Pioneer's Speaker Genius Hits Low Price Point - Page 74

^ Thank you very much for your reply. I appreciate it. I will go with the Pioneers!!

I was considering a Hsu STF-2, if only because I have an older pair of them in my dedicated theater space and like them at the $350 price point.

I was asking for two reasons:

1) I was thinking about helping out my Pioneer FS51's with a little more low end for music in the room where I'm pretty much just running those stereo (though I have a pair of BS21's I may use as rear surrounds to do 4.1 with a phantom center...phantom center due to placement of the TV above a fireplace mantel that leaves no room for the wonderful, but gigantic Pioneer center).

2) I was also really looking for a pretty good sub to "fill in" for my parents for whom I just picked up the Energy Take 5 Classic 5.0 kit. They have little Optimus (Radio Shack) wall mounted satellites from 20 years ago, and a center that is mushy an indistinct. That's not a good match for them as their hearing isn't perfect and movie dialog is a prime function of their system. But they have high quality speaker wiring runing in wall to plated posts, and I figured the Take 5's would be an easy in-place upgrade for $150.

I'm also installing for them a Pioneer VSX-821 again picked up extremely inexpensively for $180 to upgrade their older ProLogic Pioneer receiver with something that can switch HDMI and do proper Dolby/DTS discrete audio decoding.


Solutions to consider...

Maybe I should buy myself a real heavy hitter for the dedicated theater's Ascend 7-speaker system and move the Hsu STF-2 up into my family room / music room / casual movie room? I'd kind of miss the idea of having the dual subs down there (a "7.2" setup is somehow just plain cool, but it also and provides a way to avoid having any zones where the bass is nullified by reflections since you can place them independently, and get both the near-field and up-front effect, lots of options for tweaking the sound). Hmm. I wouldn't mind something in the main space that would drop below the 25 Hz floor on the STF-2, though...

Maybe I should give the other STF-2 to my parents to mate to their small Energy Take 5's (to fill in from about ~100-something Hz and below)?

...others?


An aside:
I'm still loving the Pioneers. I've come to like the fuller sound of the FS51 set for music, though I still feel the BS41, despite sounding a bit boxy by comparison, do have a special sweetness in the upper range...just something more forward and engaging about a female vocalist, say. If only I could tell myself that shoving the big honkin' center channel above my TV wouldn't look bad in my room. I can see I'm not going to tire of listening to these.

If you simply have the room for their size, I think they are an absolute no-brainer at the price point. At the very least worth an in-home listen since you're buying from Best Buy who have an easy return policy, but I doubt you'll need to use it.

sigh, this is why i hate/love avsforum

by chance i caught this thread and after reading the first 64 pages, i think im going to get this:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....rt.jsp_A&_DAV=

my current system

denon 1712
take classic 5.0
bic f-12

ill be selling the take classic to upgrade to this

i have a few concerns:

people say they need to really crank up the volume on these speakers for good sound. i listen to low volume at night and crank it up during the day time or if im watching a movie. can these speakers be used at low volume at all? some people make it sound like its not even worth using at low volume.

im assuming my denon 1712 will be enough to power these.

the 51s will be at most 1 foot from the wall. thats it. hope theres no major problem here. put a sock in the port?

room is around 18 long by 10 wide. just a guess. wondering how these huge speakers will look and sound in such a small room. i havent seen or heard them in person.

i am currently using these speaker stands for my energy surrounds

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...00_i00_details

will these work with the BS21 surrounds?

p.s. i quit smoking 2 weeks ago so im gonna treat myself to this upgrade. eff it

They sound great at low volumes too. I just noticed that they sound a little bit better at normal/higher volume levels.

The Pioneers are on sale again at Newegg. Ends 3/8

FS51- $119
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16882117403

C21- $49
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16882117404

BS21- $49
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16882117405

Wow ridiculous pricing!

Well, now that I can pick up a pair of SW-8's for $160...does maybe using them as speaker stands for my FS51's make any sense?

Again, mainly this is a music setup, some light/casual movie watching. Would I be ultimately disappointed with these as subs? I'm still trying to figure out if it's worth a huge wad of cash to pair a really good subwoofer with these.

How important can the infrasonics be for music? And isn't that the main improvement I'd get from a much better sub? Or are these simply not likely to be "fast" enough to impress for music reproduction?

Jeez this pricing is just insane.

Bought the FS51's.....

Also have some Cambridge S30's being delivered today.....

My only concern would be the 51s vibrating off the subs...

Certainly, there will also be better subs that can produce tighter bass for more money. But the other consideration is your room size and your expectations for being able to feel the bass. That is why HSU rates their subs for different size rooms (click on the loudness level icon for this sub). So if you are into hip hop or other music that is heavy hitting down low and you have a big living room, you might be disappointed with two budget 8" subs.

Hmm, thanks for the info. Maybe I should really do what I said and move one of my STF-2's up to this room with the FS51's and the other to my parents place for their Energy Take 5's.

I'm pretty interested in what a Hsu ULS-15 would do in my dedicated theater, though that isn't exactly a gigantic space at like 11x22 or so. I'd love to her something go lower into the infrasonics down there where I'm really watching movies (my "critical" viewings).

I am just so tempted in general by cool toys that are so obviously underpriced. *struggles*

Wow now there's an interesting idea. I may have to try that out just to see how it looks, thought I've only got one SW-8 right now. Although I, and it seems a few others in this thread, see the SW-8 as the biggest weak spot in this lineup. I find for home theater use, it just doesn't reach nearly low enough.

I would think the STF-2 would likely have better SQ than two SW-8s. But that's just a guess. Why not try one of your STF-2s with your Pioneers and see how you like it?

And you know a VTF-3 MK4 would be a big jump in low frequency extension without going all the way to the ULS-15

picked up a pair of FS51's this morning. going to use them in my basement in a stereo setup for everyday TV use. very excited about their potential.

if i get just the towers and the center can i use my energy take classic as surrounds?

Pioneer SW-8 100W Powered Subwoofer promo code EMCNGNH23
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16882117402



For those who bought these at an earlier New Egg sale that was not THIS good...

Two weeks ago I paid $35 more than this current deal, for my 8" sub and the bs21's from New Egg. I just called them to see about getting a refund of the $35 difference. New Egg said that they would not refund all of the $35 due to the "NEW" price being a promotional deal (from the manufacturer) and they do not price match when they have a "promo code" type offer because this usually comes from the manufacturer. Because I didn't want to pay for the return shipping, just to return what I just bought and re-buy it again, I accepted their offer of refunding me $25 instead.

I just thought you all should know if you want to try to get any type of refund.

Brian

Has anyone actually set up the fs-51's using the sw-8's as speaker stands?

If so are you experiencing any ill effects from this setup i.e. rattling between the cabinets?

Want to be the first?

Yeah I'm gonna put one STF-2 up here this weekend and try it out. I'll report back.

And dang, now I'm reading about the VTF-3 mk4 for my basement theater and that lead me to read about the SVS 15" Ultra whatever. I so want to experience something that drops way, way into those 15-16 Hz lows I notice my STF-2 incapable of...like Sauron exploding at the beginning of Lord of the Rings. But at the same time...I already have transducers in the seats.

I could see spending $1000 on a good sub for that room..or $1000 per on two...or $2000 on one like the SVS. Dang it avsforum! Temptress!

Why would you do that when $50 will get you the tone-matched bs21's? Except maybe a size issue... Honestly I think most people can get away with almost anything as rear channels for movie watching in a family room. Is it best? No. Aretherears the most critical part of an entire system's experience? Honestly not really. Unless your talking about a dedicated space, I think you could easy get wrapped around the axle unduly here.

Definitely.
I used my infinity TSS-450 surrounds with my towers and center for quite a while and thought it sounded like a major improvement over the full TSS-450 set. Things got much better when I replaced them with better surrounds - but yes, you can.... and you will most likely feel like your system suddenly got a lot better.

true but then id have to buy new speaker stands for the bs21s. the stands i currently have can hold only up to 2 pounds. so im looking at $50 for the speakers, plus at least another $50 for new stands that can hold the bs21 eight plus pound monsters.

so ill just add the 21s and be done with it. now to find speaker stands strong enough to hold the bs21s surrounds above ear level.

thanks, ill just get the 21s now so i dont regret it later on

one more question before i pull the trigger on newegg. im reading all the reviews i can on amazon, newegg etc.

this review is on the towers and was done on december 11, 2011. ill just copy and paste this part of it:


"Before I tell you how great and wonderful these thing are and why you should buy these speakers, there is one other thing you should know if you are considering these speakers. They have this overwhelming tweeter problem. The tweeters on these are very loud and can sound quit muffled and have a horrible echoing sound. I have solved this problem by simple turning town the tweeter output on my receiver. This has solved my issue concerning the tweeters. Some might say the problem was probably with my receiver and not the Pioneers, but my father has these same speakers on a Sony receiver that does not have the function to turn down the tweeter volume like my Pioneer VSX-1021 does and Guess what? They have this tweeter problem."

http://www.amazon.com/Pioneer-SP-FS5...DateDescending

my denon 1712 does not have a tweeter tuning option. anyone here suffer the same problem with the tweeters?

Someone is confused. There is no such thing as a tweeter tuning option. You can't just turn down a tweeter.

...

You can if the speaker has a tweeter level on the back. Such as the Revel F52 or Salon2.

Regardless, I never experienced any tweeter problem.

I was referencing the Pioneer, not revel. Should have been clearer. There is not the ability to turn the tweeter down on the Pioneer speakers hooked up to a receiver. Whoever was posting on the newegg reviews was mistaken.

Thank you