Should I Upgrade My Speakers?

[schnel]

I'm new to this forum and really glad I discovered it.

My current setup consists of a Pioneer VSX-D906S 5.1 channel receiver, 3 Advent Baby Advent II (front and center speakers), 2 smaller Advent satellite speakers in the back, and a JBL powered subwoofer. My monitor is a Sony KP-57WS510 57" HDTV.

I am contemplating upgrading the Pioneer receiver to a Yamaha HTR-5790, which I've read is an outstanding receiver for the money. I'm upgrading for the sake of improving my receiver, moving to 7.1, and being able to automatically switch audio and video via the receiver (as it is now, all my audio inputs go to my receiver and my video inputs go to my monitor requiring me to switch both boxes when I want to change, say, from my DVD to my Cable to my Tivo to my VCR, etc.)

My questions have to do with the speakers primarily:

Does anyone know if the speakers I have are any good and will they work well with the new receiver? Is Advent even in business anymore?

How can I tell what the OHMs for these speakers are? (It's not shown anywhere on the back or bottom of the speakers.) Is it absolutely necessary to tell the new receiver what the OHM setting for my speakers is? Is that for the purpose of controlling power output or something else?

If I want to go to 7.1, can I simply add a new pair of speakers for the back or am I better off buying 7 (or 8?) new speakers altogether?

Any speaker recommendations that won't set me back a huge amount of money? My listening area is 300 sq. ft.

Re: video, is it safe to assume that I won't lose too much in the way of video quality by funneling all my video and audio signals through the 5790? Currently, I use Component Video for my DVD and Cable Box (direct to the Sony TV) and I use S-Video for my Tivo and VCRs (through my Pioneer receiver to the Sony TV). I plan to connect my Sony TV to the Yamaha receiver via a component video connection.

 

[Irvrobinson]

I'd say upgrade your speakers. It never ceases to amaze me the strides made in the past ten years in driver design and manufacturing and overall speaker design. There are suddenly all sorts of relatively cheap speakers (to me, less than $500/pair is cheap) that sound quite good. I bought a pair of low-end JBL mini-monitors (<$300) I picked up at Best Buy and the clarity of the highs and the relative lack of coloring in the mids never ceases to amaze me. Those Advents wouldn't compare, IMO. One area that hasn't improved much is cabinet construction, so watch out for that.

I'm not a good one to recommend speakers in this price range, but I'm sure others can chime in.

 

[Xsound]

Yes! In fact it is your duty as a patriotic citizen to do so! Why your purchase of a new set of speakers could be vital to continued economic recovery in our nation. The money that you spend will not only help to pay for the cost of the manufacture of those speakers, but will also contribute to the financial well being of the sales person, and the owner of the establishment from whence you purchased. In addition, it will create a hole in the inventory, which will then result in the ordering of more speakers to replace the ones you bought, which will spur an increase in manufacturing, and put money on the table of the laborer who builds the speaker.

AND should those speakers happen to be manufactured in Asia, and more specifically in China, it will bring a small increase to the economy of that nation. Thus as they grow and become a more industrialized nation and continue their march towards becoming a first-world nation, their citizens will be inspired by the benefits their productivity hath wrought. In the course, more money will be available for education and improvement of the masses until they may actually reach the point where they turn their backs on the evil of communism and become a free democratic capitalistic society.

So Yes, Yes, Yes buy those speakers! Not only does the economy of the USA depend on it, but in fact the global economydepends on it, as well as the education and liberation of third world children!

Unless of course, you really really like the sound of your current speakers, then keep them. It is true that there have been some big strides in speaker development.

Gee, I have got to get off the caffeine in the mornings

 

[MBauer]

Some comments

The Advents in their day were excellent speakers but has been said, there has been a lot of changes, improvements to speakers over the past dew years. Perhaps see if you can audition some speakers from a local shop? With better quality speakers in a speciality shop my experience shows me they will bargain and they will let you audition them.

Using your reciever as a video switcher is another issue. I admit there are a couple of schools on this. Some like the convenience of the receiver vs the TV. One thing to consider is there can be some signal degradation by using multiple hookups. I have one system where I use my Parasound AVC 2500u as the switcher (it does a straight pass through) and another where I have all my video inputs go to my TV (Sony 60XS) audio to my receiver and let my Harmony remote do the work. Both work well, my wife loves the Harmony route.

A thing to consider is how many video sources you have. Many modern TV's have many inputs and it is a more direct input for video. If it were me, I would focus on the audio capabilites/quality of the receiver first

 

[Takeereasy]

I love the post Xsound, laughed out loud.

 

[Rip Van Woofer]

I owned and listened to original Large Advents for nearly 30 years but, yes, time and speaker engineering has marched on. PSB, Polk, Axiom, Paradigm, Infinity, Def Tech...boy, you got a heap 'o' shoppin' and listenin' to do!

Oh, and what Xsound said, too!

 

[rschleicher]

I also owned the original Large Advents for a long time (only 20 years, in my case!), and always liked their sound (until the foam woofer surrounds self-destructed, that is). Back when they were originally designed, there were good reasons for going with a sealed-box acoustic suspension design, as a lot of ported bass-reflex speakers of the time were pretty boomy. Advents, and their predecessor AR speakers (all designed by Henry Kloss, who later founded Cambridge Technologies) all had pretty flat, neutral frequency response, reasonably tight bass, etc. The down side of the sealed box was low efficiency, however. I still remember going to a party where the host had a single amp driving a pair of Large Advents in one room, and an old pair of Altec Lansing Voice of the Theaters (huge horn-loaded speakers, a lot like Klipschhorns) in another room. Same signal fed to both, but the volume difference was incredible! If the volume was low enough to keep the Altec-Lansings from being deafening, you could barely hear anything coming from the Advents.

I'm not familiar with Advent's more recent speakers, but seem to think that the Advent II's were basically smaller versions of the same basic 2-way sealed box design. In addition to the other advantages of modern speakers built with modern materials in the drivers, you will probably get a lot more sound out of the new speakers.

 

[Fb111794]

Xsound..... that was funny. Are you SURE it's just the caffeine causing this problem?!?

 

[Xsound]

Caffeine, coupled with my audio addiction. I am thinking starting a 12 program here in Myrtle Beach. Of course there wouldn't be anyone to attend because I live in a giant gaping black hole in the audio universe. It's disguised as paradise, but really audio kind'a sucks down here.

Except for Clint. In this desolation, having my very own moderator nearby is the only thing that counter-balances the audio vaccuum.
x

 

[Leprkon]

I'd do the receiver and the sub and see how well you like the sound. You might not be lacking as badly as you think.

 

[Nomo]

I wholeheartedly agree with Leprkon's voice of reason.

Get a new reciever and work from there. Since I bought my Yamaha 1500 I was on a frantic search for new speakers, convinced that new was better. My speakers at the time, and still today, were some old Technics floor standers. I've listened to probably 30 different speakers since then. I've come to the painful conclusion that, for my tastes anyway, I can't replace the performance of the Technics for under $900.

As far as the 5790 goes; Take a look at the RX-V1400. It's last year's version of the 1500 yet virtually the same as the 5790. Given the fact that it is a year old model it can be had much cheaper than the 5790. Provided you are able to find one.

Take your time and enjoy the search.

 

[Leprkon]

I had someone check the book. They show a nominal impedance of 6 ohms.