Darren

Wow - I feel asleep for a few minutes and my speakers became "obsolete"! Hadn't checked the web site for a while and it looks like I'm going to have to find these new beast and give them a listen. Can't believe thr RF-7's are already in the "discontinued" area []

I agree - hook both up both connections methods and switch back and forth to see what sounds best to you. For me, my processor does a better job than my DVD player, so I only use the analog connections for SACD and DVD-A

Personally, I would jump on the Lexicon at that price. My friend has one and it does a great job - he paid quite a bit more than that.

Sorry to answer your question with a question, but aren't you missing something listing to an audio DVD (assume this is DVD-A) through "5.1 dolby or DTS5.1" Won't this go through the processor and be treated very much the same as a CD? I thought to get the impact of DVD-A or SACD you needed to run use the multi-channel connections with the 6 analog cables? Excuse my ignorance

"So if I have my receiver set to 5.1, am I going to get the same sound coming out of each speaker or are there going to be different tracks of sound coming out of seperate speakers?" As noted above, they are different, unique tracks engineered to create the total sound experience. The statement above sums it up well: "5.1 means you have discrete (think tracks) of sound, L,C, R, LR, RR"

I went to a movie last night (War of the Worlds). First movie I have been to in some time. While I enjoyed it (and it's hard not to like the screen size), there were little kids in front of me making a lot of noice. I think they were about 5 - 7 years old and the mother sat 4 or 5 seats away from them (don't even get me started on having kids this age in a movie this intense). Anyway, enjoyed it, but the whole time I'm thinking "can't wait to get this on DVD".

I have the RSP-1066 and have been very happy with it. When the 1068 came out I looked to see if upgrading was worth while. I concluded it was not (not that the 1068 was bad at all - I just didn't see that much difference from the 1066). I did find the 1098 to be very, very nice. If that's in your price range, give it serious consideration. If not, the 1068 (and the NAD) are both very good units and I'd say both favor performance over bells and whistles.

Not going to rock the boat - the sub is the way to go for now. The 201's are not bad speakers (especially for surround duty). The sub will make a big difference.

Congrats! The 5's are very good speakers, but the 7's costs twice as much for a reason!

A friend of mine moved last week and was selling his ML speakers with a 2 channel Aragon Amp. I was SO tempted, but really like the RF-7's - both alone and in particular in the HT. I really thought about the ML / Aragon for a separate stereo system, but no room - those are damb big speakers! The ML are extremely nice. From my listening, I would rate them higher than the RF-7's for music, slightly lower for HT (just my ears talking).

Welcome to the forum. Given the speakers and TV you mention, I assume you have a pretty high budget for your amp? If so, you have a lot of options. I went with Rotel, but B&K is very nice. You may also want to look into Parasound and Aragon. Good luck!

I think that is still true (Best Buy does not sell the Reference series).

One issue we all fight is limitations in our rooms. I think your speaker placement will be fine, but there are others with much more experience than I. For those of us without a self-designed separate HT rooms, we do the best with what we have. And welcome to the HT world

The RF-7's are worth the upgrade and it looks like you are getting a good price. An added benefit will be the upgrade on the surrounds (especially with SACD and DVD-A). This is a move I would definitely make.

I think Steven's answer shows the bottom line answer - the point of being "overdone" is different for everyone. Overdone does have one thing in common - our wives will tell us when we've gotten there

What speakers are you running? Off-hand, I don't know of any separates in that price range so you may be forced to receivers.

Both make a wide range - the low end of both are pretty disappointing and the high end are very nice. I've had both and would give the slight edge to Yami, but only for ease of use. "Evil laughter fills the air" funny - I kind of heard it.

I can't imagine you being disappointed with the RF-7's. They are extremely nice speakers. Also, the guy you talked to gave some good advice - "Rotel RB or Parasound Halo". Don't limit your search to just those two brands (though they are great options) - the point really is get something good to drive the speakers.

This may sound insane, but I would set your speakers to "small" on your receiver. The cross-over setting noted above (80hz) is a good starting point, but if you have all your speakers set to "large" the full signal continues to all speakers. If you set your speakers to "small", you can bi-pass the sub's cross over setting (turn it all the way up) and not worry about getting muddled bass. The only adjustments to worry about on the sub then is phase and volume. With RF-7's surrounds, you may find a cross-over of 60hz sounds better to you. Either way, I'd let the sub do all the work on the really low stuff - that's what it's designed for. A cross over of 60 or 80 hz still leaves plenty of low end for your RF-7's.

I was in Best Buy the other day buying DVD's. Someone in the Home Theater area cranked up some speakers to check them out. I walked over, and was pretty impressed. I don't know what model they were, but they were the largest Klipsch that BB had on the floor (Synergies). Nice looking and sounded good. However, when he really cranked them up they distorted badly. I was disappointed as they impressed up until that point. I didn't check out the price or model, but I can tell you I've never gotten any distortion from my RF-7's - at any volume. Not sure if bad electronics should take some of the blame.

Thanks - that's what I needed to see. In 5 days, I'm flying: Oman to Dubai (1 hour) Dubai to Hong Kong (8 hours) Hong Kong to L.A. (13 hours). A few days later I go to Houston, then all the way back 4 days after that. Not too worried, I do this trip about 4 times each year and grew up with Aerospace in the family. I'll take 24 hours in a plane over 4 hours in a car anytime.

The more you think about this, but more confusing it gets. There are a lot of fine choices out there and chances are 1 will sound best to you. If you can it's always best to demo units before you make the buy. There's a lot of debate about high-end receivers vs. separates. I will only say what I personally found. I went from the Yamaha DSP-A1 (which was Yamaha's flagship integrated amp a few years back) to the Rotel separates. The difference was extreme - much more than I had hoped for. The Yami didn't sound bad at all - the Rotel separates are just much better. Limited experience no question, but that's what most of us on the forum can offer. I hope you can listen to several options before you buy. Nothing is worse than buyers remorse when you've spent big money.

Living in Oman, I got up at 2am and drove to the Marine house (they had the game on AFN). Watching the Superbowl at 3am with a beer in hand felt strangely comforting. Not a fan of either team, but I will say this: The Pat's sure have played in some exciting - and close - games. First half was pretty sloppy, but I'll take a close sloppy game over a blow-out any day. So, now it's 7:30 am and I'm in the office. Going to be a long day...

You have very nice speakers - have you considered separates or a more "high-end" receiver (B&K or Rotel)? Nothing wrong with the HK or many others - but with your speakers you may want to spend a bit more on the components. IMHO of course

"i agree.... but my basic premise in everything that i buy.... avoid the cheapest model... always buy at least one or two steps up in quality...." This is an interesting theory. One, I must say, I generally follow myself. However, I had an MBA course that talked about marketing and some common ways they "steer" us to what they want us to buy. Many companies will introduce low and high end products to steer us to their middle model (which will normally be the one with the highest mark-up). When I read the research on this, I really felt like a sucker. There were studies where they would take the same unit and sell them as the "high" or "low" end. They would then take the same unit and bracket it to make it the middle unit. Sales would jump dramatically - 3 or 4 times what they had been. Pretty interesting.