Need to get Surrounds and center to match! (1 Viewer)

[JasonMA]

I just upgraded to a 5.1 receiver (Sony STR-DE885) from my old Yamaha RX-V590 2.0 receiver. I never had a center or surround speakers, just a pair of main speakers. But now I want to get the most out of my new receiver. Only thing is I have no idea what speakers to get.

My current speakers are Cerwin-Vega RE38 Series. They have 15" woofers and they go pretty darned loud. I love the way music sounds through them, and movies sound nice also with lots of bass. Only thing i don't like about them is the size, but I can live with that. My question is though, what center and surrounds should I get that would closely match these speakers acoustically?

I want to spend around $500-$600 total on the 3 speakers and I am going to stick with the woofers I have in the mains for bass until I can get a decent subwoofer sometime down the road.

Another option would be to sell these and just get a full set of speakers for around $1000. (I have a co-worker who offered me $500 for my current speakers, which I am not sure is a good deal or not because I inherited these speakers from my brother when he went into the military and i have no idea how much they're worth.)

I don't want to get rid of these if it means getting speakers that don't perform as well for my music, but if they can handle music and movies really well I'll consider it. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. BTW, I am partial to a sub/sat system for the mains because of the size, but would consider a new pair of smaller towers for the mains also. I am on a budget so the max I'd spend on just the center and surrounds is $600 and the max on a total package is $1,100.

 

[JamieS]

If you like the Cerwin Vegas you have you could get a Cerwin Vega E76 Center $145, some bookshelf E706 surrounds (1$150)and maybe even a Cerwin-Vega LW 10 Subwoofer ($210)

That comes to $505 USD so 95$ left over for stands and maybe some wire? and you are right on budget. Now I have not owned any Cerwin Vegas since my Uniceristy days 11 years ago so I have NO idea how any of these speakers sound. But they should probably sonically match and the prices (lowest price from eopinions.com) are right in line with your budget.

Youd have to listen to them and see I guess. If it were me I'd take the $500 and shop for entire Sub Sat system as there are some great performing ones like the Take 5 etc out there and HT just isn't the same without a SUB. Good luck.

 

[Jose G]

When I made the change to 5.1 from 2.0 I kept my BA mains, because I listened to a lot of the new speakers within my budget and couldn't find anything that really out performed them (again...within my budget). I upgraded just as Jamie mentioned by adding a center and surrounds and a great little $99.00 10" sub to the mix. I plan on bulding my own sub this summer, so the DLS 10" sub has been a "hold me over sub" that has impressed the heck out of me. I think that in some cases- older speakers are just as good (if not better in some cases) than the newer speakers out there. my understanding is that driver technology has not changed that much at all in speaker technology. There are parts that were once more expensive that can be had for less now, but the basic design is the same for the most part...I think. Anyway, good luck and let your ears decide- that's the bottom line. By the way, if you love music on your mains and they aren't a sub sat system, I wouldn't go the sub sat sytem route, but that's just me- I tend to like the larger drivers in MDF or wood over plastic- that's just me though.