Home Theatre Setup - SPEAKERS - HELP !

dee1949

Ciao Guys

Audio challenge to set up a Home Theatre System on a budget. This is for a friend who is a composer. He puts music together with Silent films amongst other accomplishments. Right now he has a great video set up with a Sharp projection system and a 10' screen. He uses a HTR-6090 Yamaha receiver and has a Blue Ray player. What recommendations do you guys have for a 16' x 12' room.....probably 5.1 audio to start. Not just POLK...but a budget on a shoe string....under $1000.00 for speakers (mayybe more). Used is the answer....located in Washington DC. He has a dedicated man cave....painted BLACK. Video is fantastic.....audio needs a lot of work.

The screen is almost the full width of the room.......36" to bottom of screen from floor. Maybe a foot on either side of screen for wall mounts. Main seating about 4' from back wall....but adjustable.

Give it your best shot.

Give it your BEST shot. Best "BANG for the Buck"

I am a 2 channel guy. My leftovers fill in for HT>...

He would also like quality sound for 2 channel audio...(separate amps for front speakers). He likes my SDA-Crs's....but not sure how they fit in HT.

Already told him he should go separate amps and pre...but right now not a priority.

dee1949

...HOW would 3 pairs of LSI 7's sound with a sub??? See the 7's are going for $349.oo a pair on ebay.

How would the Yammie handle the load????

BigMac

dee1949 wrote: »

...HOW would 3 pairs of LSI 7's sound with a sub??? See the 7's are going for $349.oo a pair on ebay.

How would the Yammie handle the load????

The Yamaha will do ok if you use the LSi7s for mains and mains only (mains are rated at 4-8 ohms). They will not sound their best as they really need more power to shine. The surrounds on the Yamaha are only rated for 6-8 ohm speakers so the LSi7s for surrounds are out of the question. The LSi7s are rated at 4 ohms and need LOTS of power. If you did try to run an all LSi7 setup with this receiver two things will happen. 1. You will blow your speakers due to not enough power. The more of a load put on a receiver the harder it will have to work to drive the speakers. In this case the Yamaha will crap out even before it gets going. 2. The Yamaha will go into protection mode constantly because it is not powerful enough to drive all those LSi7s. To get the LSi7s to sound like they should you really need seperates.

Since the Yamaha has preouts you can add a 5,6,or 7 channel amp to power the LSi7s.

dee1949

THANKS bm

....i THOUGHT THE lsi 7'S were an easier load to drive. Anybody else out there that can confirm. Not that familiar with HT and receivers. Don't want to give bad advice.

nikolas812

AV123!!

I just bought my first pair of speakers that are NOT Polks!! Finally..

I got a Pair of AV123 X-sls Two Towers. And so far they are real damn impressive. At least for HT. Probably one of the best HT speakers I have ever had. Take that for what is worth though. I have only had Polk RT400's, RT600's, RT800's, RT800i's, RT600i's, Rti4's, Polk Monitor 7's with peerless tweets, and Lsi9's.

And these are hands down the best sounding I've had for HT.

But on the other hand. They don't seem so great for 2 channel listening. But I think that has a lot to do with my equiptment. Its geared toward HT and not two channel. I think with some better components I think they could be some decent 2 channel speakers also.

There sound reminds me a lot of the M7's I had... Which may very well be my favorite sounding Polk speaker to date... No wonder I like them so much.:)


You might want to give them a look. If hes looking for bang for buck. I think the X series speakers would be hard to beat....

Heres a link


http://av123.com/component/page,shop.browse/category_id,6/option,com_virtuemart/Itemid,125/vmcchk,1/Itemid,37/



Cheers


Nick

thsmith

A little over budget but they get great reviews. HSU has excellent customer service and products.

http://www.hsuresearch.com/products/enthusiast1.html

Hobbyguy

Big Mac, I have a yamaha HT receiver (RX-V2700) and Polk SDA 1B and LSI-15. People keep talking about needing lots of power to run these speakers. I guess I don't understand what is meant by this. Don't you only need more power if you want the volume louder? Both of these speakers sound great. I also have my yamaha impedance switch set to 8 as recommended by Gene DellaSala

I don't need my amp to go to 11.

BigMac

Hobbyguy wrote: »

Big Mac, I have a yamaha HT receiver (RX-V2700) and Polk SDA 1B and LSI-15. People keep talking about needing lots of power to run these speakers. I guess I don't understand what is meant by this. Don't you only need more power if you want the volume louder? Both of these speakers sound great. I also have my yamaha impedance switch set to 8 as recommended by Gene DellaSala

I don't need my amp to go to 11.

Here is how it finally made sense for me when I knew almost nothing about audio. Since I know about cars a bit my friend put it to me like this. It's like having a V6 with a dropped cylinder. Sure your car will run on 5 cylinders but you will not get the best out of your engine one cylinder down.

The LSi-15 IS a 4 ohm speaker. You never want to run a 4ohm speaker using an 8ohm setting. You will not be delivering the power needed to properly power the speaker. Most people blow their speakers from lack of power, not the other way around (to much power). Your specific receiver is rated for 4 ohm loads but only for the main speakers. All other speakers connected to this receiver need to be either 6 or 8 ohm. Remember though, the lower the ohm the harder it is going to be to drive the speakers. You are underpowering your speakers for sure. Essentially you are choking the life/sound out of them. Just imagine, if you like the sound now imagine how the speakers would sound if you gave them proper amplification.

Proper amplification will give you the option to go louder without taking as many chances of blowing your speakers. BUT, that is not what you are after I imagine since you said you were not looking to turn it up to 11 o'clock. What additional power will give you is the ability for your speakers to perform their best. Here is another way to think of it; your LSi-15 are rated to handle 250 w/channel but you are only feeding them 140 w/channel. Essesentially you only giving them a little more than 50% of what they can handle. The closer you are to the 250w/channel the better overall listening experience you will have. Just my 2 cents.

BigMac

dee1949 wrote: »

THANKS bm

....i THOUGHT THE lsi 7'S were an easier load to drive. Anybody else out there that can confirm. Not that familiar with HT and receivers. Don't want to give bad advice.

You can find the ohm rating for the LSi7s on the product page. The LSI series from Polk is their top of the line speakers. The bookshelf speakers may be small in size but NOT small in sound. You need high power amplification for the LSi series for them to perform and sound their best. Think of it this way..... Polk's top of the line speakers deserve top of the line amplification and accessories. The LSi series are for fine detail,imaging, and critical listening.

Hobbyguy

The LSi-15 IS a 4 ohm speaker. You never want to run a 4ohm speaker using an 8ohm setting. You will not be delivering the power needed to properly power the speaker.

Take a look at this link...
http://www.audioholics.com/reviews/receivers/yamaha-rx-v2700-receiver-review/rx-v2700-system-setup-and-configuration

BigMac

Hobbyguy wrote: »

The LSi-15 IS a 4 ohm speaker. You never want to run a 4ohm speaker using an 8ohm setting. You will not be delivering the power needed to properly power the speaker.

Take a look at this link...
http://www.audioholics.com/reviews/receivers/yamaha-rx-v2700-receiver-review/rx-v2700-system-setup-and-configuration

Most home speakers have a nominal impedance rating of 8 ohms; likewise, practically all home A/V receivers are designed to be stable when pushing an 8-ohm load. There are a number of higher-end receivers that are capable of handling a 4-ohm load like your Yamaha when driving your main speakers. Speakers with significantly lower impedance (4 ohms or less) may cause problems with 6-8 ohm receivers by asking them to deliver more current than they are capable of producing.

When you drop from an 8-ohm to a 4-ohm load, you cut the electrical resistance in half, which usually causes your receiver to increase its total power output. Some people are tempted to mate their 6-8 ohm receivers with 4-ohm speakers, in order to get more wattage. It's wise to avoid this temptation, since it can lead to greater distortion, and cause the receiver to run hot or activate its protection circuitry.

The ohm rating of your speakers will vary during music or ht playback. One second your ohm rating may dip to 2 ohms then it may go up to 6 ohms. As you add more speakers more of a load will be placed on your receiver. During playback when you have multiple speakers connected your receiver will need additional power when it is called for. Your receiver will crap out after a little while because it is not capable of sustaining such levels. You run the risk of blowing your speakers and shorteneing the life of your receiver by asking WAY to much of it for to long. If you listen quietly and only have one pair of 4-ohm speakers hooked up then you will be ok with your receiver.

**Anyone who reads this please correct me if I am wrong. I am all about trying to get the most accurate info. as possible. Thanks.**

Pepi28

Bigmac you are pretty much on the ball with what you said. If you put an entire lsi setup on that yammie it will not sustain any desirable level without going into circuit protection mode. It will heat up like an oven. 1 pair of 4 ohm speaks might work out for a while, I'll bet not for a long time though at party listening levels though.

Pepi28

Any way back to the original post. Why not look into a used RTi speaker system? They are pretty good for HT as alot of folks around here have stated.

cnh

dee1949 wrote: »

...HOW would 3 pairs of LSI 7's sound with a sub??? See the 7's are going for $349.oo a pair on ebay.

How would the Yammie handle the load????

Really? LSI7s for 350 a pair? Wow.

You can't go wrong there but you're also going to need a sub, right. And that still takes you out of budget.

I like the suggestion of a used RTI-system for your friend, but as a musician he might prefer the LSIs.

Back to subs. How do you do a 1000 dollar system with an OK sub?

The only thing I can think of is get a good price on an old Polk PSW505 (not the greatest--of course but can be had for less than $300 dollars these days--tough to beat at $249 or so?)

Also, I agree Yamahas can only drive those front channels at 4 ohms. But as they go the 6090 is pretty good. Isn't that a clone of the RXV-863 which got rave revues from an audio-mag recently in the 1000 or less price range?

cnh