Pioneer A. Jones set + BIC F-12 VS anything < $1200

I'm currently researching equipment for my first real (non-HTiB) HT system. My budget is an absolute max of $1200 for speakers/sub only. I'd like to go 7.1 since I've never heard a 5.1 that I've really felt immersed within, though I've never heard an expensive 5.1 before. I've picked out the Onkyo 809 AVR and have set the money for that aside already.

I've been diligently educating myself on the forums for the past three days and have some ideas for builds. I'd say I have an above-average ear for quality -- and quite a taste for it, too -- but I also like spending the least amount of money possible. I'm really fond of the price point on the Pioneer/BIC combo in 7.1 flavor coming in at around $800 give-or-take, and I've heard nothing but praise for this set as well.

However, I've seen posts that say if you can upsale yourself a bit you should go with SVS or something in that range. Problem is, if I went SVS (probably the SCS "Front Three" and two pairs of SBSs [and what happened to the STS? I can't find it anywhere on the SVSound website!]) I'd feel like the BIC was too cheap and try and go with a HSU VTF-2MkIII. There's other sets I've heard talk about out there like Aperion and whatnot, but I really need to know...

Is the extra $$$ really worth it?

I'm willing to go DIY if there's any cheap, proven, well-laid-out projects you could link me to. I'm okay with B-Stock stuff as long as it's reputable. I love eBay. I'm also (reluctantly) willing to be talked off of the 7.1 cliff for now since I'm OCD about setting things up perfectly, so enough people telling me if I can really dial-in with a suggested 5.1 set it'll be worth holding back will make me back off of 7.1. (for now)

P.S. - I'm planning on finding a new apartment as well, so for the sake of discussion, let's say my room is 15Wx12Lx8H and has an opening opposite of the television side to the rest of the house.

Correct


I'm currently unable to get out and about, but I'll hit up BB and compare the two next week. I haven't looked into Polks yet, thanks.

I DO have a set of Logitech Z5500 speakers (the preamp died) that I could throw in for surrounds for a 5.1 or 7.1 setup if you guys think it wouldn't sound like trash to mix them in for the time being.

Point noted about the BIC. Sounded too good to be true, but I've read a few posts that make it seem incredible. I like bass I can feel. I've even looked into getting tactile transducers in the future.


Splitting hairs: It's actually $700 right now on Amazon. Plus, I'd assume the HQV Vida processor far outdoes the DCDi, which is why I picked it. I also like the programmable remote. ISF calibration is also a plus, but my TV is a Samsung D7000 PDP, so I might not need it. Is there a discernible difference in the upscalers? I'll be using it to upscale PC content, so if there's a better upscaling/processing filter set I can use on PC that doesn't require days of scripting in Avisynth I'd be interested in a link to it. My CPU is a i7 EE oc'd to 4.1, so it should be able to handle whatever.

You'd recommend the Infinitys over the Pioneers?

Also, I'm wondering about towers vs bookshelves for the fronts. I've already got two pairs of speaker stands, so either is fine.

Oh, and my use will be 99% movies/games. Music isn't really important.

Thanks for the info about the speaker quality priority and tower/ bs comparison. Now that you mention all that, I feel like I should have known it in the first place. I'm so used to my Z5500 and others' cheap HTiBs that I never bothered to think about the intricacies of speakers.

I guess I'll post in the Video section about the 808/809 processors. If I can save $200 I'll jump on it.

Thanks for all the suggestions; I've definitely got new stuff to look into. If there's anything else you guys think I should know, I'm open to clicking some links.

Xbox360, PC, HD cable box, (possibly; and I'd probably only be watching the HD channels since they're the only channels I watch anyways. They may only be 720p though. Not sure how my local provider broadcasts.) and that's it. I'll be playing BR/DVDs through the compy. I'm mostly concerned about lower quality content I have. (480p, etc) I wasn't planning on really looking into it til the time comes, but my idea was to run VLC in a mode that auto resizes the resolution based on content, thereby letting the HQV do all the upscaling. The processing (noise reduction, edge enhance) are something I'd want as well. I honestly don't even know if VLC can do the auto-res in the first place, though.

Anyways, since the 808 is pretty much the 809 sans the HQV, I'd be interested to know if the processing and upscaling are discernibly different.

You're totally right! I was going off of the BB 5.0 package deal and adding a pair of the bookshelves for 7.1, but I guess I added another coupla pairs. Altogether, it looks like a lil over 600 including tax from getting the speakers locally.

BTW, That's nice to know. I'm definitely a tweaker. Never used the Audyssey stuff before and I know it works, but I'd love to grab a multichannel EQ and pink the room.

That's the difficult part. As I said before, I haven't moved into the new place yet. I've looked at the floor plan of all the places I'd want to move to, and all the living rooms look like they're 12Wx15L, and I can't imagine them having anything higher than 8' ceilings in my area. Most of the rooms open up in the rear (relative to watching direction) without any partial walls whatsoever.

I've no one else living with me. It really doesn't matter if I've got speaker stands in the way of everything; (I like cables to be neat -- I'm not a total bum ) I prefer audio quality over visual aesthetics.

I'd love for all my questions to be answered here and now, but I understand that as long as I'm not living there yet and not even able to go to BB to listen to speakers (I'm in an experimental drug study facility right now, which is where I'm getting the money for all this) that I'm not going to be able to get concrete answers. I very much appreciate everyone's replies, though; never been on a forum that helped this much.

I also like sitting pretty close to the TV. (4-6 ft, 59" TV) Bad habit, I know, but it's the reason I thought I could fit a 7.1 in the room since I'll have plenty of space behind me to distance myself from the surround rears. I'd like to recreate the THX/Dolby models as accurately as possible as far as placement goes, but beyond that, I'm not sure what you mean, buzzy_.

Onkyo reliability issues? I heard about issues with the last generation as far as heat generation and weird DOAs, but not much about the current X09 generation. Quite a few people in the owner's thread seem to say the heat issue is gone.

I'd definitely want to go with Onkyo or Denon. I'm pretty petty when it comes to Yamaha. Ran BoH with some of their gear once and (long story short) it put a bad taste in my mouth. I've never really liked them since then.

I understand the upconversion isn't going to be perfect. I just want something better than the Lanczos filter in VLC and some decent postprocessing.

I'll look into the Disney disk. Thanks for the tip.

Has anyone who has experience with these Pioneers also listened to or even upgraded to any ID company speakers? I'm specifically interested in SVS, since I've seen about as many nods for those in other posts as I've seen for the Pioneers.

Like my OP says, I'd really like to know if the extra money is really worth it or if you can even hear the difference.

I also like the idea of getting these cheap Pioneers now since I'm basically building a HT from the ground up, then upgrading to a nicer ID set some time from now when I can devote the money specifically to a set of speakers. I make money in lump sums, so this isn't far from my future financial reach.

Thanks for all the help, guys. I may actually be leaning towards the Pioneer set plus an HSU VTF-2MkIII at this point, but I still have over a week to decide.

I see. So, for a noticeable jump in quality I'd have to spend about $700 - $1000 more then, is the consensus I'm getting.

Pioneer 5.0 set - $285
Ascend, Aperion, Paradigm, SVS, etc. 5.0 sets - $1k - $1.3k

Am I wrong here? I mean, I understand the HSU sub is a good investment as I can just add another one later if need be, but reselling the Pioneer set and upgrading to a nice ID set later on is sounding more and more enticing.

I don't mean to step on the toes of anyone who's given me advice on this thread, but given the price/quality gap there seems to be here, it just seems wiser to do it the way I'm proposing. ...Right?

$99? Thanks for the tip! Hopefully they stay that way for a few days til I get my check. Yeah, the F12 looks like a sweet deal, and now that I've learned I can have some variability in my choice as far as subs go, I'll have a little emergency buffer for unexpected expenses while I'm moving to the new place. The HSU is still my priority, though. I'm actually getting a LOT more money than my proposed budget, but I wanted to have a pretty large buffer for the move for furniture, etc. So who knows? I might end up with a really nice ID setup circumstances allowing. I'm just glad I got my question answered to the best of people's subjective opinion.