Another Bose sucker (1 Viewer)

[DanaA]

Hsu STF-2 subs are being discounted from $499 to $399 right now. Here's a link. Hsu

 

[Vince. V]

Canadian orders are halted. We will have a dealer network thoughout Canada soon(thats what it says for orders to Canada right now at HSU). Sounds like HSU are setting up in Canada in a few months. Im not very patient I guess. Im going to be taking my Bose back this Wednesday and Im thinking i'll just go for the whole enchalata and get a total Athena package... From the reviews on the Athena AS P-400, it sounds to be a decent Subwoofer for the money, plus its on sale right now for $379.00 So all in all I added up everything.

AS-P400 379.99
ASF2- 519.99
ASC-1 189.99
ASB1 199.99

1289.96 before taxes $1380, with damn GST

So actually when I look at the numbers, instead of getting 2 crappy Bose speakers for $1068.93, I will be getting a total 5.1 surround package for an extra $311.33! I hate to jump on wagons just because everyone dislikes a product, but In my small experience with Bose they really are a inferior overpriced product, and they do have amazing marketing hold on the uninformed masses (myself included). Basically getting by on being around for a long time. (Venting here)Anyways, just kinda ticks me off that when you want to spend your money on something good, and you get fed a line of bull just so you buy the most expensive.

On another note: was checking out the Velodyne Woofers too, but they dont seem to popular on here, plus they cost more. Do Subs have to match your speakers for optimal sound? or is the timbre matching less important when it comes to Subwoofers. Im thinking that must be the case.

 

[ScottCHI]

to be fair, those 601's are not really representative of the systems that give people the gripe with bose; it's mainly the systems with the little satellites that catch so much flak. but you're correct in that they're stuff is over-rated and overpriced. you're doing much better, for the money, with the athenas.

 

[Allen Marshall]

maybe you could get AS-F2's all around if you want/have the room? can get 4 of them now for the price of what 2 of them used to cost.

 

[PaulDA]

You are correct about this. (This from someone who bought a sub by the same company as his speakers--I did it because of a good deal, not for timbre matching).

This is not to say that you won't be happy with your Athena sub, should you go that route. I'm in the camp that a subwoofer should play a supporting role and not draw attention to itself, but then I use my set up much more for music than movies.

 

[Vince. V]

Well at least Im pretty sure the ASF2's come as a pair for $519.99 (Can). I was assuming this, you surely get 2 for that price!? It says they come as packed singles,, that sounds plural,lol. As for putting ASF2's all the way around it would be cool, but I think the small ASB1's will do a good enough job, at least until im ready to get something better down the road. Seems like theres always something better, but I'm stickin with my decision. This is my first venture into surround sound other than a crappy Panasonic mini system that crapped out just after the limited warranty expired, needless to say anything better than a clock radio is going to be an improvement. I know people here dont like the Best buys or Future shops, but it seems like if you get into any specialty shops where I live you are talking big $$$. This is why from what Future shop offers, I want the best I can get.

 

[jon_ad]

AS-P300 is 99.00 with free shipping at bestbuy.com-- it is backordered right now however-
I just ordered one for my bedroom system

I love my athena setup in my main theatre--
You may want to wait until you can get a HSU, my stf-2 blows the athena as-p400 away IMO.

 

[Vince. V]

I wish our money was worth more, $99 bucks sounds so cheap! As for waiting, I dont think I can, im so very impatient. I also know a Hummer is better than my Jeep gr. cherokee, but i still get where im going and then some.
Sorry maybe that wasnt a fair analogy, SVS is the hummer , right... hehe

 

[ScottCHI]

i saw that. i was thinking of getting a couple of 'em for a cheap music system and utilizing one as a left channel sub and one as a right channel sub. a decent bookshelf to go with each one (perhaps even asb1s) and i'd have a nice "powered tower" setup.

you could prolly run a ht setup like that, too, with the fronts as LARGE, then get a bigger sub for the LFE channel. hehe.

 

[Drew_W]

I answered in your other thread about receivers Vince. I'll speak more to Athena here. Speakers are marked up 50% (on average). If there are commissioned salespeople involved, NEVER EVER EVER settle for sticker price. In the end you ended up with a good setup, but I'm hoping you didn't pay sticker (for your sake).

The ASP400 will work nicely too with that setup.

Not much more to say about the speakers. I know you'll enjoy them (well, obviously you will if you bought them...you must be happy with their performance )

Now to find you a receiver. *shoots off to the other thread*

 

[Vince. V]

Hi Drew, actually I havent purchased the Athenas yet, I will be doing that this Wednesday when I return my Bose 601 speakers, I already have a Harmon Kardon AVR 230 that I purchased with the bose, since i've only had them for a week nothing is set in stone,for the 30 day return policy. I'm thinking the HK will be fine with the Athena set-up im going to get, so I'll probably just keep the HK I have. I didnt realize 50% was the mark-up, but it doesnt surprise me, how much would someone try and knock off that price, I didnt know haggling at department stores was common, more so at car dealerships but hey im open to trying! I could say knock 50 bucks off and thrown in some moster cable for free, I have no idea.

The concern I had with the AVR 230 was if it was powerful enough and if not I might get a step up, but HK stuff is quite expensive here. I got a reply that said it should be fine because the Sub should help out with the low end bass. And everyone seems to think HK stuff has some juice, so is the HK230 gonna work???

Haggling would actually make sense, theres a Best buy across the street from futureshop, lol!!

 

[Vince. V]

I guess reciever stuff should go in the reciever thread..

 

[Drew_W]

Did you read my post in your receivers thread? I went into more specifics there as to what you can get for the same money as the 230. What I'm telling you is that from my experience (Athena+AVR225), is that for moderate volumes it's ok. You'll start stressing it out when you want loud. I'd discuss this more in the receivers thread, but I think my lengthy post there covered off most of what I'd just repeat here.

There was a thread recently about haggling for speaker prices. Le voila: http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htfo...hreadid=185785

Some really good stuff in there. 50 bucks? Nah. I'd fight for alot more than that. Read that thread. Be enlightened.

And by the way, Future Shop is owned by Best Buy, and Best Buy doesn't carry Athena or H/K. =)

 

[Vince. V]

Just wanted to post an update... well im now a proud Athena owner. Ended up taking the 2 ASF2's 2 AS-B2's instead of the B-1's the AS-C1 centre and the asp-400 Sub. Stayed up till 2:30 am setting stuff up last night. Tried em out on some music, and a couple movies, Matrix reloaded, LotR, etc.. more speakers is BETTER! well I dont know why I was worried about the Harman Kardon 230, It packs plenty O' punch. And I can hear voices in the movies now,,, whoohoo. I played that Balrok scene in LOTR, very cool.

I have a question about the Subwoofer, and best way to hook it up. Now I was sold a subwoofer cable... and a Y-adapter for the cable.. Only im not sure why I need the Y- adapter, this is how I have it set-up currently.. one cable Leaving my Subwoofer pre-out on my reciever to the Sub-in input. I think i was sold the Y- adapter with the idea of one side going in the "direct-in"port, and one going into the "Sub-in port", then one single cable back to my receiver. However- it says in the instructions not to use both low level RCA inputs simultaneously, so do I have a y-cable I dont need?

Also it looks like you can route your main speakers to your subs amplifier and kinda chain them together? How do you do this? This is what I was gonna try.. Taking some speaker cables from my receivers front speaker outputs to the inputs on the Subwoofer. then take an additional pair of cables connect from the speaker outputs on the Sub back to the Left and Right front speakers. Would this help in any way, im just experimenting a bit here, and want to know the best set-up. Or should I just leave it the way I have it with the Main speakers, along with all other speakers, going directly to the receiver?

 

[Vince. V]

Sorry to be impatient, but any advice would be appreciated greatly.

 

[Drew_W]

Welcome to the wonderful world of Athena. And at the same time, to the confusing world of bass management.

Here's how this stuff works. The Athena sub has 2 RCA inputs. One bypasses the crossover control on the sub so that you can handle that from your receiver. The other enables the use of the crossover control so you can have your sub pickup where the main speakers leave off. The speaker terminals are if your receiver doesn't have an RCA sub out port. They're there so you can use a sub by connecting the receiver to the sub, and then the speakers to the sub. This doesn't apply to you.

Now as to the Y-cable. Take it back. It's useless. You use either one input or the other, you CANNOT use both (even if you wanted to). GRRRR I hate Future Shop sales people for being so utterly useless...but I'll save that rant for another day. I hope he didn't sell you Monster Cable. If you're looking for cable buying advice, stop by the Accessories forum. You'll be reading for days. Not that Monster is bad, but it's overpriced. The Acoustic Research Performance Series stuff at FS are a better bet. A sub cable is nothing but a long RCA interconnect. You could use anything to connect the two together, and if you need a long run, get some RG6 coax cable, and F-pin to RCA male converters and make your own (CHEAP!) sub cable. I'll bet in a blind test you won't be able to tell the difference.

 

[Vince. V]

DAMMIT, im such a noob at this... thanxs drew for the quick response. Good thing I opened every package before I realized I had something I didnt need. And guess what brand name of cords they pushed on me.. nothing but monster baby.. lol. For speaker wire they sold me The Monster THX stuff, and all the same from optical cable to subwoofer cables, to banana plugs... Actually I didnt get enough banana plugs, so I just stripped the wire and stuck it in the hole for the post and screwed it down,, do Banana plugs make any difference, or are they just for convenience for hooking and unhooking?(Personally I cant tell a difference) Does future Shop take opened packages back... lol Anyone want Monster Y-cable.
AS for sound on these speakers , is it normal for them to be getting louder within 6 hours of use?? I've noticed ive been increasingly turning the volume down bit by bit. I heard the break -in period was 50-100hrs but I can already hear a difference.
I just have to say,, why didnt I buy these years ago,,I hear stuff in the movies I have that I didnt even know was there. (Star Wars II has been the best so far)... Thanxs again drew, Im glad I didnt plug them into both ports before I asked.

 

[Drew_W]

Now don't get me wrong, the Monster stuff is good. My whole Athena system is the "poster boy" for Monster THX Standard. Speaker wire, the straight pin connectors, sub cable, optical cable, component cable, etc...all from that line. But I got it at dealer discount which is 60% off. That should hint at the markup on the cables.

And of course Future Shop takes opened cables back. You may not be able to return speaker wire if you've cut it already, or the speaker connectors if you've crimped them on. Anything else can be returned, opened or not. But they sold you Banana plugs not the THX Standard straight pins. The banana plugs (QuickLock) are $40 for 4 no? Wow. Not required at all. Like you said, it's a convenience thing. Bare wire works quite well, and if you really want bananas, you can find them for much cheaper. For solid speaker wire, Home Depot 12ga is good stuff. I have about 100ft of it (I think it's 14ga though) in the basement coiled up from a previous setup. Good entry level wire. Interconnects and sub cable, you can stick to AR stuff which is probably the same grade as Monster for less $$$ (but of course, the guys at FS will tell you that they can't do DTS, or if it's not Monster, it sucks...but what do they know, they sold you a Y-cable you don't need...oops, there goes their credibility). Like I said, a sub cable is just a long interconnect. A digital coax cable is the same as a composite (yellow) video cable. The jury's still out on which is better, fibre optic or digital coax, but I use both in my systems. I'm not firmly in any camp, but on a friend's reference system, I will say that his Straightwire digital coax cable bested my Monster THX Ultra 1000 Fibre Optic. And the difference was obvious.

In any case, don't spend more than 10% of your audio system budget on cables. Or don't feel obligated to spend up to 10%. Like I said, the AR Performance series will work nicely for you. If you want, pick up some of those cables and test them against the Monster ones you have. Have someone do the switching for you so you don't know which one is which. See if you can tell the difference. My money's on the fact that you'll be returning the Monster cable though.

Their return policy allows anything to be returned just so long as it's not "consumed" (like printer ink, or cut speaker wire, stuff like that). For Monster cable, a friend told me that they just send it back to Monster, since Monster doesn't want Future Shop to sell Open Box Monster Cable. Bad for business if you have a rack full of returned Monster brand stuff.