Cerwin Vega! FE12" 300 watts, need receiver suggestions. (1 Viewer)

[JohnRice]

The Pioneer is probably the way to go in the long run. I was actually going to suggest looking into a vintage stereo receiver rather than a new one, if you went that route, but you need to know what to look for and have some patience. Aside from the other potential for expansion you get with the Pioneer, you have an easy way to add a sub, which despite what some people claim, is always a substantial improvement, as long as you get a good sub and set it up properly.

 

I am finding less bass than I know the speakers put out. It sounds a bit "tinny" and not full and stable. I heard more high and mid range not so much bass. I have found the menu that allowed me to boost the bass to 6, (Max) and it still didnt give me the deepness I know they can put out. I am reading the manual page by page to find out if there is a way to boost the bass even more.

As for the iPod hook up ( supplied) and it makes the iPod driven by the receivers remote control, however I have to go song by song to get to what I want as it displays the song and artist on the display. The other set up allowed me to put the iPod in my hand , find the song/artist quickly and play it but it was not powered by any remote control. SO there is a trade off. I am not sure if this will be the receiver for me. I need more bass and a more full sound from this unit, BUT I think its in the settings. And I will exhaust every one of them before I write this receiver off.

I was directed to this reciever without mentioning it had been reccomended to me, so i think I just need to learn how to use it with just two speakers. The lack of bass has me stumped.

 

Is it possible I need a sub to add to this set up? It sounds like it.

 

[David Willow]

In the menu make certain your speakers are set as LARGE, or FULL BAND. Double check to make sure you disabled the subwoofer and other speakers.

 

I saw that in the manual but the only way to see the menu is to hook it up to my TV appartently. I saw the set your speakers to large but fails to show me how without HDMI hook up to mu TV. Grrrrr.

 

I found it. What a difference. Bass heavy like i like it. Thanks for the tip.
I also had to match the left and right channels to 8 ohms. they were set at zero. I corrected that. Fuller bassy sound now.

 

[AudioENG]

Glad you found the settings! Bet it sounds great, stuff shaking off the walls yet?

 

Have to wait until the wife leaves for work today until I can test it above 20! I am amazed at how "clean the sound, sounds with this receiver. Things can be heard on the speakers you just don't get off the car stereo! I'm very happy. I never would've thought of Pionneer! I had that brand in my mind as a cheap one. But even the staff guy at Best Buy said " Oh no, Pioneer, especially the new lines are very well made."

 

[David Willow]

Glad you like it.

Pioneer make very nice receivers. Them, along with Onkyo, Yamaha, and Denon are among the most popular mid level receivers.

Now, send the wife out shopping and let the neighbors enjoy your new setup as well.

 

[JohnRice]

Dean, it is kind of chic to slam Pioneer, at least a little, but they give you a lot for the money. A big part of it is probably because they sell so many receivers, they get the economy of large production. I actually own 3 Pioneer receivers, though 2 of them are top of the line models. The other is a very mainstream one, and it performs nicely.

 

I bought two HDMI cables and expanded my use of the receiver. I read the entire manual and I thought if I just use this receiver for two speakers I am not getting the most out of this thing! It has four HDMI's and as someone on this thread said, for the money, this IS the receiver to get. I could'nt agree more now.

I will say this about it though, it is NOT a plug and play receiver, you really have to know what youre doing. There are at least a dozen settings you have to change and tweak to make "Large" speakers sound good. That's the only thing I was surprised about since I havent had a stereo system for ten years things really have changed!!! My Yamaha set up, crica 1999 was as easy as hooking the speaker cables up and turn up the music. I must be getting old! There is a lot of new technology out there and this particular receiver has most of what is available. I think this model Pioneer will remain relevant for at least a few years as things change even more.

 

P.S. I did turn it up to 50 out of 100 and the cats ran from the living room and the one big picture we have hanging on the opposing wall moved off center from that well-known Cerwin Vega! bass. It sounded so good! No distortion or anything. I was playing the new Marilyn Manson, High End of Low from my iPod and it made me like the disc more! Good stereo makes good songs even better by revealing little things you don't hear on iPod headphones. Amazing. I'm very happy with this choice. Thanks again all who helped me make it.

 

[David Willow]

Dean,

Glad you are enjoying the new setup. Just a couple things (for you to file for later use). "LARGE" means "send all bass to the mains (L/R speakers)". "SMALL" means "redirect the bass at a certain point to a subwoofer". It has little to do with the actual size of your speakers. In a home theater setup, even large (in size) speakers benifit from a good subwoofer. For your use, I don't beleive it would help much, but it is good to know.

I'm not sure what format the Manson tunes are in, but normally iTunes compresses the music on the iPod. Try playing the cd instead of the iPod and see how you like it. In general, the better your equipment, the worse compressed music sounds.

 

[gene c]

Dean, here's a review Home Theater Magazine did of the Pioneer 918 (which should be close to what you bought) in Aug '08. Mark Fleischmann was very impressed with it's two channel sound quality for an in-expensive receiver.

And here's a quick over-view from Audioholics of the 4 receivers Pioneer released this year.

I've always liked Pioneer receivers, though I'm a bit disappointed the 1019 is now based on the 919 and not the low model of the Elite line but I guess they had to save some money. And they did drop the MSRP $100. But I also feel Onkyo's entry level receivers might be just a bit better because of it's inclusion of Audyssey. But it looks like your new Pioneer does everything you need it too. And quite a bit more.

 

Originally Posted by David Willow

Dean,

Glad you are enjoying the new setup. Just a couple things (for you to file for later use). "LARGE" means "send all bass to the mains (L/R speakers)". "SMALL" means "redirect the bass at a certain point to a subwoofer". It has little to do with the actual size of your speakers. In a home theater setup, even large (in size) speakers benifit from a good subwoofer. For your use, I don't beleive it would help much, but it is good to know.

I'm not sure what format the Manson tunes are in, but normally iTunes compresses the music on the iPod. Try playing the cd instead of the iPod and see how you like it. In general, the better your equipment, the worse compressed music sounds.

The bit about compressed files, I have noticed songs downloaded at the normal 128 kbs sound not very good. The Manson album is at 320 kps sounds ten times better. I see exactly what you mean some songs, the 128 ones are almost unlistenable to me, but the better ones at 320 like the new Oasis and Manson files are both at 320 and sound very very good.

I did finally get the understanding of "Large" and "small" speakers settings and found the small setting eliminated the bass on the two Large speakers. But setting it to large let the bass function fully and let the music sound much more full bodied.

I was going to ask another question. What other Pioneer components are there out there that my system would benefit from. I tried a Best Buy search and only found car audio.

 

Originally Posted by gene c ">[/url]

Dean, [url=http://www.audioholics.com/reviews/receivers/pioneer-VSX-1019AH-K]here's[/url] a quick over-view from Audioholics of the 4 receivers Pioneer released this year.

I've always liked Pioneer receivers, though I'm a bit disappointed the 1019 is now based on the 919 and not the low model of the Elite line but I guess they had to save some money. And they did drop the MSRP $100. But I also feel Onkyo's entry level receivers might be just a bit better because of it's inclusion of Audyssey. But it looks like your new Pioneer does everything you need it too. And quite a bit more.[/QUOTE]Funny the reviewer uses many of the same words I used after getting my settings just right. Words like "clean sound" and the ability to change, pause, play songs from the iPod and the iPod doesn't even need to be in sight. It used the USB port to take over the iPods menus and they are all on the receivers remote. This is the best most important thing about this receiver to me. Since like I said before most, if not all of my music is played off the iPod. One thing I HAVE learned that when and if I DO download my songs off LimeWire I need to downlad the higher kbs ones. They can't just be the 128 kbs ones I am used to. I need the larger 320 file ones because they just sound ten times better. So I have some replacing to do with the songs I like to hear but are the lower quality format.


I've yet to figure out how to see the menus on the TV, I have the HDMI cords but can't seem to find out how I see it like it shows in the manual. Unfortunatley the manual does not tell or show you hwo to hook the receiver up that way. I've tried HDMI 1, 2, DVD, BLU ray, and the LCD I have is new so I know it should be able to hook up but I cant figure it out. I did figure out how to hook the receiver to the Comcast HD/DVR so the sound comes out of the speakers if I want it to. But the menu on screen part I just can't figure out where to plug what.

 

[gene c]

Which receiver did you get? The 819 doesn't transmit the OSD over HDMI. You need to hook up an additional component or composite cable to your tv in order to view the OSD.

 

I got the Pioneer vsx-819h-k. Ive tried to use another HDMI from DVD to the TV's components in. Nothing seems to work.

 

[gene c]

Is it just the On Screen Display (menu) that doesn't work or you can't get a picture thru hdmi from your dvd player either?

Just to be clear, you need to hook a composite or component cable from the receivers "Monitor Out" to the tv's input in order to see the receivers menu.

 

[AudioENG]

Good point. My Yamaha is the same way. My on screen display is only viewable through the composite video (yellow RCA) connection.