Newbie here.... Help me get started!

[Bigkahuna]

I have rediscovered fine audio kick about six months ago and wanted to do something home theater like for my den. The room is about 10x13. I really don't know the first thing about 5.1 so here goes....

I stopped by my local Goodwill thrift store and found a Yamaha RX V690 for 14.99 and also Boston "SubSat 7" satelite speakers and the Boston SubSat 7 PV14 power vent sub woofer for 24.99. I thought this would be a good way to get in on the cheap as I am on a tight budget. All of this stuff had to be from the same donation as it is all in similar condition and all still has stickers from the Tweeter store wher it was originally purchased.

I guess I need to make sure it works so I going to just plug a source into it and try each channel. Does that make sense? I have plenty of speakers kicking around for front speakers but don't have a center. I guess I really do not need one from reading the owners manual? I am not quite sure how to connect the sub. Looking through the port I can see two drivers and there is left and right connections. Is there supposed to be a left and right driver in the sub? I am not sure this sub has an amp in it as has no power source like my DCM sub and no line level in. Any help you guys could offer is appreciated to get me started. I am trying to hook this thing up on this rainy day.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

Lets get few things straight:
Yammi 690 doesn't support real 5.1, only stereo to 5.1 as dolby pro-logic, which is sub-par and not really comparable to real 5.1.
Now some Pro-logic receivers had multi-channel inputs, which made them future-proof - in-fact I used to have one like it, but 690 doesn't have them


Regarding speakers, since you are missing center anyways, my rec is just connect fronts and sub for 2.1 setup at-least for now, until your budget situation improves.

You sub is passive - so you need to connect your main L/R to sub and connect L/R sats straight to sub.

If your sub has crossover control, set the dial in high position say 120-150Hz

Good luck

 

[m_vanmeter]

not much real technical info on the "subsat 7" out there in cyberland....I'm guessing it is a passive subwoofer with a built-in crossover to feed the satelites. On the back of the subwoofer, what are the connection "inputs" and "outputs" ?

Oop's.....was writing while "boredsysadmin" was responding.......yeah, what he said !

 

[BMXTRIX]

If you haven't, go to the Yamaha website and get the owner's manual for your receiver...
http://www.yamaha.com/yec/products/productdetail.html?CNTID=200250&CTID=5000300&RLTID=1505&DETYP=RELATION

The downside to this setup is that you only have analog inputs on that receiver so your ability to get surround sound quality is going to be extremely limited. But, for the money, it'll work.

For the speakers, you may want to dig around online to find information about them as the Boston website has almost nothing on them.

http://www.bostonacoustics.com/Discontinued-Product-Info-C100.aspx

This might help with the speakers...
http://newsgroups.derkeiler.com/Archive/Rec/rec.audio.tech/2007-11/msg00047.html

 

[sholling]

+1 to what Bored said. It's a start into the world of audio so welcome to the hobby.

 

[Bigkahuna]

Hmmm?

Lets get few things straight:
Yammi 690 doesn't support real 5.1, only stereo to 5.1 as dolby pro-logic, which is sub-par and not really comparable to real 5.1.
Now some Pro-logic receivers had multi-channel inputs, which made them future-proof - in-fact I used to have one like it, but 690 doesn't have them

Thank you Bored for your help.
Sort of disappointing but I knew I was buying something kind of outdated. I guess this converts stereo to 5.1 from what you are saying. So, not all 5.1 is "real" 5.1. What should I look to get real 5.1?

Regarding speakers, since you are missing center anyways, my rec is just connect fronts and sub for 2.1 setup at-least for now, until your budget situation improves.

I have an old receiver hooked up now and run that when I want better audio than this LCD flat screen offers. Would this really be any improvement? I have plenty of vintage stereo speakers that I could connect.

You sub is passive - so you need to connect your main L/R to sub and connect L/R sats straight to sub.
If your sub has crossover control, set the dial in high position say 120-150Hz

I think this is where most of my confusion comes from. The SubSat 7 seems to have been sold as a set from Boston. Satelites and Sub I think sold together ($750 MSRP). The sub has two drivers and only speaker connections for left and right channels no crossover controls. So, are you saying connect main to sub and then satelites off of the same terminals at the sub? Not sure how this works?? So are these satelites really just midrange and high or might they also work as bookshelf speakers?

I only have 40 bucks into this whole thing but maybe I should just bring it back and let someone else have at it. Or maybe use the sub and sats for something else.
Thank you again for your help! Wow! while writng quite a few responses.. Thank you everyone!

 

[Bigkahuna]

If you haven't, go to the Yamaha website and get the owner's manual for your receiver...

I did get the owners manual and it was nice Yamaha still provides it.

The downside to this setup is that you only have analog inputs on that receiver so your ability to get surround sound quality is going to be extremely limited. But, for the money, it'll work.

Analog as apposed to HDMI??? Or something else??

For the speakers, you may want to dig around online to find information about them as the Boston website has almost nothing on them.

I did see the info on the Boston website but not much info. Just this...... Subsat 7 Subwoofer satellite, 2-7" woofer, 2-4" mid, 2-1" tweeter 93-96 125 watts $750.00/set
Kind of sounds like a stereo speaker description with the mids and tweets in the sattelites. I guess the sub box gives you the deeper bass for theater that you don't really need for audio, am I correct?

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

Thank you Bored for your help.
Sort of disappointing but I knew I was buying something kind of outdated. I guess this converts stereo to 5.1 from what you are saying. So, not all 5.1 is "real" 5.1. What should I look to get real 5.1?

You should look at the back of receiver and look for analog multi-channel inputs (5 rca plugs grouped together and labeled)

I have an old receiver hooked up now and run that when I want better audio than this LCD flat screen offers. Would this really be any improvement? I have plenty of vintage stereo speakers that I could connect.

About 90-95% of Audio quality depends on speakers and not ALL old means bad, but Imo vast majority of separate receivers/speakers combo will sound better than your TV speakers.

I think this is where most of my confusion comes from. The SubSat 7 seems to have been sold as a set from Boston. Satelites and Sub I think sold together ($750 MSRP). The sub has two drivers and only speaker connections for left and right channels no crossover controls. So, are you saying connect main to sub and then satelites off of the same terminals at the sub? Not sure how this works?? So are these satelites really just midrange and high or might they also work as bookshelf speakers?

There is very limited info for these speakers, could you post image of back of your sub online and post a link here?

I only have 40 bucks into this whole thing but maybe I should just bring it back and let someone else have at it. Or maybe use the sub and sats for something else.
Thank you again for your help! Wow! while writng quite a few responses.. Thank you everyone!

 

[Bigkahuna]

Three inputs

Ok so I have left right and video. I think my TV also has green and blue. This is probably what you are referring to. Correct?

 

[Bigkahuna]

Pics

Can't seem to add pics.. Does this site allow attaching pics?

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

Can't seem to add pics.. Does this site allow attaching pics?

You need minimum 5 posts to attach pics

 

[Bigkahuna]

Can't seem to add pics.. Does this site allow attaching pics?

You need minimum 5 posts to attach pics

OK here are some photos

http://s1012.photobucket.com/albums/af248/nwsmith427/Audio%20stuff/

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

Very unusual connector you have on sub...
hmmmm
Not really perfect, but you could connect B speakers L/R to power sub, however your AVR manual also has pre-amp SUB output which you could use, if your sub was powered.

I think some member on this forum might have Dayton Sub-120 for sale - new one it costs $150, but you can get it cheaper 2nd hand. It would significant upgrade for you.

 

[sholling]

I think some member on this forum might have Dayton Sub-120 for sale - new one it costs $150, but you can get it cheaper 2nd hand. It would significant upgrade for you.

+1 what he said.

Some of the old Boston Acoustics bookshelf speakers (like the CR7) were pretty decent and I'm wondering if these are similar. The downside is that the foam speaker surrounds on the older Bostons often rotted away by the time they hit 10 or 12 years old or so. It was just a limitation of the chemical technology of the 80s and 90s. I'd check them before getting too attached. If they are rotted you may be able to find replacement foam surrounds for cheap and you can DIY but be warned it's not a simple job.

I was young and just getting started once to and remember the days of scoring old gear to get me started. Well you have a start and if it were me I'd now put together an upgrade game plan. Assuming your speakers are still good then I'd probably start with an inexpensive powered subwoofer. Keep an eye on Craigslist and see what comes up. Lot of people are broke and trying to save their homes by selling off stuff.

 

[Bigkahuna]

Hmmmm

I guess I am always thinking in stereo being an old stereo guy. I guess if I ran them off the B side I don't see how that wouldn't work. It has to have a crossover in it and won't that just filter the highs and then boom I got bass. I don't know maybe Maybe the one RCA jack for a powered sub is already on a crossover.
No way to attenuate the bass??????

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

I guess I am always thinking in stereo being an old stereo guy. I guess if I ran them off the B side I don't see how that wouldn't work. It has to have a crossover in it and won't that just filter the highs and then boom I got bass. I don't know maybe Maybe the one RCA jack for a powered sub is already on a crossover.
No way to attenuate the bass??????

Not with your yammi 690
But possible with powered sub like Dayton Sub-120. If you feed L/R speaker plugs to speakers in on sub then you could use sub's crossover to reduce bass to smaller speakers.
Alternately you could do same with line level inputs/output but low level output from sub would need to be amplified by addition amp...
You did mentioned something before about additional "vintage receiver"....

Don't mix and match low and high level inputs/outputs on sub

 

[Bigkahuna]

sub

Here is an answer from another forum...........

I'm guessing the sub module has built in LPF and the satellites have built-in HPF (or not, allowing the natural low end roll-off to work with the sub).

Connect full range signal to the sub and to the satellites. The satellites could connect at the sub terminals along with the feeds from the receiver (parallel) or at the receiver terminals, whichever is more convenient, IMO.

The yamaha speaker set up calls for balancing the speakers using a test tone. Couldn't you just run this set up on the rear and use that balance to attenuate the rear? I would be using some old stereo speakers on the front I think.

 

[Bigkahuna]

Thank You

Thank you for the help guys. I have the woofer and satellites on rear and a couple of old Sansui speakers on the front. Funny this reciever is so old it does not have a DVD input! Regardless it all works. I havent really listened to it much yet but better than nothing. I don't think it is really 5.1 and actually I think it would make a better audio receiver. It has pretty good power and the tuner is excellent. I does have some preset controls that simulate rooms like "church" or "jazz club". This makes it kind of echo. The sub woofer is pretty quiet until something really low hits and then it really rumbles. Certainly better than those speakers that come with the LCD!
Again thanks.
BK