Help with AV options, receiver & speakers

zarkov

Background: I have a Yamaha RX-V620 AV receiver that I bought in your Dublin shop a good few years ago and I linked it up to two Kenwood 60W main speakers (from decent early 90's mini system) and two JBL CM40 rear speakers. I have a Sony speaker (unknown origin) as the centre and an Altec Lansing ACS251 120W subwoofer from an old Gateway PC. Everything ended up stored in the attic for years (and I've only recently connected it all back up and added a Panasonic 37'' Plasma (720) and BD-35 Blu ray player, Sky box and HD FreeSat box. It all works but I presume the sound could be better.

Questions: Should I put all of my budget into speakers or should I upgrade the Yamaha as well?

Richersounds.ie: Kenny

Hi zarkov.

Thanks for getting in touch with us.

The items listed would be before my time in this game.

I have had a quick look over the specs of the Yamaha Amp. Amps have moved on so much from this was on sale. All the amps now worth investing in have the HD audio decoders onboard.

Pioneer VSX819 priced at £229.95
https://www.richersounds.ie/asp/product.asp?ObjectID=938&Mode=0&CategoryID=3&SUB=24&ProductID=966

Denon AVR1610 priced at £279.95
http://www.richersounds.com/product/av-receivers/denon/avr1610/deno-avr1610-blk

Onkyo TX0SR607 priced at £334.95
http://www.richersounds.com/product/av-receivers/onkyo/txsr607/onky-txsr607

It really depends what you budget is.

Again the same with the speakers. Some of those brands I have never heard of (Sorry )

What sort of budget do you have for either speakers or an amp?

The Ritz

zarkov,

If you're looking for general advice about your options, I'm happy to move this thread to the Home Entertainment forums - if you're directing the question at Richersounds only then the thread can stay here.


Thanks,


Ritz.


Comment: Typical, Kenny beat me to it..... S.

zarkov

I'm happy to have the thread moved for more general replies

The Ritz

zarkov,

No prob, moving now.

If you reflect on Kenny's reply and have an idea of your budget and whether you want to be abnle to reproduce HD sound formats from BluRay, that would help people to offer you some advice.


Ritz.

zarkov

Is there much difference between HD sound and Dolby Digital or DTS? - Is it worth the cost of a new Amp?

rednik

zarkov wrote: »

Is there much difference between HD sound and Dolby Digital or DTS? - Is it worth the cost of a new Amp?

Yes it most definitely is. Get yourself into a decent AV shop and listen to Dolby True HD, DTS HD Master audio and you will hear the difference and it really is that good. Uncompressed sound which is HD sound is incredible played through good gear.

zarkov

Thanks Rednik, now assuming that I go for new amp (<=€500) with the latest HD sound then what speakers would you recommend?

rednik

I spent a couple of months going around listening to different setups in a lot of shops and in the end I went for Kef KHT 5005.2 but I sourced them in the UK. By the time I included speaker stands it cost me over 1500 stg at the time (2007). I upgraded to the Denon AVR 2309 from Richer Sounds through Boards last year and I am very happy with the results but the neighbours are not.:mad:

cnocbui

If you want to improve sound quality, put all of your money into better speakers, not electronics.

The Ritz

cnocbui,

If you want to improve sound quality, put all of your money into better speakers, not electronics.

That statement could be misconstrued as simplistic - it all depends on what the starting point is and what direction a person wants to go in. I'm assuming that you intend the statement to apply to the OP's question as opposed to all circumstances. In general sound quality comes from a mix of components, source, amplification and speakers, not just speakers on their own. If someone wants to reproduce HD soundtracks, then an AV receiver which will do the decoding (or a source which will decode and output multichannel audio, which the OP's Panasonic blu-ray will not do) is a necessary part of that solution.


Ritz.

zarkov

Yes, I see where both of you are coming from (ritz & cnocbui). My starting point was to sort out the speakers but questions about the amp were always there. If I want HD sound I have to change the amp to get HDMI connectivity as the blu-ray player does not output discreet analogue channels that could be connected to the amp (i'm not keen on this, even if it was possible). But the Yamaha Amp is a damn good bit of kit and that's why I ask the question about the improvement that HD audio gives.

The Ritz

If I was in your position I'd upgrade the speakers to a matched set for a start and upgrade the receiver as the budget allowed. There is a distinct improvement from HD soundtracks, but you're probably not exploiting the full potential of the Yamaha as things stand. Have a look at the Q Acoustics 1010i 5.1 package, or Kef KHT 2005.3 for instance or further up the Kef food chain, depending on the budget. Monitor Audio would be a decent choice if you're looking for a system with full range speakers but would probably need a bigger budget than the sub/sat sets I've mentioned here.

If you want to go the whole hog, a new receiver will run you from €250 for a good entry level (such as Onkyo 507) and you'll be in decent territory well under €400 (Onkyo 607 or Yamaha RXV765).

One way or another you'll improve the sound you are already getting.


Ritz.

Slaphead07

cnocbui wrote: »

If you want to improve sound quality, put all of your money into better speakers, not electronics.

I'm afraid not. Speakers and shouldn't colour the sound in any way, to suggest 'good speakers' can take any signal and make it great is misguided and very simplistic. It's also a great way to waste money on speakers that are too good for the source.
You will generally only hear the weakest link in any system be that a source, amp, cables or speakers. You need to spread your budget carefully over a system not over-invest in one shiny component.

cnocbui

Slaphead07 wrote: »

I'm afraid not. Speakers and shouldn't colour the sound in any way, to suggest 'good speakers' can take any signal and make it great is misguided and very simplistic. It's also a great way to waste money on speakers that are too good for the source.
You will generally only hear the weakest link in any system be that a source, amp, cables or speakers. You need to spread your budget carefully over a system not over-invest in one shiny component.

I don't agree with you. The speakers are the limiting factor in any system, in that it doesn't matter how good the other components of the system are, the sound can never be better than what the speakers are capable of producing.

In the case of the OP's Yamaha RX-V620 receiver, it is rated at 100 wpch into 8 ohms with thd of 0.06% at that level of output.

It is therefore good enough to drive a very wide range of speakers. A pair of B&W 800Ds hooked up to it would sound better than any lesser speaker would.

I have a near reference class system and any modern digital source sounds stunning hooked up to it. DAT, CD player, DVD player, iPod - even my phone sounds incredible.

It is my opinion the OP's receiver is not the limiting factor and If I were he, I would spend every cent on better speakers and nothing else.

The Ritz

Mod Comment

@cnonbui,slaphead07,

Now that we've said our piece (including myself) on the issue, I'd rather not see this thread go off-track - we clearly have somewhat different views which are unlikely to be changed by argument here. I think we can let the OP decide what course to take from this point on.


Thanks,

Ritz.

zarkov

@cnonbui,slaphead07,the ritz,

All your responses are v. helpful. The Yamaha was well regarded when I bought it and this should still be the case - therefore, I should only be looking at matching it to good speakers. But, to avail of HD movie audio I need a new amp. I've put the new amp question on the back-burner until I get the speakers sorted out first. I'm not too keen on the Kef-type packages (called style speakers, I think?) as I think that these type of speakers will not give me the stereo quality that I want - bigger floor standers should be better coupled with rear bookshelfs?

The Ritz

Full range flooorstanders, a matched centre and either standmount or dipole rears, depending on what's available in the range you're looking at. You should have a think about including a sub - while fullrange speakers are fine for music, my own strong preference is for a sub as well to deal with frequencies down to 20hz and below in movie tracks.

Good choice by the way:)


Ritz.

zarkov

I've taken my query back to the Richer Sounds area to see what they can offer me.

Thanks to all for your replies