New to the site w/ Newly Inherited Equipment

[kevin_d77]

(Warning - first 2.5 paragraphs are background info, the stereo equipment info starts around 2.5 paragraphs in.....FYI...)
Hello all! I am new to this site and really new to home audio in general. I have always been a big fan of music, TV's, home theaters, stereo equipment and electronics in general, but this is the first time I have ventured in to home stereo equipment with the exception of some one piece shelf units and the standard issue Sony Surround-Sound-In-A-Box type deals. Car stereos have always been my main interest and I suspect they will continue to be until the day I pass (I will probably ask for a system in my coffin haha!!!)....anyway, I digress....

Back to the topic, home stereos. My father has always been in a band and playing musical instruments for his whole life. He has also always been an audiophile for as long as I remember, purchasing the top end gear and really truly enjoying it. I am pretty sure he still has a reel-to-reel hiding out somewhere in one of his homes. So the last time he moved, he decided that he did not want to lug his entire "old" stereo 800+ miles up to his new home in the Appalchian mountains and asked if I would like to keep it for myself, all I had to do was come to his place and move it out myself. I always knew he has nice stuff, so I figured why not. I went to his place and picked up 3 electronic units and 2 large and EXTREMELY heavy speakers. I moved them into my apartment and there they sat for another 1.5 years.

Fast forward those 1.5 years, I move into my now wife's house. All of the stuff moves from my apartment to our house and sits again. One day I find the original receipts for all of the equipment (which is pretty old apparently) and realize that this is some pretty high-end gear (at least in my opinion). Not so sure about the CD player, tape deck or amp, but I had heard of the speaker company before. Here is what he gave me:

(2) - B&W Matrix 802 Series 3 speakers in absolutely flawless shape (I know for a fact that they were never ever hammered on because he only really listened to classical music as well as some jazz and swing music -- and his wife would always get the worst headaches and constantly nag him to turn down the television while they are watching it...ridiculous but whatever...)
(1) - NAD Monitor Series Stereo 7600 Power Envelope
(1) - NAD Monitor Series 5300 CD Player
(1) - NAD Monitor Series 6300 Cassette Deck
Everything has the original receipts for them as well as original remote controls, cables, plugs, owner's manuals and various other items.

I know this stuff is old and according to my father, the speakers are beasts and take a ton of power. My question to the experts it: should I keep it or sell it???

I would like to be able to use this stuff as part of a high-end home theater system, at least a 5.1 Surround Sound set-up for our 3D LED Sony Bravia in the living room. Are there surround sound recievers that are powerful enough to drive those speakers while also handling surround sound speakers as well (surrounds, center channel and subwoofer)? Or is this just a lost cause? If I can get a decent reciever to handle these tasks, then I would like to keep them because they are supposed to sound pretty good, but if this is a major under-taking that is going to cost an arm and a leg then I would probably elect to sell them! And if I do sell them, where should I put them up for sale and what would be a good asking price and a good bottom line price?
Sorry for all of the questions and the long post, but after reading this forum for a little bit, this seemed like the best place to get smart and well-educated answers to some of these questions. Unfortunately, with stores like Best-Buy and Wal-Mart selling stereo equipment, it has driven a lot of the specialty stores with actual stereo expertise out of business and it is hard to get reliable responses to those types of questions because most of the employees arent experts at what they sell, the equipment that they sell is sub-par and all the employees care about is selling you new stuff and upgrading you to an extended waranty. It is definietly a sad situation.

Anyway, thanks for taking the time to read my rant and to answer whatever questions of mine that you could! I genuinely appreciate the help!

 

[GranteedEV]

Are there surround sound recievers that are powerful enough to drive those speakers while also handling surround sound speakers as well (surrounds, center channel and subwoofer)?

Not sure. However, you should be able to pick up a decent surround receiver with lots of pre out headroom

IE Marantz SR5005

http://www.accessories4less.com/make-a-store/item/MARSR5005A/MARANTZ-SR5005-100w-X-7ch-3-D-Home-Theater-Surround-Receiver/1.html

or, if you wanna go higher end, a Denon 4311 Refurb

http://www.dakmart.com/m5/DENON/p12180/DENON-AVR-4311CI-9.2-CHANNEL-NETWORK-MLTI-ROOM-RECEIVER/product_info.html

and mate it with a robust high powered separates amp IE

http://emotiva.com/xpa3.shtm

to handle the fronts. A bigger problem, might be getting a matching center channel speaker however.

Selling the speakers and getting some Revels or Salks for example might just be a good option. You can potentially get five excellent salk speakers - IE HT2-TLs + V3 Monster Center + Songsurrounds for the return on the matrix 802s. Throw in two or three Funkywaves, SVS, Seaton, Rythmik subwoofers and you should have a great sounding theater. Finish it off with some well placed bass traps and diffusion panels if you like. If you choose the speakers well the need for a high powered separates amp might dissapear.

I guess what it starts with is

1) How much are you willing to spend out of your own pocket?
2) What are the details of the room?

And if I do sell them, where should I put them up for sale and what would be a good asking price and a good bottom line price?[/B]

Audiogon is the most commonly used hi fi classifieds out there.

 

[TLS Guy]

(Warning - first 2.5 paragraphs are background info, the stereo equipment info starts around 2.5 paragraphs in.....FYI...)
Hello all! I am new to this site and really new to home audio in general. I have always been a big fan of music, TV's, home theaters, stereo equipment and electronics in general, but this is the first time I have ventured in to home stereo equipment with the exception of some one piece shelf units and the standard issue Sony Surround-Sound-In-A-Box type deals. Car stereos have always been my main interest and I suspect they will continue to be until the day I pass (I will probably ask for a system in my coffin haha!!!)....anyway, I digress....

Back to the topic, home stereos. My father has always been in a band and playing musical instruments for his whole life. He has also always been an audiophile for as long as I remember, purchasing the top end gear and really truly enjoying it. I am pretty sure he still has a reel-to-reel hiding out somewhere in one of his homes. So the last time he moved, he decided that he did not want to lug his entire "old" stereo 800+ miles up to his new home in the Appalchian mountains and asked if I would like to keep it for myself, all I had to do was come to his place and move it out myself. I always knew he has nice stuff, so I figured why not. I went to his place and picked up 3 electronic units and 2 large and EXTREMELY heavy speakers. I moved them into my apartment and there they sat for another 1.5 years.

Fast forward those 1.5 years, I move into my now wife's house. All of the stuff moves from my apartment to our house and sits again. One day I find the original receipts for all of the equipment (which is pretty old apparently) and realize that this is some pretty high-end gear (at least in my opinion). Not so sure about the CD player, tape deck or amp, but I had heard of the speaker company before. Here is what he gave me:

(2) - B&W Matrix 802 Series 3 speakers in absolutely flawless shape (I know for a fact that they were never ever hammered on because he only really listened to classical music as well as some jazz and swing music -- and his wife would always get the worst headaches and constantly nag him to turn down the television while they are watching it...ridiculous but whatever...)
(1) - NAD Monitor Series Stereo 7600 Power Envelope
(1) - NAD Monitor Series 5300 CD Player
(1) - NAD Monitor Series 6300 Cassette Deck
Everything has the original receipts for them as well as original remote controls, cables, plugs, owner's manuals and various other items.

I know this stuff is old and according to my father, the speakers are beasts and take a ton of power. My question to the experts it: should I keep it or sell it???

I would like to be able to use this stuff as part of a high-end home theater system, at least a 5.1 Surround Sound set-up for our 3D LED Sony Bravia in the living room. Are there surround sound recievers that are powerful enough to drive those speakers while also handling surround sound speakers as well (surrounds, center channel and subwoofer)? Or is this just a lost cause? If I can get a decent reciever to handle these tasks, then I would like to keep them because they are supposed to sound pretty good, but if this is a major under-taking that is going to cost an arm and a leg then I would probably elect to sell them! And if I do sell them, where should I put them up for sale and what would be a good asking price and a good bottom line price?
Sorry for all of the questions and the long post, but after reading this forum for a little bit, this seemed like the best place to get smart and well-educated answers to some of these questions. Unfortunately, with stores like Best-Buy and Wal-Mart selling stereo equipment, it has driven a lot of the specialty stores with actual stereo expertise out of business and it is hard to get reliable responses to those types of questions because most of the employees arent experts at what they sell, the equipment that they sell is sub-par and all the employees care about is selling you new stuff and upgrading you to an extended waranty. It is definietly a sad situation.

Anyway, thanks for taking the time to read my rant and to answer whatever questions of mine that you could! I genuinely appreciate the help!

I doubt you will get speakers of anything close to the quality of those 802 Matrix 2 series 3 speakers for the price you will get from their sale.

The design is now 22 years old. They were a high end speaker at that date. High end speakers have improved a lot, since then. However those speakers will out perform the vast majority of the speakers talked about on these forums.

If you sell them you will not get anything close to the quality of those speakers fro what you will get for them.

Not enough of them have sold on eBay for their to be a Blue Book value. However I'm pretty confident the pair would only fetch about $900.

That old NAD gear is worth very little.

You will not be able to power those speakers from a receiver. You will need powerful external amps.

For a center the current 800 series center will match fine.

This will be OK if your space is small.

This if is larger.

The problem you have if you want to use that set up in HT, is that the speakers demand excellence from the rest of the system.

What I would do is get a pre/pro like the Marantz 7005, a good amp, like a Quad 909 and just have a 2.0 system for a start. Those speakers have enough bass, that a sub is not a pressing issue.

You can add center, sub and surrounds as funds permit.

That is the way I would go about it.

A good 2.0 system will beat a mid price multichannel any day.

 

[bikdav]

Welcome aboard. You mentioned that you are into car stereos. There may be someone who needs to build a subwoofer or replace an existing subwoofer driver in a home theater or home audio set up. Car stereo drivers are far and away the easiest to obtain. Can you help us in any way if/when we need to use such a driver in a home theater set up?

 

[kevin_d77]

Welcome aboard. You mentioned that you are into car stereos. There may be someone who needs to build a subwoofer or replace an existing subwoofer driver in a home theater or home audio set up. Car stereo drivers are far and away the easiest to obtain. Can you help us in any way if/when we need to use such a driver in a home theater set up?

Yes, car stereo had definitely always been my thing. I was halfway thinking about selling the home stuff to put into my latest incarnation of car stereo madness! I have never used a car driver for home use, but if I can be of any help at all I will certainly try my best! I've been messing around with car stuff for nearly 20 years and had installed at least 5 systems in cars before I got my drivers licence including the car I was getting once I turned 16 haha!! So I will certainly give it a shot!

So you guys think that a nice 2-way setup would be better than my Sony Surround in a box deal? Basically I am only really using the Brighthouse cable box w/ DVR and my Playstation 3 as my gaming system, blu-ray player and media player hooked up to my brand new wedding gift, a 55" Sony Bravia 240hz 3D LED tv w/ WiFi. So its not like I have a real hardcore set-up, I just want it to sound good. The surround system I have now works great and sounds decent too, it just seems a shame to let those speaker sit and collect dust! Like I said, I am totally open to suggestions. I certainly don't want to spend a bunch on it because, well for one I just got married and spent a ton on the honeymoon, 2 somehow I was able to convince my wife to allow me to drop some change to install my car stereo system and 3 the Sony system works fine so I'm sure my wife wouldn't be too thrilled if I dumped a bunch of $$ into that AND my car system too!

Soooooo....rock and hard place....ideas? Thanks for all the help so far, you guys rock!!!!

 

[its phillip]

Any quality 2 channel system will poo all over that sony htib.

 

[rgriffin25]

As us Audioholics age I think most of us evolve from car audio to home audio. I think if you sell this equipment you will later regret it. It may take time financially to get all the car/home audio you want, it's well worth the wait.

 

[Pyrrho]

...
So you guys think that a nice 2-way setup would be better than my Sony Surround in a box deal?...

Yes, though it somewhat depends on what you are wanting. The inherited system should sound very, very good, only it will not give you sounds from behind you, and it will not have a center channel to "anchor" the dialog to the screen. (Almost certainly, your 2 channel system will have better bass than your home theater in a box subwoofer, so for the ".1" channel, you will have an improvement using the 2 channel system.) But it is perfectly capable of reproducing, in two channel, the sound from a TV, provided you have two channel analog outputs from the TV. For many years, I used a 2 channel stereo for the sound from my TV, which works very well. Indeed, most TVs have built into them only two channels of sound, but in the case of built-in sound, it is very cheap, low quality speakers that we are talking about, so the difference between TV speakers and your NAD/B&W system will be dramatic.

I strongly suggest that you hook up the two channel system and listen to it. Most likely, it will convince you that your home theater in a box is completely outclassed by it, and you are very likely to prefer the sound of it over your home theater in a box, even though it will not give you surround sound.

Certainly, I would be using the NAD/B&W 2 channel system instead of any home theater in a box system ever made.

If you want surround sound of equal quality to that 2 channel system, you will be looking at spending a lot of money. Since you are not wanting to do that at this time, I suggest enjoying your good quality 2 channel system for now.

The question is, do you want 2 channels of high quality sound, or 5.1 channels of low quality sound? Answer that, and you will have an answer to what you want to have hooked up.

 

[bikdav]

Any quality 2 channel system will poo all over that sony htib.

Easy Phillip. We all have to start somewhere.

 

[its phillip]

I'm not trying to be mean - he already has the equipment, all he needs to do is hook it up and discover it for himself.