Please help dumb blonde buy outside the box (1 Viewer)

SherriK · Nov 10, 2003

I have a new Hitachi 51" 51s500 tv & a low end
toshiba dvd player sdk620.
I would like to keep the cost around $1000.
But I saw an offer @onecall that includes
HK AVR330 & DVD101 with 5 Infinity speakers &
Sub for $1559. I could possibly do this but,
is it worth it? Or to save $ should I use
the dvd player I have?
I want to listen to music(rock) and have
read a receiver with neo6 is good for this.
The room is 16 X 25 with a ceiling
that rises to 16'.
It would be dangerous for me to try to
combine components. Thank you for taking
time to share the knowledge.

Chu Gai · Nov 10, 2003

Well I think that you're underestimating yourself SherriK.
That's not a small space and could very well be around 4,000 cubic feet and furuther you've got a pretty tight budget given your desires. So we need to find ways to make it stretch. Now personally, I think you need to select your speakers first and there is not better way than excercising patience and trying to get them into your home. I'm assuming you've got some sort of receiver hence you might want to consider getting some JBL's or Klipsh's in for starters to audition. The more efficient your speakers are, the less demands you'll have on your receiver and you can choose more modest, but perfectly adequate brands. You might want to give a little thought things like B stock speakers as well as used and possibly refurbished receivers. At this time I'd keep my existing player and see how much speaker I can get for my money.
So, do you think it's possible on your part to venture out and get a couple of speakers into your home?

Wayne A. Pflughaupt · Nov 11, 2003

Welcome to the Forum Sherri!

Please help dumb blonde buy outside the box...

Perhaps we could get together and discuss your options over drinks? Just kidding – my wife won’t let me do that.

Seriously though, Chu is on the right track. You have a huge space to fill with sound, so you have to choose your components carefully to stay within budget. The HK 330 only has 50 watts per channel, so if that’s the receiver you want you will need very efficient speakers to go with it. “Efficient” here means the speakers put out a lot of volume with a little bit of power. It’s hard to find speakers more efficient than Klipsch, so I think that’s where I’d look first if I were in your situation. Try to sty with speakers with at least a 94dB efficiency rating.

I also agree with Chu that you can squeeze more out of your budget by keeping your Toshiba DVD player for the time being. Don’t worry that it’s low end; it will probably sound and look just fine with your new system. You can upgrade later when funds permit, or just wait until it bites the dust.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

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JohnnyG · Nov 11, 2003

Not sure what Infinity speakers are being offered in this package, but in my experience, Infinity has never really built a 'bad' speaker. H/K and Infinity are really a terrific combo as both are very neutral sounding.

The AVR330 is a completely capable receiver with a pretty powerful amp section. Despite it's seemingly small rating of 55 Watts per channel, that number is derived while simultaneously driving all channels. It's stereo power is 65 Watts per channel. Plenty.

Unless you want to spend many hours shopping around and evaluating equipment, this sounds like a decent package to me but since I'm in Canada, I really don't know how the price compares and we'd need to know the model of the speakers for this too.

As has been mentioned, your DVD player is probably just fine, unless you want newer features like MP3 playback or progressive scan capability that your current model might not have.

Lew Crippen · Nov 11, 2003

Are you going to use this for HT as well as music? If you are thinking about both uses, you might check out the Rocket ELT system. This goes for $900 and AV123 will package with a Denon 1804 for another $350, totaling $1,250.

SherriK · Nov 11, 2003

Thank you everyone! I didn't think it was worth
mentioning that I have this connected
to a kenwood amp, 2 large jbl speakers, and 2
bose(oops I said the b word) bookshelf speakers,
all from the 80's. It's pretty sad.
I will try to go to Best Buy or HH Gregg and
listen to the Klipsch speakers.
That Rocket ELT system looks interesting. That
receiver is loaded....I think...and the speakers
are nice looking. But I have never heard of them.
Is Denon ok? Can anyone look at this?:b

Shane Morales · Nov 11, 2003

No expert here, but I think you can't lose with Denon. Kicks ass. I have the 3803 running Mirage OMs and OMNIs and it handles them great. Nice, rich sound. Really nice for music.

Chu Gai · Nov 11, 2003

It's one thing to listen to the speakers in a showroom as it'll give you some general fuzzy impressions. There's enough good speakers out there that there's no reason that you couldn't use things like size, color, etc. (yes, it's silly perhaps, but you've got to like the way they look) to weed out particular brands. However, try very hard to get them into your home and hook them up to your Kenwood (got a model # or spec's on that?) and see how they sound.
Let's say for argument's sake that you decide that Klipsch is your thing. Consider posting back here and also on the Klipsch forum as people may know about better pricing for you.
Nothing wrong with that 80's stuff. Heck I've got a perfectly usable Sansui receiver from the mid 70's.

Drew_W · Nov 11, 2003

Perhaps you could try something like this:

http://ww3.onecall.com/SPL_812.htm

I bought my parents the S38IIs that would be the mains in that system, and they sound absolutely fantastic. This package's low price is due to JBL phasing out the S-series (from what I've heard anyways) and the H/K receiver being a discontinued model. That shouldn't sway your decision though, there are many happy owners of H/K and JBL gear here, and the two go hand in hand with each other since they are both owned by Harman International. This setup should be worthy of consideration (if you can find it setup anywhere anymore...well at least the mains with an H/K amp :frowning

Lew Crippen · Nov 12, 2003

That Rocket ELT system looks interesting. That
receiver is loaded....I think...and the speakers
are nice looking. But I have never heard of them.

I have heard them (powered by that very Denon) in Dallas a few months ago. I thought that they were an outstanding value for HT. They are good for music too, but not so good as for HT use. This is no doubt because the very best speaker in the configuration is the center channel. It reproduces speech very well, so you can easily distinguish dialogue from whispers to shouts during and talk during action sequences.

I do not own these speakers, but I do own other Rocket speakers, so you may wish to take some of my natural prejudice into account.

AV123 will allow you a 30-day in-home trial. You will be out the shipping if you decide to return the system. You can also check out people in your area who will give in-home demos on audioenvy.com. Or post on the AV123 forum and you might also find someone who will demo.

Click to expand...

SherriK · Nov 12, 2003

Hey Chu, the Kenwood amp is KA-95 and claims to have
"125 watts per channel minimum RMS,both channels
driven @ 8ohms from 20 Hz to 20,000 Hz with no
more than 0.05% harmonic distortion."
I have been satisfied with its musical ability,
and I don't think it will ever die.
But, it is not doing much for the new tv with
only 4 speakers.
I want to explore all the options. And will
continue to look for any advise. Thanks.
SherriK

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