Recieved a set of speakers for Christmas..

[tomtom]

Hello! For Christmas my brother and sister bought me a bunch of speakers from an auction. They gave me 4 subwoofers and 18 sattelite speakers. Im not sure if they all came from the same set but they mostly look similar and a few say Kawasaki on them. None of us know anything about setting up sound equiptment and I'm not exactly sure why they went out and got them but I'd like to try and make use of them anyways. I think I still need the reciever box but I'm not sure how good it needs to be. I dont believe I would need all the speakers used since 22 sounds like way to many to me. Today is boxing day though so Id like to try and go out and see if I can get a deal quickly. What should I do, what do I need and what should I get? Thanks for any help!

 

[implicit]

I'd recommend providing a bit more information (at least provide a general description) about the speakers and someone may be able to tell you more about them.

You should also mention what you want to use them for and the size of the room.

Recievers range from dirt cheap to "down payment on a house". Yamaha is an ok brand to check out for en entry level receiver. You could pick one up, grab five/seven of the satelites, one sub, and go from there.

 

[Ryan_Lilly]

I just spent the last 20 minutes typing the best thread of my life, then a glitch made it dissapear!

But to start over again, I sounds like yo have enough speakers for 4 complete 6.1 (6 satellites and one sub) surround setups, provided they all work.

BTW if anything I say seems very obvious, there is no offense intended, I just figure that for the benefit of everyone, in the Beginers and audiophyte forum, i would be as clear as possible.

The Basics. You Need:
-A receiver with 6.1 surround (5.1 or 7.1 would be fine, but 6.1 devides your speakers into 4 complete sets.
Almost any reciever will work, choosing a receiver is very subjective, listen to a few receivers in different price ranges and decide what seems like the best bang for yo buck. Some people are happy with a $100 receiver others insist on spending thousands.

I would try to find the specs of the receivers, you look at. A good comparison to look at technicaly is total harmonic distortion (THD). the lower the better. I woul look for a THD .09% or lower, this should be rated from 20-20,000hz, the entire range of human hearing. If it is rated at a particular frequency, such as 1kh, the overall distortion is likely muck higher. This is a good comparison, but the best comparison is to listen to them.

-you will need speaker wire to hook everything up, 16 gage speaker wire or lamp cord should be fine. you will need RCA cables to hook up you CD, DVD, Tape player(does anyone still use tape?) If you DVD player has digital coax or optical output you should use that to hook up to the receiver.

BTW try to find some model numbers on you speakers and subs, so yo can look up some specs. Also, unless yo go to a specialty store, most sales people dont know anything about audio, and sometims they outright lie to you, tell them you price range up front, and if they pressure you to spend more turn around and find another salesperson or leave the store. Sorry I just hate ignorant bullies.

 

[korgoth]

thats a lot of speakers.. if youre just setting up one room for now, you can get an mid/entry level receiver. anything would work.. just whatever is in your budget

stick with yamaha, denon, hk, pioneer, marantz, anything really. just stay away from sony and kenwood.

satalites require little power so you could probobly stick 2 speakers into each terminal then put those 2 speakers somewhat next to eachother.

2 for the center, 2 left front, 2 right front, 2 left side, 2 right side, 2 left back, 2 right back. that way you can put 14 of them to use. you can just use one speaker for each terminal if you want.. but 2 in each would work just as easy and probobly fill the room better.

that will make your receiver run into 4 ohms if the satalites are 8 ohm, but that shouldnt make any difference. if your receiver runs hot and shuts off, then you should go back and just put one speaker to each channel, but i highly doubt that would happen. you can either hook up one or 2 subs. or more if you want. you can just split the subout as many times as you want as long as your subs have built in amplification.

 

[mpompey]

What are the model numbers for your speakers? It usually would say this on the back. Once you get that, you can hit the internet and do some research about the best application for the speakers. There are plenty of good resources on this page for setting up your home theatre.

Home Theatre Basics
http://www.audioholics.com/techtips/setup/avhardware/hometheatersetupbasics.php

A/V Setup Guide
http://www.audioholics.com/techtips/setup/avhardware/audiovideosetup.php

Receiver Setup and Connections
http://www.audioholics.com/techtips/setup/avhardware/receiverconnectionssetup.php

 

[Sheep]

thats a lot of speakers.. if youre just setting up one room for now, you can get an mid/entry level receiver. anything would work.. just whatever is in your budget

stick with yamaha, denon, hk, pioneer, marantz, anything really. just stay away from sony and kenwood.

satalites require little power so you could probobly stick 2 speakers into each terminal then put those 2 speakers somewhat next to eachother.

2 for the center, 2 left front, 2 right front, 2 left side, 2 right side, 2 left back, 2 right back. that way you can put 14 of them to use. you can just use one speaker for each terminal if you want.. but 2 in each would work just as easy and probobly fill the room better.

that will make your receiver run into 4 ohms if the satalites are 8 ohm, but that shouldnt make any difference. if your receiver runs hot and shuts off, then you should go back and just put one speaker to each channel, but i highly doubt that would happen. you can either hook up one or 2 subs. or more if you want. you can just split the subout as many times as you want as long as your subs have built in amplification.

Just because the speakers are small, doesn't mean they are little fairys to drive. The RF-7's can run off an Ipizzle (ipod). The little speakers have a much lower efficiency then larger speakers, thusly you will have to crank it to get loud, which might blow/break the speaker/amp. I suggest you use 1 speaker per terminal, and a couple subs. Well, I would use all 4 subs but I'm crazy like that Also, make sure the sub is powered (it will have a power cord and amp on it)

Find a receiver that has 6.1 or 7.1 as suggested. Go to Radioshak or "The Source"(canadian version) for your cables, and don't buy anything from monster. Its just not worth it. The performance gains are inaudible.

 

[Ryan_Lilly]

Find a receiver that has 6.1 or 7.1 as suggested. Go to Radioshak or "The Source"(canadian version) for your cables, and don't buy anything from monster. Its just not worth it. The performance gains are inaudible.

He's right about cables, radioshak or the source is just fine, most of there addapters and other connectors are goos too, and you can get all your cables at one place, most audio or department stores overcharge for cables,but dont look to seriously at any of there speakers, receivers, amps, etc. most of those are junk.

BTW once you have it set up, switch out a couple speakers at a time to see if they all work.

 

[tomtom]

Thanks for all the responces! For those of you who have asked for more information about the speakers I tried looking at them again and they are pretty much blank. I took a picture of the fronts and backs of them so perhaps someone might be able to recognize and tell me about them. I have 2 of each kind of subwoofer in these pictures, 3 of the medium sattelite sized ones and 15 of the tiny sattelite ones. I think that I will try selling off the extras and try to sort out what kind of set up to try. My room is rougly 12 feet by 15 feet, with furnature around the walls of the room and a chair in the middle. My TV blows and lately ive been watching my DVDs off of my computer which is set up in a corner of the room. My budget is also pretty low as I try to save up for school costs next year. Anyways here are the pictures of the back and front of the speakers, thanks for all your help again.