Need help finishing 4x Polk Monitor60 II setup...

[ahusername]

Ok I just blew my entire $400 budget on 4x Polk Audio Monitor60 Series II Floorstanding Loudspeakers (100ea on newegg!). If I had a girlfriend she would kill me! Anyway I need to finish my setup with a center speaker, sub, and amp. Please don't break my bank (more). I care mostly about music, but I have a big projector in this room so movies are a must too.

I am leaning towards...

Sub - Polk Audio PSW Series PSW10 Black 10-inch Powered Subwoofer ($80) (should be enough with the 4x woofers in the loudspeakers right?)

Center - Polk Audio CS1 Series II Center Channel Speaker ($80)

Amp - I have NO clue, but I really need to stay in the sub $200 range...Something with optical in (since the main audio source will be my PC).

Thanks for any help!

 

[agarwalro]

Ok I just blew my entire $400 budget on 4x Polk Audio Monitor60 Series II Floorstanding Loudspeakers (100ea on newegg!)... Anyway I need to finish my setup with a center speaker, sub, and amp.

You must be training to be a Wall Street CFO! Sorry couldn't resist .

Anyhow, ditch the center and sub for now. That leaves about $350 for a decent receiver. A Denon 1913 or Onkyo NR609 from A4L will do nicely.

 

[ahusername]

Guh can anyone help me understand why I need such an expensive amp? Is it really going to make THAT big of a difference? I mean speakers sure, there is so much going on inside a speaker, but a amp.... is there really more than one way to send a signal down a wire? I dont care about any fancey 3d or other processing (I have my pc for that). Isn't it a simple matter of finding a amp that can take a digital signal, and produces X wats output?

 

[Grador]

Guh can anyone help me understand why I need such an expensive amp? Is it really going to make THAT big of a difference? I mean speakers sure, there is so much going on inside a speaker, but a amp.... is there really more than one way to send a signal down a wire? I dont care about any fancey 3d or other processing (I have my pc for that). Isn't it a simple matter of finding a amp that can take a digital signal, and produces X wats output?

There are may many ways to send a signal down a wire, but that's beside the point

Below around that price point amps start to make some pretty big tradeoffs. Quality becomes an issue, spending $200 for an amp every two years will cost you more than spending $350 for 5-10 years.

At $350 you can get a receiver with a perfectly acceptable amplifier circuit, below there you could very well end up with less power than you need which would quickly effect the quality of sound and possibly even speaker lifetime.

Furthermore splitting that budget between the three components would give you a subwoofer that isn't really even worth having. That polk is more like a bass noise-generator than a subwoofer.

 

[agarwalro]

$200 receivers are used in HTIBs. And I'm sure you have seen the wimpy DVD box sized speakers that HTIB's ship with. Now look at your behemoth Polk floor standing speakers. A bargain basement receiver will not give you the clean power to properly drive your speakers.

Since you are not interested in connectivity other than Optical In, an older second hand receiver (even one without HDMI) will be just fine as long as the amplifier section is robust. Yamaha 5890 and Denon 3805 come to mind.

Anything with a list price of $500 and above puts you in the safe zone. Once Black Friday/Cyber Monday rolls by, look for deals on Craigslist.

 

[ahusername]

Dang there was a good deal on a Denon...

Denon 1712 AVR $149 new at Best Buy B&M (YMMV) - Page 5 - Slickdeals.net

But I called all my local best buys and they don't have any in stock. I got my hands on a free subwoofer (decent quality), and im gonna steal my center speaker from my onkyo 7.1 setup, so really all i need now is a nice amp!

Anyone aware of any good deals? I keep looking on amazon/newegg hoping something big will happen! Please lemme know if you guys see anything hot this week!

Thanks!

 

[ahusername]

Hmm I was expecting to see more deals today... but I'm not finding anything... Can anyone recommend a good avr for my above setup (aside from the 350 refurbished denon that was already mentioned).

Thanks

 

[zieglj01]

Hmm I was expecting to see more deals today... but I'm not finding anything... Can anyone recommend a good avr for my above setup (aside from the 350 refurbished denon that was already mentioned).

Since you have bought speakers for surround playback, and you are
looking for sub $200 receivers - the Denon 1612 can work for you.
This 75 watt receiver was measured at 71 watts per channel, with
5 channels driven. For 2 channel music, you will get more than the
75 watts.
DENON AVR-1612 5.1 Channel A/V Home Theater Receiver | Accessories4less

http://www.hometheater.com/content/denon-avr-1612-av-receiver-ht-labs-measures

 

[ahusername]

So what is the difference between the 1513 and 1613?I am looking at the chart here...

Amazon.com: Denon AVR-1513 5.1 Channel 3D Pass Through Home Theater Receiver(): Electronics

It looks like at 80hms the wats are the same? I dont care about the automatic room setup (I can still manually configure everything right?). I dont care about networking. I dont need a ton of hdmi ports. All I care about is sound quality/loudness/power. So what am I missing if I got for the cheapest model?

Assuming 75wats is loud enough for me, is there any sound quality difference between the 1513 and the 1913? Or is it all about bells/whistles (internet radio, etc...)?

 

[ahusername]

I have been doing some more research, I still cant tell the difference between the 1913 and 1513, besides some minor wats, and lots of bells/whistles I just dont care about (I dont need the auto config setup, or internet radio, or built in music streamer (I am running off my pc) etc...).

So what am I missing (if anything) in terms of sound quality if I go with the 1513 instead of the 1613, or 1913?

 

[zieglj01]

I have been doing some more research, I still cant tell the difference between the 1913 and 1513, besides some minor wats, and lots of bells/whistles I just dont care about (I dont need the auto config setup, or internet radio, or built in music streamer (I am running off my pc) etc...).

So what am I missing (if anything) in terms of sound quality if I go with the 1513 instead of the 1613, or 1913?

75 to 90 watts is not a big deal -
Base your decision on this
Product Comparision

 

[jonnythan]

The 1712 is a much better deal: DENON AVR-1712 7.1 A/V Surround Receiver | Accessories4less

And the Pioneer 1022 is a very good receiver, only $230 today at Woot.com