Home audio for clueless derps

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D Griff
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Johnny_P wrote: Wed Aug 29, 2018 7:41 am
D Griff wrote: Wed Aug 29, 2018 7:29 am

Good advice here, not a bad path to take for a reasonable solution to what you're after.

If you're into music, I'd say def go 2.1 but since you say a lot of the consumption will be movies, I'd say definitely get a receiver capable of wireless surround speakers. I'm not a movie watcher, but if you're into movies/sportsball, surround is definitely the way to go. It'll make the entire experience way better and more realistic. Also, try to get one with built in Bluetooth, a decent receiver will have a WAY better DAC and analog output than your iTrude, so it will sound better streamed that way than out of the phones headphone jack (or lack of.....). Anything will be fine for your needs, Yamaha or whatever decent manufacturer. You don't need any boutique shit, but just "better than phone" will go a long way.

Cables... I'm going to go ahead and kinda disagree here, you want decent units but in the 10 feet or whatever you're going it doesn't matter all that much, I would just go with Monoprice or Amazon Basics or some other fairly cheap stuff.

Placement: the sub placement can indeed effect its perceived output. Low frequencies aren't directional, so worry less about where in the room it is and more about if it's against a wall or in a corner as Troy pointed out. The more walls it's next to, the louder it will be, so start it next to a wall, if you want more out of it, move to a corner, less out of it, move it away from the wall. Your main speakers will be much more directional, so try to place them so they're making an equilateral-ish triangle with where your head(s) will be on the couch and have them at an equalish height.
Speakers will end up being about a TV's width apart, about 3-4'. Don't have room for more than that with the room in it's current configuration. Sub can be in a corner, good idea. Don't have anywhere to put rear speakers right now but pretty sure any receiver I get will be able to support rears. Could add a center channel I guess but IDK if it's worth it. I imagine even just a 2.1 system will be loud to annoy the shit out of my neighbors if I were to crank it (rowhome, :member: ).
I wouldn't bother with a center speaker really, unless you're doing the surrounds. The placement will be fine, just try to get them at a height somewhat near your head level and it'll work out. The full surround isn't about being louder but just having a better movie experience. The people who mix movies create them in surround, so when you listen in stereo, you're getting a dumbed down version. I don't movie so :aintcare: but I think 5.1 is worth it once you can make it work in the room, if you do enjoy watching them.
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D Griff wrote:
Johnny_P wrote: Wed Aug 29, 2018 7:41 am Speakers will end up being about a TV's width apart, about 3-4'. Don't have room for more than that with the room in it's current configuration. Sub can be in a corner, good idea. Don't have anywhere to put rear speakers right now but pretty sure any receiver I get will be able to support rears. Could add a center channel I guess but IDK if it's worth it. I imagine even just a 2.1 system will be loud to annoy the shit out of my neighbors if I were to crank it (rowhome, :member: ).
I wouldn't bother with a center speaker really, unless you're doing the surrounds. The placement will be fine, just try to get them at a height somewhat near your head level and it'll work out. The full surround isn't about being louder but just having a better movie experience. The people who mix movies create them in surround, so when you listen in stereo, you're getting a dumbed down version. I don't movie so :aintcare: but I think 5.1 is worth it once you can make it work in the room, if you do enjoy watching them.
Surround is cool on the rare occasion that you can use it. It's pretty hard to find an AV receiver that is not at least 5.1 capable today. It'd be really easy to upgrade to 5.1 with something like that Yamaha with the wireless surround option, just grab a center speaker and 2 of the wireless rears and you're set.
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Whats the deal with speaker impedance? Can I get 8 ohm 100W speakers and wire them to a 4 ohm 50W/ch receiver?
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troyguitar wrote: Wed Aug 29, 2018 8:57 am
D Griff wrote:
I wouldn't bother with a center speaker really, unless you're doing the surrounds. The placement will be fine, just try to get them at a height somewhat near your head level and it'll work out. The full surround isn't about being louder but just having a better movie experience. The people who mix movies create them in surround, so when you listen in stereo, you're getting a dumbed down version. I don't movie so :aintcare: but I think 5.1 is worth it once you can make it work in the room, if you do enjoy watching them.
Surround is cool on the rare occasion that you can use it. It's pretty hard to find an AV receiver that is not at least 5.1 capable today. It'd be really easy to upgrade to 5.1 with something like that Yamaha with the wireless surround option, just grab a center speaker and 2 of the wireless rears and you're set.
Those B&W speakers look nice as hell. And the Yamaha receiver should do everything I want I think. Marantz has the bling factor I guess but I don't think it's going to make much difference, and I can't find silver Marantz units for reasonable prices.
I didn't realize these did AM/FM as well. That's pretty solid, there's an old piece of shit giant FM antenna on the roof I bet I could resurrect.
$350 shipped on the speakers, $250 shipped on the sub, and $300-400 receiver sounds pretty good to me.
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Johnny_P wrote:Whats the deal with speaker impedance? Can I get 8 ohm 100W speakers and wire them to a 4 ohm 50W/ch receiver?
Most amps need to see a minimum impedance - and put out their maximum power with that load. They'll put out less power at a higher impedance but it's rarely a problem.
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Johnny_P wrote: Wed Aug 29, 2018 7:47 pm
troyguitar wrote: Wed Aug 29, 2018 8:57 am Surround is cool on the rare occasion that you can use it. It's pretty hard to find an AV receiver that is not at least 5.1 capable today. It'd be really easy to upgrade to 5.1 with something like that Yamaha with the wireless surround option, just grab a center speaker and 2 of the wireless rears and you're set.
Those B&W speakers look nice as hell. And the Yamaha receiver should do everything I want I think. Marantz has the bling factor I guess but I don't think it's going to make much difference, and I can't find silver Marantz units for reasonable prices.
I didn't realize these did AM/FM as well. That's pretty solid, there's an old piece of shit giant FM antenna on the roof I bet I could resurrect.
$350 shipped on the speakers, $250 shipped on the sub, and $300-400 receiver sounds pretty good to me.
:doit:

I think you'll be :mindblown: at the quality compared to anything else you've owned.
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Those Bowers & Wilkins 686 speakers ended. Were a good price, should have picked them up, but I waited to ask a question on shipping and lost the chance. Anywho. Other speakers to keep an eye out for? Focal Chorus? Audioengine HDP6?
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Johnny_P wrote: Sun Aug 26, 2018 3:53 pm
Acid666 wrote: Sun Aug 26, 2018 3:51 pm Whatever you do, don't buy a set of speakers from anyone in a white van at a gas station who says they just installed a whole system for a customer but they over supplied and now they have extra that they don't wanna take home.
:lolol: don’t worry I know a guy
i feel like these "guys" are at every other gas station in philly
:doughnut: :narc: :doughnut:
Desertbreh wrote: Thu Oct 17, 2019 3:05 pm DFD. The forum where everybody makes the same choices and then tells anybody trying to join the club that they are the stupidest motherfucker to ever walk the earth.
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Johnny_P wrote: Mon Sep 03, 2018 5:08 pm Those Bowers & Wilkins 686 speakers ended. Were a good price, should have picked them up, but I waited to ask a question on shipping and lost the chance. Anywho. Other speakers to keep an eye out for? Focal Chorus? Audioengine HDP6?
I think the Energy Classics 5.1 that I grabbed sound just fine for small speakers. Plus you'll have the extra ones for if you ever do want to add more into your set up.
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If you haven't decided yet and want very good bookshelf speakers that compete with units 5x+ their price, checkout HSU Research.


I went up on the models, I have these in 3.1 config: http://www.hsuresearch.com/products/ultra15-CCBpkg.html

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and a pair of these in the walls for rears to fill out 5.1: http://www.hsuresearch.com/products/hiw-1.html

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This package config is really good, those speakers are very highly rated. http://www.hsuresearch.com/products/hybrid1pkg.html

2.1: $659

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3.1: $879

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Those speakers sound MUCH better than the Paradigm's I had that were $800 per speaker.

The owner of the company is an audio engineer and has made speakers forever and specialized in subs in 1991until maybe 15 years ago or something when he got into high end speakers as well.

You can also mix-match as they sell the speakers as separates. Here are the specs on the HB-1 bookshelf speakers: http://www.hsuresearch.com/products/hb-1.html

I highly recommend them because when I called to ask some questions they transferred me to the owner, Mr. Hsu and we talked for about 15 minutes about what I was looking for and he actually tried to down sell me to the cheaper speakers saying they would be great. I had heard them before, and agree... but I wanted the single point source in the CCB-8's.
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Oh wow :notbad: !!
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