New Everything - Reciever and Speaker help!

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taylorwilsdon

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Aug 21, 2006
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I know about as close to nothing as you could possibly know about audio equipment, but I've always had an ear for good sound and I'd like to put together a desk area that I can really enjoy.

One thing right out of the box, I listen to mostly rap / hip hop, so strong bass is a must.

Right now I have a Denon DRA-f101 receiver and two MIssion m71i speakers. They're old, but they sound good. Good, not great. Cost about a grand from Magnolia HIFI (now the Best Buy niche store Magnolia AV) about four years ago. I run audio from my computer, and right now I mostly hook a headphone jack out -> red/white cable to my receiver. Again, I'm sure I'm losing quality with that. How can I get better sound from my computer? Its a Macbook Pro laptop, so I can't add any internal cards (obviously) and any external stuff has to work with Mac.

My music is ripped at high quality, but not lossless. 192kbps MP3, mostly. Some FLAC.

If your receiver suggestion has video capabilities, all the better. I have a Gateway 1080P LCD monitor and I'd like to be able to hook my PS3 and computer (ps3 with hdmi to hdmi and computer with dvi -> hdmi) and be able to switch through the receiver. This is not a requirement, and to be honest its really not that imporant at all.

Summary:

I need a new receiver and surround sound (5.1?) speaker setup. I see hot deals on HTIB systems, but I don't know if the quality will be as good as a built out system. Since I listen to so much music, I'm willing to make a pretty real investment. Don't throw $10,000+ stuff at me but I'm open to high end equipment.
 
Biggest suggestion...just go listen to them. If you like the warmth that Denon brings, try pairing it with polk speakers. That's what I did b/c I like the sound. I listened to all kinds of things before deciding on a Denon/Polk setup. The only other speaker I liked was Paradigm.
 
MP3s will definitely be your weakest link.

Another thing you can do is add an outboard USB DAC to your PC and have this decode the digital music instead of letting your soundcard do it.... btw, what's your soundcard?
 
clague said:
There is a new yamaha receiver that has a feature which is supposed to improve MP3 quality.
Click to expand...
It helps with tolerablitiy, not quality. Bad rips give you that phaser wah effect, and the enhancer tries to compress the nasty dynamics into straight tones. It works,but it can't make the sound natural. Sometimes it accents exactly what it is trying to negate.
All I'm saying is it's a nice feature, but I wouldn't pay for it. It can't replace higher quality rips, and if you're going to spend money on something, spend it on more drive space for higher quality audio.
Upon trying it some more it can also really screw up bass by making it too crisp when it should be hip hoppy smooth.
...and make clean sounds sound very digitized.
 
A gimmick at best...

Much like the XFi Crystallizer...

Anyway, if I were the original poster, I would do this:

1. Set a budget for everything; speakers, sub, receiver.
2. Try to start learning about FLAC and lossless encoding, plan to purchase an external hdd for storage.
3. Figure out whether I'd rather go with stereo or 5.1... what are my preferences? Do I listen to music? Do I want to listen to stereo the way it's meant to be heard? OR, do I prefer watching movies and listening to music while doing other things (like studying, working/leisuring on the PC)?
 
I just got the new Pioneer Receiver VSX-516 s/k 100 x 7 watts per channel with a Pioneer DV-393-S DVD player that will also play mp3's with my old set of Polk 10B speakers front and Bose 301 rear speakers and the sound is sweet. I have heard sould in CD's and Movies I have not heard before lots of bells and whistles on this receiver.
 
Pinipig523 said:
MP3s will definitely be your weakest link.

Another thing you can do is add an outboard USB DAC to your PC and have this decode the digital music instead of letting your soundcard do it.... btw, what's your soundcard?
Click to expand...

No soundcard. I use the headphone jack on my Macbook Pro.

MP3 is weakest link but current quality doesn't bother me so I think we're okay. I also have many original CD's.
 
I would recommend you to get Yamaha's AV receiver RX-V1700 and B&W speaker setup like front: B&W DM602 S3 (if you want bigger get DN602.5 S3)
centar: B&W LCR 60 S3 (bigger LCR 600S3)
rear: B&W DM601 S3
now good thing about this yamaha is that you have zone2 so you can get another pair of B&W DM601 S3 and hook them to get 7.1 or use them or any other speakers to get 5.1 + 2.0 or plain stereo for another room, kitchen, even bathroom, good thig isn't it?
and a sub-woofer: Wharfedale Diamond SW 250, with it's own remote.
Google it for prices and more info.
 
taylorwilsdon said:
No soundcard. I use the headphone jack on my Macbook Pro.

MP3 is weakest link but current quality doesn't bother me so I think we're okay. I also have many original CD's.
Click to expand...

It wont bother you, of course, but that doesnt mean it's not limiting your system.

Anyway, how much is your budget and how many speakers are you thinking of getting?

I posted a few questions to ponder over a few posts back, and it's helpful if you answer those so I/We could help you better.
 
Pinipig523 said:
It wont bother you, of course, but that doesnt mean it's not limiting your system.

Anyway, how much is your budget and how many speakers are you thinking of getting?

I posted a few questions to ponder over a few posts back, and it's helpful if you answer those so I/We could help you better.
Click to expand...

1. Set a budget for everything; speakers, sub, receiver.

I don't have a budget, but I'd prefer to stay under $2000 for the whole schabang. I'm willing to go 10x higher if it will sound 10x better, but I'm a bang for my buck guy.

2. Try to start learning about FLAC and lossless encoding, plan to purchase an external hdd for storage.

I actually do have a separate fileserver for music (and movies), but I've always ripped at a low-ish quality because I didn't really feel the need. My recent rips are in FLAC lossless codec.

3. Figure out whether I'd rather go with stereo or 5.1... what are my preferences? Do I listen to music? Do I want to listen to stereo the way it's meant to be heard? OR, do I prefer watching movies and listening to music while doing other things (like studying, working/leisuring on the PC)?

Mostly music, but I also will use it for movie sound.

Thanks for your help!
 
At that price point, I would say you could go with an all out XLS system from av123 or a pair of Rocket 550 for mains/200 for center/250 for rears if you can find it on the av123 site.

Other than that, you could probably go with a full Polk LSi set (LSi9 for mains, LSiFX for rears, and LSiC for center).

Aside from that there are good Klipsch speakers that you could look into, perhaps something like the RF62 based system:

http://www.klipsch.com/products/details/rf-62-home-theater-system.aspx

That's probably my fave for movies as they are easy to drive with a receiver.... with the LSi, it's a tought 4ohm load... with the Rockets, you cant find those new, the XLS you can find new for sure, but I think my preference may be the Klipsch system for your case.

However, if you just wanted to stick with 2 speakers for pure 2channel stereo listening... you can move up in speaker quality:
1. AV123 Strata Minis (I have these also and they are great for the money)
2. Martin Logan Mosiac (clean clear and transparent)
3. Martin Logan Clarity (gives you that electrostatic sound for less.... especially since it's on closeout)
4. BW 703 used
5. Focal 928 Profile used
6. Von Schweikert VR4jr used
 
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