Pioneer's Speaker Genius Hits Low Price Point - Page 75

i have an extra set of bs21s in my newegg shopping cart until the sale expires on the 8th.

how can i can use them with my gaming computer. i assume i need an amp and the amp itself should be able to connect to my computer somehow? if this is possible anyone have a recommendation for an amp close to the 80 watts these speakers are rated?

or should i just forget about this idea and look for some logitech type computer speakers

Get a $20 lepai amp from parts express or ebay and run a cable from the green jack on the PC to the "mp3 in" jack on the lepai.

thanks i just looked and i found this one for $22, the Lepai Tripath TA2020A+ but its only 20 watts. the bs21s are rated at 80 watts.

http://www.parts-express.com/pe/show...number=310-300

can this amp power the bs21s?

Guys I have the older jbl venue series speakers will these offer any improvement over those? Was tempted to order them at the new egg price. The reciever is the onkyo 805 thx ultra 2 130x7..............BTW is any body running six fs51 floor standers and a 21 center? I bet that would be pretty bad ass......

That's the same amp I use to power my BS41s that I use as computer speakers. It will power them just fine for computer speaker usage.

If I didn't get my JBL 190s I was thinking of doing that. I'm not sure the Pioneers would be better for you, but I haven't heard the venues. My JBL 190s have the same soundstage as my FS51s, but have much better highs and imaging.

I'm running six FS51s, with tweeter to tweeter stacked up front. I've found I like the sound better with my C21 off. Truly like hearing my dvd-a/sacd collection for the first time. (yes, my avr handles sending center info to r/l)

How are you powering the 4 speakers up front? 4 channels from amp?

Yes, my Pioneer 919 allows me to use the six and seventh channels to "bi-amp" the fronts. Easier for me than remembering how the wiring goes. Watching Jeff Beck, Rock n Roll Party on blu ray, grinning like a fool!

How do you keep them stable? After I read your post I tried stacking mine. Sounded good but very unstable.

what kind of cable do i need to use the mp3 in jack on the lepai?

i only have those 1-Mini Plug/2-RCA Plugs types

these:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...pf_rd_i=507846

http://www.amazon.com/Professional-C...d_bxgy_e_img_b

I would have loved to try this. For $240 you could have a massive soundstage up front doing this.

No kids at home helps! Maybe my carpet is thin

I'm thinking about joining the bandwagon on these with the current newegg promotion. My problem is that the SP-C21 really won't fit in the space I have available for the center channel; too deep and too tall. On the other hand, the Dayton Audio CCS-33B will fit. Does mixing the Dayton center with the Pioneers raise a red flag to anyone? Any other suggestions?

Thanks--

I have room for my C21 but find with my set up that I like the sound better without it connected. Plus its fun asking others how they like the sound of my (unconnected) center!

I think the standard answer is that you want the front 3 to match so that transitions between them will be seamless (no change in the sound)... but you can always try it out and see.

phantom center

That's hilarious. I have been bugging my GF for months that we need to move the center from it's current location on on a shelf above the TV so that all 5 tweeters are closer to ear level.

The other day she mentioned that she agreed with me and that the center just didn't sound right.

The only problem was that we were listening to music in 2 channel stereo at the time. However I decided to not let her know and just ordered the wall mount kit to move the TV up over where the center will sit.

I recently purchased a set of BS21s for a future budget home theater setup, but after connecting them to my circa 1980's stereo receiver in my home office/workshop, I am enjoying them so much in that location - that is where they are staying. I plan to connect my PC to the stereo receiver using a 1/8 to RCA adapter from Monoprice. It will be an analog signal from the PC to the aux input on my receiver. While you can purchase a new amp, you might want to consider a used receiver from eBay, seems like there are a lot of them available and you get more functionality.

To round out the bottom end, I am considering the Pioneer SW-8 subwoofer. This would be for music only in my as mentioned home office/workshop (approx 10x8 basement room). I don't need wall shaking bass in this case, and actually plan to connect the sub to my stereo receiver B high level speaker outputs, so I can easily switch the sub on or off at the receiver, for when the kids are asleep. Wondering what people think about such a BS21/SW-8 budget 2.1 system in this type of environment?

So I tried out my Hsu STF-2 with the FS51's a little bit.

(a) I think this downward firing sub on my hardwood flooring (suspected above a full basement) is kind of boomy.

(b) I'm not sure the STF-2 has enough headroom for the environment

(c) It fills in the lower end a little, but the FS51's sound just kind of "cleaner" without it, honestly. Maybe it's purely a crossover/setup issue. The receiver I'm using is just an old Sony 5.1, nothing great and doesn't help me dial in a setup. I want to replace it (for several reasons) with a Pioneer VSX-1021 or VSX-1121, but I missed the boat on all the really good sales and now am being stubborn.

I'm putting the BS41's upstairs in my loft to act as another "zone" so that the main space of my house can have the same music system driving it. I just need to run a couple of speaker wires up there (I have the wall chase to do so where I've already pulled Ethernet years ago).

The 5.25" drivers will match the FS51's in the family room, and it should sound pretty uniform as one transitions from place to place, say during a party or just while housecleaning and such. I like the idea that on the cheap I'll have a matched, quality "whole home" sound. Most of my house is kind of one big open area, save the bedrooms/bathrooms.

I'm taking a pair of BS21's into my home office (small bedroom converted) where I'll drive them with a separate amp. I'm mating these to a SW-8 in that small room. The PC and LED TV will run into that system and be on it's own, mainly for music while working. For $80 in there, I figured what the heck.

Thanks Mike and Aaron. Between these answers I think I'll try it without any center. If it seems like I'm really missing something, I'll look at the Dayton again.

One final note to anyone keeping score:

I hooked up the Energy Take 5 Classic's for my parents. It was a definite jump in clarity and phrasing from their old satellites. I'm generally very, very impressed with those given their small size and miniscule price! I was ready to be disappointed, but (and here's the part that applies to this thread) they are actually very similar to the performance of the Pioneers.

Yes, the Pioneers definitely sound a bit better (fuller midrange), but I will say without hesitation that if you cannot manage their hugeness, and are using or plan to use a pretty good subwoofer, then I do not hesitate to recommend the Take 5's. They are shockingly similar to the Pioneers in terms of the overall sound quality for vocal clarity and the "ring" and sweetness of upper spectrum. Even the tiny center channel impressed me (I was particularly afraid that the center would be the letdown weak link of the system, but I found it admirable). For the $150 I paid...it's like I stole them. They would be easily worth the $300 they normally command. Anything less is a ridiculous bargain.

They mated quite well with the other Hsu STF-2 I tested over there. Tight, clear sound with a lot of texture for something this size/price. Nice!

It's amazing what you can do with a few bucks right now. Me: impressed.

I'm running a phantom center using just the FS51's. It's not bad. If I hook up the CS21, it's definitely better for movies, I can't lie, but the FS51's are pretty good at imaging the dialog dead center, and when raised such that the tweeters are ear level or "close" to the TV height, it's pretty convincing. If you don't A-B them with the CS21 like that, you wouldn't think to yourself "wow, something's really missing" with the FS51's setup alone.

I went in on the recent New Egg sale to grab some FS 51s. I had been using the BS 21 for my 3.1 system and when I hooked those babies up it blew me away how meaty they are. They sound fantastic.

While I don't have a ton of first hand experience with the SW-8 other than a test playing at BB awhile back I would think this should work very nice. Do you have any carpet or can you lay down a rug? Not sure what your basement room is like but I had to do a fair amount of damping down in a similar sized space in my basement.

And a big +1 on the PC to vintage receiver setup. That was what I used for computer sound for years before stumbling on a stupidly good deal on the old Klipsch IFI system which alas has now died. The only thing I would suggest is to check garage sales/Goodwill/craigslist rather then mess with E-Bay. Lots of good deals with people trying to clean out the basement of old receivers that they had in college and they will let them go cheap because they think everything has to have HDMI and multi channel. Where I live you can pickup a quality name vintage receiver with 50-80 real watts for less than $50.00

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You might want to replace the Sony with a receiver that has Audyssey MultiEQ or better (not Audyssey 2EQ) for room correction software. Audyssey MultiEQ and up has sub eq filtering built in, so it can help improve the sub response in a room. I don't think the Pioneer receivers do. The Denon 1612 could be a good choice for that reason.

those will work. The Lepai has stereo RCA inputs for your cable and also a Mini plug input if you have that instead. I've used both and they work the same.