Seeking Recommendations for a Receiver

[RoddimusPrime]

I debated long and hard for what I could afford on my budget for a surround sound system and have purchased the following system:

Klipsch WF-35 Floor Speakers
Klipsch WC-24 Center Speaker
Klipsch WS-24 Surrounds
Klipsch RW-12d Subwoofer

I auditioned many speakers in central Ohio, but I felt for what I could afford that this setup gave the full, crisp, and rich sound I was looking for. Most of what I auditioned were at a Magnolia store. Paradigm and KEF (No B&W's dealers near me) were nice as well, but just too expensive. Plus I paid nearly a third of the retail price through a company accommodation. The only other brand that I have access to that has an awesome accommodation is JBL and I just don't have any experience with their speakers.

Thus the Klipsch setup will be on it's way to me soon and I need to find an appropriate receiver. The Receiver Brands I am looking at are Denon, Onkyo, Pioneer, Harman Kardon, and Yamaha. I receive discounted prices for those brands through the company I work for as well. I am wanting to run 2 sets of cable hookups to either floor speaker to increase wattage so the receiver will need to have the ability to run BiAmp.

On a side question would it be best to purchase banana plugs for the connections to the receiver and speakers? And is 16 Gauge wire best for this setup? Lastly, does Rocketfish brand vs. Monster really matter?

All thoughts and advice appreciated.

 

[Quickley17]

Dont run two sets of cables to your fronts from the reciever. How much are you going to spend?

Get your cables from monoprice or bluejeanscable. 16 AWG is probably fine, unless your reciever is going to be really far away from some of your speakers. This website can give you a general idea of what size cable you might want to use. http://roger-russell.com/wire/wire.htm#wiretable

EDIT: There are a whole bunch of threads here about bi-amping or bi-wiring speakers, and a couple of articles about the topic as well.

 

[pzaur]

Those speakers are unable to biamped. They only have one crossover. Biamping requires distinct connections to each woofer/tweeter and an external, active crossover. You won't increase wattage by running an additional set of wires.

What functions are you looking for in a receiver? What is your price range?

Onkyos run very hot. There was a recent thread regarding this here.
-pat

 

[Knucklehead90]

You haven't given a budget - but that hardly matters since you get a perk from BB. What would be helpful is the model numbers of those AVRs you are interested in - otherwise general comparisons between models are meaningless.

 

[RoddimusPrime]

I am thinking of the Denon 790 as a receiver. And a correction with the whole biamp thing. I don't mean to say it will increase the wattage, but will simply run to power different parts.

 

[pzaur]

I am thinking of the Denon 790 as a receiver. And a correction with the whole biamp thing. I don't mean to say it will increase the wattage, but will simply run to power different parts.

It won't power different parts. There needs to be distinct connections from woofer to the ports at the back to be separated. Very few speaker manufacturers do this. Klipsch is not one of them.

-pat

 

[RoddimusPrime]

Then why are there 2 different set of connections? Secondly, is there any point to running cables to this other set of connections?

 

[AVRat]

NO! It's like two calfs, one large one small, sucking on two teets coming from one udder. There's only so much milk being supplied.

 

[RoddimusPrime]

You have an interesting way of phrasing things.... rofl

 

[Seth=L]

Then why are there 2 different set of connections? Secondly, is there any point to running cables to this other set of connections?

It's a marketing thing. People would be less apt to buy a pair of speakers with as high an MSRP as those Klipsch if they didn't have two sets of binding posts. You would basically be bi-wiring by using such a connection scheme, which is worthless and a waste of your money.

Joe Schmoe seems to associate binding posts with quality speakers now days, so you'll find them on even cheap speakers. Best Buy sells an Insignia 5.1 speaker package that has satellite speakers with 3" paper woofers and .75" cheap polymer tweeters housed in a plastic enclosure. Those speakers have binding posts for some reason. I have some old Boston Acoustic speakers that are much better speakers that where made in the 90's, but they have speaker clip terminals. Speaker clip terminals are not as good of a termination for wire, mostly because most of them are not very durable. At that time Joe Schmoe didn't even know what a binding post was, so it was OK to put speaker clip terminals on speakers since it was definitely adequate for the speaker to operate as it should. Today consumers know what binding posts are and associate them with quality speakers, even if the speakers aren't quality Joe will think they are because it has binding posts.

I've seen countless speakers that feature dual sets of binding posts, but almost of them are there for no reason and tend to cause more problems for the speaker than solve. This heavily applies to bookshelf speakers today. Bookshelf speakers typically don't have high power requirements nor do they need a piece of plastic consuming valuable real estate on the rear of the speaker. I have had resonance issues with a couple pair of bookshelf speakers that had dual sets of binding posts on the rear, a pretty big shortcoming to add a completely useless feature.

 

[Chitown2477]

Here are a few points to consider:

- I have Klipsch reference series speakers for HT and actually tried bi-wiring. I did not hear any real difference - my ears only of course.
- Klipsch actually recommends NOT to bi-amp its speakers. I can't remember if this was on their website somewhere or from an email I sent them.
- I think heavier gauge wire helps regardless of the technical requirements per the link provided above. My longest run is 25 feet of speaker wire and I used 16 gauge all around.
- I bough my speaker wire at Home Depot (by the foot) and it is very good quality. I bought all my cables from monoprice.com. Great cables and even speaker mounts, TV mounts as well.
- I am not saying Monster is not good, but I certainly think it is over-priced and simply elitist marketing hype (in terms of the product not people buying it)
- I like Yamaha and Pioneer Elite for AVRs. I just bought the VSX21-THX from Magnolia and it is AWESOME. I have heard alot of good things about Denon and less good things about Onkyo.
- Anything with about 90-105 WPC should be good for you given the power efficiency of Klipsch.
- Beyond WPC, critically look for the bells and whistles in your AVR – type of amp, speaker calibration, dual-zone, number HDMI inputs, DAC, IPod connection, networking, remote control, etc. Buy something that will (technically-speaking) last for 10 years. “Upgrad-itis” is completely different.
- My new AVR has the HD audio codecs and I DID notice a difference in the overall audio quality. Granted I think the auto-calibration was better in the Pioneer than the Yamaha model I bough a few years back; that may have impacted sound as well.

Hope this helps.

 

[RoddimusPrime]

Here are a few points to consider:

- I have Klipsch reference series speakers for HT and actually tried bi-wiring. I did not hear any real difference - my ears only of course.
- Klipsch actually recommends NOT to bi-amp its speakers. I can't remember if this was on their website somewhere or from an email I sent them.
- I think heavier gauge wire helps regardless of the technical requirements per the link provided above. My longest run is 25 feet of speaker wire and I used 16 gauge all around.
- I bough my speaker wire at Home Depot (by the foot) and it is very good quality. I bought all my cables from monoprice.com. Great cables and even speaker mounts, TV mounts as well.
- I am not saying Monster is not good, but I certainly think it is over-priced and simply elitist marketing hype (in terms of the product not people buying it)
- I like Yamaha and Pioneer Elite for AVRs. I just bought the VSX21-THX from Magnolia and it is AWESOME. I have heard alot of good things about Denon and less good things about Onkyo.
- Anything with about 90-105 WPC should be good for you given the power efficiency of Klipsch.
- Beyond WPC, critically look for the bells and whistles in your AVR – type of amp, speaker calibration, dual-zone, number HDMI inputs, DAC, IPod connection, networking, remote control, etc. Buy something that will (technically-speaking) last for 10 years. “Upgrad-itis” is completely different.
- My new AVR has the HD audio codecs and I DID notice a difference in the overall audio quality. Granted I think the auto-calibration was better in the Pioneer than the Yamaha model I bough a few years back; that may have impacted sound as well.

Hope this helps.

Thanks, that is very helpful. A couple of questions for you:

1.) Would you recommend any particular banana plugs over the monster ones?
2.) I believe I can get 50' of Rocketfish 16 Gauge for $7.50. Is that good or would go with something off of Monoprice?
3.) Do you think that the Klipsch system I have listed will be pretty nice in your thoughts? For me I thought it sounded good and couldn't justify some of the high prices of things Best Buy doesn't sell (employee pricing and accommodations help). My package price for the Klipsh is around $1,300 for that setup and I doubt there is anything that will come close to that for the money.

Thoughts appreciated.

 

[Chitown2477]

For $1,300 that is one hell of a system! If you are not happy with it, let me know and I will buy it!

For the price the Rocketfish you mentioned but you may need two depending on how far your individual speaker runs are.

The monoprice.com or even RadioShack banana plugs are fine. You should wait until you get your AVR to get the banana plugs. Depending on your AVR's speaker input setup, you may be able to use the paired banana plugs (http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2117820) which I prefer or the singles (http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2123188). Monoprice.com should be cheaper. Then again your BB discount may allow you to get everything at one place.

My rule of thumb on any interconnects is you don't really NEED the high-end (Monster) but don't buy the cheapest stuff either. However, monoprice.com has low prices but very good quality interconnects.

Hope this helps

 

[RoddimusPrime]

I think I am down to the Yamaha 765 or the Denon 790 (also looking for a comparable Pioneer).... I have seen a lot of reviews that say Denon is too hard to use or does not push enough power to the speakers to get full sound. What do you guys think?

 

[highfigh]

I debated long and hard for what I could afford on my budget for a surround sound system and have purchased the following system:

Klipsch WF-35 Floor Speakers
Klipsch WC-24 Center Speaker
Klipsch WS-24 Surrounds
Klipsch RW-12d Subwoofer

I auditioned many speakers in central Ohio, but I felt for what I could afford that this setup gave the full, crisp, and rich sound I was looking for. Most of what I auditioned were at a Magnolia store. Paradigm and KEF (No B&W's dealers near me) were nice as well, but just too expensive. Plus I paid nearly a third of the retail price through a company accommodation. The only other brand that I have access to that has an awesome accommodation is JBL and I just don't have any experience with their speakers.

Thus the Klipsch setup will be on it's way to me soon and I need to find an appropriate receiver. The Receiver Brands I am looking at are Denon, Onkyo, Pioneer, Harman Kardon, and Yamaha. I receive discounted prices for those brands through the company I work for as well. I am wanting to run 2 sets of cable hookups to either floor speaker to increase wattage so the receiver will need to have the ability to run BiAmp.

On a side question would it be best to purchase banana plugs for the connections to the receiver and speakers? And is 16 Gauge wire best for this setup? Lastly, does Rocketfish brand vs. Monster really matter?

All thoughts and advice appreciated.

Which receiver you buy should be based on the requirements, based on facts, not ads from speaker cable manufacturers. Discussing 16ga wire and bi-amping in the same thread, article, etc proves that the propaganda is working. 16ga can work, depending on how much power is sent to the speakers and the length of wire.

Yes, Rocketfish vs Monster matters- neither is necessary, nor a good value. Banana plugs make it easier to make connections to amps and speakers but offer no increase in performance or sound quality.