A newbie HT - part two

[BBigJ]

I posted a thread here about a week ago, asking for recommendations on speakers. Thanks to everyone that responded. Here is what I ended up with

Receiver: HK 630 ($405+35s/h Harmanaudio Ebay store)
Center: BIC Acoustech HT-65 (65+25 Ubid)
Mains: BIC HT-75 (the auction didn't say "Acoustech" but the part number matches) (160+50 Ubid)
Surround: nothing yet
Sub: Cadence Xsub (249 shipped ebay)

Special thanks to malvado78 who suggested checking Ubid for the cheap Acoustech's. I had originally brushed off his suggestion because I didn't have the patience to see when/if the cheap auctions popped up, and the towers seemed too big for my room. But, when the opportunity to get these speakers at that price popped up two days later, I had to grab it. I still need to get the surrounds, but with 80% of the system ordered, my patience has returned.

So now I have a week or so until all this stuff arrives, and I'd like to know what else I need (or need to know) in order to set up an HT. Reading the posts on this forum, it seems like there is a lot of black magic that goes into making a system work. As a newbie, I'm obviously not going to do everything perfect the first time, but I'd like to know what the essentials are. Is there an article that goes over the basics? Here's what I've thought of so far:

1) Speaker wire: on the suggestion of a thread I saw here earlier, I checked Home Depot and they have 100ft of 14 gauge speaker wire for ~$35 (also 16 and 18 gauge). Will the same stuff also work for the sub, or does it need something special?
2) Connections: do I need these, or can I just stick the wire into the acceptors or wrap it around the posts? HD has 100 spade connectors for ~$6.
3) Positioning: I read the sticky at the top of the forum, anything else?
4) Balancing: I know the HK has some kind of balancing routine built into the reciever, anything else I should know?
5) Crossovers: I know nothing about setting these.
6) Black magic/voodoo


On a completely different note, most of my music is currently in mp3 form on the home computers, so I'd like to be able to use the home network to play that throught the new system. What is the best doohickey for doing this? (\braces for verbal assaults about the quality of mp3s). The computers are in the same room as the HT, so I can go with either a wired or wireless solution here (although I'd rather go wireless to plan for the future).

Thanks

 

[MDS]

1. Wire choice is fine.
2. I wouldn't buy spades for connectors until you get the receiver and verify that they would work. Alot of receivers that claim to have '5-way' binding posts (bare wire, spades, banana, dual banana, pins) are really only 4 way because the spades won't fit due to a little collar around the binding post. Bare wire is fine. You could consider getting bananas later for convenience.
3. Follow the suggestions in the article and experiment with placement. You should recalibrate if you make any changes to placement.
4. Use the auto setup at least as a starting point to get going. You could also buy an SPL meter and do it manually and compare the manual results to the automatic results if you are curious.
5. If the computer and HT are in the same room, the simplest solution is to run wire directly from the sound card to the receiver. If the sound card has a digital out, use that; otherwise get a 1/8" stereo mini to 2 RCA cable (Radio Shack) and run an analog signal from the line out of the sound card to the receiver. There are devices that can stream from the computer to the receiver as well - Squeezebox2 is the best IMO but there are plenty of others that are cheaper and may be adequate.
6. Set the xover to 80 Hz as a starting point - that is almost universally a good choice.

Listen to a wide variety of music for awhile before you make any definitive judgements on how good it sounds. Enjoy.

 

[mike c]

i also use the 3mm jack to rca (white red) - i do not notice any difference in sound ...
but since most players nowadays can read mp3, i suggest burning your mp3s on cd (thats 150+ mp3s per CD) never tried that on DVD discs though

 

[droeses58]

I posted a thread here about a week ago, asking for recommendations on speakers. Thanks to everyone that responded. Here is what I ended up with

Receiver: HK 630 ($405+35s/h Harmanaudio Ebay store)
Center: BIC Acoustech HT-65 (65+25 Ubid)
Mains: BIC HT-75 (the auction didn't say "Acoustech" but the part number matches) (160+50 Ubid)
Surround: nothing yet
Sub: Cadence Xsub (249 shipped ebay)


1) Speaker wire: on the suggestion of a thread I saw here earlier, I checked Home Depot and they have 100ft of 14 gauge speaker wire for ~$35 (also 16 and 18 gauge). Will the same stuff also work for the sub, or does it need something special?
To connect the sub you'll use a sub cable [basically a good rca cable] you can get a good one at radio shack with a Y splitter. Single end to receiver double end to the sub.


On a completely different note, most of my music is currently in mp3 form on the home computers, so I'd like to be able to use the home network to play that throught the new system. What is the best doohickey for doing this? (\braces for verbal assaults about the quality of mp3s). The computers are in the same room as the HT, so I can go with either a wired or wireless solution here (although I'd rather go wireless to plan for the future).
mp3's are fine for me and most people, so don't worry about what others think. I would just burn them to cd and play them in your dvd player.

 

[jaxvon]

A sub cable is just a single RCA cable, nothing special. As for speaker cable, I recommend this. It's inexpensive, durable, and can be used for any instal in your house (even the really long speaker cable runs).

You can just use bare wire for now, though banana plugs do offer increased convenience.

For the MP3 thing, you can buy something like a Squeezebox (to stream titles and music over your network), or if the computer is close to the HT stack, then you can just grab one of these and an optical cable.

 

[BBigJ]

Thanks, everyone. That is exactly what I wanted to hear.

Jaxvon, that speaker cable is cheaper than the HD stuff, but with the shipping added it is pretty much a wash. If it is better than the HD wire, I'll go ahead and order (12>14???). It would also be worth the order if I could go ahead and get my sub cable and banana plugs from them. But, with the site organized the way it is (everything is listed by brand, not by item) I can't find anything.

 

[jaxvon]

Westlake basically deals in bulk cable, as in no terminations. If it ends up being the same price, then it's your call. The 12ga wire won't sound different, but it is lower resistance, which means you can use it for even the longest speaker cable runs (like across the house if you ever needed it) without any issues. It's also in-wall certified (not sure if the stuff you're looking at is). However, 14ga is pretty much fine for any normal application and cable run, and Home Depot is much more convenient.

As far as subwoofer cables go, unless you're able to find a really good deal through Parts Express or Impact Acoustics, you're probably better off going up to your local Radio Shack or Wal Mart and picking up an inexpensive one. Phillips Gold and Acoustic Research make nice cables that are reasonably priced. I believe the Radio Shack brand is affordable as well.

Impact Acoustics sells banana plugs for $3 (pluss shipping), but you can get 20% off that price by using this link. With the discount, you may find some good prices on sub cables too.

 

[BBigJ]

Thanks, jaxvon. I'll keep it simple with HD.