's only really 4 receiver companies left in the sub-$1000 range. AC4L is a good site for that. qirex fucked around with this message at 23:46 on Jan 24, 2024 |
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Jan 24, 2024 20:36
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Don’t worry about watts, a $299 AC4L/Costco receiver will be able to play way too loud unless you get weird speakers or have a huge room. If you’re shopping used make sure you get something that was sold as a proper standalone receiver and not part of some cheapo box set. Speakers from that era aren’t the best for home theater, that “vintage sound” can be a byword for fuzzy and not super clear. Totally depends on the model and your room though. qirex fucked around with this message at 20:01 on Jan 27, 2024 |
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Jan 27, 2024 19:58
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The Perfect Element posted:So long as it's not a ludicrous thing to do, I guess I'll just grab something for £60-£100 and hope it works out. Barring getting extremely lucky on the used market that amount of money will probably end up with something worse what you have now. Save your cash for a more significant upgrade or hitting gold if some audiophile dies and his widow just wants everything out of the house or similar.
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Mar 10, 2024 23:12
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Since you're in Germany look for deals on Canton speakers, they're generally pretty expensive but they do a lot of sales. The GLE and Chrono/Townus series in particular are a good price/performance balance. A center can help with dialog or sometimes make it worse. Unless it's just the director being a jerk about it [eg Nolan] speaker positioning has a huge influence on intelligibility. If you can place a center channel pointed at your ears with no obstructions, great. Pushed way back on/in a cabinet or pointed at your knees or the front of a coffee table... less so. Left or right speakers too close to a side wall can cause early reflections that make it more difficult to hear. Unfortunately room acoustics is complicated but you can do a lot for free, don't be afraid to move your speakers around if you can, it can make a huge difference. I did the three same speakers as my front stage for a while, it worked fine.
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Mar 13, 2024 16:32
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What happened is some time in the 90s when receivers started doing DSP one company added a couple modes that sounded interesting. Then another company looked at that and said "well if they have three modes, we need 5!" and this cycle continued until it peaked around 15-20. I think at this point they're afraid to get rid of them because then they'll have fewer sound modes if someone is cross-shopping models. I don't think anyone intentionally uses any of them, ever.
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Mar 22, 2024 16:11
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The LS50s get to pretty low impedance [3.2 ohms] in the bass frequencies but if you’re using a sub you should be fine. The only reason you might want to spring for a more expensive model would be if you want pre outs for future flexibility. In use the difference between 80 and 100 watts isn’t really going to be noticeable.
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Apr 13, 2024 02:44
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Counterpoint/Devil's advocate take: spend 100% of your speaker money on 2 or 3 high output theater speakers and multiple good subs. get some crappy wallmounts for side channels if you must. This may not work if the speakers need to be not ugly, because man those things are ugly. e: I just remembered the the JBL HDI series has proper compression drivers and bonus they don't look terrible. qirex fucked around with this message at 22:21 on May 1, 2024 |
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May 1, 2024 22:17
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Tacier posted:I have L/R tower speakers (Klipsch VF-35) that I can’t use with the matching center for cabinet size reasons. Do you guys think I’d be better off buying a non-matching Klipsch center channel from a different product line, or spending that same money on the matching surrounds for a 4.0 setup and using a phantom center? If you're using a center is should be the best speaker in your whole system since it will be handling 60-90% of all audio in surround content. It costs you nothing to try phantom center, in a lot of rooms it will be fine but you may have to play with speaker position and angle to get it dialed in.
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May 3, 2024 20:37
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Flowers for QAnon posted:Any suggestions on how to auto adjust my a/v receiver volume when the HVAC kicks in? I currently have a few years old Denon unit, but willing to buy a new one if needed. Get a mini split?
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May 17, 2024 18:59
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| # ¿ May 22, 2024 06:49 |
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You could always try moving your speakers around, particularly your center channel. The goal is to have it pointed at your ears at the main listening position and to minimize early reflections [don't put it back on a shelf, try moving your coffee table, etc.].
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May 20, 2024 16:56
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