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New member Username: Heyjoe91Post Number: 1 Registered: Jul-11 | Hi, I have a room about 15x20 with a 60" Sharp. I'm looking to add surround sound and after reading many of the posts on this site I decided not to go with a HTIB. It seems to me that the Energy 5.1 ($399) are the best speakers in my price range. I am not sure what receiver to go with but I thought the Yamaha RX-V367BL ($189) would be the best option. So I'm at about $600 which is much more than the HTIB I wanted to buy for $250. I know you get what you pay for but $600 is more than the top of my budget. Is the setup I've described good or can you recommend a better system without exceeding my budget? Thanks so much for the help. Michael |
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Platinum Member Username: Jan_b_vigneDallas, TX Post Number: 16474 Registered: May-04 | . The small Energy speaker package suits your budget fairly well and should perform within rational expectations in your room. You'll need to be seated fairly close to the speakers or they will get lost in a room your size however. To integrate the small satellites with the subwoofer, you'll need some latitude in placement of both the satellites and the sub. Without that there is likely to be a hole in the overall response of the system with the impression of sub over there and satellites over here. Vocals might be somewhat disjointed at that point as the sub and satellites would be reproducing a good portion of that range. So sit within about seven to eight feet distance from the satellites and have some room to move the sub to various locations to get the best of the Energy speakers. You might want to read this thread; https://www.ecoustics.com/electronics/forum/home-audio/685923.html Whether the Yamaha is the "best" receiver for your money is pretty much something you'll have to decide for yourself. You can always find someone who likes most any HT receiver so having a forum tell you a receiver is OK really isnt a test of the product's value. I'm sure as others respond to your op you'll have suggestions to buy a Denon or Marantz or whichever brand the poster personally perfers. And that's sort of how most forum requests get answered, you'll find out what one individual prefers but telling you which is best for you is nearly impossible. If you realize most HT receivers aren't built to have long lives, then the Yamaha is very likely a good choice for you. If you have any service centers for multiple brands of audio gear in your area, you might want to head over to a shop and just ask their opinion of Yamaha's reliability record lately. To be honest in my opinion of any $200 HT receiver, you don't have a lot to work with when it comes to quality of design or reliability. However, as I always told my clients looking for a lower priced system for a back room, anything sounds better in your room than it will in a repair shop. A salesperson can't tell you much about reliability but a tech usually has some favorites they don't see much and those that are typically easy fixes when they do need repairs. They also tend to know which lines give them the most headaches. If you're really stretching your budget now, you want to get the most for your money and in low priced HT receivers, that to me means you want it to not be in the shop. Otherwise, you'd have to explain why you selected the Yamaha and possibly we could tell you whether your thinking is good or whether you should be considering something more important. . |
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New member Username: Heyjoe91Post Number: 2 Registered: Jul-11 | Thanks for the reply Jan. I completely understand that the sound might not be great for a large room but I am figuring that it will put one of those all in one Panasonic systems to shame. Is that true? Sounds like the receiver at that price won't be great no matter what brand I buy. That being said are the speakers good enough that if the receiver dies I can just replace and the speakers will last a long time? One more question...would it be better to just buy center speaker and two fronts with a sub at better quality and then add the back speakers at a later point? I know this won't be 5.1 but after reading your post I realized that my rear speakers will be about 6 feet behind where I will be sitting. At that range they might not being doing much for me anyway. I understand this will ultimately be for me to decide but just curious what you would do. Thanks again. |
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Gold Member Username: IlluminatorUSA Post Number: 5576 Registered: Apr-05 | HTIB's aren't all THAT bad. Certainly the frequency response is going to be all over the place with little satellites and a sub that has to fill in the rest, but there are still many decent HTIB's with decently-sized speakers that can fill in the spectrum better. I'm a big fan of used equipment, and you can find these systems for very cheap on your local craigslist or even on ebay. And I'm referring to HTIB's with legitimate receivers like you would buy separately at the store, not the thin proprietary receivers built only for the plastic speakers they came with and having tiny "digital amps" in them. Receivers at that price point, if you get a good brand one, aren't that bad!! Sure they might not have as many features, but consider this: they have lower power output and thus less heat (which damages components over time). In addition, they are far less complex and thus less goes wrong as well as being cheaper to fix if something does go wrong. I've seen this myself as I've been working as a tech in the electronics service industry. Your final suggestion is a great one: just get a center and two fronts with a sub and add back speakers at a later point. The only problem with that, however, is finding matching surround speakers if you wait long enough (they may no longer be in production and you'll have to find them used somewhere). Again, since I love used equipment, this wouldn't be a problem for me, but is something to consider. |
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Platinum Member Username: Jan_b_vigneDallas, TX Post Number: 16480 Registered: May-04 | . "I completely understand that the sound might not be great for a large room but I am figuring that it will put one of those all in one Panasonic systems to shame. Is that true?" Since I have no idea how you judge audio or sound qualities, I don't know what will shame a HTIB in your estimation. Having sold the Energy Take Five system in its first generation I was impressed by the system - for what it was meant to be. Energy has not found a way to repeal the laws of physics and small speakers must bend to those ultimate rules. But most importantly Energy designed the Take Five system to be genuine hifi and not something you would think of as a stop gap between this and that in between repairs. Driven by an adequate receiver and with those physical laws in mind, I think the Take Five system can easily suit many situations where space or budget are of a significant concern. IMO a HTIB is a dead end product, it is not upgradable and most often is not even meant to be repairable. I would say you are much better off with real speakers and a decent receiver than with any HTIB I've come across. But budget will too often determine which is the best suited to your situation. If a HTIB for now best suits your budget, then just know what you're likely to find in that product line. "Sounds like the receiver at that price won't be great no matter what brand I buy. That being said are the speakers good enough that if the receiver dies I can just replace and the speakers will last a long time?" The room is the most important contributor to the Take Five system's quality. Set up and the realization that you have purchased some pretty small speakers which might be asked to reproduce thermo-neuclear explosions in GammaGamma Quadrant Seven are really the limitations of the Energy system. They are real hifi and as such they can expose the deficiencies of a cheap reciever. In the shop were I sold the Energy systems we generally paired the Take Fives with a HarmanKardon reciever just because it sounded better as a combination. You might try the HK reconditioned web page to check for any sales on their products. I own forty year old HK products but that doesn't mean what they build today will be able to last that long or sound as good. As I said, HT receivers are generally thought of as a disposable product but every now and again a company turns out a really good product for not a lot of money. I would say selecting a receiver which is fairly bare bones about features allows the manufacturer to put more money into the guts of the receiver. Certainly if you do not overdrive the speakers and are capable of using common sense about volume levels, the Take Fives will outlast the vast majority of HT receivers. HT speaker packages aren't sold as individual items, you have to buy the set. Would the Take Fives be your best bet rather than going with a smaller array of speakers? I'm afraid I can't answer that question any better than I did in the linked post. For the price, you could buy a fairly decent set of "music" speakers and determine just how well they do the HT thing without a center. NHT, Energy themself, PSB, etc, make some very nice compact speakers in that price range. Your options open up when you decide you can deal with fewer speakers. On the other hand, if you're really strapped for cash right now, your best bet might be a good quality soundbar. A soundbar is a single speaker enclosure with multiple small drivers in the package. By digitally manipulating the phase coherence of the signal a soundbar can be made to approximate a full surround speaker package while minimizing the cost to a single speaker. I wouldn't consider a soundbar to be the final answer to HT sound but you can get a decent amount of entertainment for your dollar. " I understand this will ultimately be for me to decide but just curious what you would do." Ya'know, you wouldn't want to know what I would actually do. In twenty five years of audio sales I found what I would do was almost always the exact opposite of what the client actually decided to do. My tastes just don't run to the mainstream and video has never been all that important to me. Do your research and you'll very likely come out OK. You seem to be headed in the right direction. . |
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Platinum Member Username: Jan_b_vigneDallas, TX Post Number: 16481 Registered: May-04 | . Now, with all that information, don't over think the whole thing. It's relatively easy to get a good review. That's what reviewers are supposed to do, find the best qualities of whatever they are reviewing. Use these links as informational more than advisory. Come back and ask questions as you go. . |