Home audio & video: home av
home av
by alafreniere - 2/22/08 8:24 AMthinking about the Sony STR DA5300ES.
Right now only components i have are 360 elite, cable HD dvr, Wii, soon to be getting HD/blueray player.
my tv does NOT have hdmi so please keep this in mind.
1. is this a good av reciever
2. what speakers should i get, would prefer to 1 time buy an entire set and not piece it together, although im sure better quality could be gleaned doing it that way. i want to keep it simple.
3. are there any true wireless rear channel speakers on the market yet that will work. need something with self configuration etc...
if this reciever is not right im open to suggestions, right now im living with just the speakers built into the rear of the flat panel tv and the audio really is horrible....
Thanks in advance.
You bet that receiver is a powerhouse along with a few other
by NM_Bill - 2/22/08 11:16 AM In reply to: home av by alafreniereones released in the past year. The thing is some folks tend to overbuy receiver power as the prestige is appealing. The reason is that even modest current receivers have normally ample power & are fine values. Receivers are supposed to produce (& by & large do) sound info output with quite neutral & accurate sound character. They are supposed to & largely sound quite alike.
Back to the main reason. Speakers, on the other hand all have their own character reproducing sound. They are the most individual & peersonal decieion you will make in an A/V setup. And us sound hobbiests, if you will, want you to maximize the speaker budget. Our idea of the ideal ratio of spending is, more or less: Power 25%; Speakers 75%.
The Sony STR DA5300ES, @ about $1200 has a C/NET rating of 8.7. A couple of other equivalent powerhouses are: Denon AVR 2807, @ about $1100, with C/NET 8.7 rating; & Onkyo TX SR805, @ about $750, with C/NET 8.0 rating. Tempting, yes, & these are high horsepower units relative to usual home sound needs. Perhaps more then what is needed. Then there would be more more money to put towards speakers.
This recent online posting has a fine group of speakers just under $1000. These fine brands have other models either less or more expensive. Seeking some of these out to hear seriously is immensely important in my opinion.
http://magazine.playbackmag.net/playback/200802/?folio=1
Many fine speaker brands for sure, but these are definitely a group of top possibilities are reviewed by experts & largely highly approved, at least on reputation to the best of my knowledge. They sound starts to get emotional if you are a receptive discriminating listener. Yeah, these brands are a killer group:
Dynaudio
Paradigm
Usher
Aperion
Energy
Infinity
JBL
Klipsch
Polk
PSB
B&W (Bowers & Wilkins)
NHT
in no particular order.
Sorry, though a nice idea for convenience, to the best of my knowledge, no wireless speakers perform all that well. The problem is interference causing many dropouts. Listeners just can't live that way. Wired speakers are so much better.
The goal is your satifaction with decisions you will make for much pleasure over many years. It requires a commitment to spend some time investigating the speakers as one can not rely on a pig in a poke. That would just be not right at all. Sure, I have some opinions on speakers, but my ears are not yours.
Posting back during your quest will get a lot of suggestions.
Dittos to what NM_Bill says!!!!!!!!
by jcrobso - 2/22/08 3:16 PM In reply to: You bet that receiver is a powerhouse along with a few other by NM_BillTake some of your favorite CDs and go to stores and just listen to YOUR music do this over a period of several days or even a couple of weeks.
You'll soon narrow to two or three speakers then get best one from there. Good speaker will last a life time I have some 40 year old JBL speakers that still sound great! John
Not to try to be hopelessly one upmanship, but I have the
by NM_Bill - 2/22/08 3:41 PM In reply to: Dittos to what NM_Bill says!!!!!!!! by jcrobsofamily Montgomery Ward Airline console radio from 1941. The cold solder joints cause much static now, but the nine inch speaker still sounds mellow. And surely better than typically comes in a TV nowadays.
Some folks are destined not to pay much any attention to this, but yes, regarding the speaker set as investment in good sound is logical as the speakers can last pretty much a lifetime. Any electronics will be replaced far more often.
Yes, take a couple of CDs you are intimately familiar with that have substantial vocal as voice is mid range but deceptively difficult to reproduce well. Trust your own ears. If you think you just detected some distortion - you have. Sybillance is common. It is either voices sounding like they lisp or vocal quality signal that just breaks down. Any speaker that doesn't get voice right is not worth going on to even think about its highs or lows.
As an old music/sound junkie I do recommend that if budget is tight, start with old traditional two channel stereo with speaker brand selected - & you can add on later.
A fundamental desicion is to start with or go with stereo first, or proceed directly to wanting an entire set for home theater surround sound. The two concepts are two entirely different worlds. Stereo stresses accuarcy & musicality; while surround goes for impact being immersed in the surround effects. For the latter, an essential for the long term is a fine quality sub woofer. There are sub woofer specialists like Hsu & SVS units that are killer.
And that's not even mentioning the center channel addition which is to firmly ground dialog at the front. In doing so, it uses typically 67% or so of all the audio info - so it substantially downgrades the traditional front L&R speakers role that stereo emphasizes so.
Happy hunting. Keep in touch.
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