Help with my choice in a setup (1 Viewer)

[Jaimin]

Well I have been browsing around and doing my research and I have come to a couple choices for my 5.1 setup. I have a really small room, its about 12x10 and I am pretty much set on getting a Pioneer vsx-d811s (unless someone can really convince me otherwise). For my speaker setup I have narrowed it down to about two choices, but if anyone has suggestions in the same price range I will definetly look them up. The first setup is four jbl s26's all around and an s-center which is pretty popular around here. The other is an axiom setup with four m2i's and a vp100 center. Both those setups are very similar in price however I can only go on their performance based on numbers and opinions. I am gonna try to demo the jbl's if I can find somewhere in the Northern Chicago suburbs to demo them (anyone know of any places?), and it seems like the axioms will be close to impossible to demo, so those are some what of a gamble, although those speakers are highly regarded around here as well. Basically I want your guys opinions on these choices because its gonna be hard for me to demo these. I am leaning more towards axiom because they are more efficient speakers, however the jbl's supposedly have a wider frequency response which might help since I am not going to have loads of money to spend on a subwoofer. The jbl's on paper go down to 48hz while the axioms go down to 70hz at +/- 3 dB's. The axioms have a higher crossover, I don't know what that indicates, hopefully someone can explain. Both have similar max power ratings, 150 for the jbl's and 175 for the axioms, but that shouldn't matter to much because I have a small room. Also the axioms have a smaller woofer at 5.25in versus 6in for the jbl. They both have the same size tweeter and both systems are timbre matched. I have read that the jbl center is superior to the vp100 but that was just someones opinion. Sorry for typing so much but I wanted to cover all the bases. Hopefully someone can make more sense out of all this technical information than I could, I mean I understand the numbers, but I don't truly know what it will produce in the real world. Oh yeah, and as of now I can only spend about $250 on a sub, so I was leaning towards the audiosource sw15, but please let me know of anything else that would work. I was also looking into an acoustic research PR1212. I am using this system equally for HT and music. Hopefully those of you with greater technical knowledge and those of you that have used either or both of these speakers can give me your opinions. Thanks in advance for whatever you have to contribute.

Jaimin

 

[mark rush]

you might shop around and look at some other brands, half the fun in all this is looking at different systems, but the jbl's will work for you, as for the sub, you might also look at some of the cerwin vega subs, also paradigm has a pdr series that works well, good luck on the system

 

[Jason_Els]

I agree, audition what you can. If you are so far away that you can't then by all means ask the vendor if you can try them in your own home for a few days and if you don't like them, can send them back for a full refund. To that end, if you're sure it's between these two then find a vendor that carries both so the vendor gets the sale for the trouble. It's still best to go listen to what you can though, that's half the fun in this hobby.

 

[Jaimin]

Thanks guys, I guess it really does come down to me listening to the speakers, I just gotta find someone with these in Chicago.

 

[Pablo Abularach]

I think you are in the right track, JBL is a very good brand for the money, sometimes the S26 even outperforms other brands (boston acustic, and others).

But I do think that this forum is great for getting ideas, but the only one that should like what you buy is you. So try to audition as much as posible, and also check very close attention to JBL, for me is the best brand for a entry-mid HT setup.

Another brands that you should consider are POLK, Infinity, Paradigm, Axiom, Klipsch, PSB, etc. And in subs, Phil had the same sub you are looking maybe he can give you better info than me, and he also has the S26. But you might want to check SONY SA-WM40 very good sub for $150.

Hope this helps,
Pablo Abularach