Onkyo SKS-HT518 or Tannoy FX5.1 for first 5.1 System

[s162216]

Hi,

I am doing my first HT project and I have the reciever and now need the speaker, which must be under £200 to fit in my budget of £300.

So far I have found the Onkyo SKS-HT518 for £169.99 and the Tannoy FX5.1 for £149.99. The problem is that my reciever, the Sony STR-DE495 only accepts 8 - 16 ohm speakers and many cheap packages are 6 ohm.

Which one do you think I should buy? Is the Onkyo one worth £20 more than the Tannoy one?

 

[CraigV]

Onkyo makes good receivers, Tannoy makes good speakers - I would go with the Tannoy

 

[s162216]

Onkyo makes good receivers, Tannoy makes good speakers - I would go with the Tannoy

The Tannoy speakers have a frequency response of 140Hz – 78kHz and the sub 45Hz to 140Hz

http://www.son-video.com/Rayons/HomeCinema/EnceintesAV/Tannoy/FX51.pdf

The Onkyo on the other hand have a frequency response of 60Hz to 50KHz for the fronts and centre, 70Hz to 50Khz for the surrounds and 27Hz to 150Hz for the sub.

http://www.eu.onkyo.com/dl/1080057/HTP-518_SKS-HT518_En.pdf

There is quite a difference between the two if you look at that, but do you think there would be any noticable difference?

 

[CraigV]

Usually I would say numbers are numbers and sound is sound, but those numbers say to me there is a big difference in bass response, as well as crossover point. Are there other brands within your budget? Try to audition as many different brands as you can to make a better decision.

 

[markw]

while looking at the specs for the two systems, I do notice that the Tannoy specifies a -6 decibel point. the Onkyo does not. That makes me somewhat suspicious of exactly how reliable the Onkyo's stated frequency ranges really are.

 

[CraigV]

while looking at the specs for the two systems, I do notice that the Tannoy specifies a -6 decibel point. the Onkyo does not. That makes me somewhat suspicious of exactly how reliable the Onkyo's stated frequency ranges really are.

True enough, there’s no substitute for in person auditioning. Do you have brands like KEF, Energy, Polk…available in your area?

 

[s162216]

True enough, there’s no substitute for in person auditioning. Do you have brands like KEF, Energy, Polk…available in your area?

No, I have never seen any of those except KEF in the UK and those two are the only speaker sets that fit in my budget and are 8ohm, I could get a Tannoy SFX5.1 for £180, but they will not work as they are 6 ohm.

I am considering going back to my original plan of buying separate speakers. Before I noticed those sets, I was going to buy Tannoy Mercury speakers for the fronts, centre and surrounds and make the subwoofer and amp I designed, but all the prices of the speakers suddenly shot up so I decided not to buy them.

I am thinking of for the moment buying the Tannoy Mercury F1 customs for the fronts and the FC Custom for the centre this year, and then buying the surrounds and making the woofer next year. That will come to about £130 for this year and another £130 -50 for next year. More expensive in the end but better quality so it may be worth it.

 

[CraigV]

No, I have never seen any of those except KEF in the UK and those two are the only speaker sets that fit in my budget and are 8ohm, I could get a Tannoy SFX5.1 for £180, but they will not work as they are 6 ohm.

I am considering going back to my original plan of buying separate speakers. Before I noticed those sets, I was going to buy Tannoy Mercury speakers for the fronts, centre and surrounds and make the subwoofer and amp I designed, but all the prices of the speakers suddenly shot up so I decided not to buy them.

I am thinking of for the moment buying the Tannoy Mercury F1 customs for the fronts and the FC Custom for the centre this year, and then buying the surrounds and making the woofer next year. That will come to about £130 for this year and another £130 -50 for next year. More expensive in the end but better quality so it may be worth it.

That sound like a really good way to go. Is there a market for cheap used subs where you are? A good part of movies include LFE information you would be missing out on.

 

[s162216]

That sound like a really good way to go. Is there a market for cheap used subs where you are? A good part of movies include LFE information you would be missing out on.

Not really no, or not that I know of. I have looked on ebay but most of them are just really crap, old ones being sold for too much. It may be less than a year anyway, I don't have one at the moment so I won't be missing what I don't have will I until then?

The sub I will build will likely blow all of them out the water anyway, the ported one I designed could go down to about 23Hz at -3dB and the sealed one 27Hz.

I am going to build a 100W RMS amp by making two IC ones and bridging them.