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Choosing the right speakers for my house

post #1 of 6
2/20/09 at 8:02am
Thread Starter 
To start off I'll say that I know very little about home audio/theater.

I was recently given a Yamaha RX-V2095 receiver. The specs are as follows:
RX-V2095
Quote:
Seven Channels: 100 watts/channel Front Left/Center/Right, Rear Left/Right, 25 watts/channel Front Effects (two channels)

DD, DTS, Pro Logic Decoding

36 Sound Fields (DSP)

Six-Channel Pre-Ins and Pre-Outs
Now, my primary use for this right now is simply listening to audio CDs. I am not particularly worrlied about all the surround sound features as I'm working on a bit of a budget build for now.

So I suppose what I really need are front speakers and I would imagine a powered sub.

What I don't know is what to look for to "match" the speakers with my room (living room) and the receiver I have.

Also, to save money I might be interested in a "do it yourself" speaker enclosure build.

FWIW, I listen to a lot of jazz and classical, as well as quite a bit of rock, metal, and country.

I appreciate any tips you guys can give me! Thanks!

Tim
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post #2 of 6
2/20/09 at 9:41am

Re: Choosing the right speakers for my house

Go and audition as many speakers as possible in proper listening areas. The speaker shelves at Best Buy are NOT a proper listening area. If you can find a BB with a Magnolia Hi-Fi in it, that is better. Local specialty stores are good as well. Find out what you like. Do horn tweeters sound 'crisp' or 'harsh' to you? Do you like a more pronounced midrange? All of this is very personal.

If you do decide that you want to build the speakers I can guide you to different kits that fit your budget and needs. Subs are much easier.

-Robert
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post #3 of 6
2/24/09 at 10:43am
Thread Starter 

Re: Choosing the right speakers for my house

I may have to wait until I can go to Kansas City or Oklahoma City. I hit the home audio shops here in town and found that the selection was very poor. They did not cary many brands and even in the "premier brand" that they did cary they did not have many models. They could not show me horn tweeters vs. regular drivers. Our Best Buy does not have a Magnolia showroom.

For now I picked up a set of Bose 601 series III speakers VERY cheap. They will hopefully get me by until I can do some serious shopping.

Thanks guys!
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post #4 of 6
2/24/09 at 1:06pm

Re: Choosing the right speakers for my house

Going the DIY route will rarely save you money (especially if you factor in the cost of your time and effort). IMO, you are better off looking for used speakers.
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post #5 of 6
2/26/09 at 11:39am
Thread Starter 

Re: Choosing the right speakers for my house

Now that I have these Bose speakers, where would be the "best" location for them for music primarily, home theater secondarily?

I'm thinking left and right of the TV, move the short cabinet off to the right to make room. :shrug:

I will not have a subwoofer or center channel speaker, for now.
525x525px-LL-vbattach1312.jpg
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post #6 of 6
2/27/09 at 12:41am

Re: Choosing the right speakers for my house

For music or HT use, that's going to be a tricky room (particularly the couch placement) to deal with.

For now, I would center the TV on that wall and place the speakers on either side of it. But don't cram the Bose speaker on the right into that corner, since its tweeters need room to operate properly. I would guesstimate about 6" from the back wall and around a foot from the side wall. The Bose's four tweeters - total of eight actually! - will help to spread the sound around the room, but listeners on the couch will still have to crane their necks when watching a movie.

One note about reflected sound for HT: since a good chunk of the sound will not be emanating from the near the TV, you may have a bit of a mental disconnect when watching a movie. This is mostly why I don't personally want to use bipolar speakers like those from Definitive Technology for HT use. But this effect may not bother you though.

For stereo-only use, make sure to program the receiver's speaker management system for that i.e. "no subwoofer", "no center" and "no surrounds" - this way it will "know" not to do any processing if any feature that's surround related is accidently activated (but read the manual to make sure this all applies to your particular receiver). But mostly it is to make sure that the receiver, when fed a multichannel signal from a dvd player, cable box, etc does what's called a downmixing operation. That simply means it remixes the multichannel signal into a stereo signal, so you won't miss out on anything.

BTW that's a really nice receiver!
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