Spend less on receiver, more on speakers?

[ruvic]

+1. I entirely agree with you.

Originally Posted by mlomeli

Ok, I don't have a great deal of money for my theater budget. My thoughts are buying the Sony 720 and more money on good floor standing speakers, sub, etc... I have a PS3 as my one and only BD player and this seems to be the best, for the price, that I can pick up new locally.

My thoughts are receivers will always get better as technology goes on, but a good set of speakers can last a great while.

Does this make sense? Thoughts?

matt

[richteer]

Originally Posted by neckedness

I can't see spending $800 on a reciever. $400 HDMI receiver sounds just as good. Don't let mfg fool you. The ears can't hear any better unless you're superman. And I would not spend over $1000 for 5 speakers.

With that attitude, you are doomed to audio mediocrity. Enjoy it...

[mlomeli]

Thanks everyone up to this point. I had originally decided to get the Onkyo 606. Then my wallet looked at me and chuckled a bit. Hence, the Sony looked a little more appealing. I should just stick with my first gut thought...and maybe look in a speaker set (less money, but a start-Klipsch Quintet??) or maybe just get some Polk front L/R tower and use existing speakers from my HTIB that's 8 years old for now to complete the 5.1, until my funds can be budgeted for speakers.

I could easily go get whatever....but I only pay cash now....no debt

[BluPayne4400]

Originally Posted by mlomeli

Thanks everyone up to this point. I had originally decided to get the Onkyo 606. Then my wallet looked at me and chuckled a bit. Hence, the Sony looked a little more appealing. I should just stick with my first gut thought...and maybe look in a speaker set (less money, but a start-Klipsch Quintet??) or maybe just get some Polk front L/R tower and use existing speakers from my HTIB that's 8 years old for now to complete the 5.1, until my funds can be budgeted for speakers.

I could easily go get whatever....but I only pay cash now....no debt

get the 606 and go from there

[Beta Man]

Originally Posted by neckedness

I can't see spending $800 on a reciever. $400 HDMI receiver sounds just as good. Don't let mfg fool you. The ears can't hear any better unless you're superman. And I would not spend over $1000 for 5 speakers.

There are marginal gains to be had with the receiver..... but there are 5.1 systems you can build (speakers only) for $6-$8K that will be night and day better than anything you can piece together for $700 or $800......

If you listen to music, or watch a movie on a HTIB or pieced together Best-Buy set of speakers, and think they sound as good as gear like mine, or what Richeter Prerich, rwojtalewicz
or Petra is running..... you need your hearing checked..... if you're "happy" with what you can get in that price range, then more power to you, but to say there isn't a difference, and imply people save, and work hard towards a nice audio system for any other reason, then it's you who is fooling yourself....

[Intamin]

Originally Posted by Beta Man

There are marginal gains to be had with the receiver..... but there are 5.1 systems you can build (speakers only) for $6-$8K that will be night and day better than anything you can piece together for $700 or $800......

QFT. If you honestly can't tell the difference there's something wrong. For proof, hit up any local av place and listen. Then drive over to BB or CC and listen.

[tilallr1]

Ok so my story. Well finally I decided to dump my mediocre speakers and buy really good ones. NIGHT and DAY. For me speakers are much more important then receivers. Good quality speakers will make non HD audio even sound amazing. You also don't have to spend a small fortune on a GREAT quality receiver. I purchased the Onkyo 705 and think its one of the greatest receivers I have ever heard.

So long story short always spend more money on speakers not receiver. You will see a bigger difference in quality sound if you do. But both are important, so I wouldn't really cheap out on either. In the end you will be happier that you didn't.

Also personal opinion is don't mix brands. If you want 7.1 buy all 7.1 speakers of the same type and make. They seem to balance alot better then mixing and matching.

[blu-mood]

tilallr1, just out of curiosity, what make/model speakers did you upgrade to? I also have an Onkyo 705 and was looking to upgrade myself.

[Beta Man]

Originally Posted by blu-mood

tilallr1, just out of curiosity, what make/model speakers did you upgrade to? .

stole the words out of my mouth....

but Tilallr1..... I've gotta say, making sure your entire 7.1 is all the same brand/make/model isn't necessarily that important..... front three absolutely.... but not all, and certainly not the subwoofer..... timbre matching is only "so" important.

[nouou]

I heard the 606 reduces your PQ.

[Johnny Vinyl]

Originally Posted by Pelican170

Sorry guys, but i tend to think the opposite. Spend the most you can on a kick ass receiver, then upgrade speakers with time. Some will say, yea but if your speakers suck, you dont get the full use of the receiver, but that definately goes both ways...

I agree....buy the best receiver you can possibly afford. DO NOT skimp!

However.......The budget for speakers should be a lot larger.

For instance...my receiver/speaker set-up is about 30%/70% ratio.

[tilallr1]

Sorry ... I guess I should have given better details. I had older Kenwood speakers for Left and Right and the rest were the small JBL surrounds. 7.1 with an Onkyo 705. They sounded great, even though they were small and in total probably cost me at the time around $500-600. But there was always something missing. Even when I went from my Kenwood 6.1 THX receiver to the Onkyo 7.1 705 receiver, the difference was not as night and day as I was expecting.

My parents suggested that I give them my old receiver and current speakers, set them up for 6.1 and they would give me a bit of cash to help buy the speakers of my dreams. So I did a bit of research and found the SVS SBS-01 7.1 speaker package with the PB10-NSD (One of the best Subs creators in the industry) would sound the best and cost for me around $1600 when all was said and done. Installed them which took forever, especially the ceiling mounts (these bookshelf speakers weigh a ton), calibrated and popped in Pirates of the Carribean on Blu-ray. I was close to tears ... no I was in tears ... the sound was SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much better. Like I said, NIGHT and DAY. Which is why in the end good quality speakers are so much more important than a good quality receiver. But in the end if your going to drop a ton of cash on speakers, why wouldn't you spend some money on a decent quality receiver. Its sort of a catch 22 isn't it.

I suppose you should really treat speakers and receivers as a total audio package. You should really buy a comparable receiver to your speakers and viceaversa.

[tilallr1]

Originally Posted by Beta Man

stole the words out of my mouth....

but Tilallr1..... I've gotta say, making sure your entire 7.1 is all the same brand/make/model isn't necessarily that important..... front three absolutely.... but not all, and certainly not the subwoofer..... timbre matching is only "so" important.

Its true they say it isn't necessary, but it is necessary to have speakers in the same class. In other words, don't spend $1000 on your front three speakers, $500 on a sub and diddly squat on the surrounds. You WILL be disappointed. Its just easier when a great speaker company offers a fantastic package like the SBS SVS-01. You don't have to worry since the speakers are designed to compliment each other.

P.S. Some people say the SUB is the most important speaker in your system. With the SVS sub I have, I can now see why that is true.

[tilallr1]

Originally Posted by John72953

For instance...my receiver/speaker set-up is about 30%/70% ratio.

For me the receiver cost $800 and the speakers $1600 so that ratio above works for me.

[g--man]

Have you heard anything about the Energy Take Classic setup? I am thinking of pairing the set with an Onkyo 606.

[Kryptron]

Originally Posted by nouou

I heard the 606 reduces your PQ.

Here we ago again . This is the 5th time this weak i hear that here. If you have a source connected thru HDMI there is no signal degradation. If you have soruces hooked up to composite you should not have signal degradation. If you have a source hooked up to component and your outputing 1080 thru it, then there might be a problem since the receiver upconverts component signals and turns them to 720p, in that case you would be downconverting. But your hdmi sources and 720p/480i/p shouldn't have a problem.

As for the OP, i completely agree and i myself regret not saving up for better speakers when i got my 605 a few weeks ago.

[kingofgrills]

Originally Posted by prerich

Sorry speakers will make good components sound very bad. Speakers are the only component that you actually listen to (besides the room itself). Electronics play a part but in the end I would go with the best speakers I could buy and get amplification that can run the speakers I have chosen.

I fully agree with this. I would definitely start with the speakers. To the OP I must ask is this a one shot deal? Is there any reason you can't take the money you have allocated for speakers and a receiver and just spend it on speakers?

You can then save more and eventually purchase a really nice receiver. That is how I built my home theater room and 2 channel listening room up over time. If I tried buying everything at once, there's no way I would have only been able to buy a whole bunch of crap, and crap doesn't make for good audio or video quality.

[musicman1999]

[QUOTE=Kryptron;1112267]Here we ago again . This is the 5th time this weak i hear that here. If you have a source connected thru HDMI there is no signal degradation.

What do you base this on? If a signal is degraded by a component, it is because of poor quality components, nothing else. Sending a signal by HDMI will not overcome said poor components.

bill

[RUR]

Originally Posted by g--man

Have you heard anything about the Energy Take Classic setup? I am thinking of pairing the set with an Onkyo 606.

Welcome to the forum!

For a smaller room and at reasonable volumes, the system should sound terrific. I had an original Take 5 in my MBR a couple of years back and enjoyed it immensely (used a Sunfire sub, though).

Nice review here (Audioholics).

[zweet77]

I think it comes down to what you want the most and what your time frame and budget needs are.I am in to instant gratification and that has caused me to waste a lot of money.. well that and being a noob. Say if your budget is 1000 which is pretty close to what I see a lot of people starting with I would drop most of that into your receiver.If I could start over I would have gotten an onkyo 805 for example. .I agree sound wise that speakers are more important but you really need that functuality of a good receiver.Of course down the line when all is said and done your speakers should run way more than your receiver did I plan on dropping at least 3k on speakers which some would say is still pretty much entry level.So anyways to at least get in the game for hd audio if your kinda strapped get a great avr and cheap but decent 5.1 set up to whet your appetite then start saving to drop some heavy money on some speakers.