Receiver up to task??? please help

[bigbassdave]

Hey guys I recently took a seasonal position at Circuit City. Through my employee discount I have the opportunity to seriously upgrade my home theater speakers. I am looking at getting the following infinity speakers:

Front: Beta 50's
Center: Beta 360
Surrounds: Beta 20's
Subwoofer: SW-12

This setup retails at $2600 and I can get it for $1084. The problem is I will have no money left over for a nice receiver. The one I have currently is included in the HTS-770 HTIB. The model number on my receiver is HT-R520. It is rated at 130w per 6 channels. I know this is a very unrealistic rating and while it sounds great with the speakers supplied in the package I have no idea how it will sound with these much brawnier speakers I am looking at. Is it worth it for me to get the speakers listed above knowing I will have to use my current receiver to run them or should I not bother? Thank you for your replies in advance.

 

[MacManNM]

Hey guys I recently took a seasonal position at Circuit City. Through my employee discount I have the opportunity to seriously upgrade my home theater speakers. I am looking at getting the following infinity speakers:

Front: Beta 50's
Center: Beta 360
Surrounds: Beta 20's
Subwoofer: SW-12

This setup retails at $2600 and I can get it for $1084. The problem is I will have no money left over for a nice receiver. The one I have currently is included in the HTS-770 HTIB. The model number on my receiver is HT-R520. It is rated at 130w per 6 channels. I know this is a very unrealistic rating and while it sounds great with the speakers supplied in the package I have no idea how it will sound with these much brawnier speakers I am looking at. Is it worth it for me to get the speakers listed above knowing I will have to use my current receiver to run them or should I not bother? Thank you for your replies in advance.

Do you like the way these speakers sound or do you want them because of your discount?

 

[bigbassdave]

Good question,
I do like them very much. While they may not be my absolute favorite I would be thrilled to have them. If I did not get the discount I might go with a different brand. My discount is only this good on Polk and Infinity (57% off Polk and up to 65% off Infinity). I am also strongly considering a polk set up but I have the same concern about my receiver regardless of which way I go on the speakers.

 

[MacManNM]

Look, your speakers are the most important part of your system, if you have a chance to get something you like, get them. Wait until you can afford a decent receiver and add it to your system. The unit you have will work, but just not great.

 

[bigbassdave]

Thank you for the reply,
Looks like I'm going to go for it. I would still love to hear any other thoughts on this. I will most likely purchase the speakers in the next couple weeks to make sure they arive in time for Christmas. Hey who said you can't buy yourself a present.

 

[mike c]

whats the RMS rating of your receiver? my yamaha rx-v640 85w x 6 seems to be able to run my BETA set with no problems (except in 6ch stereo) of course, this is dependent on room size. my room is 13+ x 20+ feet.

 

[bigbassdave]

Mike,
I'm not sure what the RMS rating on is on my receiver. I am looking in my instrucion manual and this is what it says.

130 watter per channel min. RMS at 8, 2 channels driven from 20 Hz to 20 kHz with no more than 0.08% total harmonic distortion

 

[mike c]

that looks good to me! if you dont have a bigger room ...

i dont even get to -35db on my volume settings (for CD music)

happy listening! we have almost the same setup, except my 2 pairs of beta 10's is equivalent to your beta 20!


is the SW-12 cheaper than the CSW-10?

 

[bigbassdave]

I noticed your setup is almost identical to the one I want. How long have you had your speakers? How happy are you with them overall? Any distortion at really high volume in movies? How is the C360? We dont carry it in the store we only have the c250 and I like it but think it could be better. I love the beta 50's. How does your center channel handle loud music? I don't think I get the discount on the CSW-10 so it is not an option for me. The sub is the only speaker in this package I am not sure about because I have not heard it. A good friend of mine has the Polkaudio PSW505 and I love it! I can get it for $253.68 not bad considering it retails for $589.95 however I'm tempted by the infinity SW-12 due to the fact it retails for $799.99 and I can get it for only $319.20. I know that a higher price doesn't always mean "better." I will post a thread about these two subs in the proper section.

 

[mike c]

yeah, the store i got them from also didnt have the c360 on display, but i figured that whatever the c250 sounded like would just be amplified and i want my movie dialogue to be crystal clear. last time i heard the c360 was at the store testing it before bringing it home. im still too lazy to strip the speaker wires.

i think i've had my betas for about a month. i havent tried them with movies yet except for DTS DEMO disk 9. (without a center) i dont think you can play them loud enough in a 20 x 20 room for them to distort.

i was considering the JBL subs, Infinity primus subs and Infinity beta subs myself but if you hear the velodyne sub once ... you cant hear the "ordinary" subs of infinity anymore. really. no kidding. i thought they were off or something. sorry to put some doubt in your sub choices

 

[bigbassdave]

No doubt has been cast. I only have the two options and while I know there are better speakers out there (there always is) I know for a fact I love the way the Polk sounds. So that is the one I will go with. Thanks for the input guys I am ordering it on Sunday and it should take 6 weeks to deliver.

 

[bigbassdave]

I noticed on Ebay you can find Harmon Kardon receivers being sold direct from the factory (refurbished) for less than my discount on a new unit. Looks like the AVR 7300 is selling for around $800? I'm currently bidding on one and winning for $31.00. with 22 hours left. lol I know there is no chance of getting it for anywhere near that price but still fun to try. So anyway, I'm sure you guys already knew about the ebay sales but this might realistically enable me to purchase one in less time than I thought. Just have to save some cash and convince the fiance that we need one for our living room How do you guys think HK compares to Denon, Onkyo, Yamaha ect as far as quality and reliability? Any reason to stay away from refurbished units? Thanks again