Cerwin Vega! FE12" 300 watts, need receiver suggestions. - Page 2

Dean,

There's no reason to not get the Pioneer.  It can run 2 channels just fine.  In fact, I'd recommend it  over the Sony (better quality).

Pioneer sounds like a good choice.  It's got plenty to use down the road if you ever upgrade, and it's probably a little better quality amp than the 2ch sony.  Let us know how it sounds!

Hook them up to the fronts.  In the menu you can tell the receiver you have only left and right fronts (or mains).  Make sure to turn off all other speaker (including the sub).

Not sure I understand the watts statement.  Are you asking if there will be a difference?

I'm going to give my opinion on a few things brought up in this thread. Take them for what they are worth. But remember, they were free.

Speaker specs: The only ones I look at are it's Ohm rating (the receiver/amp needs to be compatible) the low frequency rating for mating with the sub as John pointed out, and the SPL (Sound Pressure Level) aka sensitivity. As for the "power" ratings, I don't pay too much attention to these for two reasons. #1, just about every decent speaker has a rating that far exceeds any receiver that I would own so why worry about it. #2, I have no idea how they even come up with these numbers.
There is another power number that is sometimes mentioned and that's the low power number. A rating such as 10-200 wpc. As I understand it the low number is how many watts a speaker needs to produce it's stated frequency response.  Not sure if it's useful but at least I know what it is.

Receiver ratings: These are even more confusing. The pioneer 919 is listed as 120 X 5 @ 8 ohms with .05% thd. But it's at 1khz not full range. And it doesn't specify how many channels driven so you can bet it's one. Most receivers can match their rating with two channels driven but when pushing 5 the actual output drop quite a bit. Even more with 7 ch driven. The 919's manual also has a stereo (2 channel) and full range (20-20,000hz) rating of 90 wpc. But the thd is .2% not .05%. Home Theater Mag tested a 918 last year and found 35-40 wpc with 5 channels driven and .1% thd, which is the highest level of distortion I look at.

Two other specs I look for are the receivers weight, 19lbs-3 oz, and it's power consumption, 350 watts for the 919. However, the reviewer found the receiver to be strong enough for most applications. In comparison, my Pioneer 59txi's two channel rating is 130 wpc @ 8 ohms from 20-20,000 hz with .09% thd. @ 6 ohms it's rated 160 wpc. See how the number rises when you change a parameter? And it weighs 68 lbs and consumes 735 watts. My H/K 435's specs are 80 wpc in stereo from 20-20,000 hz, .07% thd @ 8 ohms. With 5 channels driven it's 65 wpc. And it consumes 1000 watts when driving 7 channels and weighs 39 lbs. You need the right numbers to make a fair comparison. And numbers are statistics which can be manipulated in order to miss-lead.

Are Cerwin-Vega!'s good speakers? In general, yes and not so much. I owned the VC5 center and the matching bookshelves quite a few years ago and although they were worth the $150 I paid for them they were not for critical listening. If you're looking for a decent speaker that plays loud and shakes the house then maybe.  If you're looking for a speaker to really listen to, then maybe not. Again, just my opinion.

Equalizers: I like'em, most knowledgeable members don't. If you buy a stand-alone model get a good one. Avoid the sub $100 ones as they add quite a bit of distortion. The Pioneer models you are looking at are equipped with MCACC which is an automatic setup and eq program. It can also be adjusted manually if you prefer. I do.

Speaker break-in: I believe there is some merit to it but much of it lies with the owner adapting to his/her new speakers.

As for turning off the sub, he meant in the receivers setup menu.  

Hope this helped.

Right Dean when you get your receiver it will have a few steps that you can go through to set it up for your specific speaker configuration.  Since you only have 2 speakers you want your receiver to know that so it can route everything properly.  This means make sure you turn off the output to a center channel, rear channel, and sub channel...that way it is definitely routing the bass to the front speakers and not a sub you don't have.  Also some receivers have a setting for speaker size where they will determine a cutoff frequency based on the speakers you have, I didn't look at the manaual for the pioneer but if it has this setting you want to make sure it knows you have LARGE speakers so it doesn't place a high pass filiter on the output to your speakers.  Hope this all helps.

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.

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. 

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

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. 

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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