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Speakers / AVR?

364 views 14 replies 4 participants last post by  Zorba922 
#1 ·
Use: Movies/TV. No real gaming or music through the HTPC/TV. No blu ray, just DVDs isos.
Location: Big room. Glass, wood, vaulted ceilings.
Current AVR: Pioneer VSX-509s (15 years old)
Center: Klipsch SC .5
LR Speakers: Klipsch Synergy B3
Sub: KLH ASW10120

So we've suddenly found we can't hear our center channel quite often and it's driving us nuts. Movies especially are a problem. Family members have complained and that's when you know it's not just your imagination. The sub hasn't pushed anything in years... it just hums like an angry bee version of barry white when turned on. No amount of fiddling is helping but the center speaker does output sound... just very weakly now. At the suggestion of others we tried putting a bookshelf on the center and it was okay. So The receiver is pushing sound. But man does it sound bad suddenly.

Figuring the AVR had gone bad, I bought a Yamaha RX-V677. Hooked it all up and... wow still sounds awful. Took off the center, set it to no center and center off so now it's the bookshelf speakers. It's okay but I would swear this all sounded better years ago. Even when the Yamaha is set to -22 DB the sound is meh. Used to be we'd set the movie at -40 DB on the Pioneer and it'd be plenty good. At this point we want to be able to clearly hear a movie.

People say speakers are the key and not the AVR. Okay. So keep the ancient AVR and try replacing with a good center or a decent set of sides? If I can avoid a new AVR, then maybe $500 to spend. If I'm getting a new AVR, $250 to spend on a center or sub or something. I want to hear the movies but honestly this isn't that important v. trying to reach other savings/investment goals. Maybe the Klipsch Synergy C-20?
 
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#2 ·
Does your Pioneer have MCACC? If so have you tried running it again? Is lack of center in any particular sound mode or all multi-ch sound modes? Has your center speaker been damaged? The center channel functions properly with another speaker?

Most of your sound quality is indeed in the speakers (and their placement and your room), not the electronics. If the avr is functioning properly changing speakers will be a bigger impact on sound quality. If your speaker hasn't been damaged and your avr is fine....has something else changed?
 
#3 ·
The pioneer is 15 years old; I believe MCACC didn't exist then. I would say it outputs with another speaker - the bookshelf in the center spot seemed to work - but it sure didn't seem clean.

As far as I know, nothing else has changed. I have kids so obviously some little gremlin may have knocked over the center and then just put it back up, whistling and pretending that the drop never happened.

Any suggestions for the center or the speakers? Stick with Klipsch?
 
#4 ·
Have you inspected the driver in the center speaker? Is the surround intact? Did the trim level of the center in the avr get changed by a gremlin? Altho perhaps a drop on the floor could do something....just trying to exhaust things to check....

That's an older avr than I thought, and they can eventually go OTOH. I personally don't know much about Klipsch and aside from the great big Klipsch speakers of old, generally don't care for them myself but don't know which of their speakers may be a better match to your L/R speakers.
 
#6 ·
Keep the AVR for now; replace the center speaker with the BIC LH-6, which you can order from Walmart.com for $103 shipped ... that way if you don't like it you can just take it back to a local WM store and get your money back. But for your usage I think it'll be exactly what you're looking for: high sensitivity, wide dispersion, awesome clarity of voice reproduction, and a respectable amount of bass. Not the greatest for music but that's not what you're using it for, so moot point.

Upgrade the sub for sure. Depends on how much you are willing to spend. In a big room for HT I would suggest the BIC F12 or $200 from Amazon or its next level up, the BIC PL sub for $300 Amazon.

Upgrade the L/R speakers to the LH-6s only if you feel the need and/or have the budget. I suspect the center is what will make the biggest difference for the time being.

The AVR has the least impact on your sound quality, and one that was built 15 years ago might actually have better internal parts than current ones in the same price range. It just won't have all the silly electronic bells and whistles that manufacturers love to add on for a few cents here and there and hype the heck out of, while cutting corners on the internal parts that actually matter.
 
#8 ·
That's certainly the conventional wisdom, and I believed it whole-heartedly until recently, when I decided to experiment with the LH-6 as a center and my (totally opposite sound signature!) Wharfedale Diamonds as front L/R speakers ... and it works perfectly for HT, with a little bit of level adjustment of the center channel to roughly equal the output level of the fronts! When I listen to music I just go back to 2.0/2.1 and it's perfect, really the best of both worlds! I would never listen to music in 3.0 or 3.1 anyway.

The horn tweeter really brings out all the crisp detail of voice dialogue...comparable or better than the Ascend 340 center I had about 10 years ago, which costs 3 times as much. Even for music it isn't as bad as I thought, as long as you don't crank it all the way up to reference levels.
 
#11 ·
^ Update us when you get it, will be very curious to hear about the outcome!

PS. Supposedly the BIC like many speakers will require at least 15-20 hours break-in time, so after about a week you should start to hear them open up even more. Mine sounded fine out of the box, though.
 
#12 ·
We've had it a week... night and day difference. Wow.

We ended up disconnecting the new Yamaha V677 and swapping to our old Pioneer. The Yamaha was having weird issues with Optical Sound and the HDMI kept bouncing out on our Directv each time we'd change channels, pause, etc... so it went back to amazon as broken).

Anyway the BIC America LCR is fantastic. The sound is bright, crisp and now I'm waiting for the Amazon return so I can order the new sub. Muhahaha. Thanks for the tip on the BIC.
 
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