Energy Owners Thread - Page 1330

It does, but reading great reviews of RC10s and RCLCR 'am thinking these two would sound muchhhh better in my 14' x 20' room

I went from Energy Takes to RC-10 and RC LCR. The RC's are a HUGE upgrade over the little Takes.

That's what i tought, but i just bought the Takes less than two months ago, so that's staying put for awhile.

Although, not that lacking in bass that much from what the little 8" sub with the Takes will produce

The reason why I would go this route over what afrogt suggested is that I think it's worth it to wait for one of the 12" subs from HSU, Epik, or Outlaw Audio over making a compromising purchase now.

Just a FYI.. Energy gave us some love on their Facebook page today. They mentioned this thread.

...and im ordering some RC70s tomorrow. Yay for me. Lol now to convince the GF for the RCLCR. I have the V-MINI-C now.

I am completely new to the Home Theater/ Surround Sound realm. So new, that I bought the Bose system that Costco had for $800. This included the following:

1. Bose Acoustimass 6 Series
2. Yamaha HTR-3064 5.1 Channel
3. Yamaha YDS-12 ipod Dock

And from the look of things, that was a huge mistake. The plan is to return it and start over. The new system will be going in my living which is adjacent to my kitchen (open floor plan). The living room and the kitchen combined measure 15' x 36' and are equal in size. my primary use will be be TV/Movies/Gaming (75%) and Music (25%). I don't plan on making this my dedicated Home Theater room; i have a loft upstairs that I plan on making my dedicated Home Theater room. Thus, I am looking for something that will do a decent job but not over the top. I read on other forums that the Energy Take Classic was better than the Bose Acoustimass 6 that I purchased. But as i kept researching, I found out about the Energy RC-10s and RC-70s. What do you guys suggest? Also, I am a big sports fan, so anything that helps when watching sports on TV is a plus. Thanks in advance.

If you have room across the front for RC-10s and an RC-LCR instead of the Takes, you'll appreciate the bigger sound stage they can give you even for watching sports. Then since this is not your primary HT room, one of the budget subs that afrogt mentioned above a few posts back would work great for a budget setup; they are all good values. That setup would be a night and day difference over the Takes.

Or if you need to go smaller and still would like a step up over the Takes, the V Minis and V Mini Center could be a great choice. It's having the larger main driver that helps.

@Gmonski - a big question is what your total budget is, as well as your long-term goals.

if you are limited to $800 total that makes it a bit trickier. Obviously RC-10's and especially RC-70's will be a monster upgrade over tiny Take satellites but your budget dries up very quickly.

assuming your budget isn't ready to double, I think RC-70's are probably overkill considering this is a more "casual" setup compared to the primary HT space. I agree with cel's advice -- f you can afford it, RC-LCR + RC-10's up front will be an awesome start, or if you want to keep it small the V-Mini's are great too. The only problem with the V-mini's is they just aren't as good of a value as the RC's given that the latter is on such steep discount at Vann's. You'd pay more for a pair of V-Mini's than you would for a pair of RC-10's.

you could start with a 3.1 setup right now, a pair of RC-10 + RC-LCR would be $500, add a S10.3 sub for $200, and then a decent receiver for $300 and you are at a cool $1,000 but the setup will wallop a tiny sub/sat rig. Modern receivers will also have USB ports and/or AirPlay streaming which obviates the need for the iPod dock.

Not at the moment. $120 ea for a V-Mini in rosenut and the matching center is $130. So about $140 cheaper for a V-Mini 5.0 set over the RC-10/RC-LCR.

Budget is not an issue. I just don't want to spend more than is necessary. Whatever setup I get in this room, I would like for it to be long term.

ahhh, didn't know the rosenuts were on sale. thanks.

Gmonski - so I guess some questions are...

1) can you do rosenut (a deep glossy reddish wood finish)? if so, and you want to keep it small, just call up Vann's and grab a 5ch set of V-Mini's and be done with it (4 bookshelfs + 1 center)

2) can you do larger speakers up front? if so, grab 2 x RC-10 and RC-LCR center for $500 and use those three speakers as your starting point. they will be a matte black wood grain finish.

I went from an rc-mini to an rc-lcr and the improvement was awesome.

Then get the RC-70s and RC-LCR right from the start. Since you are buying for the long term, you should never find the need to upgrade when you own these speakers, unless you value "critical music listening" above all else. These speakers will satisfy many peoples most demanding sound needs and wants.

That kind of surprises me a bit.
Congrats on your RC-70s!

Can't do the rosenut. How big are RC-10s? How are they normally placed?

Vanns has specs.

I think you either need to get them placed at least 6" or 8" or so out from the wall (not sure what Energy recommends), or you can use the enclosed port plug to run them sealed.
Edited by cel4145 - 6/19/12 at 7:41pm

Yeah, considering that thread could probably be renamed "Official Energy RC Thread" and 85% of the posts would still be on topic. Not that this is really bad for Energy (I guess they still make a profit from the RCs) but I bet they would prefer a thread in which their most recent offerings are more often discussed under a good light.

The RC-10s are rather standard bookshelf speakers. They are not overly large or heavy. However they have a slightly unusual form factor, being rather narrow, tall, and deep, a bit like a miniature tower speaker. I was surprised I could not make them fit on an actual bookshelf without rearranging the shelves to get more clearance to the speaker.

If you're also interested by the center (RC-LCR), it also have slightly unusual dimensions. When placed horizontally, it's not very wide but it's surprisingly tall; can be a tight fit in many HT consoles. The RC-70s are floorstanding towers.

Sometimes pictures help. But there is not too much many reference points for determining size. But you can at least compare them to each other.
In the first few pics from smallest to largest: Rosenut V-Mini & RC-Mini CC, Black Ash RC-10, RC-LCR, RC-70






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Edited by mphfrom77 - 6/19/12 at 9:30pm

Sharing a quick peek at my current (temporary) setup.

I think that looks really sharp. Is that the CC-10 and CB-10's or CB-20's?

Terminating with banana plugs. Using CB5s for surrounds at present. The lower image shows the banana plug termination at the rear panel of my Marantz SR7005 AVR.
Edited by erhurd - 7/29/12 at 12:09pm

CB-20s paired with CC-10 center channel. Presently using CB-5s as surrounds. Planning on adding a pair of CB-10s to perform the surround duties and moving the CB-5s to work as surround rears. The setup utilizes a pair of M&K Sound MX70 subwoofers which work well in my small space.



Sanus Euro Series 28" speaker stands up front; Sanus Steel Foundations 34" speaker stands in rear. BTW thanks much for the compliment!
Edited by erhurd - 8/20/12 at 6:09pm

I can't figure for the life of me why people think that they can not "do" the Rosenut finish.... If you are that serious about how a room looks, then honestly, speakers themselves really don't belong anyway.... much less black, boxy and monolith looking ones. At least with a Rosenut finish, you have something that looks really nice, more like a real furniture item..and much classier. Which is especially evident in the above photos! Definitely something that Energy hit a home run on with the RCs and the current Veritas....

Jesus guys you are gonna kill me. This forum infects you with the "upgradetitis" virus.

I changed my HTITB a couple of months ago to a Denon 1912 and changed the speakers it came with the Take Classic 5.1, here are a couple of pictures.





But now, i'm getting an itch for the Energy RC-10's and the RCLCR speakers, i figure i could get some speaker stands and put 'em like this.



Hope you can see the thin red line i put where the speaker stands and CC speaker would be.

With the RCLCR speaker, it might be a little tall for my space, considering i have a 40' LCD, which i should be upgrading sometime to a 47"-52" LED if possible.

I know i'll get a better soundstage and more power from the 10's and the CC. What do you guys think?

For the record, i'm quite satisfied with my Take Classics, they "fill the room quite nicely (room is rouhfly 20''6' x 14").

But i guess you can always do better right?

X 10. The only way I disagree is if you have a dark, den-style setup like mine downstairs. In that case if the rosenut were more $$$ then I would pass. But in the future, when I lay hardwood down in the living next year, I will be primarily looking at rosenut style finish and moving my black ash 70s down to the den.

Nice room but you definitely need a bigger TV. I was thinking 55" - 60". 52" would be the minimum.

I know i need a bigger one, 55" should do the trick.

What about the speakers?, upgrade the TV or speakers first?,

One other consideration is that the sub with the Take Classics is basically a midbass module--not much low frequency output. You would notice a significant difference for movie watching with a good sub upgrade.

Meanwhile, if you just go the Takes and are happy with them and want a bigger TV, I'd upgrade the TV first. Might as well use the speakers for awhile until you get a much stronger itch

That's what i tought.

yeah i'm happy in the meantime with the Takes, sub included, i guess when i do upgrade them, the sub's gonna have to be upgraded too. What about the surrounds, do they need to be upgraded too if i change toe fronts and CC to the RC-10s and RCLCR?

Not necessarily (right away). They can get moved back to surround duty in a 7.1 setup if you want that. Surrounds didn't get a whole lot of sound before, but in gaming (if that's a focus at all), they are used much more, and in some new movie mixes, the surrounds can be very involved. I went from small to larger speakers in these steps:

1. Panasonic HTIB (5.1).
2. Replaced the front three with Energy RC-minis, RC-mini CC, Pioneer 1019 AVR replaced Panasonic AVR.
3. Replaced the two surrounds with Energy RC-minis, replaced the sub with Energy ESW-V8 sub.
4. Bought 2 RC-10's and RC-LCR for front three. Took two minis, RC-mini cc down (still 5.1)
5. Upgraded fronts with RC-50's, moved RC-10's to side surrounds (7.1)
6. Upgraded receiver with Pioneer Elite VSX-33
7. Bought a second sub Energy S10.3 (now 7.2)

Evolution is the best way to convince yourself that you are doing rational things. I also got two good bedroom setups once done (2 RC-10s, RC-LCR, RC-mini cc's, S10.3) and (rc-mini cc, 4 rc-mini, Energy S8.3 sub) once the dust settled.

So no problem moving those little takes to surround duty if needed. Depending on your use and susceptibility to upgradeitis. Or you can bite the bullet and just get RC-70s, RC-10s and be done with it.
Edited by hernanu - 6/20/12 at 9:35am