Edumicate Me, Oh Great Audiophiles

My 35 year old Advent One home speakers are now in need of their 4th rebuild. And my 35 year old Toshiba receiver is making funny static noises. I'm thinking that maybe it's finally time to get something new. Problem is, there was a time when I was somewhat of an audiophile, but no more. But I am a musician and know what I like. So I'm hoping some of you are much more up to date than I am. Here's what I "think" I need:

• Something that will work with video and for playing music with a fairly high degree of accuracy.
• Not sure I need surround sound or not. I've been using my old stereo to enhance movies for years and am fairly satisfied with it. So it would depend on price, and I would need wireless rear speakers.
• I listen to rock, classical, jazz, fusion, pretty much everything except country, rap, and opera. I want it all to sound good.
• I don't want to spend any more than I must to achieve my desired goals. I'd rather spend money on my cars.
• I don't know where to buy this stuff either.

I know a lot of this is subjective, and I'll need to listen to a lot of different equipment, but I'm hoping you guys can kind of narrow down my search. Thanks, Jim

Craigslist.

For good sound on the cheap, you're looking for vintage Polks. The icing on the cake with those is that they use rubber surrounds, not foam. Rebuilding beyond "refreshing" the crossovers (easy peasy on the cheap if you can solder) is not necessary. (And the crossovers aren't REALLY necessary either, as long as they're working well)

When you say "video" are you looking for a receiver with fancy HDMI bells and whistles? Or would you be content with using your source (dvd/bluray player) to pass video only to your TV, and then audio only though the "stereo" setup?

I realize now that you said "new." My mistake. I'd just offer the counterpoint that the stuff you were using is VERY old, and the Advents weren't really known for their longevity in the first place.

If you were open to used, i'd looking for a pair of Polk Monitor 7s, 10s, or RTA11Ts. (All can be had for cheap on CL), and an Adcom preamp/amp. (Same deal, cheap on CL, i paid $150 for my last preamp and amp) Then go grab whatever Pioneer source is on sale on amazon and call it a day.

If you must go new, check out newegg for their deals on the Polk "Monitor" line of speakers. I'd suggest either the 60s or the 70s, but the 70s are more better.

For a receiver if you want to go that route, Pioneer or HK would be where i would look, but Denon also makes great ones. (Denon or Marantz is what i'd look for, but i don't know how expensive the new worthwhile ones are.)

I know it sounds like i'm a huge polk fanboy, but i'm not. I don't own any Polk anything at the moment. They're just about as close as you're going to get to budget hi-fi on the very cheap.

I wouldn't call myself up to date on audio equipment either, but I do like my KEF Q30 speakers enough to have brought them over from the UK. Very musical, especially when combined with the Cyrus audio stuff I use to drive them. Or that I would use to drive them if I could get my act together and buy a couple of step up transformers.

Bought all of this equipment used as it's stupidly expensive new...

I LOVE my Polks. I have them in the house and in my various cars. Check out millionbuy.com for closeout-type stuff too. Both the SO and myself have used them with no issues.

Thank you for not titling this thread "learn me..."

For speakers and especially for subs, I'm all for Hsu Research. Awesome bang for the buck. http://www.hsuresearch.com/

Paired with a good receiver, they're awesome, might be more of a surround-sound movie thing tho. I'm told that piano is one of the harder things to recreate well in speakers, the intro to Gran Turismo 5 sounds like a grand piano is in the room.

There's also a cool community of Hsu nuts on the message board if you have questions.

Check out the reviews page, the audio nerds go bonkers for these. Excerpt: "It was involving and immersive. It drew you into the music. Yes, more than the Kondo system did ($350,000). There was no tiny sweet spot. Classical, jazz, vocals - everything sounded good. Emotional & expressive." James Darby, Stereomojo.com

If you're willing to build, you can increase how far your money stretches by 3-4x or get 3-4x more speaker for the same money.

If you decided to go this route, check the Parts-Express forum, Audiokarma.org, etc for ton's of proven designs and such.

One of the pro's on their actually designed me an awesome set of speakers for a 5.1 setup, however, just the speakers/tweeters/crossover components for the L/R/center channels come out to around $650.

It's hard to make suggestions on receivers/speakers/etc, when you haven't given us a budget.

Although, it sounds like you are easily satisified, an entry level Onkyo receiver and a $400-500 speaker package would probably be the easiest way to go to get pretty decent sound.

For what it's worth, my current setup:

B&K Reference 5 Series II preamp ($300)
Onkyo M-5150 poweramp ($75)
Pioneer BPD-51FD blu-ray/cd/dvd player ($150)
Yaqin CD-2 tube buffer ($100)
Paradigm Esprit V.3s ($100)

I love love LOVE Paradigms on the used market. Such great speakers.

I have somewhat less than $1000 in my entire setup including cables, power conditioner, and a very nice tuner in addition to what's listed. The used market is a wonderful thing.

Prices listed are approximations of normal costs on the used market.

I would get a new receiver, but I wouldn't spend a ton. Onkyo makes some good stuff with a high bang for the buck factor. I like Yamaha and Denon also, but I'm not sure they are as good as they used to be.

My Boston Acoustics speakers are going on 30 years old. I just put new rubber surround woofers in them a year or two ago. Hard to buy new when the old stuff still sounds great. If you go new, put 50% of your budget in the speakers. They will have the biggest impact on the quality of the sound you hear. I've always been partial to Klipsch, but there are lots of great speakers out there. If you're crafty, you can even build your own!

Edit: I see somebody beat me to it! +1 on parts express. I love that place!

Otto Maddox wrote: Thank you for not titling this thread "learn me..."

i get that sentiment a bit, but the last week i've been searching for different GRM opinions on all kinds of cars and using 'learn me' and 'car name' in a search actually has made it a lot easier on a forum where practically every thread mentions cars.

i used to work retail and it seemed the hardest thing to convince people of is that surround sound doesnt make it sound better. while it certainly can be more engaging as an effect, my argument against was always that if they had $500 to spend on the speaker portion of the budget and they got 5 speakeres theyre 100 a piece vs. 250 for the same budget. of course if its a primarily movie system the effect is often worth it as i've read your focus on the audio portion is down to only around 30% so total fidelity isnt as necessary.

my very favorite sub $1000 ive heard are my Acoustic Energy Aegis One 'bookshelfs'. i didnt even intend to buy them when i went to listen to them years ago but i couldnt resist. they replaced an $1100 pair of mbquarts and i havent looked back. Monitor Audio makes some great inexpensive stuff too. my priorities have shifted a bit and now i peruse CL for cars but i used to roam Audiogon like we all do CL now. its a fantastic site to find expensive audio gear for sometimes really good prices.

in the mass market arena, i really like Marantz receivers, and have the most experience with them, but i'll echo the denon, onkyo sentiment as well. pioneer elite can be good too, at least they were a decade ago when i was a little familiar with them. i love the sound of NAD products, but ive had issues with every single one my family has owned.

Buy used, same as everybody else is saying.

Buying used seems difficult to me without knowing in advance what I want. First, if it's something out of production, how will I know how it will sound? Second, I have to spend a lot of time going to look/hear just one item. I want to keep the price down, but I'm not sure I need to that much. I'll look into used, but for now let's assume that I'm looking at new systems/components.

bravenrace wrote: Buying used seems difficult to me without knowing in advance what I want. First, if it's something out of production, how will I know how it will sound? Second, I have to spend a lot of time going to look/hear just one item. I want to keep the price down, but I'm not sure I need to that much. I'll look into used, but for now let's assume that I'm looking at new systems/components.

Polk Monitor 70s off of newegg.

Do you have any home audio shops around you that deal in used gear at all? 1 or 2 year old Marantz receivers should be fairly cheap.

That would give you a hell of a start.

But in terms of what you like in terms of sound.... what DO you like? I've had my ears on literally 100s of pieces of gear in just the last year or so.

92CelicaHalfTrac wrote: I've had my ears on literally 100s of pieces of gear in just the last year or so.

Ewww! You got earwax on my speakers!

1988RedT2 wrote:

92CelicaHalfTrac wrote: I've had my ears on literally 100s of pieces of gear in just the last year or so.

Ewww! You got earwax on my speakers!

That's a "feature."

Well, your Advents are nice speakers. When you say they need a rebuild, what exactly do you mean? Not a lot to fail except woofer surrounds and crossover caps, both of which are cheap and easy DIYs.

Your Tosh sounds like it needs to be cleaned, an even cheaper and easier DIY project that can be done in less than an hour. Just a sugestion. PM me if you need any help.

I just bought a Marantz 1601 unit for home theater use. I wanted HDMI inputs and output, I wanted digital optical inputs, and I wanted it to be in a small footprint - I was looking for something that was less than 5 inches tall. This is only for playing the sound that would be coming out of my TV - TV, movies, or PS3 games. Not planning on using it for music listening. Ended up buying some bose speakers, mostly because they are small and my wife likes the name Bose. I bought the reciever from Crutchfield as the local stores didn't have anything that fit my wants. For music I would've gone with different speakers for sure.

I am a fan of Onkyo - my previous two recievers are Onkyos. One serves as the garage sound system and the other is for music in the house. If they offered a slim AV reciever I would've bought it. I am not an audiophile though, so maybe I shouldn't have answered at all. It is something that I cared a lot about 15 years ago, but now don't really care about too much.

I just built a new home theater this year and will share my opinions.

I went with a medium priced Denon for the receiver. I absolutely love it. I was seriously considering a couple of Yamaha's and Onkyo's too... I think any of those brands would be a good first place to start.

For speakers - I bought some of the higher end Polks for very cheap during a closeout sale on newegg. I'm at work right now and can't confirm the model.. but it was either the Monitor 60s or 70s.

I built the sub myself. Bought an 18" elemental designs subwoofer, had a 600 watt plate amp from my last system that I reused, and built a box for it. Total investment there was less than $500 and it'll knock pictures off the walls and sound dead on accurate doing it.

I bought all of my equipment brand new and think I did pretty good on the budget. If you wait for deals to pop up online, you can score a great system for not that much money.

^That's actually Polk's bottom line, but they're serious performers for the money.

DISCLAIMER: I am not a true audiophile... I am much more budget conscious...

I listened to a bunch of stuff about 6 months ago, but I realized then that I'd like to be able to build out a full surround sound system over time. That makes it VERY difficult to go used, because speakers are supposed to match tonality. You will have lots of problems finding the same model line if you get a pair of used speakers, then later look for surrounds and/or a center.

For surround sound, the most important are the front 3:
Front Left
Front Center
Front Right

The rears are almost afterthoughts by comparison. You'd have to watch all broadcast HD tv (vs DVRed) or DVD/BluRay sources to be using your surrounds most of the time. DVRs usually record a stereo track, non-HD tv is stereo, music is usually stereo, Netflix is stereo, etc. The only reason that front center is important is because lots of dialogue goes through that speaker, and possibly mono sources as well.

I wound up going with Polk TSi floor standing for FR and FL. I added a TSi center channel for Christmas.

I figure that Polk is common enough that I can not only find it, but also find discounts on it.

If I had more money to spend, I would totally have gone with a pair of Klipsch F-30s. I thought they sounded great.

In reply to 92CelicaHalfTrac:

You're right - I should have noted that they're the higher end of their lower end equipment haha. Either way they've been great

92CelicaHalfTrac wrote:

bravenrace wrote: Buying used seems difficult to me without knowing in advance what I want. First, if it's something out of production, how will I know how it will sound? Second, I have to spend a lot of time going to look/hear just one item. I want to keep the price down, but I'm not sure I need to that much. I'll look into used, but for now let's assume that I'm looking at new systems/components.

Polk Monitor 70s off of newegg. Do you have any home audio shops around you that deal in used gear at all? 1 or 2 year old Marantz receivers should be fairly cheap. That would give you a hell of a start. But in terms of what you like in terms of sound.... what DO you like? I've had my ears on literally 100s of pieces of gear in just the last year or so.

After years of playing in Big Jazz Bands, I tend to like to hear the music much like it sounds when I'm playing, which I guess is VERY realistic. I like clear highs and thundering bass, but not mushy like rock bass can be. It needs to be thumpy but tight. I'm not sure how else to explain it other than I liked my Advents enough to keep them for 35 years. So if you know what they sound like, I'd like to improve on that. Also, can a home theater system do a good job of playing CD's or LP's? Or are they two different beasts? The Polk 60's and 70's seem popular here and are not at all out of my price range. I like also that I can probably find them locally to listen to if not buy.

fast_eddie_72 wrote: Well, your Advents are nice speakers. When you say they need a rebuild, what exactly do you mean? Not a lot to fail except woofer surrounds and crossover caps, both of which are cheap and easy DIYs. Your Tosh sounds like it needs to be cleaned, an even cheaper and easier DIY project that can be done in less than an hour. Just a sugestion. PM me if you need any help.

I've replaced the woofers in my speakers 3 or 4 times over the years. I just think maybe it's time to move on. Maybe not, idunno. Can I replace my woofers with something that doesn't have foam surrounds? Something that would hold up better and still sound good? I'm with you on the receiver issue. In fact, I've blown it out with carefully regulated compressed air a few times and that solved the problem. But it would be nice to have remote control! I would keep the old Toshiba since they just don't make them like that anymore.

BTW, it is my understanding that the TSi line of Polks took over where the Monitors left off.