Newbie New Stereo?

[Q45]

I'm new here to this forum and am looking to start the rebuild of the home theater system I once had.

I'm currently building custom speakers with my 14yr old son as a kinda father son project.

When all is said and done the towers will have a rated cap. of 300w.
3-way cab's with 8" woofers, mid & tweeter.

They'll be the front mains for now and then will be adding some smaller surround 2-way custom mades and a sub later.

I'm in the market for a receiver that can drive these fronts without the use of an amp, at least for now. I don't want to drop a fortune but am looking to get something fairly modern and with at least 110wpc.

Any suggestions?

 

[m_vanmeter]

with the speakers you describe, I'm not quite sure why you "need" 110 watts/channel ???

Onkyo SR605 and Yamaha V661 are excellent, well reviewed receivers at 90 watts/channel. The Harman Kardon AVR347 is VERY conservatively rated at 55 watts/channel, but should drive your speaker array just fine.

Sometimes it's not the WATTS per channel, but the watts/channel with very low distortion in the range of 0.03 to 0.08 THD (total harmonic distortion) across the entire 20-20,000 Hz range

good luck and I hope your father-son build goes well....I only wish I had been able to do more of that while raising my son...he remembers fondly the projects we did work on.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

I'd say the Onkyo 805 w/ 130wpc x 7, 3 HDMI 1.3, TrueHD/DTS-MA for $679:

http://store.wholesaleav.com/ontx71chhoth1.html

 

[Q45]

I picked up an Onkyo SR505 from Fry's over the weekend for $299.

WOW! This is a great unit. Once you get through the cabling and set-up.

Hey so here's a question. How important is it REALLY to use the really high dollar gold component cables?

I don't have an HDMI TV. Just a Maxent HD LCD w/ component or S-video. Picture is great. Is it going to get better with the expensive cables?

And what is with the single RCA subwoofer port? Most of the powered subwoofers I've seen have right/left RCA's.

 

[ParadigmDawg]

It is the least important thing you can buy. Get good quality but inexpensive cables and wire. MonoPrice and BlueJeans are the best companies to use if you can wait for mail order. If you cant wait; Radio Shack has some good and inexpensive cables but dont expect a deal like you will get from one of the ID companies. Stay as far away as you can from Monster Cable; it is the biggest rip-off out there.

 

[markw]

How important is it REALLY to use the really high dollar gold component cables?

Not important. Well constructed cables don't haveto cost a lot. Check out Blujeans or Monoprice for more on this.

I don't have an HDMI TV. Just a Maxent HD LCD w/ component or S-video. Picture is great. Is it going to get better with the expensive cables

Not likely, although using component cables would yeild a slightly better picture than S-video.

And what is with the single RCA subwoofer port? Most of the powered subwoofers I've seen have right/left RCA's.

Modern HT receivers have only one LFE channel. Some put in a second one, which is identical to the first as an accomodation, but you only need one LFE output to get all the information available there.

The R/L inputs on subs are to accomodate those with two channel units (remember them?) that don't offer the one LFE output that AVR's have.

 

[Q45]

Not important. Well constructed cables don't haveto cost a lot. Check out Blujeans or Monoprice for more on this.

Not likely, although using component cables would yeild a slightly better picture than S-video.

Modern HT receivers have only one LFE channel. Some put in a second one, which is identical to the first as an accomodation, but you only need one LFE output to get all the information available there.

The R/L inputs on subs are to accomodate those with two channel units (remember them?) that don't offer the one LFE output that AVR's have.

OK, so I'm building my own towers and soon will be building a powered sub woofer. With the sub amps, say from Parts Express, that have 2 channel inputs, would you just use 1 of the 2 or use a "Y", or what?

 

[Halon451]

Hey so here's a question. How important is it REALLY to use the really high dollar gold component cables?

I don't have an HDMI TV. Just a Maxent HD LCD w/ component or S-video. Picture is great. Is it going to get better with the expensive cables?

More expensive doesn't mean better. Gold plated connectors tend to resist corrosion buildup better, and only benefits from longer-term usage, as it will minimize the degradation of signal transfer later on down the road.

I used to build cables for very high-end commercial grade A/V installations and television stations - we used a LOT of Belden cable, which is outwardly nothing fancy at all (unlike Monster crap); it's just good, solid cable, and comes in a very wide variety of applications (coax, speaker wire, line-level audio, shielded, un-shielded, etc)

Blue Jeans Cable seems to share in this notion and their website offers a lot of Belden products at VERY reasonable prices, compared to some of the prices you will see in the big stores.

Plus, they are made to length, so you can order only as much as you need, for a good, clean tidy build of your system.

 

[markw]

With the sub amps, say from Parts Express, that have 2 channel inputs, would you just use 1 of the 2 or use a "Y", or what?

Either solution will work just fine. Theory is that you will need to turn it up a little less if you use a ""Y connector to both channels but, in either case, ultimately you will still have the same power available to the speakers.