Opinions and answers needed: 2.1 system for <$2500
Ben123456
Unregistered guest
Posted on
[Please note: topic originally posted in "Speakers" thread but my questions encompass several categories, including receivers, thus posting here as well...]
I want to do some shopping. I'm pretty new at this. If you would like, please help me assemble the following goal!
Goal: assemble a basic 2.1 system for 70/30 music/movies. Surround speakers and nice TV come later; i dont want to buy those right now. i will need to purchase a receiver, nice L/R speakers, a sub, and of course good cables. let's say i want to spend $2000-$2500 for these things. also, consideration for size/carpeting: i'll be moving into a 1000-1200 s.f. apartment next july, prob for at least 2 years there, not sure on exact living room size, but pretty standard i imagine, and carpeted throughout too.
Wants: 1) to spend about $500 for the receiver 2) Sunfire True Subwoofer Super Junior. I'm pretty much set on buying this, i've heard this in stores and in a buddy's house several times, and i like the construction quality and amount of bass it puts out relative to its 9" size. so this will probably end up being $600-$800, depending on how good of a deal i can find. 3) Everything else is unknown, i'm open to all ideas.
Questions: i have many, so feel free to answer one, or all. i appreciate any help and i categorized them below into the diff purchase categories.
A) Speaker-related i) Like wine, i hear that more expensive speakers are not *always* better. Do you disagree that I should buy from a place that has a 30 day policy or whatever so I can test out of they sound good in my own place? Or do you think that if i spend $700-1000 for a pair of 3-way floorstandings they should pretty good no matter where they are placed?
ii.) Is open-box/demo a bad thing for speakers? (assuming no audible or visible damage) Do speakers have a particular half-life, how quickly do they degrade, if at all? (w/light-to-normal use)
iii.) Floorstanding = best bet? Will I compromise a lot of sound quality by going with a well-made stand-mount speaker, even w/having the sunfire for filling in the missing bass blend?
iv.) Brands: I hear a lot of good thinks about KEF, i know a guy around here and can get demo prices for maybe $1000 on the Q11, for example. I also thought Klipsch were decent too, my parents had a 5.1 sat system. Generally speaking, are there brands out there to avoid? Brands out there to pay a lil more attention to? Again, I'm probably looking to spend $1000 or less for both L/R, but I don't know how much of an issue price is w/speakers. Style is *kind of* important. e.g. one of the reasons i like the sunfire sub is b/c of its small footprint.
B) Receiver-related i. Should $500 do it for a quality piece of equipment, in terms of my aforementioned goal?
ii. best bet would be to buy an 04/05 model as opposed to an 05/06 so long as the technology hasnt changed much, in terms of saving $$$ ?
iii. favorite brands out there? I'm looking at H/K, Denon, and Pioneer. should I avoid these? keep looking at these? any other brands?
iv. what is going on with digital-output receivers nowadays. is this a fundamental shift that i should pay attention to? i understand the logic behind the converting of signals a-to-d and vice versa, and its impact on quality, but should i get these "digital" receivers?
C) Subwoofer-related i. anyone want to tell me why i should *not* get the sunfire super junior? Any better 10" models in that price range? ii. in other words, am i right in thinking that i should purchase this?
D) Cable-related i. high quality cable is obviously good for preventing sound loss and avoiding noise. monster obviously is very good, but also expensive. does monster have rival brands from whom you eek out a little bit more value in the purchase? i dont plan on soldering my own cable, either....
Again, I'm new to this, and any help to the above questions would be greatly appreciated. hopefully it will also stir up some interesting discussion/debate among everyone and their opinions on the ideal way to assemble a great 2.1 system for $2500 or less. -- Regards,