Would a "standard" AV Amp with "standard" speakers be better than a medium spec PC Speaker setup?

Is this for Games? Movies? Music? "Better performance" requires context.

A few observations: The Yamaha is probably an "okay" receiver but it's sad the way it tries to inflate it's specs as much as possible. For example, it lists it's "Rated Output Power" as 100 W (6 ohms, 0.9% THD, 1kHz, 1ch driven).

A proper measurement would be done at 8 ohms, not 6 ohms, since most speakers are 8 ohms. Most receivers will put out more power as the impedance decreases, so measuring at 6 ohms instead of 8 ohms inflates the numbers.
A proper measurement would be done from 20Hz to 20Khz (the range of human hearing). This receiver measures only at 1Khz, again inflating the numbers.
A proper measurement would be done with multiple channels (at least 2) driven simultaneously. This receiver measures using only one channel. Just because the power supply can do that with one channel doesn't mean it can do that with 2, or 5. Inflated numbers.

Looking at the actual specs gives you the impression that it's a pretty anemic receiver, if they have to push that hard in order to inflate the numbers. Sort of reminds me of one of those cheap "500 watt" computer power supplies that really only does about 150. But if you are just going to use the small included bookshelf speakers and a powered sub that has it's own amplifier, maybe it will be enough.

The receiver would have the advantage in that you could potentially run HDMI from your computer to the receiver for lossless digital 5.1. With the Logitech setup you would have to run 5.1 analog outputs from your computer, 2.0 Digital lossless (SPDIF), or 5.1 Digital compressed (Dolby Digital / DTS). There is no way to send 5.1 digital lossless to the Logitech speakers.
 
GotNoRice said:
Is this for Games? Movies? Music? "Better performance" requires context.
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All of the above.

Is for a second room setup.

Not for main rig or lounge or the like.

Not expecting the Yamaha kit to be "world beating"... just wanting to know if better than the PC speakers relative to bang for buck.

A lot of Hi-fi kit is 6 ohms.

As much as I love Logitech kit, I personally feel the AV Amp setup would deliver a better "all round" experience plus the fact I have no dedicated sound card and the onboard one is garbage, muchos interference so would need a dedicated soundcard PCI or USB minimum if going the PC speaker route.
 
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The speakers are the most important part of your setup (given that your AV receiver supports the latest technologies). A typical listener uses around 1 watt of power for background music and perhaps 20 watts for movies. Only for a subwoofer you may need over 100 watts of power. Also, the smaller your speakers are the more power you will need to get an equal loudness.

If you want excellent price/value, I recommend trying a preowned Pioneer SP-BS22-LR or Elac Debut series. They're designed by Andrew Jones who is a wizard at making budget speakers sound good.

I'm using the JBL 305 active speakers as my tv speakers along with a self made subwoofer of 70 watt plate amp + Peerless XLS-10 + 12" passive radiator and some Chorus passive speakers as surrounds. Very affordable setup but acceptable sound for a tv.

I have been contemplating of taking my 18" horn loaded bass to my livingroom but the 2,5 kilowatt PA amp fans are too loud :D Perhaps for some party in the future :)
 
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GotNoRice said:
Is this for Games? Movies? Music? "Better performance" requires context.

A few observations: The Yamaha is probably an "okay" receiver but it's sad the way it tries to inflate it's specs as much as possible. For example, it lists it's "Rated Output Power" as 100 W (6 ohms, 0.9% THD, 1kHz, 1ch driven).

A proper measurement would be done at 8 ohms, not 6 ohms, since most speakers are 8 ohms. Most receivers will put out more power as the impedance decreases, so measuring at 6 ohms instead of 8 ohms inflates the numbers.
A proper measurement would be done from 20Hz to 20Khz (the range of human hearing). This receiver measures only at 1Khz, again inflating the numbers.
A proper measurement would be done with multiple channels (at least 2) driven simultaneously. This receiver measures using only one channel. Just because the power supply can do that with one channel doesn't mean it can do that with 2, or 5. Inflated numbers.

Looking at the actual specs gives you the impression that it's a pretty anemic receiver, if they have to push that hard in order to inflate the numbers. Sort of reminds me of one of those cheap "500 watt" computer power supplies that really only does about 150. But if you are just going to use the small included bookshelf speakers and a powered sub that has it's own amplifier, maybe it will be enough.

The receiver would have the advantage in that you could potentially run HDMI from your computer to the receiver for lossless digital 5.1. With the Logitech setup you would have to run 5.1 analog outputs from your computer, 2.0 Digital lossless (SPDIF), or 5.1 Digital compressed (Dolby Digital / DTS). There is no way to send 5.1 digital lossless to the Logitech speakers.
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Unfortunately, unless you're buying something really high-end, they all do that.

Testing at 1khz is industry standard (again, unfortunately) and you have to rely on reviewers with proper testing equipment to get the truth out of it.

Also, pretty much every multichannel AV receiver's specs are a lie. Just look at the power rating on the back: Mine is a 7.1 channel receiver rated at 100 watts per channel, yet, the maximum power consumption is 250 watts. This does not comply with the laws of physics. lol

I haven't seen a receiver's specs show an "all channels driven" power rating since Dolby Digital ("equal" power to all channels) became a thing. But, there would be a hefty price to pay if it were actually putting out 700 watts - the power supply would be absolutely massive and would require the size of the unit to be probably tripled (or have the power supply in a separate chassis).

Giving a rating at 6ohms and not 8 is downright deceptive if you ask me though.

With that said, yes, I believe a receiver/speakers combo in place of powered PC speakers will be a much better experience. Then again, most people can't tell the difference.

Just as a reminder also: You can't get surround sound (Dolby/DTS) from games using the digital out from your sound card, you have to use the 5 (or 7, or however many channels) analog outputs, in which case, you would likely want an add-in sound card anyway because the analog outputs on an integrated sound card are usually pretty sorry.
 
prime2515102 said:
Just as a reminder also: You can't get surround sound (Dolby/DTS) from games using the digital out from your sound card
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My understanding is that if you HDMI from PC to AV Receiver, the receiver will output the LPCM to the speakers accordingly?

The reason for DDLive etc in the past was that Optical did not have enough bandwidth hence why the DD Live compression was needed.
 
Gimpymoo said:
My understanding is that if you HDMI from PC to AV Receiver, the receiver will output the LPCM to the speakers accordingly?

The reason for DDLive etc in the past was that Optical did not have enough bandwidth hence why the DD Live compression was needed.
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No, it's a licensing thing. The game devs would have to pay licensing fees to encode. You can still get it to go to all speakers, but it wouldn't be true surround.
 
prime2515102 said:
No, it's a licensing thing. The game devs would have to pay licensing fees to encode. You can still get it to go to all speakers, but it wouldn't be true surround.
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It was a bandwidth issue and the game devs did not pay the roaylties, that was down to the manufacturers of the soundcard.

At the time, it was either Dolby Digital Live or DTS Connect. Both were hardware solutions and the games themselves were not part of the "encoding" process.

The hardware took the native PCM audio stream and encoded it so it consumed less bandwidth, thus fit down optical/sPDIF.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolby_Digital#Dolby_Digital_Live

NVIDIA later decided to drop DDL support in their motherboards due to the cost of involved royalties
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Just remember that if your speakers are decent, amplifier power is not going to be your problem. 20-50 watts is going to be plenty unless you plan to make a rock concert.
 
I used to run a ht receiver with some retired surround sats and an external amped sub. It worked fine but the receiver is a pain to place around a desk. It has some annoyances like all the settings are on the receiver so to make any real changes ya have to get to the receiver and mine was under my desk, which is annoying. And its DAC section wasn't that great which is typical for an AVR until you start spending some cash on it. After a couple years I dumped that setup and went to back to stereo with a Fiio K5 Pro and a Micca Origain w/o sub output which feeds an AJ sub and those old Polk sats. I'm a bit happier now and the setup is much simpler now.
 
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