Hi, I am in the process of upgrading my Home Theater and need some advice on my setup. I have a custom installer coming to do the wiring in my new place, and setting up my projector also. I will be using a Panasonic Projector with a Fire-hawk Screen and also for "regular" viewing I have a new Panasonic 50 inch 1080P. The video part of my set-up is done, and need some advice on the audio.

My installer recommended me to buy the Marantz 8001 since I need 2 HDMI's out for the Projector and Plasma. He also told me the Marantz sounds great and is an awesome receiver. I did my research and found the 8001 lacking True HD, and DTS HD. I also was questioning some other features not being there. I found out that at CEDIA the 8002 is coming out next month which has the lose-less audio decoding and 2 HDMI's out as I need. So if I bought the 8002 what speakers would go well with it? I am on a budget and would like to stay under 2000 for the 5 speakers not including the Sub. I do have a 10 inch Polk Audio sub which works well.

Question: I came across this ad on craigs-list:
http://losangeles.craigslist.org/wst/ele/419618171.html
for a pair of Monitor Audio Silver R8 new in the box. The person wants 550 for the pair. Is this a good deal? If so what would be a good center channel and rears for my system?

If this is not a good deal then what could you recommend for my Marantz 8002 for 2000.00 or less? (By the way I am upgrading from a Bose Acoustimass System and an older Sony 945 receiver.)

Thanks in advance for any help or advice!

Hi, I am in the process of upgrading my Home Theater and need some advice on my setup. I have a custom installer coming to do the wiring in my new place, and setting up my projector also. I will be using a Panasonic Projector with a Fire-hawk Screen and also for "regular" viewing I have a new Panasonic 50 inch 1080P. The video part of my set-up is done, and need some advice on the audio.

My installer recommended me to buy the Marantz 8001 since I need 2 HDMI's out for the Projector and Plasma. He also told me the Marantz sounds great and is an awesome receiver. I did my research and found the 8001 lacking True HD, and DTS HD. I also was questioning some other features not being there. I found out that at CEDIA the 8002 is coming out next month which has the lose-less audio decoding and 2 HDMI's out as I need. So if I bought the 8002 what speakers would go well with it? I am on a budget and would like to stay under 2000 for the 5 speakers not including the Sub. I do have a 10 inch Polk Audio sub which works well.

Question: I came across this ad on craigs-list:
http://losangeles.craigslist.org/wst/ele/419618171.html
for a pair of Monitor Audio Silver R8 new in the box. The person wants 550 for the pair. Is this a good deal? If so what would be a good center channel and rears for my system?

If this is not a good deal then what could you recommend for my Marantz 8002 for 2000.00 or less? (By the way I am upgrading from a Bose Acoustimass System and an older Sony 945 receiver.)

Thanks in advance for any help or advice!


I'm a big fan of the Monitor Audio speaker lines and yes, $550 is a great price for the S8's. They are the last generation of the Silver series, so you are going to want to hunt down a used SLCR for the center and either the S1 or S2 for the rears.

Keep in mind that the MA sound is slightly on the bright side of nuetral, but they have never sounded aggressive or peaky to me. Instead they seem to pull all of the detail out of your recordings, good or bad. Just something to keep in mind since you can't listen to them first. Then again, and no offense, the S8's are going to kick the crap out of the Bose system you currently have. One other thing, large floorstanding speakers like the S8's do require some breathing room. You are going to want to have the option of placing them up to a few feet away from the side and front walls. You may be able to place them closer to the walls than that, but you might end up with bloated, boomy bass.

There are some S2's on Audiogon (a popular site for selling used AV gear).

http://cls.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?spkrfull&1194894536

I am going to suggest yo rename your thread since it is kind of vague. Something Like "Monitor S8 a good match for Marantz 8002?" might get more hits.

I have not heard the S8 but I am sure the Marantz will power them fine and that seems like a reasonable deal. the S8's currently available on Audiogon are in that range.

Thanks for the suggestion. Subject line changed.

If I went new how much would I be looking at for a set of 5 of Monitors newest line? Would this be better then trying to put together a used system? Any other suggestions of different speakers worth looking into? I know this is not the receiver forum but should I be looking at any others? I do kind of fell my installer is pushing the Marantz since he is a Marantz dealer......

I too am looking to upgrade, at least my receiver. I currently have the Monitor Audio S8 for mains and the matching center and rears (I forget their model numbers). They sound phenomenal on my B&K AVR307! The S8 goes down to 32hz very nicely. My wife even complains that they have too much bass. Of course I disagree and have looked into getting an ACI Force to fill in the gap down to 20hz, but I digress.

I want to replace the B&K because I want HDMI switching, 1080p upscaling, and a good room EQ (like Audyssey or Trinnov). I have been following a good AVS forum

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=785388

that goes over 2 of the new Sherwood Newcastle receivers with all of the above. I am just starting to look at other brands such as Marantz and Denon as well. I sold most of the big names for 7 years and am most impressed with Marantz and Denon. Sony ES is ok but I wouldn't mess with the regular Sony line. Pioneer Elite is also good. Onkyo as well but I saw more problems with Onkyo than the others. Though I haven't sold them before, I hear and read good things about the Rotel and Arcam receivers. But I don't know whether they offer the 3 main features I am looking for.

As a former salesperson and avid AV-holic, I would highly advise getting a receiver with all 3 of these features. The HDMI 1.3 may not be a necessity but make sure the receiver has the ability to pass the new lossless surround signals (Dolby True HD and the DTS HP I think), video upscaling to 1080p with a good scaler (Faroudja, for example) will probably outperform the built in scaler on most TVs and clean up the picture, and a quality room EQ will fix the biggest problem in all of audio-- your room! With the new crop of room EQs like Audyssey we now have the ability to fix the problems that our rooms insert into the equation. The frequency curves look great from the manufacturer because they are measured in anechoic rooms. The new room EQs fix the problems our rooms, funiture, windows, etc. add by making digital EQ adjustments inside the receiver. This is a really cool feature and the main reason I am looking to upgrade.

I hate to beat a dead speaker, but we used to have a saying in the AV business; "No highs, no lows, must be Bose!" (Regardless of which receiver you buy, you will be amazed at the better quality you will hear with the Monior Audios!!!

I too am looking to upgrade, at least my receiver.....

...and a quality room EQ will fix the biggest problem in all of audio-- your room! With the new crop of room EQs like Audyssey we now have the ability to fix the problems that our rooms insert into the equation. The frequency curves look great from the manufacturer because they are measured in anechoic rooms. The new room EQs fix the problems our rooms, funiture, windows, etc. add by making digital EQ adjustments inside the receiver. This is a really cool feature and the main reason I am looking to upgrade.



I have Denon with the Audyssey EQ, and all I can say is don't expect miracles. If you are used to the sound of your speakers, you may not even like the sound after EQ. I find that I like it sometimes but not always (depending on the recording), though it is nice to have the option.

I don't know about the implementation of Audyssey in the other AVR's you are looking at, but the Denon offers three settings: "Audyssey" (which flattens the response but rolls off the top of the treble), "Flat" (which flattens the response but does not role off the treble), and "Front" (which leaves the L/R speakers alone but EQ's the rest of your speakers to match them tonally).

I don't really like the Audyssey settings as it robs the music of a lot of detail. The Flat setting is better because it retains most of the detail I like in the sound and I use this setting quite often. However, I bought my speakers because I liked the way the sounded in my room before I bought them. So I end up using the "Front" setting the most (I think this is a Denon only feature). This retains the sound I bought the speakers for in the first place, but compensates for the differences in room location of the other speakers.

Just something to consider when deciding which AVR to buy.

I have Denon with the Audyssey EQ, and all I can say is don't expect miracles. If you are used to the sound of your speakers, you may not even like the sound after EQ. I find that I like it sometimes but not always (depending on the recording), though it is nice to have the option.

I don't know about the implementation of Audyssey in the other AVR's you are looking at, but the Denon offers three settings: "Audyssey" (which flattens the response but rolls off the top of the treble), "Flat" (which flattens the response but does not role off the treble), and "Front" (which leaves the L/R speakers alone but EQ's the rest of your speakers to match them tonally).

I don't really like the Audyssey settings as it robs the music of a lot of detail. The Flat setting is better because it retains most of the detail I like in the sound and I use this setting quite often. However, I bought my speakers because I liked the way the sounded in my room before I bought them. So I end up using the "Front" setting the most (I think this is a Denon only feature). This retains the sound I bought the speakers for in the first place, but compensates for the differences in room location of the other speakers.

Just something to consider when deciding which AVR to buy.

Excellent post! Just the kind of info I am looking for while narrowing down the choices. I sold AV for years, including a few with the Audio Control EQs. We had a saying, "The human ear hates a flat frequency curve."

From what I have read so far, the Trinnov EQ system sounds pretty cool. It adds a 3-D benefit to compensate for height adjustments. It can raise your center channel sound, for example, to match the height of your mains or lower the rears. It may be that room EQs may work better for surround and off for music. I think the Trinnov will have several "favorite" memory settings as well. But the Sherwood/Newcastle R-972 has been pushed back to a March 2008 release (from Aug 2007 originally). Time will tell.

to be fair no one has heard an 8002 unless at cedia, so I don't see how any meaningful comparisons can be made?