Anyone care to help a newbie out? (1 Viewer)

[DaveNaumann]

Hello Everyone,

I have a few questions for ya. I am about to start building a home theater system. I plan to build all of my speakers myself, as I am an experienced woodworker. I dont have the money to purchase everything now so I plan on building the system up over the next few months. I already have a 55" mitsubishi hdtv and a toshiba sd-1600 dvd player. After doing some research on this board I have decided that I would like to start by building a set of Adire 281's for the front mains. My question is, what reciever recomendations would you make in the $400 range. Also, it would seem that a reciever's amp would not be powerfull enough to optimally power the 281s. Is this assumption correct? And if that is the case, what are some recomendations you would make for amplification. Would it be best to get a 2 channel amp exclusivly for the 281s or would it be best to use some forward thinking and purchase a 4 or 5 channel amp that could handle the surrounds and center as well in the future? Any comments and/or opinions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Patrick Sun]

The 281's impedance is a benign 4 ohm load. You may want to try out an Onkyo receiver, like their 595 model, and perhaps later pick up some Marantz MA500 amp as you go along. (if you look for used on Ebay or Audiogon, you may find them for $150 each).

 

[Robert_Gaither]

I'll recommend the Outlaw 1050 (www.outlawaudio.com) at about $499 + shipping. I know this is higher that what you are budgeting for but this thing is pure quality compared to most of what is in most mass market stores currently (this AVR is comparable to the other AVRs in the $800-1000 range).
What most people don't understand is that quality AVRs usually spec their power on a continuous load basis (the Outlaw can do the 65wpc all day without shutting down, the cheap Pioneers can do the 100w but maybe at only a certain freq for fraction of a second at best) with excellent power reserves. The two main things I'd look at an AVR is weight and power consumption (this gives you an idea of the items build quality and power supply as usually heavier is better) but in the end buy what sounds best.

 

[Ryan Schnacke]

The Onkyo 595 and its replacement, the 600, are not the way to go if you think you'll want more amplification. Neither of these has pre-amp outputs. But I'm actually very happy with my 595's power output. It can fill my very large (6000+ cu ft) with output levels that would drive me deaf if I left it there. But it does help that I set all speakers to small so the receiver doesn't have to power the deep bass signals.

In the same price range, the Denon 1802 has pre-amp outputs for the front 3 channels, but not for the rears. The Outlaw is a bit pricier but has pre-outs for all 6 channels.

 

[Patrick Sun]

No preouts? Gah! What a chincy way to say a few dimes if you're Onkyo. Okay, if you want to drive them with amps later, I take back my Onkyo recommendation.