Speakers or Receiver first? (1 Viewer)

[ChrisWiggles]

I agree he should upgrade speakers, but it's absurd to suggest that room acoustics is akin to tinting windows on a car.

Excuse me, but the room is one of THE single most important components of any audio system. To suggest otherwise is hugely wrong.

 

[Dick Knisely]

Chris --

How about some examples of things a person could do in a typical family room, den, living room containing a HT setup -- a room not dedicated to HT or audio? I'm curious because I frankly can't think of much I could do in mine that would help without destroying the usefulness of the room for other purposes or doing things that my spouse is likely to find objectionable.

 

[ChrisWiggles]

You can hang absorbing panels on the walls. You could use thick curtains along big flat reflective surfaces. You could use fairly unobstrusive smaller patches of absorbing materials/panels at the first reflection points. You could use Area rugs, sofas, bookcases, all kind of purpose made panels and "regular" objects to have decent acoustics in a listening space. Considering that people spend thousands on a stereo, a few hundred dollars and a little gumption for the room, which is a FUNDAMENTAL component in your audio system, is hardly asking for much. you can even have your significant other pick out fabrics that look nice.

 

[Robert_Gaither]

I guess I'd be the odd ball and recommend the AVR since ever entry level Sony I've ever heard had a hiss to it. I would of suggested to go the used route since bang for the buck a model from last year would sound much better most of the time due to the depreciation (instead of buying a current AVR in the $300 range, you might can get one that ran for $600 last year but being sold used for $300). I believe in order to appreciate a set of quality speakers you'll at least need a decent enough amp to power it and hopefully cleanly.

 

[Mark M. Smith]

While the conventional wisdom is that you always get the most bang for the buck from speakers as opposed to electronics (i.e. an additional $100 will show the most improvement if spent on better speakers rather than a better receiver or pre/pro) too much of a disparity will put a limit on the benefits you're going to hear.

By way of example I purchased a new system this past summer. I had been using an old Aiwa shelf system that I'd had since '97 or so. It gave me better sound that using the TV speakers, but it wasn't fantastic. When I ordered my new equipment the speakers (Axiom Audio M3Ti) came in much sooner than the receiver (Outlaw Audio 1070) so, being impatient, I plugged 'em on in to the old system. Yes, I definitely noticed a vast improvment, but nothing compared to what I noticed once the new receiver arrived. Part of this was due to the fact that the old system had absolutely no decoding abilities and was hooked up with composite cables and trying to compare that to a Dolby Digital/DTS system using digital connections, but also because it was a crap system without very much power behind it.

In short yes, speakers tend to make more of an obvious difference, but also keep in mind the limitations of the equipment you pair them with: a $3,000 pair of speakers won't make much of a difference if you feed them from a boombox.