http://www.homeaudiotalk.com/forum/index.p...=ST&f=46&t=2349 I made the post there, but since it doesn't get much traffic yet I figured I would link it over here. Please take a look and give me your thoughts. Thanks,
Have you heard the units Chris? Personally, I feel HT is entirely too personal. The differance in sound between HT gear and CA gear is striking. HT tends to be smoother, more laid back. While I am a fan of warmth, I have found some gear to be entirely lifeless. B&W is like that, yet alot of HT people rave about it. My first experiance with them was a set of 603s on a Denon 3803. I found the Denon seemed a bit too bright for my taste (I'm being very picky here, they did sound wonderful) on Paradigm yet the B&W were lacking in any high end reproduction. Now, I have heard high end B&W as well, on an Anthem Preamp, and Bryson monos all the way around (we're talking over a $3000 preamp alone, plus the Brysons at ~$800 apiece). The highs were more pronounced, but not to the point of being neutral, and lacking any detail. I was able to manipulate them enough to bring the highs to my liking, but it took alot of work, and developed that "canned" undertone. Judging from your selection of CA gear I am going to say you like your music more lively than I do. 10W7s are punchy as hell, and the Focals are very snappy and bright to my ears. Basically it is as if you prefer more presance in every aspect. HT sound is completely differant and it may be difficult for you to find what you want. So, personally I think you need to check them out for yourself. There may be 10 people who come on here feeding me junk about how I don't know anything, B&W is God or some junk. But it is all personal preferance. The price is right, but is the equipment to your liking?
My listening experiences in the mid/high end home audio range is VERY limited. But I will say that you should check out Adire's stuff. I'm sure you will get a great bang for the buck with their equipment. Their Sadhara subwoofer looks be be getting rave reviews. Looking at the specs and test results have shown why. I mean, who wouldn't want a sub anechoicly flat down to 17 Hz? I've only heard their Kanada speakers ($500/pair bookshelf speakers) and was VERY impressed with the performance for the price. You might want to look into the Kiri's, or maybe buying some kits and building your own cabinets. They have very detailed blueprints on different setups for them. Of course if you want to wait a while, I'm sure they will be releasing some crown series speakers. They discontinued the older ones, so I'm guessing they are designing the replacements right now. Their previous higher end speakers, the Veda's had an amazingly flat frequency response. But the sweet thing is that the 30 degree off axis response strayed VERY little from that even at the highest audible frequencies. I rarely see responses like that. This means that your sweet spot will be much wider.
I have heard them before, but only briefly and I did like what I heard. I would say I do like an agressive sound. I like my music to be 'tight.' I heard some Legacys today and was fairly impressed with them. They were the $6000 towers though. (http://www.legacy-audio.com/2003/focus2020.html) Also, I fooled around with some parasound stuff, part of the halo series. The P3 preamps and the A23 amp look like a pretty good combo at $800 and $850 respectively, although I can get them a little cheaper. http://www.parasound.com/halonew/P3front.asp http://www.parasound.com/halonew/A23front.asp Any thoughts on those? Warbleed said they were good stuff but to check out adcom too.
Is this for home audio or home theater buddy? for your parents new house or for you? id hate to see some thousand dollar towers go to waste because people on your floor in res bitch..... we're kind of in the same position as you, me and my dad everyone advocates seperates, but they're expensive id suggest looking at some Harmon kardon recievers, at least one that has preouts for later use of seprates. HK have pretty much the best internal amp....of any decently priced stuff. Im going to buy the flagship HK AVR-7200 for our home theater, nice underrated 125x7. but thats probably overkill for you eh? unless this is for your dad. retails at 1999, around 1000 online, i can get it for much less speakers, as mr sethy poo said, is very subjective. best is to do what you're doing, audition, easy to do this with Home audio go to that audioresource place i showed you, they have B&W(up to 703.... thats my front runner) and also have marantz. you might not need seperates, start out with a decent receiver that will do anything a same priced preamp will do, and more. just make sure it has decent preouts.
I've got what many probably regard as a weird philosophy for home theater... and for car "theater" for that matter. I honestly don't have a lot of time to sit down and watch movies... If I do, I want to take my wife, and go to a real theater like a Regal, and catch a movie. Just saw "Haunted Mansion" with my wife, good stuff. At a real movie theater, you have a screen that outproportions anything that you could dream of having in your own home, unless your name is "Shaq". You've got the original multi-channel digital sound that puts "5.1" to shame. And there are no distractions or reminders of other responsibilities. It's an experience - and I mean it's got a real introduction, suspense, and a conclusion. An uninterrupted event. So, I'm more of a home "stereo" guy. 2 channel all the way for me. That's obviously my personal bent based simply on philosophy. Car video is the same way for me... in that it's not for me. At least in the home, I'd be doing it for me though... In a car, money spent on car video is money spent on gear that you can't use, because you are driving. So who can use it? Freeloading friends? Ah, let them get their own Xbox and movies. How far are you driving at any rate? Your destinations going to line up with the show/game's conclusion? Personally, I'd rather be on my own sofa playing Xbox, conveniently located near the kitchen, not squinting at an 8" screen. Ah, to each their own! :lol: I definitely have never had the home theater "conversion experience"... Even the high-end HT setups that I've heard, even in high-end shops have fallen way short of the true theater experience. And how many $7.50 movie tickets do you need to buy to justify a lesser experience? Often, also, lots of those setups were just too over-bassy, which is just disconcerting in my own home, IMO. Oh well... was there a link I was supposed to click to look at something?
oh yeah... the TRUE theatre experience... - sitting on grimy chairs that everyone and their dog has sit on - popcorn and pop that costs an arm and a leg - people sitting around you crinkling bags, etc during the most important parts of the movie - people behind you kicking your seat (I ALWAYS pick a seat in front of someone who does this...<sigh>) - people talking throughout the movie sounds like a lot of fun, geo! lol but other than that... it's alright
I'll add to K's suggestion and mention the Denon 3803 or the Elite VSX-45TX. Both offer pre-outs for amplifier integration as well. I like thew Elite units better, but I prefer a warmer sound. I have found the Denon units to be a bit brighter, but more feature rich. I have a feeling the Denon may suit your tastes better, but the HKs are even brighter. Both units also offer multi-room capabilities. If you local shop doesn't carry such high end units (both really mid-grade, but more expensive then many recievers) try the 2803 and 43TX respectively as most will carry these lines. Sound is similar to their big brothers, but they have a bit less power, and less features. Both the 2803 and 43TX DO offer preout options as well, if you are looking to save some bucks. I can get you these recievers (the 3803 and 45TX) for ~$550-700, from some online sources (I can provide you direct links to you if you want, this is not through me, just a couple places I know of ). Expect in store sources to carry a tag from $1200-1500 on these units, but I have seen them as low as a grand apiece, locally authorized... Oh, not sure on the HK gear, but I know of a couple places online I found for them too. When I was in the market, I was primarily focusing on the 45 and 3803. Keep in mind, model year end will bring out the new units, and bring reduction in the current unit prices as well .
Well as of right now I have an older HK that I ve had for several years now I just wanted something with more power, along with the flexibility of adding things later on. I think that when it comes time to buy I really want to make the move to the seperate amp/premap stage. Right now, I think I just want to go ahead and do speakers off of the HK that I have now. Yes I will eventually have a home theater setup, but as of right now my main concer is for speakers that sound great musically. After I have found the speakers that I like I will then move to the amp/preamp. Really I had no idea that I could get the amp/preamps that 'cheap.' I thought I would at least be $3000 there, but it seems that parasound is good stuff from the people that I have talked to and can be had for less than half $3000. After the amp/preamp is bought I would probably buy a high-end DVD player which would dub as my CD player. Then after that a nice TV not sure how 'high end' I want to go here...But again I am talking about this process taking several years like I did with the car audio. I am looking to make this move now because I am just abou tto finish the car and am really starting to think about home audio and how good it can sound. Im going to talk to the guy with the Martin Logans sometime in the next two weeks and find out more about them. I he doen't blast them of dog them out so I would feel pretty safe buying them from him, but I wonder if he got them used too. Also, I like idea of the Logans because I feel I got a better deal, I got a $3000 speaker for half price just because it was used a little. But before I decided on these I would have to go listen to quite a few more speakers within the $1500 price range. All this depends on if I sell the 6.0 and if I decide to go with the 8w7s too because if I don't then I will have a LOT longer to think about it. Also, this stuff is for me it will not be going in the res halls, as I wont be living there much longer. It will probably be going in the living room of the new house, since my parents will probably remain back in New Orleans for the majority of the week due to work.
I dont know geo, I personally would rather watch the DVD on my xbox on a 15year old samsung TV in my bedroom, before WASTING $40 or more on a movie "outing" Big Screen, --- whoppie Good sound -- blah, blah blah I like watching a movie in a enviroment I control
"Stereo recording masters" What more do I have to say? B) Honestly, I can't even think of a purpose for recording standard music in more than 2 channels (unless you were maybe throwing a center channel in)... They did try that in the 70's, if anyone here was even alive for "Quadrophonic" movement. h34r: It was a pretty artificial effect... Good if you were toking the reefer though, I suppose... put another DIMENSION in the music... :lol: Which is why I can't see the multichannel aspect of DVD-audio catching on... The "it can hold hours of music" is cool... but is that appealing to the manufacturers trying to sell music? They are better off selling individual CD's for $15 each with an hour or so of music on it... Than selling a DVD-A with the artist's entire life work for $25 or something, know what I mean?
Music Indusry Hate MP3, but is it HUGE just because the "industry" is against it, does not mean it will never Caught On Hell they were against the Tape Remember or Remeber Beta Max??? yet every Home now as a VCR, so....... "The Industry" I am Afraid will again be FORCED in to accpeting new Techology MP3 is here to stay, so it p2p, and dvd-a is the"new kid on the block" and will gain popularity in the furture IMO. so the Music Compaines can either LISTEN to their customers, or SUE them like they have been, Which is a better business model???
OK well one thing I am thinking now that I do not like about that pre amp is that it is only stereo, which would not really give me anyway to intergate it into home audio. Say if I did go with the HK flagship model would you suspect that would get me where I want to be or will that just leave me wanting more? As of right now I have the AVR-40 its a nice unit and I have had 0 problems with in the last 4 or 5 years. I can't really judge it until I put better speakers on it because right now I just have some bose 201s (hey I didn't know any better 4 to 5 years ago. ) I mean if you can get it less than $1000 that may be the way to go EDIT: Mike Perhaps you can move all of this to the Home Audio thread I started and maybe just title it some like Entry Level High-End Home Audio. I think this would be a good start and maybe draw a few people over the other forum. Just a thought :unsure:
"Stereo recording masters" What more do I have to say? B) Honestly, I can't even think of a purpose for recording standard music in more than 2 channels (unless you were maybe throwing a center channel in)... They did try that in the 70's, if anyone here was even alive for "Quadrophonic" movement. h34r: It was a pretty artificial effect... Good if you were toking the reefer though, I suppose... put another DIMENSION in the music... :lol: Which is why I can't see the multichannel aspect of DVD-audio catching on... The "it can hold hours of music" is cool... but is that appealing to the manufacturers trying to sell music? They are better off selling individual CD's for $15 each with an hour or so of music on it... Than selling a DVD-A with the artist's entire life work for $25 or something, know what I mean? [/b][/quote] better to clarify myself live dvd concerts, with video as well there are many... that are recorded better than their cd counterparts
