Energy Owners Thread - Page 203

I am new member but have been reading quite a bit for the past few days.
I am trying to decide between

4 - C-50, 1 - C-C50, 1 - ESW 8 Shipped for $318 or or the 5.0 deal from wwstereo 399

I live in a aparment (carpet, 12L x 24W including kitchen, 1 first floor, left side and back are on the street side and only side with neighbor is my old roomate so he doenst mind any sound.
I won't cranking up the sound very much. I mostly will be watching 720 p content from HTPC and tv Comcast HD and very little music. Just need good surround sound. Speakers on my Plasma suck!
I am kinda intrigued with Dayton spearks from a price/valure prespective.. would like some thoughts on that also...


This will be first surround sound purchase for me. Need help on finalizing.
Thanks very much!

For only 100 bucks more,you could get the c-300 set.

I'm considering buying a used Take 5 set but the center is damaged. I think the center speaker for the set is a Take 1. Surrounds are Take 2.

Seperately, I could buy a Take 1.2 center speaker.

Will the Take 1.2 center match with the Take 2 surrounds?

The take 1 and take 1.2 are pretty close. Not exact match but you'd be fine. You could also get the Energy C-C50 center for $79. Its a little bigger than the Take centers and will give you better dialog than the little Takes.

Sure is, my friend has the older e:XL-S8, my other friend has the ESW-8, and I used to own the S8.2 before upgrading to the BIC VK-12 (very similar but slightly better than the PA-120 from what I've heard).

The difference is huge -- if you search this thread back a ways for posts by me with the phrase "VK-12", you'll find some things I've said. The biggest thing is not so much the quantity, it's the quality of the bass. I (as many newbies are) was under the mistaken impression that when you get a bigger sub it's just to make the windows rattle more. But the thing that shocked me was how much smoother, richer, and fuller the bass sounded, and how much better music sounded. A big 12" sub just doesn't have to try as hard as the little 8-incher, so as a consequence it ends up being effortless and smooth.

Plus of course it goes deeper. The extra rumble way down low adds the extra bit of "presence" in LFE effects. I can only imagine what the "true" subwoofers like Kpt Krunch's monster SVS sound like but that wouldn't be nice to my neighbor.

I know the C-C50 is better but it won't fit on the TV stand in front of my plasma. The height will block the bottom of the screen and it's also too deep. There's a window behind the tv so I can't wall mount.

If I figure out how to work the placement, would the C-C50 match ok with the take 1?

I'm going to have the same problem one day when I move from a c-c50 to a rc-lcr. What I am planning on doing is putting a 1-2" thick piece of pine (stained black to match my TV stand) underneath my TV to raise it up a touch so it clears the speaker. Maybe that would work for you?

I'm still hunting for a black RC Mini center speaker - let me know if someone stumbles across one (will settle for used - I just can't find anything!).

First let me say thanks for answering my questions. I'm not sure what you mean by "I would use them as the mains"? Are you suggesting a 7.1 system? I always kind of felt that was more of a gimmick unless you had a really large room to fill? I don't think my room qualifies as really big? All you need for true surround sound is 5 speakers? I kinda figured it was more about marketing then actual benefit to the listener? Maybe I'm looking at it all wrong? I assume you were suggesting just to use two of them? Not sure how you could use the four of them as mains?


Fair enough. But were just talking here and really I'm looking for opinions. The room at the moment is full of computer crap, so it's not going to happen anytime soon. I'm curious what your bias is towards these older full range speakers? Not Sansui's in particular but that type of speaker in general?


That actually hadn't occured to me. I wasn't even aware you could do that. I'd thought maybe I'd just keep my old amp around and use it for two channel work. But that might be a good idea. It just seems a waste to not use these speakers if they will work in the surround system. They sound incredible on two channel stuff.

Thanks,

Bill

This makes sense to me - I am interested in quality bass, not boomy or loud.

I currently have:
4 - C-50
1 - C-C50
1 - ESW 8

I am considering upgrading to a 12" Velodyne DSP-12B, on for a great price (I don't have a huge budget).

Any ideas if that would be a bigger improvement, over say - upgrading the fronts?

My room is 13x14x8 high.

Thanks

Saturday I installed the C-C100 I got on eBay. Great! Great improvement over the C-C50I had previously. Much better match to the C-500's. If you can still find C-C100, grab them, they are worth it.

I'm looking for good test CDs/DVDs. I have the Planet Earth HD-DVD set but haven't had a chance to watch any of it yet. I knew there would be some good video on it, but didn't realize they were good for audio. What chapter on the fourth are you referring to? Any other good demo/test moments in that series?

I am very interested in this as well. Right now we can get 4 c-100's for 237.76 shipped...or 2 c-100's and 2 c-300's for 368.88 shipped.

Actually, if I bump up to the c-300's, I would have to bump down to the c-50's for surrounds....so my setup would be c-300 mains and c-50's surround.

Hey Everyone,

Sorry if this was already discussed, but I tried searching the thread to no avail. I just pieced together a system from wwstereo that arrives today. I opted for the R-C100 surrounds, but I cant seem to find stands for them. Can anyone help?

Is there a Klipsch center or anything else out there that would work well w/ the following.

fronts c-300
rears c-100

i've got an extra pair of c-100's that will one day be utilized in a 7.1 set up. Currently using a spare c-100 as a center.

Its good for testing dialogue but honestly, beyond that its not something I would use as a test piece. It just so happens that I was watching that particular disc with friends and I caught a moment with those bugs that come out of the ground every 17 years and it sounded cool.

One of my favorite movies for audio has been The Golden Compass. I think that would work really well and the new Die Hard.

upgrading the sub is always nice.

like I tried to say above, I (as I think many are) was under the mistaken impression that, "wow, my 8 inch sub already booms enough, I don't want a bigger sub that will boom even louder!!"... but then I discovered that a bigger sub is LESS boomy. The annoying "boominess" comes from the sub trying too hard... the effortlessness of a superior sub just makes it smooth and full, not boomy at all (although the caveat is that room positioning/acoustics plays a big part as well).

If you don't have a big budget the $230 PA-120 off ebay is a great deal.

IF you have the room and IF you can afford it the C-300's will definitely be a nice step up, everything will sound fuller and smoother. Also don't forget to budget for speaker stands with the C-100's, which closes some of the cost gap. The biggest difference will probably be 2-channel music.... and I also think floorstanders are better looking.


I would rather have C-300's in front and C-50's as surrounds, but that's just me.... it would certainly be a better system for 2-channel music.

Why dont you buy an Energy center? The C-C50 is available for $79 shipped and the C-C100 for about $136 plus shipping on ebay.

Thanks for the info.

On a 7.1 system, would the c-r100's be a better fit for the rears or will the c-100's (or c-50's) do the job?

if you use bipole surrounds typically you would want those as the surround channels (side mounted) and not the rears, because you want the sound to disperse front/back along the sides of the theater.

Bipole (C-R100) vs. direct (a normal speaker like the C-50) is a personal preference thing and has a lot to do with your room layout. Google "bipole surround placement" or something like that and you will turn up much info on the web about speaker placement theory and the benefits/negatives of bipole vs. direct.

Personally, for a 7.1 setup, I'd probably go with four C-50's all around just to save costs and have perfect voice matching on the surrounds, but again it's largely preference.

Just wanted to post a quick review of the 4x C-100's from woot. Hooked up to 1909 with 12 gauge from monoprice with banana's from there too.

Ive been mostly listening to tv and music channels (dish HD), and im kind of unimpressed, might be because mostly dialogue and still dont have a center. (ordered the c-50 from wwstereo).
However when I play the 360 they sound damn good. Still breaking in slowly.

I still havent played with any settings yet, only used audessey. mostly cause i still havent gotten to figuring it out.

Well in theory i thought i was, isn't Energy Klipsch's economic line, I figured that their brand would offer the best compatibility.

I was under the impression that one of my extra c-100's made for a better match then the c-c50.

That $136 doesn't include the hefty $45 shipping charges, man that's high, so it's really $180 ish.

Anyways, I've about capped my budget on my setup, just ordered that pa-120 and I'm now needing a new av center, looking at one of those "lift" systems.

Eventually, 1-2 yrs down the road (remodeling the current room from a 20x20 to a 16x20), I'll be wanting to utilize the 7.1 set up so I'll have to get something to compliment the 300's and 4 100's.

I don't know, I unloaded my old set up today for a c note, allowing me the new sub, figured it more needed then a center. So i've an extra, brand new, compaq that should bring atleast two bills, if that happens soon, I'll jump on that cc100.

I guess my real question was one for future knowledge rather then now.

Side note, bp and others, thanks for the all the knowledge and suggestions on buying these great items, but now we'll be getting to the more noobie, set up questions, in the weeks to come, lol.

not at all. Energy makes speakers from entry-level to the multi-thousand-dollar Veritas lineup!! Energy is part of the API group, a canadian audio company which also produces Athena and Mirage. API was purchased a few years ago by Klipsch, but Energy isn't in any way a "Klipsch speaker". They are a high-end speaker company in their own right who just happens to have new ownership.


yes but ONLY if you can place it vertically. if you have to lay it on its side then a dedicated horizontal center like the C-C50 would be better.

LOL yeah right . To me, Klipsch is the eco line of Energy looking at how cheap the finish is and how awful they sound. Ofcourse i'm not talking about their pro line but base on my experience ( i moved from Klipsch to Paradigm then to Energy), their consumer line are terrible. Even the RF lines i got was awful. They just sound forward and bright. Everytime you want details you got your ears piercing.

Now i'm affraid Energy will go down because of them


ps. btw batpig you're still on ocforums? lol i should have said hi long time ago .

[quote=batpig;15654867] Also don't forget to budget for speaker stands with the C-100's, which closes some of the cost gap. QUOTE]

thats a good point. anybody have a recommendation on speakers stands for the c100's? depending on price that could get me to bump up to the 300s

Understood. It sounds good as is, vertical, looks wise not so much.

For some reason I'm thinking the cc50 doesn't have the "umph" I want. Well if this pc sells quick enough I can then splurge on the cc100. Come on craigslist.

different batpig not me

Worries me too. They already killed Athena which competed favorably against Klipsch entry level speakers. I was told Energy engineering is still done in Canada so hopefully they keep things seperate.

The new CB, CF series is the first new Energy line to come about since the acquisition. I'll be interested to read about their performance.

I've sort of been buying these things willynilly on the theory that the prices are just too good to pass up, and here's what a 5.1 system will end up being--I think.

300s for the front, r-C100s (or whatever the number is for those bipole speakers) for the surrounds, the 8-inch sub and a C-C50 center.

This will be 99.716% for HT, not so much 2 channel audio, so I know that the center speaker is critical. (And the sub, I know, I know!) But am I really letting myself down with the C-C50 or will this work out pretty well? I can afford to go grab the C-C100 if it will really make a significant difference but I don't want to bother if the difference would be marginal. The C-C50 is a good space fit, too; the C-C100 would put me into major gyrations that I'd prefer to avoid unless I'm undercutting the whole deal.

I know I need to upgrade the sub too, but that's probably more in the $300-400 range and I'd rather wait and do it right rather than incrementalize myself to death.

I'm also going to end up with a spare pair of C-50s and C-100s that I'll toss onto TV #2 unless they'd be better used in lieu of something above.