Hey, I'm looking at slowly putting together a home theater system in my house. I'm just having a hard time choosing a receiver. I've never owned a receiver so all of this is new to me.
Originally I was looking into getting a Yamaha rx-v1900 and use them with a Infinity primus speakers. But then I started looking around more and more and reading through these forums, and many people suggested you spend 2/3 of your budget on good speakers, and the rest on a receiver?
So I started looking into more speakers, and the Klipsch Reference line caught my eye. I'm lookng at the RF -82 fronts, RC-62 center, and RS-62 for the surrounds. I've known about Klipsch for a long time, I was always nervous because they aren't cheap. But, after doing some research many people either love em or hate Klipsch "sound". I have heard from quite a few people that Klipsch are very sensitive and efficient speakers, but also sound very "bright". I don't really know what that means but...
Anyways, I hear that Yamaha receivers are not a very good match for each other because both have a very "bright sound" and would be overkill for your ears? Is this true?
So I was advised to look into something with a warmer or "natural sound" to work with the Klipsch reference line. Either a Onkyo tx-nr807 or similar priced Denon with eqaul features and sound quality? I listen primarily to tv/bd movies/ and games. Not much music.
But if anyone has any other suggestions or comments that would make this decision easier that would help a lot.
Nobody is really helping me on this. I've gone to a few stores and asked some of their opinions, but for the most part I'm just doing a lot of research online and reading forums.
Blair, nothing replaces going out and checking it out yourself. Since this a movie/game setup, you may need to check some big box stores and see what is connected now, and how well it works. The cable box connection seems to be a bugaboo for a lot of folks, quality wise.
Do you have the opportunity to visit anything more audio oriented than a big box that also sells computers and appliances? Any independent audio shops in your area?
No I'm not really sure what other local electronics store there are around. But at my local BB they have a Magnolia as part of their home theater section of the store, but any of these stores never have the exact receiver or speakers I'm going to get. They have some Klipsch speakers, but nothing even close to top of the line, so I don't know how good of a test it will be? Everyone tells me the best thing to do is just go out and listen for myself, but its kinda hard when stores don't carry the items im looking for. So its like im having to buy blind and hope its ok.
Stores often do not carry what you are wanting to hear. It has become an increasingly difficult problem with so many lines available, more coming each day and many lines carrying dozens upon dozens of speakers that are narrowly spaced apart in pricing. Compound this with a big box store approach similar to Best Buy's that merchandises to promote certain products over others all done through a central buyer who seldom has contact with the individual stores and you have even more problems to contend with. Even in supposedly well respected lines I have been thoroughly confused at how two speakers from the same company can be that different when they are only $50 apart in price or how one manufacturer can build 36 different speakers if they are claiming to build for fidelity and not just to a price point that hits all the relevant hot spots.
You will often find a single dealer won't carry both the electronics and the speakers you've picked while doing on-line searches. On-line shopping is both the single greatest assistance to the consumer and the single greatest curse when you are dealing with products influenced by subjective opinions. On-line is great for buying a blender but not so for buying speakers.
Realize you don't have to hear all of the prospective system components put together in one store to decide what to buy. More often than not a store demo performed through an A-B speaker switch box in a room filled with speakers, subwoofers and receivers - where nothing can be placed for good sound, just as many models as possible - isn't going to inform your decision in any realistic manner. I would agree many listeners will find a Klipsch/Yamaha combination to be over the top in its frequency balance if their emphasis is more to the music side of source material and their listening room is on the sparsely furnished, hard surfaced, reflective side of decoration. On the other hand, another listener using the same system in a room filled with soft surfaces, carpets and drapes, overstuffed furniture and absorptive (as opposed to reflective) materials can find the combination to be not so heavy handed in its extremes. Many listeners will find the combination to be excellent for movies and games simply because fidelity to realism is not what the speakers and receiver strive for. Take what you read on-line with a large grain of salt and decide which description might best suit your situation.
I think you'll eventually need to make a dedision whether you will make the entire purchase from one store that can deliver and install the whole system and then offer after the sale service or whether you'll buy from several retailers and when problems arise (which they too often do in the feature packed and sub-menu controlled world of HT receivers) each will point the finger of blame at the product they didn't sell.
Further, getting recommendations off the internet web pages is not very reliable either. People tend to write either glowing reviews of something they just purchased or trash something they hate. The concept of pairing "bright" speakers with a "warm" amplifier is rather simplistic and doesn't address the real nature of either component or the room environment they will occupy, most especially if the reader (and the writer) doesn't fully understand the vocabulary of the hobby. Before you go any further in your research you need to understand the listening room is the single greatest influence on the sound you hear and what you hear in a store's demo room might not even remotely correlate with the sound you will hear in your home due to your room and its furnishings and the ability you have to set the system up for best results. If the reviews you are reading on-line do not acknowledge the influence of the room, then you are only getting a small portion of the information required to make an informed decision.
Place "audio glossary" in a search engine and you'll find a definition of the words you find confusing.
IMO buying "blind" and hoping for the best isn't a great way to shop for audio. It might work for breakfast cereals but not for audio. You need some help on a one on one basis to avoid a costly mistake.
You stated you are slowly putting together a HT for your home. How slowly? I mean to ask what stage are you in and how long does "slowly" last? A month or several months? A year? Have you set a deadline for having the system in place? Do you already own other components that will be incorporated into the new system or is this a system purchased from scratch?
I'm a bit surprised that you can't find a speaker in the price range of the RF82 available for audition. Klipsch has become all but an exclusive line of Best Buy/Magnolia but there are other retailers for the line. Have you tried getting on the Klipsch home page and using their "find a dealer" option? Or calling Klipsch and asking where you might hear the speakers? Certainly the Klipsch factory rep for your area can tell you which local retailers have bought that model in recent months. Try calling a Best Buy/Magnolia and asking for the name and contact information of the local Klipsch rep if you can't find the information you need.
Now I have to ask how you settled on the Klipsch RF82 if you've never heard the speaker. What made this the model you want? Have you listened to any of the Klispch line? Or any other speakers? If so, what do you think?
Have you pulled out the Yellow Pages and searched for other audio retailers in your area? What is your area?
And what exactly are you wanting us to tell you in this thread?
I have the Reference Yamaha Combo at my home theater but i dont have carpet on the floor i have wood heavy on cloth theater seats covered windows with sheerock for complete blackout and heavy drapes on the walls and sound boxes to catch echos and it seems to be a perfect combo i also have the ref sub's there good but try not to place them in the back of the room and more towards as front as u can because they suck if u place them in the back of the room i have it with a 150" electric screen and a LG CF181D great setup IMO
Klipsch with denon or HK sounds horrible as it is, I cannot imagine what it sounds like with Yamaha. Oh wait, I have and it sounded horrid. Personally, I would rather have the really annoying kid from kindergarten scrape his fingernails across the chalkboard than listen to that combo.