setup for 75% music, 25% ht/gaming

angles

hey all, been reading a good deal of useful information here on the forums and need some assistance.
my objective is to select, for now, a 2.1 speaker setup primarily for music and also the occasional movie and gaming.
musical preferences varies across the board. looking for good yummy midrange, not too colorful highs, and a solid sub performance that is tight and musical but still do a little boom boom for the movies. room is approx 12x20x20 with vaulted ceilings and wooden floors.
our computer setup turned home media klipsch pro media 2.0 with the 8" has stopped working.

considering a yamaha rx765 at the moment and would like some opinions on the following choices. one concern that comes to mind is that yamaha + polk rti + wooden floors = ultra bright?:

fronts:
tsi200
ati a3
monitor XX?
paradigm mini monitor

sub:
psw505
emotiva ultra10? or 12
hsu 12


thanks in advance!

mdaudioguy

Welcome to Club Polk angles! I'm one who totally agrees that the Yamaha/RTi combo produces a very bright sound, and this particularly affected me for music. (HT and gaming were fine, IMO.) It always sounded good at first, but was eventually very fatiguing, therefore my music listening sessions always became shorter than planned. My tactic for mitigating this was to replace the receiver. By all accounts, the TSi/Monitor series aren't usually described as bright, so that may be a good combo. It's certainly not the first time it's been discussed.

So, I'd be inclined to give those TSi bookshelves a listen. As far as sub goes, I'd personally lean toward an HSU, but I'm not exactly sure which model you're interested in. The 505 would probably work well too. I'm a little wary of the Emo subs, simply because their specs indicate a Typical In-Room Frequency Response, rather than an overall frequency response and cutoffs at +/- 3db, which at least allows you to attempt an apples-to-apples comparison. Good luck, and be sure to report back on your results, and definitely ask more questions if you got 'em!

coolsax

Also if you are going to go specificially 2.1 and no more and don't necessarily need HDMI, I would look at the Harman Kardon 3490. its a 2.1 channel receiver with really nice High current amp. I will say that mid to lower level Yammys and recent polk offerings together are a little bright for music as well even with my parasound amp taming it a little bit as well. I like my Monitor 60's for HT, but my two channel listening is currently on some old LS 50s

mdaudioguy

^^^^ +1. If you go that route (or perhaps an HK AVR, if you're also going to need it to pull double-duty for HT), then I'd consider the RTiA speakers you mentioned above. The HK/RTi combo works well for me. My RTis have great detail, but don't seem overly bright now, as they were with the Yamaha - at least to my ears. YMMV.

Face

Another vote for HK.

angles

thanks for the info and responses so far! so much to learn!

after reading a bunch of the reviews, we are now considering the 3490. The only benefits of going with a HK AVR would be multiple hdmi's and all of the dolby etc decodings correct?
Also considering the 3390 for its price, but the omission of the digital input may be the deciding factor not to. I have not had an opportunity to compare line in and digital in, so should that be a critical factor for me?

And for the fronts..
between the RTI A3 and TSI200, does the performance justify the higher cost of the A3's (e.g. single driver as opposed to the dual of the TSI200)?

TECHNOKID

angles wrote: »

thanks for the info and responses so far! so much to learn!

after reading a bunch of the reviews, we are now considering the 3490. The only benefits of going with a HK AVR would be multiple hdmi's and all of the dolby etc decodings correct?
Also considering the 3390 for its price, but the omission of the digital input may be the deciding factor not to. I have not had an opportunity to compare line in and digital in, so should that be a critical factor for me?

And for the fronts..
between the RTI A3 and TSI200, does the performance justify the higher cost of the A3's (e.g. single driver as opposed to the dual of the TSI200)?

Welcome to Club Polk angles Another vote here for the HK 3490 :cool: