help setup stereo with obsolete receiver

[george tuathem]

i have 2-car garage i want to setup with a 36-inch tv and pioneer vsx 4800 dolby prologic receiver i've had since 1990 when i used to have a pioneer cld m90 (that's a laserdisc player for you confused folks..) and i'm wondering if i can still use it for 2-channel stereo system only. i'm thinking of buying a pair of jbl bookshelf speakers mated to a jbl subwoofer or getting a pair of ( i know, i know but like jbls) jbl e100 tower speakers then hook them up to my pioneer receiver. by the way, i'll be using the system mostly for listening to rock music and live concert dvd's (from Cat stevens to RAge against the machine dvd) in STEREO mode only. i know i could go the surround sound route but i'm content to enjoy my music in the garage in stereo only, maybe in the future i'll reconsider... 1-first question: should i just throw away my analog pioneer receiver and get a digital stereo receiver (like maybe a used NAD,onkyo or yamaha) with subwoofer output, bass management controls and the like, or is my PIONEER receiver still USABLE? now... IF my pioneer receiver is still salvagable... 2-second question: should i get a pair of jbl e100 towers or a pair of jbl e50 3-way bookshelf speakers with a jbl s 120p ii 400-watt powered subwoofer that's selling at $279 right now? 3-third question: i have heard about a new jbl bookshelf speaker called the RM10 that has a 10-inch woofers and TWO 3-inch tweeters per speaker, now, paired to a subwoofer which of the jbl E50 OR RM 10 SPEAKERS IS BETTER? this is my first posting and i really need help and any advice will be greatly appreciated. thanks a lot.

 

[MDS]

A Pioneer ProLogic receiver will work fine in stereo mode. My brother-in-law currently has my old Onkyo TX-SV525 in his garage doing just that.

ProLogic receivers don't usually have bass management other than setting delay times for the center and rear speakers (instead of setting the distance and letting the receiver calculate the delay as do modern receivers). No problem as you won't have center and surround speakers.

The subwoofer xover is usually at a fixed frequency and cannot be changed. If you're lucky it will be 90 Hz or lower but you might want to find the manual or call Pioneer to find out the xover frequency as that would dictate whether you should buy floorstanding or bookshelf speakers. If the fixed xover is too high, like 100-120 Hz, then bookshelves are the way to go. You could always just forget bookshelves plus a sub and just get two floorstanders as they will likely have plenty of bass for the garage.

Just remember to set your DVD player's output to PCM so it does the decoding and sends the receiver an analog signal.