Advice Needed on Tower Speakers (1 Viewer)

Guys thanks in advance for your help. Forums have helped me a lot in the past and I am sure this will be benifical as well.

 

I recently purchased the Harmon Kardon AVR 354. It is a 7.1 receiver with 75 watts per channel. http://www.amazon.com/Harman-Kardon-AVR-354-Channel-Receiver/dp/B0016BGRXG

 

I am looking at buying the JBL E80's for my front two towers. http://www.amazon.com/JBL-Northridge-6-Inch-Floorstanding-Speaker/dp/B0000E6S10

It says the recommended watts is 100 watts contiunous and 400 max. Would my receiver be able to push these speakers? I am new to building my own system, and see there is a lot to learn. Would these speakers build nicely with my receiver? Thanks in advance.

Ryan

Anyone have another forum they recommend that has a little more activity?

Ignore the wattage rating on the speakers and the wattage spec on the receiver. They are the most useless number to look at. Most people coming from the car audio world look at this first. It's useless there most of the time as well.

 

The receiver will have no issues at all pushing the speakers. Does the receiver have the connectivity and features that you want? That is the most important.

 

Do you like the sound of the speakers? Because that is all that matters. If you haven't auditioned a lot of speakers to determine what you like, then just go with them. JBL is a quality manufacturer.

 

There are other forums with more activity. They are also less forgiving for questions like this. Do you really want to jump into heated discussions of measured frequency response vs. published frequency response? Please be patient and we will help you.

Harman Kardon has very good amp sections. I had a 520 which was also rated at 75 wpc and it was stronger than the 110 wpc receivers I also had at the time.

 

And those E-80's have a sensitivity rating of 91 db so it won't take much power to drive them at ear bleeding levels. And don't forget to calibrate the system (speaker size, distance, volumes, or use the EzSetEQ) and even though they are tower speakers, get a sub woofer.

 

The most important spec is the Ohm rating. Many receivers can't handle a 4 ohm speaker but since the E-80's are 8 ohm it's not a problem.

 

The other factor is whether you will like the way they sound. JBL's tend to be on the bright side and the E-80's, with their Titanium-Laminate dome tweeters, probably are on the

brighter side as well. Metal tweeters are in-herently brighter than soft dome tweeters. Try to listen to some JBL's somewhere first, if you can.

Thats for the info. Good to hear the advice on the highs, I am going to listen to them today. Would you recommend a klipsch over jbl or polk. hard for me to find a store with all to listen and make a decision. These are the 3 towers I am looking at. I was just offered a good deal on two JBL E80 used for $290 for the set. Polk options are the T series towers (Model T-600) or TSi300 ($199 each). I also take it to go with 12 guage wire for most applications. Monoprice seems to be the best option here. http://www.monoprice.com/products/subdepartment.asp?c_id=102&cp_id=10239

 

I will have to look into the whole calibration process. I was wondering about this as well. Time to read up on the O&M manual. Again I see lots to learn. Thanks again guys for the advice. Always appreciated!

Depends on the Klipsch model and the other models. But the horn tweeters on Klipsch speakers are sometimes described as harsh.

 

Wire is wire. I go with the largest wire that will fit into the connections. Monoprice has great prices and service but if you can find it cheaper locally, get it. Shipping costs sometimes push up the price of bulk wire.

 

Calibration can make good components sound great.

Ryan,

 

You have a 7.1 receiver but you make no mention how you plan to set up your system. If you plan on a 3.1, 5.1, or 7.1 system the you are going to want to make sure that your center speaker is timber matched to your front towers.

Thanks CB. I was going to set it up as a 5.1 with the JBL LC1 as the center speaker as this is what amazon is telling me users by with the JBL E80 tower speakers. I wasn't sure how to tell if they were timber matched. How do you verify this?

http://www.amazon.com/JBL-LC1-Performance-Channel-Loudspeaker/dp/B000LRA6TM/ref=pd_sim_dbs_e_2

 

I was also thinking of setting it up as a 5.1 system, more because I didn't know how much difference a 7.1 would really make, or the real advantages. Again i am new and still learning.

One other note on timbre matching. I have read forums where people go back and forth on if the surround speakers should be timbre matched. The people who I talk to at work who are just a little more knowledgeable than me on this matter (which isn't much) say that the only important ones are the front and center. I am not sure how much this really maters, but for now I am going to make sure the front 3 are timbre matched and worry with the back at a later time. Thoughts?

I agree. My front 3 are timbre matched now. When I finish my DIY project I'll have 7 identical speakers in my system. Not only timbre matched but identical with the center channel crossover optimized for horizontal placement of the speaker.

If you listen to a lot of multi-channel music then matching the surrounds becomes more important. For movies/tv not so much but if you're going to do something then why not do it right?

I agree, can you tell me how to verify the speakers are in fact timbre matched?

Speakers that a manufacture sells as part of a 3.1, 5.1, or 7.1 system would be timbre matched to the other speakers in that system. For other situations you will want to ask the manufacture what speakers they make are timbre matched to each other. What you are looking for is matches in drivers and crossovers.