Thinking of this JBL H/T setup.. What you think? (1 Viewer)

[OmarC]

Hi there,

I'm planning on my very first H/T setup. I've recently purchased a Sony STR-DE895, which IMO, is a great receiver for the price I paid ($240 shipped on eBay). I've had several discussions about this at Sound Domain and everyone has mixed opinions, so I wanted to tap you guys for some insight.

I was looking at the JBL E90 pair for the fronts, JBL N-24s for surrounds, and a JBL NCENTERII center. I had the opportunity to check out the fronts at Best Buy, and to me they sound decent.

To take care of the low-end, I was also planning on a homemade powered subwoofer using a RF Power HX2 10" sub I have laying around, and power it with a Parts Express 1000W A/B output stage amp. I currently have this very same driver in my Jeep, installed in a 1.75CF homemade vented box tuned to 28Hz, and it rocks, so I'm very confident that it'll do well for this app.

I've also considered a DIY alternative, and so far I've found possible candidates for the fronts. I'm looking at two Peerless CSX 8" midbasses and a Peerless 1" dome tweeter per each speaker. I'm thinking the two midbasses and the tweeter in a 1.93CF vented enclosure tuned to 36.7Hz, and pad the entire inside of the enclosure with foam. I plotted this out in WinISD and it nets a smooth response curve, beginning to drop out at 77Hz with a -3dB gain at 43.7Hz, which happens to be right around the subwoofer's roll off point if tuned at 32Hz.

I'd provide links to all the products I'm considering, but I currently have "n00b" status and am hence disallowed to include hyperlinks.

So disregarding the price differences.. Should I consider the DIY project or will the JBL setup make me happy?

I appreciate your comments in advance. Thanks.

Omar

 

[Jesse Sharrow]

I can put in my $.02 on the sub part. Do not use a car audio driver in a home environment. I know you just have it laying around but the money you will spend to make it sound "good" will be alot and it will never sound even as good as a cheaper home sub. Car drivers are designed to run in alot smaller airspace. So unless your home theater is in a closet, this wouldnt work well.

As far as the speakers go, your fronts look great. But I would go to a slightly larger surround. Also I couldnt find that center on JBL's website.

 

[OmarC]

You think so about the sub? Reason why I ask is because I recently built a homemade 2CF subwoofer box tuned to 25Hz for a Pioneer TS-W33C. I used a JBL 80.2, and powered it with a RadioShack 25-amp AC/DC workbench power supply. I was trying to cut corners in choosing the less expensive gear, so I predicted it wouldn't be too loud, but to my surprise it responded well. It's evident that matching up the components this way is limiting, so now I just want to start over with a more powerful subwoofer amp meant for home use.

eBay has the center that I'm looking at, search for item 3082992182.

I meant to choose small surrounds. My living room isn't too large, and ideally I'd like to hang them on the wall, directly facing the middle of my sofa.

 

[OmarC]

ttt