htpc front speaker suggestion

J

jflail2

Gawd
Joined
Jun 1, 2005
Messages
646
I am in the midst of building out a new living room setup, and wanted a little input regarding speaker choices. I bought this for a receiver (wanted that hdmi passthru):

http://www.onkyousa.com/model.cfm?m=TX-SR604&class=Receiver&p=i

and picked up a pair of these for the fronts:

http://www.crutchfield.com/S-sNIAp8phIuP/cgi-bin/ProdView.asp?g=37900&I=107RTI6B

I'll be picking up a center channel this Wednesday, but long story short, we are going to hold off on picking up rears for the time being. So my question is, would you recommend either of these floor standers over the RTi6's I just picked up, and more importantly, would that receiver be able to push these bigger speakers?:

http://www.crutchfield.com/S-sNIAp8phIuP/cgi-bin/ProdView.asp?g=12000&I=107RTI8B

or

http://www.crutchfield.com/S-sNIAp8phIuP/cgi-bin/ProdView.asp?g=12000&I=107MON60C

1 more thing. How much difference would there be in sound quality between the Monitor 60's and the RTi8's? I assume the RTi is better, but woudl it be noticeable? Would the receiver be able to push 1 but not the other?

Thanks for the help!
 
sound quality is totally subjective, so I don't put much stock in online opinions there. purchase them from somewhere with a good return policy and try them out for a few days. You receiver will push them just fine. home theaters don't pull that many watts really. Not sure if you are dead set on plks, but there are a lot of speakers that are more highly regarded in the same price range. Here are a couple of good starting places...

http://www.ascendacoustics.com/

http://www.av123.com/

For a lot mroe detailed info about non-mainstream brands, go browse the avsforum.com speaker section for a while.
 
I actually chose polk for a few reasons. I don't want to get into the expensive end of things, and after listening to a few different brands at Crutchfield, the Polks sounded to be the most pleasing bang for the buck.

I am also in Va., and we have a Crutchfield outlet here. They are having their annual open box clearance sale, so I am getting pretty good prices on speakers there.

This is my 1st HT build with a woman in the house, so my funds are not limitless :)

I've been digging around the AVS forums for a while, but it seems to be more than a bit snobby. I don't feel overly welcome since I'm not buying Martin Logan or Marantz....

Anyway, I was mostly curious about differences between the Monitor 60s and the Rti8's, and if that receiver (90w/ch) had enough oomph to push the bigger guys.
 
should be enough power. as for the difference, I suggest trying an A to B comparison on your own. the specs are fairly similar. Probably the most important factor you haven't mentioned is what center channel did you get? You want to be sure the center is tonally matched to the mains so you don't notice the transition on a panning sound. In a surround sound system, the large majority of your dialog comes from the center channel. If I had to choose how to spend my money, I would spend more on a nice center and use bookshelf speakers for the R/L.
 
Well if I keep the rti6's, then I would grab this (coming in on Wed.):

http://www.crutchfield.com/S-dFCMtfvU9UV/cgi-bin/ProdView.asp?g=12100&I=107CSI3B

If I moved up to the rti8's, I think it would be more appropriate to pick this one up instead:

http://www.crutchfield.com/S-dFCMtfvU9UV/cgi-bin/ProdView.asp?g=12100&I=107CSI5B

If I went with the monitor 60's, this would be my choice:

http://www.crutchfield.com/S-dFCMtfvU9UV/cgi-bin/ProdView.asp?g=12100&I=107CS2C

Thanks for your help id, this has been a steep learning curve for me! I'm getting it, but slowly.....So in the end, I guess my 2 options (taking into account my allowed budget etc) would be either:

1.) Keep the Rti6's and get the 1st linked center.

2.) Trade them in for the Monitor 60's and get the 3rd linked center.

I don't think I can justify the rti8's at this point if the center channel is indeed that important...What thinks ye of the 2 options above? This may be one of those "buy them both and take them home" answers, but I'm trying to build as much knowledge as I can before I go back.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top