Any Suggestions For A Good Speaker System...

[jazzsinger]

Firstly, nice amp, should do the business nicely.

you can hook your pc up to any of the rca inputs except a record deck/phono input as it is preamped not line level. normal choice would be aux or cd input.


treble and bass are usually adjusted in the menu on 5.1 ch receivers, if your speakers are decent they should sound best when bass and treble are set flat, if you have to adjust bass and treble it suggests your speakers don't have a flat response.

i recently set up the same amp for a mate who used kef q series front and centre with mission rear shelf speakers and mission sub, sounded very clear but lacked the bass punch of his previous mission/denon amp pairing, but had better clarity.

the beauty of my jvc is it sounds good and is simplicity to use, ideal when you have two kids using it constantly, but your pioneer is far more modern, with much better modern appliance connectivity,

its the mission speaker system that makes it punch above its weight, they cost 4 times the price of the amp, and are probably better suited to a newer modern more powerful amp, but as its never let me down and matches all my other hifi gear and its volume is way beyond what my neighbours can live with, i don't see the point in throwing away more money for minimal gain i can't get to use,

i get round lack of connectivity by using a toslink switcher into the amps (from the tv's multiple hdmi input switching and a toslink output) sole toslink input to get good quality surround / stereo sound from modern consoles/tivo cable tv etc, i also have a 5 way scart switcher to maximise the scart inputs for older equipment vcr's etc, these can also have audio output from the tv toslink.

the other two toslink switch inputs are used direct from ps3 and x box 360 to allow the DTS signals from dvd's/games/or blueray as the tv only ouputs dolby digital 5.1 or dolby digital stereo or lpcm (standard cd format digital audio).

the tv has a pc input and its audio can be routed through the tv's toslink output and also a usb input/built in media player which allows ext hardrives or i pods etc to be played through the system or charged too, the ps3 can also do that, anything that the tv can't play or recognise as its inbuilt media player ain't all that can be played via the pc and vlc (my favourite) or some other media player.

add youtube on tivo or the pc and you have an unlimited supply of music/concerts and movie

the only thing it lacks is some dolly bird selling ice cream and kia ora like you used to get at the cinema.

hope that gives you some food for thought on exploiting your amps full potential.

the manual you seek:

http://ec1.images-amazon.com/media/i3d/01/A/man-migrate/MANUAL000058657.pdf

 

[jazzsinger]

Speakers?

J B L

'Nuff said . . .

sure jbl are good, but they ain't the best, not to mention certain speakers work better with some makes of amp than others, its much better to audition a pair/set of speakers on your own (best) or same make amp to judge if they will compliment your system.

 

[Eastside]

Here is what I ended up with.....the receiver and the speakers I got off CL....and the sub I got from newegg....the receiver is a Pioneer VSX-1014...it came with a set of Infinity bookshelf speakers...and a Polk subwoofer.....sounds awesome.

 

[jazzsinger]

looking good Eastside, like radio, hifi is always possible to be improved on, but you've got a right good amp to build round.

polk audio do some nice speakers as do infinity, decent interconnects and speaker cable can make a difference too, but you don't need to spend thousands if you are shrewd, its about balancing your system as you quickly reach a point of diminishing returns for your buck, very much like in radio, high end gear isn't massively better than mid range gear, but midrange gear offers a far greater improvement over basic stuff.

pioneer is hard to beat in the midrange home cinema field, only denon and yamaha in my opinion slightly better it, possibly rotel too, but its at the very top range of midrange and going into premium gear, you'll probably find some lesser known makes are just as good though, there really isn't a lot to choose between the sound of most of them, the price difference is mainly due to connectability and aesthetics.

 

[Eastside]

looking good Eastside, like radio, hifi is always possible to be improved on, but you've got a right good amp to build round.

polk audio do some nice speakers as do infinity, decent interconnects and speaker cable can make a difference too, but you don't need to spend thousands if you are shrewd, its about balancing your system as you quickly reach a point of diminishing returns for your buck, very much like in radio, high end gear isn't massively better than mid range gear, but midrange gear offers a far greater improvement over basic stuff.

pioneer is hard to beat in the midrange home cinema field, only denon and yamaha in my opinion slightly better it, possibly rotel too, but its at the very top range of midrange and going into premium gear, you'll probably find some lesser known makes are just as good though, there really isn't a lot to choose between the sound of most of them, the price difference is mainly due to connectability and aesthetics.

I got a great deal on the receiver and speakers....$100 from angry divorcee.....Subwoofer was $100 from newegg...cable from pc to receiver $12.
I do not want big speakers in my bedroom......I have huge Sansui speakers I bought back in the 70s if I ever had the need for night club level volume.

 

[jazzsinger]

angry divorcee's can be a very cheap source {Cry_river}

i like big speakers, i don't care how they look, as long as they rock, there's no substitute for air volume when it comes to producing bass punch, my living room is only 12 ft by 12 feet, so they rock the room easily, even at moderate volume levels, saves straining the amp and makes it last years. i rarely use the 150w sub as it drives neighbours nuts and the m34 fronts are plenty bassy anyway.

it depends on the type of music/movies you like and how much space your willing to give up.

 

[Eastside]

angry divorcee's can be a very cheap source {Cry_river}

i like big speakers, i don't care how they look, as long as they rock, there's no substitute for air volume when it comes to producing bass punch, my living room is only 12 ft by 12 feet, so they rock the room easily, even at moderate volume levels, saves straining the amp and makes it last years. i rarely use the 150w sub as it drives neighbours nuts and the m34 fronts are plenty bassy anyway.

it depends on the type of music/movies you like and how much space your willing to give up.

Yeah....back in the 70s when a hi end hifi was a status symbol and part of the party culture.....I went to a high end stereo store...at first they were being snooty...then when they knew I had cash to spend they were more attentive to me......I bought a Marantz 2275 and a Teac A-6300 reel to reel with a remote...and the big Sansui speakers that weigh about 75lbs each with ornate wood grills...I laid out a small fortune for it.....I still have the equipment and it all still works....a testament to how well they made stereo components back then.

 

[jazzsinger]

i think a good entertainment system is still a status symbol, just not to the same degree it was.

snooty sales staff in hifi is nothing new and still prevails today, right up to the point where you ask them a question they cant answer, which for about 95% of sales staff is guaranteed.

i remember going to view a hifi in a discount electrical store a number of years back for/with my mum, snooty 20 year old started talking unbelievable sales pish, to cut a long story short i noticed the display model wasn't wired up, i asked for a display, winked at my mum and said this should be fun, after watching him struggle severely for at least 20 minutes to wire it up, i casually asked do you want me to do it, snootiness fast disappearing he said can you?,

after i stopped laughing 5 minutes later it was all wired up, you should have seen his face when i said it sounds pish after wasting the best part of an hour of his time, just out of badness i asked him what compulink was, the fool tried to convince me it was to input a pc's audio,pmsl.

he made the classic mistake of assuming the customer was as dumb or dumber than he was, i can't help wondering how many customers he left disappointed after selling them gear that couldn't do what they wanted it to do.

 

[Mudfoot]

I wouldn't have wasted 20 minutes of my mom's time.

 

[Eastside]

i think a good entertainment system is still a status symbol, just not to the same degree it was.

snooty sales staff in hifi is nothing new and still prevails today, right up to the point where you ask them a question they cant answer, which for about 95% of sales staff is guaranteed.

i remember going to view a hifi in a discount electrical store a number of years back for/with my mum, snooty 20 year old started talking unbelievable sales pish, to cut a long story short i noticed the display model wasn't wired up, i asked for a display, winked at my mum and said this should be fun, after watching him struggle severely for at least 20 minutes to wire it up, i casually asked do you want me to do it, snootiness fast disappearing he said can you?,

after i stopped laughing 5 minutes later it was all wired up, you should have seen his face when i said it sounds pish after wasting the best part of an hour of his time, just out of badness i asked him what compulink was, the fool tried to convince me it was to input a pc's audio,pmsl.

he made the classic mistake of assuming the customer was as dumb or dumber than he was, i can't help wondering how many customers he left disappointed after selling them gear that couldn't do what they wanted it to do.

That is how it is at most stores now....the help are usually not very knowledgeable and confuse you more......but back in the day they were more likely to know what they were talking about....when they had specialized shops and not just big stores that sell everything.