dougdrake

Just wanted to clarify that if your BlueRay player has the HD codecs in it, you don't need them in your pre/pro or receiver - just as long as it can accept multi-channel PCM over HDMI, it will play the decoded audio passed to it by the BR player. I believe most receivers that support audio over HDMI will do that. To have the pre/pro or receiver decode them, your BR player must pass bitstream, and some do not (e.g. the Sony PS3).

Do you need it to handle the high-res surround formats (DTS-HD Master Audio and Dolby TrueHD), or are they not of interest, or perhaps your hi-def video source will decode and pass as PCM?

http://www.radioroku.com/welcome.php http://www.slacker.com/ You can listen to these on your PC without having their appliance. However, I have the Roku Soundbridge connected to my 1959 Fisher integrated amp/KG4s and it's my main audio source in my living room.

Not sure if this meets your needs...Pioneer Elite VSX-90TXV for $299 at Vann's: http://www.vanns.com/shop/servlet/item/features/538649660/pioneer-vsx-90txv?s_c=site_search

I would think seriously about getting a receiver with HDMI connections that support the audio stream. You will not be able to take advantage of the new high-res audio formats without one (e.g. DTS-HD Master Audio and Dolby TrueHD), and I have only heard terrific things about their sound quality. Your receiver does not need to have those codecs in it - the PS3 can only pass those signals as multi-channel PCM, which I think most any receiver with HDMI audio can accept. (The PS3 decodes the DTS-HD and TrueHD for you, and then just passes the audio stream as a digital output, but only over HDMI.)

Not a question that can be answered without more information - what's the intended use, how big is the room, can the light be fully controlled, etc... If all factors support it, I would always say a PJ over a TV for the sheer size/impact factor (after all, that's what the goal of home "theater" is, right?).

At one time, in the old days of the Klipsch web site, there was a table which showed suitable center speakers for various older models. I believe the KV-3 was listed for the KG-4. At any rate, I have used a KV-3 with my KG-4s and I thought it worked out great.

I'm not familiar with the particular capabilities of that receiver, but most audio set-up routines do more than just set volume levels. They EQ the output to help balance the tonal anomolies of the room, which is way beyond what the RS meter or your ears can do manually.

Well, I see Sota listed in the acknowledgements during the end credits of the Fox TV show "House," so if Dr. House likes it it must be good!

I believe sbw forgot to turn on the sarcasm indicator [] If you could give us a budget, and some guidance along the lines of what speaker types (in-wall, floor-standing) and room layout considerations we need to be mindful of (size of TV, architectural constraints, etc...), that would help.

If the splice will be out of sight, if it were me I'd just connect the wires using wire nuts - probably about 1/10th the cost and just as secure, if not more so.

Has the smoke cleared yet? Not sure exactly what the final attempt was going to look like, but the key message above is that you do not want to have one pair of speakers hooked to 2 amps at the same time (at least not if the binding posts are connected together). You want to have an A/B amp selector in place to keep the circuits separate from each other.

My Forte I's have rubber surrounds on both the woofers and the drone.

If you're thinking solid state, don't overlook NAD. They don't get much airtime around these parts, but they are generally a very good product. Not a lot of bells and whistles, but quality where it counts. They are like HK in their power-ratings - understated but you get more than you think.

I don't recall if the woofers on the FII have rubber surrounds on them - I believe they do. If so, that whitish powder you see is probably normal - it is the atmosphere interacting with the rubber.

$1000 each for those THX speakers, it appears. Even at 60% off, that's still a sizable investment in ceiling speakers.

There are brands of ceiling speakers that have tweeters that can be rotated/oriented to focus the sound towards the listening area, versus pointing straight down. Perhaps those are an option for you? I don't recall the brand names, though. I've also seen ceiling mount speakers which are angled in their mounting box so that the whole speaker faces toward the listening position. Hard to describe, but it's sort of like cutting a rectangle into the drywall and mounting the box up to the ceiling joists. The speaker itself is rectangular versus round. Do your ceiling joists run the right direction to support something like that?

Welcome - glad you stopped by. You don't say how high the ceilings are, so it's hard to guess if ceiling speakers would be an issue. In an ideal situation, you would not use them. Not sure I follow the "little kids ergo no floor standing speakers" line of thinking. Maybe I was just lucky, but I raised kids with floor standers and had no problems whatsoever - they paid no attention to the speakers. You said this house is being built - do you have any control over where the wiring is going? Does the fireplace have to be under the TV?

Yes, but at least they're in good company - I saw many high-5 and 6-figure speakers get D's also.

When you say "level," do you mean the relative volume setting was lower when you look at the settings in the receiver, or that the volume you heard was actually lower? If the volume setting is lower, it is likely because your auto-calibration determined that setting to be the correct one so that the audible volume matched the rest of the speakers. I would not mess with it unless it sounds wrong to you when you listen to it.

I hung a Forte as a center channel by building a shelf out of MDF, putting a molding around it to create an edge, and using eye bolts with wire rope to suspend the shelf. I set the Forte on the shelf, so I didn't have to modify/attach to the cabinet. I inverted it, and then used the screws on the bottom - which was now the top - (after removing the base) to attach another set of eye bolts to provide a secure attachment for the top (really the bottom since it was inverted) to the rear wires holding the shelf to keep the speaker from tumbling off the angled shelf. I hope this makes sense.

Welcome! The simplest connection is to use a coaxial cable that has RCA connectors on the end (they are the ones with a round sleeve with a solid pin in the center, not the kind of connector you find on TV coax cables (which is called an F connector)). You can use a VIDEO (not TV) cable for this connection. And don't let someone sell you a $50 subwoofer cable - any good quality VIDEO cable will do the job. Hook it to the sub output on your receiver and to the Left/LFE input on your sub. Then, in your receiver's set-up menus, be sure to tell it you have a subwoofer, and then on the receiver set the subwoofer crossover at 120hz. Your speakers have a frequency response specification that indicates that is the lowest sound they'll produce, so you'll want the subwoofer to produce the sounds from 120hz and below. Use the receiver's set-up test tones to set the volumes of all speakers to be the same. This is tough to do by ear, especially with the subwoofer. Bass does not sound as loud to us so we tend to make it too loud and it becomes overwhelming or muddy during a movie. Enjoy!

What do you mean by "sounds better?" IMO, the goal of a center speaker is to provide as close an audio match as possible to the main speakers, so that sound cues that move across the soundstage sound seamless. Second, it needs to be able to reproduce dialog as cleanly as possible, since the majority of spoken sound will come from the center. With these in mind, would you say the CF3 does a better job as a center in your scenario?

Do you need to deal with a bunch of wall warts (transformers)? If so, I'd suggest the Power Squid models. Some have surge protectors. Cheapest prices I've seen are on Ebay. Otherwise, there are 6-outlet strips at Home Depot for about $8...

It may be more accurate to say that most other receiver manufacturers overstate their ratings rather than HK understating theirs. You need to closely look at what ratings are being reported - 2 channels driven at 1000hz, all channels driven, etc.... If you look at bench tests of HK amps and receivers, you'll consistently see them holding their rated output across all channels under varying loads. I don't have any specifics for an HK, but as an example of understating ratings my Acurus 200 amp, rated at 200wpc, bench tests around 320wpc IIRC. Additionally, they tend to use beefy power supplies which help maintain power during demanding musical passages. .