Gurus: Newb looking for a critique on upcoming setup (1 Viewer)

[chrisLoehr]

first off hello all, my name is chris and i have been reading posts on this site for a while now. i am about to upgrade my home theater speakers and would like your advice.

first of all let me tell you what pieces i have now. they are hand-me-downs from my parents from when i went away to college.

the speakers are all jbl. a pair of cf-100 floor standing fronts. flix 1 center channel and the matching rears. all of which will probably be moved into the exercise room.

the reciever is a pioneer vsx-454 and i have a pioneer cd changer and a dv-525 dvd player. i dont know i any of these pieces will be acceptable to get the best performance out of the new speakers as they are all 10years or older.


ok now for what i am considering.

athena as-f2 floor standers in the front
athena as-c1 center channel
?athena asr1 rears? (or possibly the bookshelf speakers)
?athena as-p400 sub? or ?a comparable 10" dayton sub?

please critique this speaker setup, im mostly wondering how the athena rears compare to just using athena bookshelfs for the rear, and also i have read good things about the dayton subs and i believe they are much less expensive then the athena 10".

also will my current reciever be ok with this set up or would you recommend upgrading that as well. any advice and info is much appreciated. thanks

 

[Jason GT]

Ask yourself some questions first.

Do you listen to much 2-channel muzak?
Do you think you'll be likely to upgrade again?

If the answer to either of these two is "yes" then I'd definitely consider throwing all that money that you have earmarked into 5.1 speakers into just a front pair (or front matching L/C/R). In general, surrounds aren't used all that much, and unless you're listening to multich (hires) music having towers as surrounds is a bit of a waste.

A typical upgrade er... plan... mentioned on this site is this: get a good front stereo pair (and matching CC if you like), perhaps even standmounted fronts instead of floorstanding speakers. If/when your finances allow, purchase the matching front towers and move the old standmounted speakers to surround duty.

It's not as satsifying, perhaps, as going whole hog 5.1 all at once but ultimately will save you money.

Good luck.

 

[chrisLoehr]

i am 90% using this for dvds and watching ball games on tv. maybe 10% listening to cds.

as far as upgrading....maybe sometime in the not so near future, but with the reviews i have been reading about the athenas and the fact that best buy just dropped the price for the fronts by 150-200 on the pair i really got interested. i havent heard any review of the athena rears though.

 

[EricCrane]

I've also heard good things about athena. If you check out this forum like I have I've found that most people also like BIC America and Polk which are also in about the same price range.My parents have some BICS that sound pretty good.

You might even want to give sony a shot. In other words keep an open mind, who knows maybe a cheaper system might sound better to you. My sony system sounds good for the money. I would try a few of these brands in your home and pick the ones that sound best.