What happens with bad speakers + great receiver?

I think the biggest thing you're missing is IMPACT! When doors slam shut, bomb's explode, dinosaur's foot stomps, earthquake sounds etc etc...you're missing out on the impact that only comes from bigger speakers moving more air.

It's like this for anyone, you just never know what you're missing until you hear it for yourself. Adding some nice bookshelf speakers up front would be a good start...perhaps 3 of them to add one as a center channel too. Surround speakers aren't as big a deal but your front L/C/R and subwoofer are a huge deal and that's where most of your money should be.

If you had speakers that were proportional to the cost of your receiver you'd have a few thousand invested into a 5.1 speaker system and it would blow your mind.

I think it would be best if you brought some real speakers home, hooked them up, and heard it for yourself. That'll probably mean more than any one of us trying to explain it in words.

But if I had to take a stab at it, you are not getting full and neutral frequency response. Tiny speakers can only reproduce so much. You are also forced to set the crossover to the sub higher than the typical 80 Hz, which means you're asking your sub to reproduce material which it was not designed to reproduce (like human voices).

Also, as you noticed, tiny speakers will sound distorted if you try to play them louder.

Bad speakers + good receivers = horrible sound.

Remember, the speakers are responsible for the sound. The receiver plays a lesser role.

1. Speakers
2 Ample power
3. Features

I would assume it's the speakers' fault. Does it still break up if you keep the volume pretty low?

Going to have to agree with this. You are pretty much wasting away that Marantz receiver. Garbage speakers=garbage sound. Get yourself some speakers ASAP. You won't believe the difference it'll make.

Black Friday is soon. Take a look at slickdeals, fatwallet, bensbargain, dealsofamerica. I am sure Fry's is going to have their Infinity Primus sale again. These are a good entry level speaker when on sale at frys.

I am a noob on the whole "sounds" thingy too. Originally I bought a top of the line Pioneer HTIB a few yr back and I pick them up because of the looks of it that match my LCD tv so well. First couple days I love it to death, I can hear what is "surround sound"... which sound were coming out from 5 different speakers! But a few weeks later, I started realize the system actually sounds like chicken!

Then I step up to a new set of HT(start hating PQ from LCD) on another room. So I got a Kuro plasma, a yamaha AVR, a PS3, a combo of JBL + energy 5.1 speakers. I was so happy and it just like a light yr different when compare to the crappy HTIB. They are sound like chicken anymore, I first realize that what is bass, sound are not not just coming out from 5 different speakers, they are surrounding me, I can hear people firing their gun very clearly on every shoot, I can hear the explosion, I can hear the plane or spacecraft flying toward me...etc. And with the beautiful PQ of the Kuro, I thought I was in heaven! Until I invited my friends to visit my HT! They asked me why I cover my subwoofer with a thick blanket? what I use computer speakers to pair with such a nice TV....

So I just put up a 106" screen with a Sony black pearl projector, a Pio Elite VSX-23 AVR and a SVS PC12-NSD subwoofer...wow! what a huge different! Now I can "feel" every bullet that hitting me when the machine gun firing, I can "feel" earth quake when an explosion, I can "feel" the plane flying toward me! But now I also find the vocal voice are deeply shadow by the subwoofer, it is lacking mid-range, the effect sounds very cloudy...etc. So not feeling good at all except the LFE, especially when I watching some concert blu-ray. So now I am here researching what speakers to replace my "computer speakers"!

The term "Impact" is the key word that the difference between you "heard" the effect or "feel" the effect. Well with htib, I doubt it even able to let you "hear" the effect!

I think that one of the noobs mistake is that you should build your system around the speakers, not the other way around. You should pick a nice set of speakers and work from there.

Hard to say. You may have permanently damaged those speakers by feeding them too much power, and they may sound bad regardless of volume level now.

Either way, they're crappy speakers and you'll be much happier with real speakers.

A good piece of advice I learned a long time ago is to spend the biggest portin of your investment on the component that changes the least and has the greatest impact on the sound. That would be the speakers. Little has changed in speaker technology despite what you may see or read in advertisements. A good sounding speaker now will still be a good sounding speaker 10 to 15 years from now.
Look at all the changes and improvement that have taken place in the last 10 to 15 years in things like video display devices, playback devices, and surround sound technology. We've gone from CRTs to plasmas to LCD to LED displays; front projectors have also really improved and dropped in price. In receivers, surround sound technology has evolved from dolby surround, to dolby prologic, then to dolby digital and now the latest and greatest are the lossless formats Dolby TruHD and DTS MA available on BluRay discs. In addition to the ever changing audio format capabilities, we've also seen other features introduced such as auto calibration and room correction. In playback devices, we've seen the demise of 4 Head VHS decks with Hi-Fi sound, to DVD players, DVD players with progressive scan and then upsampling to 1080i output. Not to let the market stand still, we have had the recent introduction of High Definition players, such as the now defunct HD DVD and of course BluRay.

See where I'm going ? Through all that, the speaker remains the same. We may have been convinced to add more speakers to our systems ( center channel, surrounds, and a sub), but the speakers I bought back in the early nineties are still working and have not become obsolescent. All the while I've gone through several surround sound processors, CD players, VHS decks, DVD players, Laser disc players, TV sets, and so on.

It's a fun hobby but it has had it's share of casulties while trying to keep up with the latest advancements and improvements in sight and sound.
Long gone are the days when I was satisfied with just two speakers, a two channel amp and preamp combo, and a turntable or CD player.
Bill