Newbie! recommendations for new speakers on a JVC HTIAB system ? (1 Viewer)

[Ralph Bru]

Hello All ........... I use to have a old pioneer stereo system to this day I wish I did not sell to buy my home theater in a box system but having a baby required to free up some space in my small living room as the speakers and entertainment system were way to big. anyway I finally got around to finishing my basement and still have the entertainment system and hooked up the JVC HT system down there. at the time I bought this which I regret 1. I needed to save some space and was limited on money (still am) so now that I have got that out of the way here is my dilema.....
the system I bought was the JVC home theater in a box model tp-450 ? with a RX-6018 vbk receiver that puts out 120 watts/DTS/DD 5.1 blah blah blah ........... it came with these awful tiny speakers but was very happy with the 120watt 12' sub that came with it and quite suprised how well it performs given the $375.00 price tag I paid for the whole system. anyway now that you have the specs here is more.
like I said I am not happy with the 5 tiny speakers included with this system, they sound hollow, tiny, and have no punch (I didnt expect them to). I was wondering if the front left and right and center speakers could be replaced with something with more punch. well last summer I tried to replace the center speaker with a cerwin vega 5 1/4 drivers and a tweeter to get a less hollow sound from the dialog and more of a fuller sound. well it didnt work as the sound comming from that speaker once hooked up was very garbled and distorted at any volume. so I brought it back. I dont know if it was me that made the mistake of not playing with the reciever speaker settings as it has a crossover setting and a small or large speaker selection.
heres one thing to consider........... the directions say to switch the crossover settings to 80-120hz if you have 4 3/4 inch speakers (12cm) @ 80hz, 3 15/16 inches (10cm) @ 100hz and 3 3/16 inches (8cm) @ 120hz. so it looks like Im limited on speaker sizes or if anything replacing just the center seems to be a problem. now I dont know if the last center I purchased was a problem I made by not tinkering with the settings but maybe someone out there with these boxed systems or this system in particular someone has knowledge about when trying to upgrade the center or any others. Id hate to buy a new system and sell this one on ebay but if that the route I have to go to be happy fine but there isnt much out there for under $500.00 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!
BTW: when I did free up some space in my main livingroom by selling my large system my dad bought me a Bose wave radio to put in the nice tv stand peice of furniture he also bought hooked up to my pioneer dvd player and 27' tv. I gota say this bose radio blows away my JVC HTIAB system but thinks it also helps I have a small living room upstairs and man I can feel the bass from this small little thing and does great for a mini HT upstairs! hahahahahahaha it doesnt blow it away but it is impressive for such a small peice of audio technology.
something I did leave out was that I did purchase soem 14 guage speaker wire to replace the junk that came with it and bought AR digital coaxial, s-video, optical cables for the system which made a little difference and figured it couldnt hurt. (I found it all cheap online) didnt overpay!

 

[Sean Conklin]

I would look at the JBL NSP-1 package and the JBL PB-10 or PB-12 subwoofer. If your budget is tight you could look at the Sony SAWM40 subwoofer it will also go nicely with the NSP-1.

And...WELCOME to the Home Theater Forum.

 

[Ralph Bru]

Thanks Sean! where is the best place to look into those. I actually would prob keep the current sub that came with it as I think it performs quite well.

 

[Wayne Ernst]

where is the best place to look into those.

- J and R was selling the NSP1 speaker package for $249 (shipped) a while ago.

- Buy.Com was selling it for $279 (shipped).

- Local Best Buy store: Could head over and demo the speakers, but their price is likely around $400. Also, you check out the Sony sub at the store while you are over there.

 

[Ralph Bru]

Thanks Wayne....... what is J&R ? , sounds familiar. will check out buy.com as I shop there alot. suprised they dont have the best price. will goto bestbuy and listen to them. Thanks!

 

[Wayne Ernst]

what is J&R ?

J&R is an electronics retailer based out of New York. Lots of people have had much success in dealing with this vendor. Here is their Web site: J&R's Web Site

 

[Sean Conklin]

Your welcome Ralph!

Wayne is right, you can demo them at Best Buy and then search for the best and cheapest way to buy them. Sometimes Best Buy has open box specials which could save you lots, just make sure you get a good return policy if you purchase this way.

I actually use JBL northridge series speakers in my theater and love them. I use N-26 mains, N-24 surrounds, N-Center, and PB-12.

 

[Ralph Bru]

grat guys! I looked around and amazon.com has them for $248.00 ......they were having free shipping on items over $99 but dont know what happened to that. but I know there are coupons for amazon.com do you guys know of anywhere that would be cheaper ? also heres my biggest fear!!!!!!!!!!!!1

do you think my JVC home theater in a box receiver will be able to push enough to make these speakers sound ok ???????????????????

 

[Sean Conklin]

do you think my JVC home theater in a box receiver will be able to push enough to make these speakers sound ok ???????????????????

Considering it is most likely 80 watts per channel, yes it will be a noticeable improvement, just don't push them to distortion and you will be fine.

 

[Ralph Bru]

Thanks sean..... its 100watts a channel. I figured since Im gonna buy this JBL speaker set that Id screw around with the sats the system came with. I ported each speaker and inserted some tubes and stuffed the inside with a soft material. will see tomorrow what a difference it made as its to late now. i have to say I did quite a nice job porting them. maybe now they will sound a little fuller and not so hollow, especially with the padding. from what I can tell at a low volume they def sound louder, when i put my hand over the hole they sounded quite. there was no way for air to escape from the enclosers as they were tightly sealed. not an opening in them before I ported them. was quite fun!

 

[Wayne Ernst]

its 100watts a channel

Ralph, you have to remember that "watts" numbers are severly mis-represented by receiver manufacturers. I had a JVC RX-8000VBK which was up a couple of notches from your receiver. Even though it was advertised at 100 w/pc, the actual output when driving all 5 channels was 68 w/pc. However, at least JVC didn't lie as bad as Sony where they claimed 100 w/pc on their '1070' model of receiver. When the receiver was actually tested, it produced only 31 w/pc - nowhere near the 100 that was claimed.

Additionally, there's a reason why a $2,000 receiver that claims to put out 100 w/pc is more accurate that a receiver for $400 that claims 100 w/pc. For another $1,600, one would assume that they should be getting more watts than a receiver for $1,600 less. In reality, the $2,000 receiver will, more than likely, put out 100 "actual" watts of power and that's just the price we all pay.

 

[Ralph Bru]

wayne.......... I do know alot of companys do rate high, but didnt realize JVC did. but not so bad 68 is respectable enough. damn sony rated that high above actual???????????? damn!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Wayne Ernst]

Ralph,
When Sony pulled that stunt, they did it with one of their $1,000 receivers at the time. Price drops have lowered the price of the receiver to less than $600 today. For the full report that I'm referring to, check out the following link: Sound and Vision Archive - you'll have to click through the review and find the "Lab" link where you'll see the .PDF files which contain the test results in them.

 

[Ralph Bru]

I'll check it out. I have been getting S&V delivered at home for a while now. dont remember that one.

 

[Sean Conklin]

I'd like to add that you are probably getting at least 30-40 watts RMS and that is still satisfactory to run the NSP, like I said just don't push them too hard as high volumes from your receiver could introduce too much distortion, speakers usually fry when you underpower them at high volumes.

Let us know how your porting job sounds. However if any decent amount of engineering went into building and designing the JVC speakers, they were probably meant to run sealed, but you never know, so let us know!

 

[Ralph Bru]

im off to bed but will let you know tomorrow. they def had a fuller lower sound after porting. I am hoping to get a little more punch from them as they had none. I noticed when I cover the port to see the difference the speaker was much quieter. I see alot of small speakers ported from factory so maybe JVC made a mistake . it sounded better to me especially after filling the enclosure to get rid of the hollow sound it had. will crank tomorrow Sean.

also the speakers look much better than expected when I took them out. I thought they would be cheap but some serious wiring and extras inside along with big magnet for a speaker of the size suprised me.

 

[Ralph Bru]

ok sean....... well I gave them a test this morning and to my suprise was floored when I listened to them!!!!!!!!!! no dont get me wrong they dont sound like what Id like them to but did get what I was looking for for, for what they are and should sound like.
I can crank them up to the best the receiver sounds without distortion and before they didnt throw much sound and distorted, they use to be very quiet and distorted awful. now they dont distort and have a little punch and sound much louder. im still gonna find something that will complteely satisfy me but boy was I thrown when I cranked these babys this morning . a 100% improvement!
UPDATE: I am changing what I said. I really gave them a run through with all kinds of music and dvds...... I will not be purchasing another set of speakers. im changing what I said and the changes to these speakers made 150% better. they really punch and have a deaper fuller sound. JVC needs to check themselves and the development dept as they put no thought or didnt want to or were just being lazy as this was a snap to do. if anyone is having this problem with their HTIAB speaker sats port them and pack them you wont be disapointed! sean im not joking that they sound this much better. JVC research is a joke as this took not much though at all. but I do have to say you guys got me rolling and thinking about what I can do and was not affraid to mess with the old speakers as I was gonna buy new ones anyway. well not anymore, thanks for the undirected motivation guys! this site rocks and im glad I found it. hope you guys dont mind me putting you on my buddy list and thanks for taking the time to respond to this newbie. check out the pic of my work.

 

[Ralph Bru]

well I checked out the JBL set, very impressive!!!!!!!!!! but realized those either are not gonna satisfy my need for loudspeaker sound and feel. but who knows I just might get them sooner or later they did sound quite nice.

 

[Sean Conklin]

Whats the blue thingie? a cap over the port? or did you use blue tubing? I see the Ketchup bottle there, your not using ketchup as a glue are you? Cause I heard it doesn't set up properly.
Seriously, those speakers dont LOOK half bad, they look pretty sturdy! Maybe just use them for a while since you have improved them so much!

 

[Ralph Bru]

lol.... very funny sean hahahahaha
used blue tubing thats all I had around the house. and some soft buffing black cloth to stuff it to kill the hollow sound it had. used a dremmel to cut the hole. ya the speakers have some pretty big magnets on them too, seem to be built pretty good as it takes pretty high volume to distort so its not the speaker that sounds bad its the plastic enclosure they are in. I thought they weren't half bad either. but I am bidding on some JBL's on ebay. ya never know I might get them cheap. if I could find them online for $200 plus shipping id def get them.....im cheap! oh and unemployed....haha
BTW: I have heard people say in reviews that the covers on these speakers dont come off. if you see they actually have the holes were it goes in they just glued them in. with a little work they popped off no problem.