What is the least expensive audio system that you could live with?

[KenM10759]

Gave the integra and mordaunts to a friend over the weekend, he asked how much I said nothing. His jaw dropped when we got it hooked up and kept insisting to give me money. I told him the little kid in a candy store reaction was all I needed. Always feels good to hook someone up, especially knowing they will enjoy it as much as I did.

You're a good person to do that. I have given away two 5.1 systems (complete frankensystems) to younger couples in the family who had just got their first homes, so I know the good feeling.

 

[pewternhrata]

You're a good person to do that. I have given away two 5.1 systems (complete frankensystems) to younger couples in the family who had just got their first homes, so I know the good feeling.

Plus I'd feel bad selling it to him considering what I paid for it lol. I did contemplate selling the mordaunts, had a few offers around $100 but figured I'd hold onto them until I got a bigger place. After soo long I got tired of looking at them taking up space and my buddy got a new place so it was perfect timing.

 

[Danzilla31]

Plus I'd feel bad selling it to him considering what I paid for it lol. I did contemplate selling the mordaunts, had a few offers around $100 but figured I'd hold onto them until I got a bigger place. After soo long I got tired of looking at them taking up space and my buddy got a new place so it was perfect timing.

I know the feeling I just gave a bunch of headphone gear tablets to my best friend who had a stroke. He can barely walk but now he can jam on music Netflix he can read because I put him on my Amazon account seeing him light up with all the new stuff and how it helped him I ain't gonna lie I got a little chocked up that's really really cool you did that for your friend

 

[Johnny2Bad]

I could happily live with my M-Audio AV40 powered monitors and my iPod Classic 160GB. Can't remember what I paid for the AV40's but it was less than $200, and the iPod I got for $0 by cashing in some AirMiles.

 

[killdozzer]

I could happily live with my M-Audio AV40 powered monitors and my iPod Classic 160GB. Can't remember what I paid for the AV40's but it was less than $200, and the iPod I got for $0 by cashing in some AirMiles.

Not really 0$ for the iPod, right?

 

[LoriQ]

The least expensive audio system I could live with is what I am living with now. I have a Yamaha Rx-V681 receiver. I have a pair of Klipsch 28F speakers for my fronts. A Polk T-30 for my center channel. A Klipsch R12SW subwoofer. For my surround speakers I am using a pair of Klipsch R-15M bookshelf speakers. I want to change my center speaker to a Klipsch center speaker eventually but for right now I can live with it. I also have a Sony Blu-ray player and a VHS-DVD player/recorder. I like the VHS-DVD player/recorder so I can take old VHS tapes that I had home movies on and put them on discs. I have a Vizio 40" 4k TV and an HP pc. I have my pc, blu-ray player, VHS-DVD player/recorder and TV hooked up to my receiver using HDMI connections. I use my TV as my monitor for my pc. Eventually I want to buy a larger TV but for now I can live with it. I just want to say something about my receiver. It really rocks! I mean the sound that comes out of it is amazing! Although, one day I would like to buy an Onkyo receiver that has more power than my Yamaha receiver. Not for the loudness but I believe the more powerful the amp the cleaner and more distinct the sound. Like you can hear the faint sounds on music more pronounced. As it is with my Yamaha receiver I hear sounds on my music I didn't hear before.

 

[Drunkpenguin]

I have a dedicated theater, but in the living room I have a 2.1 system with in walls and an old decent sub. Nothing hooked up but a Fire TV. Honestly if I had to I could live with this setup. We spend most of our comedy movie nights in the living room on that system and it has worked out just fine for years.

 

[WineOfTheVeins]

The one I have now, because once you've had it, downgrading just won't cut it Once you get into that bracket, you're hooped.

In all seriousness, I could live with my 5.1 setup, plays music alright, movies are enjoyable. All in, was ~$800.

 

[Johnny2Bad]

Not really 0$ for the iPod, right?

Cashed in my AirMiles for it. About a year's worth of collecting at my local grocery store, gas station and pharmacy. You can argue about whether loyalty programs actually cost the consumer anything but the prices at the three areas I shop are the same as everybody else's, so it is essentially "free" to me. I just picked up some NAD headphones a week ago using my AMs as well.

Note: AirMiles ® Loyalty is a Dutch company that operates the program in Canada, not in the US. Redeemable for flights, hotels, event tickets and merchandise at about 1 AM = $0.10 I don't buy anything or shop anywhere I would not otherwise purchase, but some people do. A trip to Safeway for groceries can easily mean collecting a few hundred, the Pharmacy pays 7 per $20, and Shell is 10 per 35L fill. eBay and Amazon also pay them at the standard rate (1 per $20 spent),Amex and MC pay 1 per $15, etc You can alternately redeem them for cash at a rate of 95 miles for $10.

 

[Mark of Cenla]

In my classroom I have an old Sony micro system "receiver" with some Sony speakers I paid about $60 for years ago. The source is a DVD player. It sounds good enough to me. Peace and goodwill.

 

[VonMagnum]

I've got a Klipsch self-powered 2.1 ProMedia speaker system connected in my bedroom and den to Apple Express units (and an old iPod Touch in my bedroom so I don't have to keep my computer/server awake to play sleeping "masking noises" on repeat that plugs directly into the volume control part of the one speaker. For a small room like a bedroom or my office/den, they sound amazing! Cost? It varies, but it's usually around $120-150 and even Best Buy carries them (I think they've got through a few minor iterations since I bought mine. The express units enable them to be used as part of whole house audio (I can actually sync all the rooms in my house to iTunes music playback at the same time; that's 6 rooms worth).

I actually use a 3rd set (used to be used for video editing at a notebook/dock desk until I finished that work) for surround in my Carver system hidden behind my chair aimed at the side walls using my old Technics outboard Dolby Digital processor (doesn't get much use; the room is mostly for stereo playback, but I had the stuff already so I tried it and it sounded pretty good with DTS CDs, better than it ever should have with the surrounds, but they're that neutral).

 

[GrimSurfer]

Toole talks about this quite a lot, whenever there are two speakers playing the same sound, there is going to be a notch in the FR, if the speakers are 30 degrees apart, it's centered at around 2khz. Even in a normally reflective room, which alleviates some of the worst of it, it's still around a 3-5dB dip. Changing the distance between the speakers (closer vs farther apart) only raises or lowers the notch frequency, but it still falls smack dab in the middle of the speech intelligibility range and where our hearing is the most sensitive. https://www.audioholics.com/room-acoustics/room-reflections-human-adaptation/what-do-listeners-prefer

Sent from my LGMP260 using Tapatalk

Toole's observation is very interesting. It points to a definitive issue that may arise with too much sound treatment: As the space moves from uncontrolled reflective to anechoic, comb filtering effects will be most profound.

Informally, we think of sound being "sucked out of the room" with over treatment. But if Toole is right (as he almost always is),it's not as much the room as the natural comb filtering effect playing the more dominant role.

Fascinating!