Eight years ago

Terryl

Hello Everyone,

I'm new to the club and need help. Eight years ago, I bought the following, expecting to use in my finished basement: a set of RT800s, and center CS400and a Velodyne CT120 subwoofer. Eight years later, my basement is finished. My question is what receiver and surround sounds would be a good match with what I currently have, which is brand new. My room is 20' by 40' , all open, half home theater and other half pool table/bar area. 50% will be used for home theater and 50% for music. I was thinking of maybe using the RT800s for the rear and getting a new set of towers for the front. With some of the receivers being 7.1 channel, maybe I should go with two sets of surrounds (?) Any suggestions would be very much appreciated.

Thanks for your help.

treitz3

Welcome to Club Polk! I can't offer you a suggestion for an amp because I am a two channel guy but I did want to say that the RT800's you have were my very first Polk speaker. I did end up selling them but because I had them in one of my rigs for so long I actually want a pair just for sentimental value. If you ever end up selling them, I'd like to call dibs if you don't mind. Man, I miss those little speakers.

BTW, the RT800's are a great all around 2-channel speaker. They would do you justice having them as mains when you throw in the fact that you have a sub to accent them.

McLoki

budget? Also what other equipment you have? (i.e. blu-ray, HD-DVD, Standard DVD, projector, etc.)

It sounds like the speakers may still be able to stand on their own. I would get the AVR to match them first and if you like the sound, try to pick up a few more of that vintage to complete your home theater. No reason to sink a bunch of money if you don't have to. (the money you will save, you can put twords a HUGE sub.... )

Michael

Terryl

Only other equipment, as of now, is a 52" Samsung LCD 1080p tv. I will be getting a BluRay player. Budget, excluding BluRay, is around $1,000.

Thanks,
Terry

treitz3

You might want to try looking into a Sunfire TG. Prices of the earlier models have been dropping pretty steep lately. That might give you some leftover $$$ as well. Plenty of clean power for you as well. Just food for thought.

McLoki

In all honesty - at this point I would look for a nice AVR in the $600 range from any of the major manufacturers. (Dennon - Onkyo - Yamaha - Harmon Kardon - NAD - Pioneer Elite - Etc. I am not a fan of Sony for AVR's so they are omitted on purpose. My own bias though)

Must haves at this point (in my opinion) would be:

• pre-outs for all channels (to support adding additional amplification if your future needs demand it)
• HDMi 3.1 compatability. (support HD audio)
• High Def audio decoding. (decode HD audio in the AVR - not a big deal right now, but I bet it will be in the near future)
• Able to take all signals and send it through the HDMi connection. (that way everything can plug into your AVR (composite, S-Video, Component or HDMi and you only have to run one cable to your TV reguardless of input).

These would be my must haves, not neccesarily yours. I would stay at the $600 range because that seems to be the sweet spot to get the things mentioned above that I care about. If you want more power, you can always add a decent 2 or 3 channel amp to run your front stage off of.

As far as brand, they are all similar in features but their interfaces are slightly different. You may find one seems a little more intuitive with the way you think it should be laid out or maybe one just looks better than another. As long as it has the features you want and at least 80 advertised WPC - I would go for it.