I had a sound company out today to look give me a price for a set of two speakers and a new receiver as the old Marantz Receiver that has been buzzing along for 35 years finally gave out and the speakers sound just horrible. We are...believe it or not still listening to our television through the television speakers. :-( Really bad! The sound company wanted me to spend $1100 on a new Marantz and the two speakers he wanted to sell me were $500.00 for the pair. In my research I am finding that it should be the opposite. I should put the money in the speakers not into the amp. Obviously we are not esoteric listeners....I would just be happy to have two nice speakers and a receiver so that we can listen to CD's and have the sound on our television come through the speakers.
I recently had my hearing tested and at 56 my hearing is 100% my husband on the other hand...his hearing is not so great.
During one Chapter in my life I had a system in my home so fine I could hearing the singer take a breath and in an acoustic piece I could here the flesh grazing across the guitar strings....it was incredible! That was then this is now. LOL I would say our budget is $1Kish considering what I have already spent on the house this year. Our main living room area is....arg...not sure maybe 400 square feet and very high ceilings. We have a wall unit in the living room and currently the speakers are being blocked by the large TV. I would plan to put the new ones on top of the wall unit?
Any direction/advise would be greatly appreciated. I listen to coffee house rock, old rock, jazz, and classical.
Thank you very much! I actually had the sound company out because I wanted to utilize the 8 in -wall speakers on the main level of my house that were here when it was purchased. There are two in the living room, two in the dining room, two in the master bedroom and two in the master bathroom. The wiring looks very well run and is all in the center of the room in the unfinished basement. When the previous owner moved they took whatever powered them with them on their departure. I also wanted to purchase a new receiver to replace the Marantz and purchase two speakers minimum in addition to the two that I expected to hooked up that are in the wall in the living room. The young man from the high end audio store quoted me a price in the $3800 range to get the in wall speakers up and running and then told me the speakers that were mounted in the wall probably were not the greatest speakers anyway and that I might be better off to purchase the Marantz receiver for $1100 and two Sonos speakers for $500 for the pair, tax, set up etc. $1800.00 +/- and then build from there.
Having just dropped $20K +/- on new lighting, Hot Springs Spa repair, new carpet, hardwood floors being re-sanded and sealed, new custom draperies for the main level, , dining room chairs recovered, switchplate covers and dimmer switches throughout the main level I was worried my husband would not be pleased with us spending $3800 +/- on sound when his hearing is terrible. He loves me but none of this was his priority so I didn't want to add insult to injury here.
Do you still think this is the way to go? I truly appreciate your advice.
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Originally Posted by MistyLen /t/1500764/speakers-and-receiver#post_23976643
I actually had the sound company The young man from the high end audio store quoted me a price in the $3800 range to get the in wall speakers up and running and then told me the speakers that were mounted in the wall probably were not the greatest speakers anyway and that I might be better off to purchase the Marantz receiver for $1100 and two Sonos speakers for $500 for the pair, tax, set up etc. $1800.00 +/- and then build from there.
Do you still think this is the way to go? I truly appreciate your advice.
It's also an unbalanced buy. Relatively speaking, electronics are cheap, speakers are expensive. You should not spend more on an AVR than you do on a pair of L/R speakers, let alone twice as much. IMO if you're running $500 per pair speakers you shouldn't be paying more than $300 for an AVR to use with them.
I'd look at three speakers, left right and center, in the $200-$300 range each, and no more than $500 for an AVR. Forget about the in-walls, they're OK for background music, but not home theater. Depending where they're located you may be able to use those in the living room as surrounds.
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Really bad! The sound company wanted me to spend $1100 on a new Marantz and the two speakers he wanted to sell me were $500.00 for the pair.
Few sound companies really know what they're doing. They survive only because they know more than their customers do, and in most cases that's not much. By coming here you're already ahead of the curve. BTW, my AVR recently died, so I got a Pioneer VSX 522 from Walmart for $198. It works just fine with my speakers, which have a retail value of about $5k.
Again, thank you! Should I still be looking at what you suggested in our first email exchange? If I had not posted on this site I could have really been burned. :-(
In your price range, there are several good speaker systems that would be way better than Sonos, IMHO...amd I am assuming you don't want big towers
-Cambridge Audio S30/S50 center
-Def Tech SM350/450 and CLR2002 center
-EMPtek e5Bi and matching center
-Infinity Pirmus p163 and c253 center
As others have pointed out, find a more budget freindly reciever that has the features you want and enough power. I have two recievers that sound great and I spend less than 200 dollars each on them. Get room correct software, however, and you won't regret that!
Bill, Any great suggestions? Thank you all for helping me I this process, had I not come to this forum I would certainly have been burned because I do not know what I am doing!
Sorry, responded without some of the details from your original post..and as Bond has pointed out, they may be changing based on advice. From your original post, you are interested in a AVR and a the best pair of bookshelf speakers you can get, for around 1,000 dollars.
Sounds like you get that you can get away with a cheaper receiver, maybe 300 dollars (denon 1913 often recommended) that will have room correction and enough power.
That would leave 700 dollars for a pair of bookshelf speakers, which put you up a motch from my previous suggestion. I would recommend you look at Ascend Acoustic SMT340s. Dual 6.5 inch woofers for better dynamics. Very neutral and balanced speaker with excellent clarity. Sound great at low volume, but capable of getting plenty loud.
Kef, Focal, and Monitor Audio are other often recommended brands in this price range (5-700 dollars/pr)
Thank you.....after all of you have helped guide me I believe I should get two good speakers, a center and a receiver to drive them. I have measured my living room and the dimensions are 22' x 22' the ceilings are high. I have an LG HDTV 46" and a CD changer that I will want to hook up to the receiver. The LG is only about a year old and the CD changer probably 5 years old. If you require any further information to advise me as to what I should purchase please let me know. Again, thank you!
you single biggest improvement, going from TV speakers, will be to get a receiver and two good speakers! You can add a center, a sub and surrounds in stages....
Mistylen, do you need the receiver to connect video to the tv? What type of connections does your tv have for audio and video (posting your tv's make and model number would be helpful)? Do you require an AVR (a receiver that can switch video as well as audio)? Or just a simple stereo audio receiver? What sources do you have other than a cd player? No dvd/blu-ray player? Cable or satellite box? Any desire to have these other devices in the future if you don't have them now?
Whole home audio like you have with your pre-installed speakers I'm not up on but I do know there are specialty amps for such, like one of these http://www.parts-express.com/cat/multi-room-stereo-amplifiers/131 , but that may or may not suit your needs for your video needs.
+1. I only give technical advice, and I can't do so impartially if I play favorites. If asked about a specific speaker from an engineering standpoint I'll venture an opinion, but that's it.
ELIHAWK I purchased the speakers tonight (Ascend Acoustics CMT 340's) Main Pair and Center. I also purchased the Denon AVR-1913 7.1 Now I have to find somebody to put it all together when it arrives next week.
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Originally Posted by MistyLen /t/1500764/speakers-and-receiver#post_23981197
ELIHAWK I purchased the speakers tonight (Ascend Acoustics CMT 340's) Main Pair and Center. I also purchased the Denon AVR-1913 7.1 Now I have to find somebody to put it all together when it arrives next week.
You got one really good speaker pair! I don't own them, but have a good friend who does and they are very good....very clear and detailed !
Btw, please come back and post your thoughts after you have listened for awhile!
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