Unsatisfied with Polk's

DollarDave

I think only the HK230 and above have the pre-outs.

PolkWannabie

... or ... get a pre/pro ... or ... an integrated ...

Deadof_knight

Its the voices again talking to some one else ....See I told you they speak to each of us here ......

ben62670

HK235 has pre outs, and is very cheap on ebay direct from HK refurbished. I paid $250, and had a good deal of money to buy external amps used. I like Adcom for bang for the buck. Waaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyy better than my Yami!

http://stores.ebay.com/Harman-Audio

Here is the page for the specs on HK products.
You should really make sure that your reciever has pre outs
http://www.harmankardon.com/product_support/interstitial.aspx?Language=ENG&Region=USA&Country=US&sJump=om

Willow

as ben indicated Harmanaudio usually has some great deals..good luck

reeltrouble1

josh_parsons626 wrote:

I'm having a hard time finding inexpensive receivers with preamp outputs. Easy to find expensive **** receivers but not cheap. Who can tell me what some cheap receivers with preamp outputs would be?

Look for an H&K, the 235, 240 were low cost with pre-outs, you are going to have to do used or refurbed. I have a 240 running a bedroom HT system and it sounds pretty good with music on its own. Audiogon, Ebay, H&K refurb site, or do a WTB in the Flea Market, sorry I am keeping mine.

RT1

MSALLA

I don't know. I think the biggest improvement would be new speakers. I had the Monitor 40's & CS-1 and could not stand to listen to music on them. In the end you will wind up replacing everything (thats what I did) but I was most happy when I got rid of those Monitors.

disneyjoe7

Sad people buy things first then learn why they should have paid more money the first time.


Well what's the saying.... Hindsight is 20/20

Sami

Used Yamaha's w/preouts are a good deal as well. I think I have one with preouts, HT5590 or similar, that I might move cheap or you could find cheap locally.

Monster Jam

disneyjoe7 wrote:

Sad people buy things first then learn why they should have paid more money the first time.


Well what's the saying.... Hindsight is 20/20

Part of the issue is that people are unaware/under-educated about these products. I think in time this is going to change thanks to a shift from the traditional TV to in-home theatre.

I'm a perfect example of the average consumer. My first receiver was a Pioneer featuring Dolby ProLogic. I went out and bought bottom of the line JBL bookshelfs and voila - home theatre for 300 bucks. It wasnt until I dropped serious cash on a RP HDTV did I feel like my theatre was lacking. I bought an H/K after light research with the assumption that it was on par with Denon, and that Marantz was the creme-de-la-creme of receivers (and thus out of my price range). I didn't even know about seperates!

Gotta start somewhere!

disneyjoe7

Monster Jam,

You're right we all started somewhere else then we are now. I can say yes I may have done it different then I did then, but I think we all can say that about life in general. I think we loss this fact when a newbie comes around asking questions. I think we scare more people then anything else at times.

BTW Monster Jam is that screen name from Real Radio 104.1?

MSALLA

disneyjoe7 wrote:

Sad people buy things first then learn why they should have paid more money the first time.


Well what's the saying.... Hindsight is 20/20

Ya, and it was sad fighting with the wife over replacing speakers that were only one year old. And it was sad on my pocket. But, registering them on line led me to this fourm. Now I have a place to refer to before buying. At the time I bought the monitors for HT and the worked good for that job, but for music they were the pits.

disneyjoe7

I believe we all walk away from this forum learning something.

TN_Polk_Lover

MSALLA wrote:

Ya, and it was sad fighting with the wife over replacing speakers that were only one year old. . .

That's when you say "Honey, I could really set you up a nice 2 channel system in our bedroom for you to listen to in the morning while you are getting ready for work. The speakers in the living room would work great for that, but I'll have to buy new ones for the living room . . . " Sometimes you have to get creative.

jakelm

MSALLA wrote:

I don't know. I think the biggest improvement would be new speakers. I had the Monitor 40's & CS-1 and could not stand to listen to music on them. In the end you will wind up replacing everything (thats what I did) but I was most happy when I got rid of those Monitors.

Absolutly correct.... I had the Onk 502 with monitor 40 and CS1 as well...

My bigest improvent in Sq was upgrading my speakers. The Onk has plenty of power, and sounds rather well with the upgrade.

I ended up upgrading the Onk with H/K 635. But if needed to be, I could have lived with the Onk, but not the Monitor 40's.

Upgrade the speakers first.

Monster Jam

disneyjoe7 wrote:

Monster Jam,

You're right we all started somewhere else then we are now. I can say yes I may have done it different then I did then, but I think we all can say that about life in general. I think we loss this fact when a newbie comes around asking questions. I think we scare more people then anything else at times.

BTW Monster Jam is that screen name from Real Radio 104.1?

No relation - its a screen name I used a long time ago on a sports website as I followed my college basketball team (UNLV). I use it on the few threads I subscribe to.

Ironicly, I happen to really enjoy Disney especially Disneyland. Whats the story with your screen name?

As to the speaker/receiver question, I really think Josh out to hit up the Audio/Video stores and take in the sites and the sounds, and then report to this thread his feelings.

disneyjoe7

Funny Monster Jam a talk show on 104.1 local Orlando, 3 rednecks on radio if you asked me. I believe they are on nationally on a XM channel, may be wrong but I know the Philips Phile is on XM Extreme 152 nightly at 8pm-Midnight an Encore show since it's the taped version of the 3pm-7pm show.

As far as the name I have relatives that work for Disney, and my wife and I live not for from there. Joe is a male name which doesn't give my real name out, old and a bit odd or funny now. Email is Goofy8@ which keeps the name thing going The number 7 of Joe I forget 8 is because nothing added to #7 was taken at the time.

josh_parsons626

I feel like how MSALLA feels when he said:

MSALLA wrote:

Ya, and it was sad fighting with the wife over replacing speakers that were only one year old. And it was sad on my pocket. But, registering them on line led me to this fourm. Now I have a place to refer to before buying. At the time I bought the monitors for HT and the worked good for that job, but for music they were the pits.

Do y'all think I should replace my Monitors with maybe RTi 4 or 6? I doubt that I can replace anymore and actually I think I'll have to fight with my wife about that also, cause she wants a new DVD player. They DO content me for now when we watch movies but when I listen to music I just wanna throw them out the window LOL

Sami

josh_parsons626 wrote:

Do y'all think I should replace my Monitors with maybe RTi 4 or 6?

If you keep them Polk's, skip the RTi's and go with LSi's. That way you won't be upgrading for a long time. Start with 7's if money is an issue and throw in an inexpensive but decent amp (Adcom 545 maybe), then later get the rest of the speakers from LSi lineup.

Sherardp

Try rti10s on ebay or see if someone is selling some here. Great speaker and some say they dont sound as bright as the 12s. I own the 12s and am very happy with the performance. As for AVR that is decent in price, check out the Sony STR-DG1000, it has HDMI connections, upconversions, preouts, etc. If the wife wants a new dvd player step up to the oppo digital 981 or 970, they all are great depending on your displays capabilities. Enjoy.

Joey_V

Upgrade the speakers first, then worry about the electronics later. That's my opinion, at least.

harold280z

Joey_V wrote:

Upgrade the speakers first, then worry about the electronics later. That's my opinion, at least.

Better sound = Better speakers, upgrade the speakers frist!:D

liordra

josh_parsons626 wrote:

I'm having a hard time finding inexpensive receivers with preamp outputs. Easy to find expensive **** receivers but not cheap. Who can tell me what some cheap receivers with preamp outputs would be?

Try the Marantz sr-4600 about 400 $ , OR sr-5600 about 600 $
I think they are coming up with a replacment to the 4600 , 4001 ,which is basically the same , but has the HDMI connections.
I am pushing my Mon 60 , 30 , cs1 and psw10 with the sr-4600, sounds great.

I think that for a mid - large room size , you can't get away with Mon 40 as fronts.
if you upgrade to the Monitor 60 you'll feel the difference, as they are full range speakers. (maybe you could try setting the mon 40s as "Large" in the Onkyo setup?)

MSALLA

Upgrade 1 peice at a time. You may not need to change everything to be happy.

AndyGwis

I actually like my Monitor 60's for music. They sounded pretty good running in large just off my 635, and the separate amps I added only made them sound better.

To each their own. I usually only listen to music on that setup if I really want to bump since the sub is in there. I find my new Senn Headphones and my 2-channel setup to be much better for critical music listening, but the Monitors definitely aren't a letdown for me

MSALLA

The 40's are bookshelves not floorstanders like the 60's. I've never herd the 60's but I was not happy with the 40's for music.

Joey_V

Btw, all 23x series from HK have preouts, the 13x series do not.

But I still seriously think that you should base your system on the speakers that you choose to build your foundation on. The amp and the pre/pro unit and the source including cables and interconnects will help mold the sound towards the speaker's potential, but you need speakers to get there in the first place.

Upgrade the speakers, then move up the electronics.

YMMV.

josh_parsons626

lanion wrote:

I bought some Polk R20s and thought they were pretty awful, but my LSi speakers are keeping my happy. You get way you pay for with pretty much every company (through your dollar will go further with direct-sales online companies like axiom, outlaw, hsu, svs, av123, etc).

How do other people feel about Axiom speakers and av123? Note: I listen to more music than watch movies. Another note is it's the music part bothering me and not the movie.

Joey_V

I like AV123 a lot. They have a lot of bang for the buck gear and MLS (ceo) is a great guy to have on your side because he will right whatever wrong you experience. Great company and great speakers for the most part.

As for Axiom, CS is one of the best also. They will take care of you until you are satisfied. However, I feel that their speakers are good, but not as great as they make them out to be. They like to make it seem like spending $1000 at Axiom is like spending $3000 elsewhere.... which simply isnt true in my experience with them. I feel that they have good speakers, but do not live up to the much of the hype Axioms fuels itself to be judging by the reviews posted all over the site.

Joey

tommyboy

My biggest advise is (which I hinted in the R300 thread), do NOT look for a quick fix for the monitor 40s. TAKE YOUR TIME and look for something you really like. and if that takes a good chunk of change(which, believe it or not, is what better audio is all about), them save up cash and wait to get them. DO NOT buy speakers that you will upgrade in a year or two(hint.... R300). You will end up spending way more money than you should. That was my biggest mistake in my home audio experience.

tommyboy.