Is this good for 2.1?

A

adutch

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I have been looking around a bit and would like to purchase a decent 2.1 system that I can easily upgrade to 5.1. My budget is around $400 includiding shipping and cables :(. Is this enough to get a *decent* upgradeable system? I would like a receiver because I have multiple things that I want to plug in to these speakers and would like to stay away from a jumble of Y cables.

Heres what I have found:
Sherwood RD-6500
Polk Monitor 30 http://www.j r.com/polk-audio/pe/POK_MONITOR30BK
Dayton Sub-80

And I was wondering if this is what I would use to connect the sub to the receiver, and what do I use to connect the speakers? When I search for speaker cable I usually see a roll of wire or wire with bare ends. Do I just cut the wire to my liking and strip some of it and stick it in a hole somewhere, or do I buy connectors somewhere?

Thanks a lot and please let me know if you know something better for a similar price or if something doesn't work together.
 
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Yeah that will do fine. Sound will be great.

As far as cables, are you hooking it up to a sound card, 360, ps3 or what?
 
Well, I'm fine on the cables from the PC/Xbox/iPod to receiver, but from the receiver to speaker is what I'm somewhat confused about. Can I just buy some of this and cut it to a certain length and stick one end in the receiver and the other end in the speaker? Or do I buy RCA cables? Thanks.
 
I'm assuming Polk Monitor 30s are standard bookshelf speakers with +L, -L, +R, and -R connections, in which case, yes, you can do that. Another option (if you like sleeved cables with connectors) is Bluejeanscable. I have Bluejeanscable for pretty much all of my audio cables, and they sell speaker cable (12 gauge) at something like $0.40 - $0.50 per foot. You can also buy connectors from them (and they'll have instructions) or you can buy them elsewhere.

What I did was buy 3m of their Belden 1694A cut in two pieces for each speaker. Then, I bought 4 pairs of Neutrik Locking Connectors from them, followed their .pdf instructions, and made my own cables. It's much more cost-effective than buying the entire cable, all pre-made.
 
OK, that sounds good, so can I just use the standard banana connectors they have to connect then? Thanks for the help.
 
Ah, the Sherwood is old school, spring loaded, stripped bare cable style. So yeah. Just buy some 12 gauge speaker wire, strip the ends and plug + into + and - into -. Simple.

Now be aware that the Sherwood has 2 coax and 1 optical digital inputs. It also has analogue(rca) 5.1 inputs for something like a PC surround input.
 
spaceman said:
Banana will not work unless they are REALLY thin.
Click to expand...

Hmm, I just took a look and it looks like that receiver uses the old school wiring, so essentially, from my post above, remove 2 pairs of connectors (so you only have 2 pairs total) and leave one end un-terminated on each set of wires.
 
Thanks a lot, but one more question, there is only one dedicated input for a subwoofer, and that's in the 6 ch input part. Does that mean that the other channels won't play through the sub:confused: Or do they play through it they just don't have a dedicated input? Sorry for all the questions.
 
Cyrilix said:
Hmm, I just took a look and it looks like that receiver uses the old school wiring, so essentially, from my post above, remove 2 pairs of connectors (so you only have 2 pairs total) and leave one end un-terminated on each set of wires.
Click to expand...

Yup.

I am listening to my 6500 now. Doing just fine. Going to upgrade for my HT but this is a decent little receiver. I would get this or the Panasonic XR-57 if I was looking for a sub $250 receiver. I did not like the Yamaha 363 much.
 
Well, the cheapest I could find the Panasonic was $250 and I am already a little over my budget so that won't work.

But also, I was wondering if all of the channels will output to the subwoofer or if only the 5.1 channel will because that is the only one with a dedicated input for it? Thanks.
 
There is a dedicated sub woofer output. One single rca cable into the sub is all that is required. It is clearly marked on the back of the receiver. The Sherwood 6500 is a fine choice if you are on a budget. I have no problems with mine. For the $$? No problems. Voices are clear and bass well defined. Two of the harder parts of sound to reproduce well. It is a simple receiver. Just plug the source(s) in, select stereo, turn the sub on/off to on (you will need to read the manual for that) and voila. The only other stuff you have to deal with is bass, treble, volume. That is it.

The manual which comes with the receiver will explain everything. Just follow it step by step and you will be golden!
 
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