SPEAKERS FOR YAMAHA HTR 5990 (1 Viewer)

[THERUIZFAMILY]

I hope I dont get in trouble for a double post but I dont want to hijack the previous thread ...

Here's my problem..

I just bought a Yamaha HTR-5990 7.1 Channel reciever. I would like to know what speaker set up would be good for this reciever ? Any suggestions ? I'm looking to spend less than $1000 I prefer less that $900 for a set of speakers...

Rick

 

[THERUIZFAMILY]

beuller...........beuller.......bueller .........

 

[EricSal]

Way too many variables to be able to answer that question straight up.

First off you'll need to decide whether 7.1 is really even an option for your room, or if 5.1 is the way to go. Unless you have at least 5' of room between the seating area and the back wall you'll probably want to skip 7.1 and stick to 5.1 - if your couch (or seats) are against the back wall of the room then for sure you should forget about 7.1 for now.

There are some decent options for 5.1 speakers in the $1,000 range, so next you'll want to decide whether you are going to go with small sats all around, or if you want larger speakers. Do you need to wall mount the surrounds, or is wall mounting not even an option? Is this system going to be used almost exclusively for TV/movies? Or is 2-channel and multi-channel music listening important as well? And how big is the room? If you have a large room you are trying to fill with sound that will affect your speaker choices too.

Basically any reasonably good speaker system will sound fine with your Yamaha. The important thing is for you to decide what sounds good to *your* ears.

 

[chuckg]

I would opt for quality over quantity.

You can use the L and R speakers to provide a phantom center channel, so that's one speaker you don't need today.

The back speakers (numbers 6 and 7 of your 7.1) are used only rarely, so that's two more speakers you don't need today.

A subwoofer could eat almost your entire budget. Save it for later. I know, I know, it will suck without a sub. But, don't waste your money on cheap stuff just to get more mediocre boxes that you'll want to throw away later.

So, to make yourself reasonably happy, you've got $250 each for some really good left/right and surround speakers. I strongly suggest buying speakers with 8" or larger woofers, which will handle most of your upper-sub-bass needs. If the speakers are three-ways they will do just fine for the whole audio spectrum, minus of course the super-sub-bass, which will as I say, eat your whole budget.

When you build up a tad more cash, buy the subwoofer.

Later, go for the center channel.

Then, just for funsies, get the two back channel speakers.



That's my stroy, and I'm shtickin to it. plplplplpttt. grin.

 

[THERUIZFAMILY]

Thanks for the info..........

Rick

 

[Seth=L]

Paradigm Studio 20's sound excellent for the price, and have pretty strong bass considering their size. They perform well for music and movies. They are truly a well rounded all-around speaker. To save money maybe not buy the Paradigm Studio series stands, which are about $200, and get some from Dayton that can be filled with sand or lead shot. They have a excellent soundstage and would work well in a Phantom surround set-up. I have heard these speakers with other Yamaha receivers and it sounded very good. Later on you can get a subwoofer from SVS or HSU, then surrounds and a center channel.

I find it unlikely the Studio 20's will dissapoint, but if you can find a place to listen to them give them a test run.

 

[Seth=L]

I hear lots of good things about the Ascends, I realize you noticed them on another thread. I believe that HSU and Ascend are either made by the same outfit or they are just closely tied together in business.

 

[EricSal]

Personally I have never been happy with a phantom center channel. For a one-person situation it might work OK because you can always sit in the sweet spot for ideal imaging, but for anybody else in the room it is sub-standard.

IMO for a typical 5.1 setup (somebody using it primarily for TV & DVD movies) the two most important speakers are the center & the sub - the center to provide good, clear dialog locked to the screen and the sub for deep but not thumpy/muddy bass effects. Next would be the front left/right, and then lastly the surrounds. But that formulation obviously goes out the door if you want to sit in the sweet spot and listen to 2 channel music much.

If you consider yourself an audiophile, or expect to do much 2-channel music listening, then starting out with 2 higher quality mains and adding more over time makes a lot of sense. If you are building a dedicated home theater room, then spending only $1000 on the sound system wouldn't make much sense either. But if you are primarily looking for a surround sound system for TV & movies in a family room, then for $1000 or so you can get a 5.1 speaker system that probably 95% of people would think sounds excellent. If money was no object, then sure I'd spring for a Klipsch THX Ultra II system for $10K. But for the vast majority of people who are looking to get good quality sound for movies and TV and are living within a budget, you hit the point of diminishing returns pretty darn quickly.

I have the 5.1 set from BIC Acoustech, these can be had for about $900 online including shipping. We use them about 95% for TV and movies, and we are extremely happy with them. They are very efficient so you don't need a ton of power to drive them to a substantial volume, the sub was designed by Dr Hsu and is one of the best "budget" subs out there. The surrounds have brackets for wall mounting which was perfect for our room. Now the mains don't have great bass response on their own, so if I was a 2-channel guy I wouldn't have bought these, but with the sub the whole set integrates together very well for movies.

As far as stuff from the mass-market retailers, for $1000 or so you could put together a reasonable system with Polk or JBL speakers. I'm not sure if a Klipsch Synergy system could be put together that cheaply but it might be possible. Again, these would not be audiophile systems, but for the majority of folks they would more than suffice.

 

[Guy Usher]

I'm driving 7 vintage Polks all rated 4ohms with zero problems with my 5890. . . Depending on what you are trying to do the speaker market is wide open. . . I would think that virtually any mainstream loudspeaker would do fine. . .

That said however . . .you do need a sub. . . running 5 or 7 full range speakers set to large will work the 5990 maybe harder than you might like.

Putting that low bass on a sub and taking it off the receiver helps more than you might think. . .

I will say that set at "Small" the 5990 will drive just about any speaker system on the planet however set "Large" I think you will run out of gas, especially during "busy" passages. . .