Hey everyone. I'll start with a general first impression of this system I just got a hold of, and then follow it up with a couple questions both specific to this case and general. I'm new; have mercy!
Reaction to RX-E100
I move house soon and had been looking at some low-budget systems to work my new, very small living room/kitchen area (~150-200 sq feet). But today I was given a free Yamaha RX-E100 system by a family member. It is an RX-E100 receiver w/ matching CD player and 2 speakers, which are the NX-E100's.
First impressions were promising. It's got pretty crisp highs and the lows reach impressively low. Everything seems very clean, clear, and punchy. Vocals really jump out. I was happy to consider ditching the idea of buying anything new at all.
But the more I listen, the more I feel very overwhelmed by the system. It feels as if it doesn't know what to do with the music, like it itself is confused, which then confuses me. Listener fatigue very quickly as I constantly try to figure out what to focus on. Jazz was certainly nicer through them than rock, but unfortunately I listen to more rock (of all types) than anything. My wife probably said it best after I'd sat her down to listen and explained my grievances when she posed it as such: "Everything sounds like it's the same volume. It's just annoying to listen to." It's all a little bit harshly stacked and convoluted, even while ostensibly sounding clean and clear. The soundstage doesn't even seem that bad. It could be described like a broad picture of the strip in Las Vegas - expansive enough, but filled with neon lights that pull your attention every which way. Soundstage, or at least separation of parts, is pretty important to me, so it's so far been something I haven't been able to get past.
Confusingly and also of note, some parts that were supposed to be "big" felt actually a bit recessive, like a big sudden keyboard wash that should dominate the landscape coming in mysteriously turned two notches too low, while everything else stayed the same volume. Something seemed faintly lacking in the "meatiness."
I'm no pro, so I can't phrase it much better than this. I sought out some reviews online, which turned out to be largely quite positive. Maybe part of it can be described as "hollowness." Maybe also it's that I had no idea what this thing was worth when I was given it, so "budget-ness" didn't color my impressions. But that shouldn't change what I physically heard, and you'd think it wouldn't for most people buying and genuinely reacting, either, right?...
Questions
So, I'd like to modularly upgrade the system as funds become available/comfortably parted with, but I have a couple questions, both general and specific to this case.
1) How married are the speakers to the receiver in a case like this? It does seem to be sold as a set, generally. Would slapping a pair of much better speakers on there be a waste of the speakers' potential? I can't imagine it's the case but is getting a better receiver actually a better first move?
2) I frankly don't even know what type of speakers to be looking at for a small area; movies, medium- to low-volume music, and potentially games being the choice media. What's the benefit of tower over bookshelf speakers, generally? Can one do much better than the Cambridge S30's with a ~250 euro budget and a fairly small space to rock? I'm not interested in surround sound and probably don't need a woofer at this time, but would add one at some point if needed. I do like my bass.
3) What else is a good move in terms of upgrades? I assume the speaker wires should be changed soon; one is about 50 feet long and actually says "Made in West Germany," while the other is very thin and color coded red and black. Also, how much good does a DAC do when piping out of the computer?
4) I'm sure there are old-pro terms for the general "confused" sound I was getting from these speakers that I'd like to know how to describe. Could any of you suggest some way to describe what I tried to above, if it made any sense to you? Are these common shortfalls in budget systems? Frankly it left me a little bewildered as everything was ostensibly crisp and nice; I just couldn't get around the vague sense of clutter but could not tell how subjective this impression was.
5) Do any of you have experience with this system or the speakers? Does any of what I said ring true to you?
It should be clear by now that I'm a relative newbie, so I apologize that this post is chock-full of randomness. I've used but studio monitors before, but I'm hoping to get a little more in-the-know in terms of home stereo systems, while getting my first system up to snuff.
Thanks so much for any info!
