As I sit here and write this, I'm listening to some great piano trio jazz (Mulgrew Miller, I HIGHLY recommend him) in my basement. This isn't on any kind of hi-fi system, just on a pair of Polk Monitor 30s, an old Yamaha CR-1020 receiver, and my freshly purchased Pioneer DV-578AS (thanks Dave). While I've definitely heard better sound, this setup sounds surprisingly good, even with speakers in not-so-optimal positions. Comparing this simple setup to my friend's megabuck bose system (the one with the TINY cubes) is laughable. These two cheap, 5.25" bookshelves sound SO much better.
I really wish I was better with electronics. I want to open this receiver up and update some of the parts. It's been modded once (someone added 5-way posts), but channel A is messed up, and the volume knob has a lot of noise at power up.
