need advice

kolyan2k

i am thinking about buying a system for myself to listen to music and watch dvds. so far i stopped on Polks and B&W 600s. as for Polks, after reading here on forum, I am really confused on what to get (for fronts): rti12s, lsi15, or lsi9? and will i be needing a sub? i also don't know anything about speaker wires. will the regular home depot wires be ok? what awg should the wires be for fronts and rears?

i will probably get Denon AVR-3806 reciever and 2 Outlaw 2200 amps for fronts. other speakers to complete 5.1 setup i will get later

TroyD

Go listen to the Polks and the Beemers.....not really a bad choice there.

The HD wire will suffice to start, 16awg should be just fine.

For HT, you'll probably want to look at a sub....which one depends on your tastes and budget.

BDT

kolyan2k

thanks.......its just i was offered lsi9 for about $500-$600 and thats 3 times less then my other choices...so i have to make a quick decision. there is also a complete 5 piece B&W 600 system selling for $2k.

and about wires....why people spend so much money on monster cable then?

kolyan2k

sorry to bother people here with probably stupid questions, but whats HDMI switching? will i need it?

Tritonman

kolyan2k wrote:

thanks.......its just i was offered lsi9 for about $500-$600 and thats 3 times less then my other choices...so i have to make a quick decision. there is also a complete 5 piece B&W 600 system selling for $2k.

and about wires....why people spend so much money on monster cable then?

Some people feed into the frenzy that if a wire cost more it must be better. Or if it has a ton of technical mumbo jumbo on the box it must be good.

There is a guy who is very famous in the Home Theater field who has a set of $55,000 speakers..he is using the orange extension cable you get at HD for his speaker wires. I guess he isnt feeding into the frenzy

Then again the whole speaker/cable/connectors argument is like arguing which came first..the chicken or the egg?

Some people swear by the expensive cables..some say there is no difference. For every argument you can find about cables making a difference..you can find another one that says there isnt a difference and vice versa.

I would also suggest going slightly larger on your speaker wire..14awg..specially if you have some possible long runs for your rears.

Tritonman

kolyan2k wrote:

sorry to bother people here with probably stupid questions, but whats HDMI switching? will i need it?

HDMI is a single digital cable capable of sending audio and video.


HDMI switching is if you have multiple HDMI sources. You plug them all into your receiver which then has one cable from the receiver to your video input on your tv and the receiver does the switching between sources.

This helps if your TV only has one HDMI input but you happen to have 2-3 etc HDMI outputs.

audiobliss

Wow. I didn't even know what HDMI is. That's awesome. Audio and video in one. Is there any compromise in the performance of either one by lumping them together like that?

Tritonman

audiobliss wrote:

Wow. I didn't even know what HDMI is. That's awesome. Audio and video in one. Is there any compromise in the performance of either one by lumping them together like that?

Actually its an improvement. Plus there are quite a few DVD players out there now utilizing HDMI. Also a lot of them Upconvert to 720p/1080i with the HDMI connection.

Sony just released a 400 disc upconverting DVD player using HDMI as an example.

kolyan2k

audiobliss wrote:

Wow. I didn't even know what HDMI is. That's awesome. Audio and video in one. Is there any compromise in the performance of either one by lumping them together like that?

as far as i know there is no compromise.

one other thing: the reciever is capable of converting analog signals to HDMI. is this worth paying extra?

thanks for inputs

Tritonman

kolyan2k wrote:

as far as i know there is no compromise.

one other thing: the reciever is capable of converting analog signals to HDMI. is this worth paying extra?

thanks for inputs

Hrmm..

The HDMI switching is a nice touch..but upconverting..i wouldnt think so unless you have an HDMI input connection on the back of your TV and you intend on having your receiver do all the switching.

My receiver upconverts composite/s-video to component and I have honestly never used that feature as nothing I plug into it uses either of those connections. I guess you would have to see what you intend on plugging into your receiver etc to see if it would be worth it for you. Then again you would also be "future proofing" yourself.

kolyan2k

i am planning on getting new samsung 50 inch dlp which has 2 HDMI inputs
and the reason why i am asking is because AVR-3805 costs $740 and AVR-3806 is $970

Tritonman

kolyan2k wrote:

i am planning on getting new samsung 50 inch dlp which has 2 HDMI inputs
and the reason why i am asking is because AVR-3805 costs $740 and AVR-3806 is $970

With 2 HDMi inputs on your TV then there really is "no need" for the 3806 based on your HDMI..Unless of course you want the receiver to do all the switching. Lets say worse case scenario you end up with 3 HDMI sources..it would be ultimately cheaper to just purchase a seperate HDMi switch box

Airplay355

Lsi9's with a nice sub will keep you happy for a long time, and be easier to drive then Lsi15's for your receiver. You might want to look into a seperate amp anyway if you like cranking it.

louhamilton

kolyan2k wrote:

i am planning on getting new samsung 50 inch dlp which has 2 HDMI inputs
and the reason why i am asking is because AVR-3805 costs $740 and AVR-3806 is $970

For the money, go with the 3805. You can use the extra $230 twoards your speakers.

HDMI and DVI both pass digital video. HDMI simply adds digital audio in the stream. Also, the current HDMI version (1.1) cannot pass all digital audio signals. I cannot remember right now, but I believe either DVD-A or SACD audio will not be available until HDMI version 1.3, which as far as I know has no current release date. BTW, you can get an HDMI-DVI cable fairly cheap ($20-50).

If you are using a receiver, you will not need a digital audio stream to your tv. Simply run a optical or coax audio cable between the audio source and the receiver and you will be happy.

As far as upconversion, Denon has a good converter. Lower end receivers with "upconversion" capabilities may derease the quality of the source signal. I saw one of the first entry-level Sony models that claimed to do upconversion from composite to S-Video to Component, but the composite to component conversion produced black lines in the video signal. Very disappointing.

One other important point is to confirm the reciever you decide on has the capability of passing audio across the HDMI input/output (if you are still interested in doing this). Although the capability is in the current standard, the hardware vendor doesn't have to implement it. If it doesn't, you are back to the "old" way of doing it by using two cables, one for video and one for audio.

Anyway, good luck with your decision.

-Lou

kolyan2k

i've also been reading another forum and another good reciever would be Yamaha Rx-v2600 which does upscaling for the best posible picture, however it lacks the ability to handle DVD-A and SACD.

"....A video de-interlacer superior to any other in this class of receiver effectively delivers best-quality progressive video images. The RX-V2600 can convert 480p signals to HD resolutions (720p, 1080i), and is the first and only receiver in its class to offer the benefits of superior up-scaling technologies."





so many things and feature.....and i don't know which are important and which are not. today will go to tweeter etc. and listen to polk speakers.

DAMCB

I want to uograde my existing 7.1 system to Polk's LSi series, starting with the center speaker. I currently use six RTi4 speakers and a CSi3 center. How will the LSiC center sound when combined with the RTi4 speakers? The upgrade will probably take 12-18 months. I use a Denon 3805 receiver w/ 120 watts X7 for power, and a Velodyne DLS 3750 sub. Should I have any concerns with the LSi series 4 ohm impedance?

cfrizz

Yes you should. Your first purchase should be to get a 5 or 7 channel amplifier to plug into your pre-outs of your Denon to power the LSI's that you plan on getting. The immediate benefit is that your current system will enjoy the benefits of the extra power.

Don't worry too much about how it sounds when combined with your other speakers, since you know what you are working towards in the next yr 1/2.

kolyan2k

got a chance to listen to lsi9s and lsi15s. 15s defenatly sound better. rtis were in a different room so i could not compare. also tweeter rep. was very helpfull and gave me more info on HDMI switching and upscaling. also told me that they will have 10-15% off sale soon