• Please be sure to read the rules and adhere to them. Some banned members have complained that they are not spammers. But they spammed us. Some even tried to redirect our members to other forums. Duh. Be smart. Read the rules and adhere to them and we will all get along just fine. Cheers. :beer: Link to the rules: https://www.forumsforums.com/threads/forum-rules-info.2974/

Sight or sound?

bczoom

Super Moderator
Staff member
GOLD Site Supporter
Thinking of your home electronics, where do you like your most quality?
Stereo or television?

Myself, it's definitely stereo. The TV's are tube-type Sony's but if the stereo can't make the house shake while maintaining sound clarity, it needs an upgrade. Ditto on the shop stereo.
 

Mith

The Eccentric Englishman
SUPER Site Supporter
If the TV is watchable sound is the important bit.

Bought a pair of Eltax floorstanders a while ago, each speaker has a sub in the back, you can get the windows to rattle and still maintain clarity ;) In my shop I have surround sound with a mahooosive sub, again, get the windows th rattle and still hear the words :D
I run mostly Sony equipment, a Marantz signature Cd player, Technics Cd player, Sony Minidisk and Amp, Gemini Mixer and Pre-amp, also have a Sony Minidisk walkman I use as the input in the shop.
I cant stand tinny depthless sound like from an integrated unit with the speakers glued to the sides :(
As you might have guessed I like my music ;)
 

OregonAlex

New member
Definately sounds. To me it is more about filling the space with enough speakers for coverage then then about amplitude. Too much amplitude and my head hurts. Of course, enough power to drive the sub and woofers when the bass demands it is nice too. However, normally I don't like cranking up the amplitude just so I can make the house shake. It will shake when there is something demands like. Action and sci-fi movie movie sound effects.

Living Room is 22'x22'

Sony 6.1 EX Receiver
Sony DVD via Coax Digital to receiver
Pair of 3-Way Pioneer Floor standing speakers, 10" Woofers
Pair of 2-Way Pioneer Rear Bookshelf, 5.25" Woofers. Mounted on corner shelves near ceiling.
MTX self powered Sub, 12" woofer
Tivo series 2
TV is an upscale 1999 27" Phillips/Magnovox 4:3 Tube. Have debated about getting something bigger and HDTV compatible but can't justify it just yet. Maybe in another 10 years. ;-)
Programming is via roof antenna UHF/VHF.

not sure I need any more speakers.. debating additional front and rear centers. Speakers seem to do a real good job of filling the room at low amplitude setting on the receiver.
 
Last edited:

bczoom

Super Moderator
Staff member
GOLD Site Supporter
OregonAlex said:
To me it is more about filling the space with enough speakers for coverage then then about amplitude.
Agreed, especially when watching TV.
I have 10 of the little Bose Acousta-mass speakers + 2 matching sub-woofers in the living room. Fantastic when watching TV. Loads of clarity at higher volumes as well.
 

OregonAlex

New member
bczoom said:
Agreed, especially when watching TV.
I have 10 of the little Bose Acousta-mass speakers + 2 matching sub-woofers in the living room. Fantastic when watching TV. Loads of clarity at higher volumes as well.

Brian,
nice speakers. I assume you set the receiver to Dolby Pro-Logic II for TV? Its amazing what that algoryth does. Wonder what this new Pro-Logic IIx is like. It seems like just as you get a receiver with the latest features they come up with a new one. Oh well.
 

bczoom

Super Moderator
Staff member
GOLD Site Supporter
OregonAlex said:
It seems like just as you get a receiver with the latest features they come up with a new one. Oh well.
That is really annoying, isn't it. I have a high-end Onkyo receiver but it's now probably 6-8 years old. I don't bother spending the $ anymore just to keep up as it seems impossible.

Unfortunately (for me), the TV it's all connected to is in the LR which is where the kids seem to take over. On occasion (if we put on a movie for them), I can turn it on but always seemed to get "It's too loud!!". Not from the kids, but from Mrs. Zoom who's somewhere else in the house.
 
Sound for sure. I have a 30 by 40 game room. I put a pair of Polk tower 400 watt speakers in it. They have built in subwoffers that come out towards the floor. You can rattle the walls at high volume and they also sound great at low volume with great clarity high or low volume.:beer:
 

Melensdad

Jerk in a Hawaiian Shirt & SNOWCAT Moderator
Staff member
GOLD Site Supporter
I thought about this after reading all the posts.

I think we struck a reasonable balance between the two. My living room is 20 x 26 x 12' tall so I needed both a large screen and room filling sound.

The TV is a 4th generation 56" Samsung widescreen HDTV DLP set, not quite plasma prices, but the picture quality was rated higher than 90% of the plasma sets on the market. The DVD player is an upper end Denon unit with upscaling since DVDs are not able to produce HD quality output, the upscaling increases the resolution to mimic HD quality. The two combined make for a reasonably exceptional picture with either HD broadcasts or the lower resolution that DVD provides.

The sound system is a Denon unit, one of their upper-mid-grade units. It powers Paradigm speakers. I settled on Paradigm after checking a lot of sources and listening to a lot of speakers and there is no way I would go with one of the "popular" brands of so-called premium speakers. They are simply astounding in their ability to deliver clarity and punch. Most folks who buy Paradigms graduated up from the well known brands.

So I have a reasonable balance. The TV is reasonably high end. The DVD is reasonably high end. The surround sound is reasonably high end. Nothing is top of the line or outrageous, but all is balanced very well for the room dynamics. I've seen set ups that are twice the price I paid, but the quality difference is almost imperceptable at all normal viewing angles and normal audio levels. The top line systems will out perform my system at the upper ranges, but I'm not the type who turns things up that loud. But yes, I do have the ability to shake the house and rattle the windows, it is just a rare event for me to do that.
 

Doc

Bottoms Up
Staff member
GOLD Site Supporter
Hey Daydreamer! Welcome to our forum. Glad to see you post.

I've been in that game room and his stereo does kick major butt!

This thread reminds me, it's time to upgrade my stereo! I added the 200 cd jukebox a few years ago, but didn't upgrade the amp or speakers yet.
 

messickfarmequ

Charter Member
Electronics are my first love :)

I got into building my own speakers several years ago. I've done 1 Pair of large MTM floor standers using Scan-Speak drivers (design called the Eros - check Google) 1 Pair of computer monitors using Hi-Vi Research 6" Mids and Ribbon Tweeters and my HT L/R/C which is Hi-Vi Research 6" Mids and B&G Ribbon Tweeters. My HT currently has a 12" Parts-Express Titanic Sub driven by 250 Watts - that monster runs at about 10% of its output else it will destroy my house! In college I built a 1/4 wave bandpass sub off plans dubed the "House Wrecker" and powered it with a 1000watt pro-audio amp. That thing was somthing to behold! I ran pro-sound for ahile and used it once to fill in the bottom end of a basket ball court. For the head end I use a mid-grade Denon amp for decoding and pass off to a 300wpc ADCOM amp. At one point I did have a really high end amp that I build from a kit - it sounded good - too good for my ears frankly. So I sold it for $1600! I also have a pair of 8wpc tube amps. I've done a mess of stuff to my car too - thats another post in itself.

Its a great hobby and there is lots of info on the internet. I can spend $400-500 and build a set of speakers that will destory the best any chain store has to offer.
 
Top