bigdaddy

Ok some of you saw my post about an old Pioneer receiver I acquired. well it's not worth fixing and the left channel is just dead. I did what little I could and I'm not spending anything on this receiver. So give me some suggestions for amps or receiver for a 2 channel setup. What I'm thinking of doing is use a modern receiver for a pre and setup a 2.1 in my bedroom or living room. I'm not opposed to getting a vintage receiver (tube or SS) and not having a sub. So fire away with suggestions. Keep in mind if I go tubes I will probably try to find used and I like my music loud loud loud so I would want some power for that. I don't do it very often but I've been known to hit 115-120 db on some material when I'm in the mood. Also about $500 is my limit.

I'm sure others will chime in but speakers in a cabinet sound terrible IMO. After having had a set of Fortes and then going to Bookshelves in a cabinet you will be very disappointed. has she purchased said entertainment center yet?

Yeah your sub should be powered by a built in amp. I'd look at the Yamaha rxv-663 it'll do all you need and then some. It's actually more capable than mine which cost me $1000 about 19 months ago. Have you ever visited the AVSforum? There is a wealth of info on there and few A-holes. but I have found it to be a wealth of info.

I'd say that's an elitist attitude. I love my Klipsch but if they had not been sold in Best Buy I would never have heard of them. I'm glad I did and will always be a fan. If they are only available for high end stores then I'll end up buying other brands eventually because we have one audio store in town and they sell Paradigm.

If your cinema room is dark you could do a projector and have excellent results. That would give you the largest screen you could get in the room for the least amount of money. The only problem with that is running the wires for power and video for the projector. LCD and DLP are the brightest formats and are great for rooms that have a high level of ambient light. The drawbacks to LCD are what they call artifacts on fast moving scenes(think sports and fast moving screens) that problem has been almost eliminated on the higher end LCDs(high cost though) DLP are great for fast motion excellent picture and no fear of burn in but they are rear projection and are minimum of 12" deep. Plasma probably has the best picture but some can be ruined by tilting them to far on their side. Also when the light on a plasma fails it's a boat anchor there is no repair for it. Having said that they are supposed to have a life of 50-60,000 hrs now. On your audio system it all looks good. The only thing I'd sugest is either go with one of the THX Ultra subs or a different brand altogether. Klipsch subs are in my opinion very capable but somewhat pricey for their performance. I had the RSW-15 and it was a very good sub but new it was close to $2,000. I'd look at companies like HSU, SVS, AV123, Elemental designs. Although others may have a different take on it.

As far as TVs go is your room very bright? If so then Plasma wouldn't necessarily be a good match. LCD is pretty good. DLP is the most bang for the buck IMO. But they aren't wall mountable. For a dvd player there are a lot of good ones out there. Get one that upscales to at least 1080i unless your wanting Blu ray. For that I'd suggest going with the PS3 as that is the most versatile unit out there as far as upgrades.

I agree about the wires and about Sony receivers. Yamaha is what I use, but Harmon Kardon are great products as well as Pioneer, Marantz, Denon, Onkyo. On the higher end you could go with Rotel, Arcam or numerous other brands. Being that this is new to you I'd suggest starting with an entry level all in one unit. Current receivers will have built in equalizers and all of the modern audio formats. Once you have all of the pieces in place then you'll need to calibrate it all. Most if not all newer receivers have some sort of autocalibration in them and that would be simplest for you in the beginning. After getting it all set up as you learn more you can start to play with manually calibrating your system to really get it dialed in. It does make a difference but it can be somewhat confusing. You do need to come up with a budget though as this can get expensive when you add it all up. If I knew at first what I know now I'd probably look at Harmon Kardon or Marantz just because they are considered to be excellent matches for Klipsch speakers. Also don't get too caught up in power ratings of different brands of receivers. My Yamaha is rated at 120 watts per channel but a 75 watt per channel HK will dust it. Don't get me wrong I like my Yamaha fine and will keep it until it dies. I just want you to be aware that some companies play with numbers and make products appear better than they are. Also I'd suggest whatever receiver you get to make sure it has pre outs for an amp. This can then be used as a pre amp at a later date. Or as in my case you can add an amp to your mains and allow your receiver to power the surrounds. If you look at the efficiency rating of your speakers this number is how loud they will go when driven with 1 watt measured at 1 meter from the speaker. I can't remember what the 82s are rated but I'm betting it's close to 95 or 96 db. That's reletively loud with just 1 watt. To increase the volume by 3 db you have to double that. So to get to 98 or 99 db it takes 2 watts. every 3 db increase doubles the power requirement. It seams like you would never use 75 watts but believe me there are soundtracks that will need that kind of power. I actually have 200 watts x 2 for my mains. As you get closer to the top end of an amps rated power they can start clipping and that is usually what ruins speakers. I'll stop there because that is a lot to absorb but feel free to ask any questions you may have. Rick Garner

And it is not THX Certified ...and for good reason .... The point was you made this statement and it's really kind of rediculous. You can make any claim you want but THX certification is a marketing tool companies use. Yes it does require a certain level of performance. I've never denied that. But the above statement gives the impression that the RT-12D sub is in some way inferior. Nothing could be further from the truth. It was engineered by Klipsch(let's admit they know something about speakers) to be used in a corner for good reason. Here are a couple of quote from a well known sub builder Mark Seaton(Builder of the Seaton Submersive) Having experience in the extreme pro audio side (especially subwoofers), and having put 4, 16Hz capable subwoofers into George Lucas's private home (not The Ranch), I'll add my experience on the matter. Thank you for the detailed explanation of your initial impressions. As you correctly noted, you have a rather large/open room, and for maximum LF output, a solid corner would very likely provide a significant improvement. Obviously he disagrees with the theory that a corner is the worst place to put a sub and I'd say he knows what he is talking about.

Ok whatever. Neither are my Klipsch Fortes but I'll put them against plenty of speakers that are. I'll grant the speakers that are certified by THX are capable but I'll also add there are lots of speakers out there that are as capable and choose not to PAY to be certified by THX. It's a marketing tool. THX does not do this out the kindness of their heart. Rather it's done for profit period. The pro media 2.1 setup is THX certified does that make it better than my Fortes? Not on your life.

I was hoping to see Hanna Montana on there.

I'd also post this in the General questions(off topic) section.

I think he might have run off. Honestly I appreciate wanting to help people but I think he needs to be out in the real world a little longer before making some of the absolute statement he made. While all of it was probably exactly as taught in his certification course, there are many who don't agree with some of the "facts".

I'd look at the Yamaha rvx-663 The only issue I'm not sure about is the 1080p 24 hz but you can look on the owners thread on AVSForum. I know you didn't ask but Going from HKs flagship to an entry level Yamaha may disappoint you. But if you have a really good amp then it's not a big deal.

It'll be a process of elimination. Try switching the right and left rear and see if it is still the same one causing the issue. If so then I'd say you either have an issue with one of your cables or an issue with the specific channel in the receiver. Then I'd try to use another wire. For testing purposes just run it across the floor to the speaker. Also check to make sure there are no stray wires on either end of the wire touching the other connection. After eliminating speakers and wire then the problem must be in the receiver. Good luck hope it's not that serious. Rick

I have a Harmony(2 actually) and I am quite satisfied with it. I've not found anything it won't control yet. Once set up it is very simple to use but I will say setup can be confusing at first. I will buy this brand again when needed. They can be had for as little as 79 bucks or there are some that cost over $400 but have more flexibilty

Awesome link. Good reading

Klipsch's RT-12D sub is designed to be in a corner.

I did find two 3 amp fuses and one of them was blown. I'll replace them both I also found the lamps very easy to replace. I'll see if cleaning the knobs and push buttons and replacing the fuses make the left channel work. It's a fun project anyway. Thanks for the help guys.

Thebes your going to make me go get out a dictionary aren't you? LOL

Yeah if I can fix it as easily as a clean up and maybe a fuse or two I'll do it. It'll do for music in the upstairs anyway. But I do like the sound of it anyways.

Ok I'll buy that.

All that is great but were not talking about commercial theaters or $100,000 custom theaters here. most of us have to make something that is aesthetically pleasing to significant others and couches are in very limited spots and the aren't always in the optimum place for the right waves to be hitting you. A lot of people just don't have the room up front to put a sub. So while THX may dictate that is the way it should be it is not always ideal for the normal guy to do with his wifes normal house. Yes if I were building a dedicated custom HT then by all means I would make it work that way but most of us aren't given completely free reign on any room of the house(except the garage) And no it's not too technical. I just live in the real world where very few people have $100,000 custom theater installations. Hell for that matter very few have tone generators. So I'll revise my statement. While the middle of the front wall may be ideal it is not always practical and you'll have to make do. THX also says I should be sitting about 6 feet from my 57" dlp but I find that having 22 ft of unused space behing me seems rediculous.

Thanks for the replies guys. What is used for cleaning the switches? I'm betting dish soap might be bad. I've always bought electronics and thrown them away when they stopped working. So cleaning switches is new to me.

So is that a yes or a no?

My brother in law found an old pioneer receiver at a garage sale(sx 1500 td) and gave it to me. I decided to hook it up and see what the fuss is all about on the old stereos. At first I couldn't get any sound(mute button is sticky) and then I got sound but only one channel. This unit has outputs for 3 sets of speakers, so I hooked up both speakers to the right channel of different outputs. I just can't believe the sound quality of this old stereo. It has a switch on it for mode that will play only the left channel or only the right channel or combine both for mono. I believe this is the problem because it does nothing. Also the backlight for the tuner is not working but I'm sure that's an easy fix.