Introduction, help with planning, and what to do with old Pioneer CS-99s (1 Viewer)

[Bill Renneker]

Hi,

I'd like to compliment all of you on the great support you provide in this forum. I've been lurking for a few weeks now, a newbie at home theater, trying to absorb all I can on the topic; taking breaks only to go to work, eat, mow the lawn, and kiss my wife. I do have some questions and would really appreciate your guidance.

I had replaced a receiver/amp ten years or so ago with the idea of migrating into HT a piece at a time, and got side-tracked along the way. So now, I have the JVC 507VTN Dolby Pro-Logic Surround receiver that I started with, and a pair of ancient Pioneer speakers. My current thinking is to buy a pair of decent front L&Rs and a center-channel speaker, then after the wife's recovered from that, buy a 5.1 receiver, then eventually a subwoofer. My budget is meager, and my wife is tight, but my tastes are "refined." I'm wondering if it would make any sense at all to work in the Pioneers somehow, possibly starting out possibly as fronts (& just buy a center for now, and recognizing that they won't match--just to get me started) and ending up as rears. This leads me to some questions about the Pioneers:

First of all, do speakers wear out or get tired after years of use and naturally with age? The old Pioneer CS-99 speakers that I bought back in 1970 just don't sound as good as they used to. Does aging of the drivers degrade performance? Or maybe there's something wrong with the receiver/amp? Or maybe it's the age of the owner?

If the problem is most likely with the aging drivers, do you think they would be worth renovating to gain a good pair maybe for use as rears in an HT setting? Would all drivers likely need replacement, or perhaps mainly the woofer and/or the midrange because of the greater amount of physical movement they so? Could the crossover electronics be worn out?

Here's what's packaged in the 3/4 in. walnut-veneered plywood/mdf cabinet: 5-way, 6-speakers (15 in. woofer, 5 in. mid-range, 1-cone tweeter, 1-horn tweeter, and 2 dome-shaped "super-tweeters"). The speakers had some awsome original spec's and sound.

Thanks for your advice! Oh, a couple of other things... replacing the wife is out of the question, and no, I don't have any 8-track equipment for sale.

-Bill

 

[John Garcia]

Welcome to HTF
Keep the mains for now, get a basic center and surrounds upgrade the receiver. Even if you don't use or have enough speakers to make use of all the functionality of a 5.1 receiver, you should notice an immediate improvement in sound with a moderately priced receiver (~$400-$700), and true 5.1 sound, IMO. You will also need a 5.1 source to get this also, so if you don't have a DVD player or other 5.1. source, you'll need to factor that in.
Later on, add a sub, swap out the entire front stage with some better speakers and eventually upgrade the surrounds.

 

[Bill Renneker]

Thanks, John. I should have mentioned that I do have a pretty recent JVC DVD player. Think I'll concentrate on the center and receiver right now, and see how the Pioneers work out for mains temporarily. I'm still uncertain about why they sound so much worse than ever.
-Bill