Receiver question (1 Viewer)

[Zeeshan T]

In my first post i mentioned that i was a beginner and am on a limited budget. I've got the screen, and projector taken care of but i need help on speakers and receiver. I was planning on going with the JBL Northridge speakers. 2 E90 (floorstanding), EC25 (center), E150 (10' sub), and 2 E10 (bookshelf speakers). The rated power on all these are from 200-300 watts max each except the bookshelves which have max power of 100W. My first question is does anyone have these speakers or other similar JBL speakers for their home theater. I listened to them at the bestbuy and i liked how they sounded but I would like to get your opinion on what you think of the sound also. My next and more important question is which receiver should i go with. I was originally going to go with a sony 6.1 but i heard that i could do much better. My price range for the receiver is $500-700. I was thinking either yamaha, H/K, or Onkyo? But i am open to other suggestions. Thanks in advance for the responses.

 

[Drew_W]

JBL builds a solid speaker. And they are owned by Harman Audio, the same company that owns Harman/Kardon, so naturally, the two go hand in hand. Try to see if you can find an AVR7200 kicking around somewhere. That should bring you in towards the upper limit of your price range, but it is a beast of a receiver and will serve you well.

Sony DE (ala Best Buy) = crap.

Ratings are ratings. Suggestions. More power is always good, even when it exceeds the power rating of your speakers. More power = more headroom = cleaner sound (without compression/clipping as limits of amps are reached).

And like I keep telling people. Shop around. Audition till you go crazy. If you take the time to make a well informed decision, you'll be much happier with your investment down the line than if you just go out and impulse buy.

 

[Brad E]

Zeeshan,
The setup you are looking at is very close to mine. I have the JBL ND310II's for my mains and surrounds. These are the older version of the E100's.
My sub is a JBL PB12 and my center is a EC35.
All powered by a H/K 7200.
I can't say enough how good this sounds. Music and movies have been quite the experience. (for me and my neighbors )

Before buying the EC25, make sure you listen to the EC35. Back to back preferably. The difference is quite noticable and I found the EC35 to be the better sounding of the 2.
Also the E10's should be fine. But if you like to listen to music in surround then you could run into a bit of trouble depending on what receiver you get and how loud you like to listen to it.

 

[Joshua H]

I'm actually shopping in the same price range, to run my s38's all around. ive sort of stumbled across the marantz 5400/6400 receivers but they arent talked of much here. I read a couple mag reviews online and they got editors picks and all... can anyone attest to the quality/features of them in either direction? thanks.