Advice

[Brandst]

This looked like the best place to ask this question. I have been reading alot of the boards over the past few weeks and am looking to spend about $1000-1500 to upgrade an item or two of my system.

I currently have:

Sony STR-DE995 Surround Receiver
Sony KP-51WS520 RP HDTV Monitor
Sony DVP-NC665P DVD Player
Samsung SIR-TS360 HD DirecTV Receiver
10 year old JVC VCR(used once in the last year, only a glorified clock)
JBL Music and Movies 2 speaker system (only using the Sat 2 and Center 2 speakers, the SW died on me in January)
Velodyne VRP-1000 SW

I like the 995 reciever, have had the unit for about a year and a half and the only thing that I have a problem with now is it only has 2 HD component inputs and does not output the menu to the component out. When I bought the unit this was not a problem as I had a 10 year old 27" TV with S-Video inputs, now I have the HDTV and 3 component sources (DVD Player, Satellite Receiver and PS2), and am already looking at adding at least one more source. I am looking at upgrading to either the Denon 3805 or the Marantz 7500 receivers, leaning towards the Marantz and its 4 component inputs.

I am also looking at upgradinig the speakers to 7 Ascend CBM-170 speakers with my current SW. I bought the JBL set that I have 10-12 years ago and spent 4 hours listening to different sat/sub systems before picking them. I initially went in to buy the Bose cubes but decided to listen to others first. The Bose really sucked, lacked any mids what soever to tie the cubes to the SW, the Infinities at the time were decent, but lacked the clarity of the JBLs. A good friend of mine does music producion work and was impressed with the sound quality of my system with some of his reference material, though he did notice some valleys in the frequency response as I have. He uses Mackey powered monitors in his studio and even recommended them as a possible replacement. But I am unsure how they would be with movies.

My listening will be about 60% HT to 40% music with most of the music country and rock on the radio. My wife and I have over 500 CDs from every genre imaginable and more than 300 DVDs across all genres. We have a Netflix account with 3 movies at a time and get a new movie every couple of days, normally watching it within a day of receipt.

Now for the Q.

What would be the best upgrade for me within my price range? I am tore between the receiver and speakers mainly, but would appreciate other options if you think what I have would carry me for a while longer.

TIA

Steve

 

[Takeereasy]

In your position my first two upgrdes would be the receiver and the DVD player. You can get the Marantz 7500 at accessories4less.com for $700 refurbed, but with a 1yr Marantz warranty. For a DVD player I'd suggest the Panasonic S77. Super audio and video sections. This unit can be had from bhphoto.com for $200. If you had to spend the other $600 from the $1500 I'd suggest a beefy sub, something like the HSU STF3.

The receiver you have now is similar to the one I replaced (a sony STRDE-1075). I purchased the Marantz 8400 and couldn't be happier. The above is just my opinion but it is where I'd start. I'm not sure what JBL speakers you have. If they are Northridge speakers then they really aren't my cup of tea, but most people will acknowledge that JBL S series and above are some pretty decent speakers so you may not need to upgrade those at all.

 

[j_garcia]

I'd completely agree with Takeereasy. The first thing that should go is the receiver. I'd also say Marantz is the way to go too. The DVD player is a good candidate too, but I'd say speakers are more in line for an upgrade.

I'm not familiar with those speakers either, but the Ascends are a great choice to go with. What you can do is just replace the front 3 speakers initially, since they are the vast majority of your sound, then add the others as $$ permits.