meuge

Well, I'll actually have a sub, granted not an amazing, one, but the sub from the Ultras should do just fine in a small room, for now anyway. As for a larger woofer size, I would love to have the 35s, however I may simply not be able to afford them, since not only are they much more expensive (almost double the price), they are also so large as to require stands, which cost money as well. Oh we, C'est la vie.

Believe it or not I haven't been able to find a decent authorized dealer around the NY area. Most of them only carry 1-2 speakers in the reference series. In a couple of hifi shops I went to, the staff acted annoyingly snobby and wouldn't even talk to me short of one word answers. I guess I am not worth anything to them as a customer unless I have an armani jacket and a rolex on. Oh well... I still haven't checked all the possible ones though. I think there may be some in Long Island and New Jersey.

I am well into this upgrade - I am getting a Pioneer 100WPC 7.1 receiver from Redtop here on the forums, as he's moving into >$1000 Yamahas. I still think that RB-25s are a far superior choice. I'll try and sell my RSXs and eventually get a pair of RB-35s for fronts while moving the 25s to the rear.

Nice system Ear. I am on a lowly P4 2.8@3.4Ghz, with only 1GB of RAM, and a trio of Western Digital Special Edition HDDs in RAID 0, topped off with a happy little Sapphire 9800Pro @ XT speed. A little bit slower than yours, but no slouch : ) But what monitor are you running it on. I have a sweet NEC 19" LCD... pretty hehe Btw: hope you're playing Call of Duty. Best multiplayer FPS ever. I don't get much time to play, but if you see me on the server, run : )

Actually, the dynamics are NOT better per se... they are actually far narrower than TV programming for those commercials that seem too loud. However, they are really not louder, because the FDA regulates the max dynamic range of the signals. What they do to make the commercials seem louder, is decrease the dynamic range by up-equalizing all frequencies closer to the limit. Thus, due to the summation by the brain, we perceive the commercial to be louder, even though the peak levels are the same... it's just that the average is much higher.

Sounds like they could be bottoming out, like a sub that's trying to overdo it. Perhaps you should use the bass management on the Audigy to make sure nothing below 90-100Hz is going to the RSXs

Can you tell me more about it. How is the timbre of the sound - I am in the market for my first receiver/amp, and had my eyes on the H/K AVR230. But this sounds like a very sweet deal. I was trying to find a picture of the back panel on the net but it seems I have to sign into the Pioneer website to download the manual. If you could take the picture of the back panel it'd be great. What I am looking for are line-level RCA inputs (5.1 or 7.1) and hopefully preouts for all channels, specifically including subwoofer. I think I found all of that in the specs, but I'd like you to confirm it. Then, if possible, I'd like to hear your opinion about the sound. If you think it sounds good with the horns of your speakers, tell me if you think it'll sound good with RB-25s. If you agree, I'll probably take you up on your offer.

I've finally made up my mind. My budget is limited, but I think I've figured out the best upgrade for the money. I currently have a Promedia 5.1 Ultra system, topped with a pair of RSX-4s for fronts. My plan is to acquire a Harman Kardon AVR230, as well as a pair of RB-25s. I'll then move the RSX-4s to act as rear channels and run a subwoofer pre-out line through an RCA to 1/8 minijack adapter into my promedia ultra sub, which will have to do as a powered sub of the system for now. Since the Ultras have a discreet LFE input sitting on a stereo minijack with the center channel I shouldn't have any problems making this work. I'll have to live without a center channel for a while, but that shouldn't be a horrible sacrifice, considering the magnitude of the upgrade. Eventually I'll probably get a sub and a center and sell my Promedias to recover some money. For now, I'm planning on using the SPDIF out of my M-Audio Revolution to listen to stereo music, and running analog lines from the soundcard into the AVR330 for multichannel listening, such as games... I am still not sure whether SPDIF can pass Dolby Digital and DTS streams to be decoded by the receiver, or whether I'll have to settle for software decoding and analog inputs for watching DVDs. I would appreciate some comments and/or suggestions. I'd certainly like to know if any of these ideas won't work, or whether they will. Also, if you have any other suggestions for improving audio quality/reducing money spent, etc... I'd love to hear about it as well. Thanks

I am sure they're better than the RB-25s, unfortunately - see the size of my room - there is NO WAY I could possibly fit in speakers of that size, no matter how much I would love to have them.

I see you have the RF-7s and the AVR 335 - is the wattage that thing puts out enough to power those monsters? I've heard many times that H/K under-rate their wattage, but if 50W is enough to power the RF-7s, it should certainly be powerful enough to drive the RB-25s or RB-35s hehe.

I am thinking of moving into real audio territory after my experiences with the Promedias, the RSX-4s and RB-25s. My budget maxes at about $450 for a receiver/amp combo, so my choices are limited. I am looking at AVR 330 from H/K, since it has some of the very important options - 7.1 analog inputs, as well as preouts. My original idea, since I care about surround sound FAR LESS than about 2ch music, was to get a receiver/amp and a pair of RB-25s or maybe RB-25s, and use the preouts to route the low bass and other channels into the promedias for watching DVDs while I acquire the rest of the speakers over the next months (yeah, I know that the speakers don't match, but as long as the volume is even, it'll have to do, since I cannot afford an entire 5.1 set). I would like to hear your thoughts on this, as well as possible suggestions, keeping in mind that my budget for the entire upgrade is <$700. Thanks

I have a pair of RSX-4s that I just bought recently (about a month ago). The speakers are as of in perfect condition, less a tiny crack on the back of one of the grills on one of them from shipping damage (absolutely and completely invisible from listening position - had it since I received them - you can check out my original thread about them where I noted it: http://forums.klipsch.com/idealbb/view.asp?topicID=49754). I also still have the original boxes. The speakers would make a great Promedia system upgrade, or would be good as surrounds or even mains in a low-to-medium power HT. I'd easily part with them for $170. I don't think they're worth any less, especially considering that they've been really used for less than a month. Here's a picture of the crack, taken zoomed in: The crack disappears if you push the two pieces together and i was pondering on fixing it just using superglue since I got it, but never bothered to, since I don't see it unless I turn the speaker around and look from above.

The reason it's so good is because of exquisitely balanced weapons that can suit any kind of gameplay. The game encourages casual sniping vs. camped annoying sniping because it offers unscoped rifles that have the same 1-shot-kill power as their scoped counterparts, and are just as limited by the single-shot bolt action, but don't limit your field of view (my fav weapons on mid-to-long range). The maps are also quite good, for the most part. There are A LOT of people playing it, so there are plenty of servers to play. I like it over MoH and RTCW because of the relative accuracy of some weapons and the headshot insta-kills - they make the game more realistic, and more fun. Just find the right servers (I play jolt.co.uk and Dirty South servers as Meuge) and you'll have tons of fun.

Make sure you use a good antivirus, like Norton... or even a free one like AVG (which is actually almost on par with Norton, and has less viruses written to foil it). Also use a good firewall. I recommend Kerio Personal Firewall or ZoneAlarm, NOT norton or symantec - those have tons of known holes. Also download the latest version of Spybot Search and Destroy. Install it and check for spyware and adware. It also immunizes your system against further attacks and protects IE against known popups and stuff. Another good tool is the SpywareBlaster, which is a really good line of defense against ActiveX exploiting. I have all of these (Kerio for the firewall) running on my system and I've never had a problem with popups (killed by Spybot and Google toolbar), spam, viruses or spyware.

Call of Duty is the best multiplayer FPS to date. No competition whatsoever.

I do believe you could hire an orchestra to play for you personally for less money.

I have a pair of RB-25s on the way. I'll let you know how they work out.

While it is certainly worth it to upgrade the cables, I found that even though the old promedias use a minijack instead of screw terminals, DYI upgrades are still possible. All you need are $5 gold-plated minijack assemblies (screw types are easier, but if you are good with a soldering iron that works very well and the minijacks are cheaper) from RadioShack and a roll of some nice 16 gauge cables... I had some old MonsterXP cables that I used for my old v2.400s, but I used Acoustic Research for my friend's 2.1 upgrade - I couldn't tell the difference, so any high-quality cable will work. It's only a few minutes of work, and you save money and get to pick the length of cable you want. P.S. Be careful not to short, since the inside of the radioshack minijacks is conductive, so you need to make sure contacts inside are covered by electrical tape and don't touch the inside of the jacket. If you short, you won't hurt the speakers since the current will pass without reaching them, but you might overload the amp if the volume is set too high. Just set the volume low and make sure you can hear sound through the speaker when you're finished. If not, disassemble the heads and make sure you none of the conductors are touching.

Sorry to butt in, but I noticed that you're using the Belkin 1200VA UPS. I had my eye on it for a little while, since it seems like a great way to both provide protection and condition the line, and I was wondering whether you are using it for your other equipment, or whether it's inline with the amp you use to power speakers. It looks pretty powerful, but i wasn't sure whether it can handle the needs of the speakers. I would be interested to hear your comments on this issue.

Hey fish, where'd you buy the RF-5s at such a low price. Please share.