n00b Diagnosed w/ Audiophilia, Wife Reports Finding Money Pit in Spare Bedroom

Serendipity

DSkip wrote: »

Have you ever heard a quality 2 channel setup? There's nothing "limited" about it. The music is wider than the speakers, deeper than the speakers, and you can hear things come out at you or even appear to be behind you. You'd be amazed what 2 speakers are capable of.

I feel that I should comment on this. I've heard the Focal JMLab Grand Utopias driven by Pass Labs amps at a high-end audio show, top of the line MBL's at the New York Home Entertainment Show, and also the German Physics Lorely Mk II's at CES. For six-figure rigs, I honestly expected better. I guess it comes down to personal taste, but I personally would invest that money in five identical speakers, pair it with some nice Parasound gear, put on some DVD-Audio and call it a day. Neither is better, just a matter of preference.

I recommend the OP have a listen to a good 2 channel rig and see if that is of his taste. It may or may not be what he is looking for.

jgauthiersloan

So what's the deal with all the poppers people put in their cars? If its all 2ch what are all those speakers doing?

How much SQ does one lose when choosing 90w multi over, say, 150w 2.0?

I like that these speakers are all made to go together but I really don't need them all. I could spend that $ on really juicing up the towers (or BS's) but then I don't need the receiver. How would I get the signal to the speakers?

jgauthiersloan

If I get just the towers and a 2.0 amp, is there an AirPlay supported device to receive the signal from iTunes? Coul this be as simple as an Airport Express on powered speakers? I thought AE was out because I want good speakers with clean power.

Zone 2 is not important but wifi mos def is

PSOVLSK

jgauthiersloan wrote: »

If I get just the towers and a 2.0 amp, is there an AirPlay supported device to receive the signal from iTunes? Coul this be as simple as an Airport Express on powered speakers? I thought AE was out because I want good speakers with clean power.

Zone 2 is not important but wifi mos def is

I think Audio Advisor might have what you need. I'll try to look it up later.

timalan

I am just finishing setting up a simple 2.1 listening setup, thanks to some help from folks here, and I was able to use craigslist and the for sale/trade forums here to keep costs down. If you're in a major metropolitan area with an active craigslist and you have a little patience, you can probably come up with at least some part of your system at an incredible discount.

From your stated listening intentions, it sounds like you might be best off with a 5.1 or 7.1 receiver, but only 2.0 or 2.1 speakers for now. Get an amp that has enough options you can expand down the road, but since 99% of what you are listening to now is optimized for two channels, instead of getting 5 so-so-speakers and forcing your receiver to spread 2-channel sound into surround, get two speakers and make them the best speakers you can afford. You can always add more speakers later as long as your receiver supports them.

The other thing is that many of the 7.1 receivers do support the 2-zone system it sounds like you are interested in, so again, that would be an upgrade option sometime down the road. Even new (on clearance) you can get some really excellent speakers for ~$600-$1000 per pair. Craigslist may allow you to do even better.

The one other question we should as you is: what kinds of music are you most likely to be listening to? Some setups are much better for certain types of music, and your preferred music should inform your choices.

PSOVLSK

Here's what I was thinking of from Audio Advisor. Cost prohibitive and I have no idea how well it actually works.

http://www.audioadvisor.com/prodinfo.asp?number=PLUSB%20%20%20%20%20WHT

Serendipity

timalan wrote: »

From your stated listening intentions, it sounds like you might be best off with a 5.1 or 7.1 receiver, but only 2.0 or 2.1 speakers for now. Get an amp that has enough options you can expand down the road, but since 99% of what you are listening to now is optimized for two channels, instead of getting 5 so-so-speakers and forcing your receiver to spread 2-channel sound into surround, get two speakers and make them the best speakers you can afford. You can always add more speakers later as long as your receiver supports them.

The other thing is that many of the 7.1 receivers do support the 2-zone system it sounds like you are interested in, so again, that would be an upgrade option sometime down the road. Even new (on clearance) you can get some really excellent speakers for ~$600-$1000 per pair. Craigslist may allow you to do even better.

The one other question we should as you is: what kinds of music are you most likely to be listening to? Some setups are much better for certain types of music, and your preferred music should inform your choices.

+1

From my experience, yes it really does depend on what kind of music you are going to be listening to. I enjoy Broadway musicals, Concert DVDs (live concerts, classical performances, and opera), New Age, and Smooth Jazz. If you are after the "concert" experience, then go with a 5.1 or 7.1 receiver, but you don't have to use all of the channels. For example, "The Very Best of Enya" sounds better in DTS than it does in 2.0. And Phantom of the Opera is unbelievable on a multichannel setup.

jgauthiersloan

@tim, @seren,

from page 1:

"a high percentage of what I'll be spinning is audience recordings of live performances. I want to recreate the sound field as accurately as possible so I can detect the differences in the settings and equipment used for these pulls."

thanks for the link @pso. that's exactly the idea but just as you said, that one is too $$

Serendipity

IMO, live performances sound better over my Receiver/Multichannel setup and worse on my 2-channel setup. Recorded music, such as Diana Krall or Sarah McLachlan CD's sound better on my 2-channel setup.

newrival

jg, you need to get to an audio store and hear the difference. spend a couple hours and you will realize which sound is for you pretty quickly. If you've never heard a proper STEREO (read: 2 channel) system, you should hear one anyways. DVDs of concerts recorded in 5 or 7 discrete channels do add more realism than 2 channels, but if you're listening to a 2ch recording of a live event, there is no benefit. In fact, there is some degradation in performance theoretically.

It seems that you're more concerned with how things look on paper than actual realized performance, i.e. your coment about needing more drivers to feel like youre getting any value. More drivers does not equal better performance. Wattage is not indicative of quality. If a person has never heard true stereophonic reproduction, it is near impossible to explain the value in it.

Lastly, Audience recordings of live performances at best will be stereo (2ch), and I would bet that many times it is monophonic (1ch). Obviously, these types of recordings are limited by the quality of the recording gear, and you will likely not be able to "recreate the soundfield" because it will not have been accurately recorded.

Considering the source material you will be listening to, I'd say just what serendipity suggested. get 5 or 6 identical speakers and that receiver. And then just run it in 7 channel stereo, or mono.

WagBoss

Like others have been saying, If you do decide to go the 5 or 7 ch route instead of the 2, buy all the same speakers or you will lose a lot of quality and listen to 5 ch stereo 7 ch stereo or mono. But 100% do not get small satellites as rears and listen to music on them along with towers.