tmassey

The placement of the wall my change things up a little bit. I know for my RF-83's, the further I pulled them from the wall, the better they sounded, up until about 2 feet. I don't think they make an RF-51, but if you mean an RF-52 and you can get it for the same price as the RB-61 and have the room for it, I would probably do that. One thing to keep in mind though, is I think the 51 will still be plenty, it is also rear-ported while the 61 is front-ported, meaning the 61 can go anywhere. I hope I haven't confused you too much. Hopefully someone who has some experience with placement of rear-ported bookshelfs can help out. I have a feeling they won't require as big of a gap between the wall as a floorstanding speaker would. You could possibly even try calling Klipsch Customer Service and seeing what minimum distance from the wall they recommend.

Hey Endover, check out XPA-5 in the garage sale thread This would be a fantastic amp for you, and it is extremely well priced, especially considering it includes shipping.

Good luck! It shouldn't be too much trouble. All you should need is 5 cables for connecting the 5 preouts on the back of your receiver to their respective inputs on the back of the amp, and then make your speaker wires connect to your amp instead of your avr, and you should be good to go! Any questions, feel free to ask around!

That amount of watts will be plenty. Usually when under-powering, what people are worried about is when they are turning it up really high, and the speaker starts drawing more power than the receiver can keep up with. It causes the receiver to "clip" and send distorted signals to your speaker, which is what damages them. Unless you are going to be playing them at ear-bleeding levels, you will have nothing to worry about. For the surround speakers and your setup, the RB-61's would be a little bit overkill (especially considering your are going to be so close to them). I would suggest going with a pair of RS-42's. They can usually be had for pretty cheap. And because they are designed to spread the sound around more, I think it will sound more natural because it won't be right in your ear. An RB-51 or RB-41 would also do you well if you want to stick with bookshelfs all around. Either way, I am guessing no matter what you do, you will be blown away by these speakers compared to the Pioneer ones you have.

The only amp that I could think of in that price range that would actually be worth your time is the Emotiva UPA-5 which is 125 watts all channels driven. It retailed for 549, but unfortunately is discontinued so you would have to wait for a used one to pop up somewhere. But after the price of it being used and depending on where it's being shipped from, it should fall right on or under your budget. And now that I think about it, it would do you very well because it would give you the option down the road to eventually get just a processor like the UMC-1 or any other that you choose, if you wish to upgrade. Overall, adding an amp to your system is very cost effective just in the sense that they lose very little value and are extremely future proof.

Not unless it has some kind of HT Bypass.

Nice, I think you will love them! They have never disappointed before. But we do need pics when you get them setup!

My Pioneer was a few steps down from his, and it was a fantastic preamp. The only issue I ever came across was it lacked the ability to set different crossovers for different speakers. I did think that the UMC-1 did offer noticeably superior sound quality as well. Keep in mind though, if you do get a UMC-1, you would need another 2 channel amp as well to keep your current 5.1 configuration, as it has no on-board amplifiers. If you do get a 2 channel amp or have an extra, the UMC-1 is stupidly cheap for how good of a unit it is. And they have a newer one coming out which will be 40% off for people who bought the UMC-1, so I am guessing there will be a ton of even cheaper UMC-1s on the market in a few months, if Emotiva is somehow able to stick with their projected release date of 'june or july'. As Youth said, the UMC-1 does have a few issues, but nothing that I consider to be a deal breaker. Another issue I have had besides the handshake issue is if I mess with the settings a lot and change sources, sometimes my right speaker channel drops out and I have to turn the unit off and on to get it back. And it usually does take a good 8-10 seconds when switching to an HDMI source for the video and audio to come through. It's a bigger deal if you listen to a lot of music, but for movies, it usually takes longer than that for a blu-ray or dvd to load up, so it becomes a non-issue.

I believe he sold them. They were in the Emotiva seller's forum as well and said sold on it.

A lot of amps have built in surge protectors, so they should be fine. Going having electronics blown, has anyone had a pair of speakers blown due to power surges or lightning strike? Would they make a sound with that much power going through them? I might try and make a speaker with an RMS of 'lightning strike'.

Anyone seen Immortal? (Not Immortals, but the Immortal as seen HERE...? I was completely confused the entire time. I don't even think confused is the right word, the movie just flat out didn't make any sense. Just when I thought I kind of had an idea of what was possibly going on, the scene changed to something completely different, with new previously unseen characters, talking about something that supposedly happened earlier in the movie that I didn't remember, in a completely different setting. Then all of the sudden, there is a random rape scene that comes out of no where involving something that looks like an ancient Egyptian god (man-like creature with a jackal head) and apparently causes the girl's blue hair to fall out so she has normal hair again. I guess it would have also helped if the Egyptian God people were talking in English. I am not sure exactly which language they were talking in, or if it was any language for that matter, but subtitles would have been nice to help me understand what was happening.. Now that I think about it, I probably should have turned it off during the previews. From what I remember, the first preview was supposed to be a movie set in the wild west... I think? However instead of the expected crazy gun wielding cowboys, there were sword wielding Asians. They were like ninjas, except they were dressed up as cowboys.

I am thinking there won't be a lot of people with that amp. Have you tried calling McIntosh customer support?

Emotiva suggests not using a power conditioner for their amps, and am guessing since subs have amps, those as well. However for everything else such as the TV, processor, xbox, etc..., I like having the peace of mind I am somewhat protected. Two years ago, lightning struck our house and all the TVs in the house were destroyed except for the one behind the power conditioner, so I think they are worth having. As far as the difference between my lower end model and a higher end model, not sure if there are any extra benefits to be had. When I did have my XPA-5 hooked to the monster HDP1800, there was some kind of a power surge or brownout during the night. The HDP1800 was making a buzzing sound, and the outlet for the amp was no longer putting any power through to the amp. I freaked out and thought my amp was destroyed, but when I plugged it into the wall it was fine, and there it stayed. Then I pushed the reset button the HDP1800 on the amp outlet started working again, so it is nice to know that the power station is doing something.

The RF-83s are definitely a very good and cost effective speaker. If you can find somewhere to demo them first though, I would suggest doing that. Scrappy's prices seem pretty accurate. I usually start with a little over half of what they retail for on discontinued stuff. Don't get yourself in too much trouble with the Mrs. though! The 83's are pretty big.

It is so hard to pick out a good TV. When you go anywhere to look at them, who knows how long they have been running for. Sometimes the fact that they are usually on 24/7 really shows, and the image starts to look very grainy. Last time I was in Best Buy, I was looking at the newer Samsung LEDs, and they did look absolutely fantastic compared to everything else. That could also be because they are newer though and haven't been on for the last 2 years straight. The OLED screens due out second half of this year look extremely promising as well, though very pricey! I could have a slightly used pair of P-39f's for about the same price, which if I had to choose, it would be the speakers over the TV. This thread really got derailed. Sorry OP

Unfortunately with that unit, the only thing you are going to be able to do to improve sound quality is to add an external amplifier. It should help you out, but as far as getting back to the sound of the HK you like, you might be out of luck. An Emotiva UPA-500 falls right in your price range, and they have a pretty good money back guarantee. Unfortunately, Onkyos are somewhat known to not have a very magical sound, so there is a good chance even with the UPA-500 boosting your power, you still wouldn't be back to where you want to be. Other than that and without risking breaking the bank for nothing, you may be better off sending the Onkyo back.

If you ever find yourself short on work, you should give Klipsch a call and show them some of these pictures. I think they would hire you in a heart-beat.

There should be. It depends on what audio modes you are using and how your specific receiver's bass management. Make sure your speakers are set to 'Small' in the receiver settings. If there is no small option available, setting a crossover will in effect, set them as small. Try starting with 80 as that is the THX standard. If you are still not getting anything out of the sub, it likely has to do with the listening mode you chose. If you pick Stereo on your receiver, you should be getting output from the sub, but again, it all really matters how your receiver handles this type of thing. If you really think you have all your settings correct, I would try calling Marantz Customer Service.

I believe reverb is a consequence of standing waves. What I take them to mean is you have these sound waves coming out of your speakers and bouncing off the walls. Sometimes when this happens and the waves meet up again, their peaks match, there is a possibility they will start to resonate. A good example of resonation is when you are singing in the shower and you hit that perfect note, the walls seem like they start to vibrate and it gets really loud. However, the opposite can happen as well and the waves can possibly cancel eachother out. How this all happens depends on the shape of your room. This is why a lot of people choose to treat their room with some kind of sound absorber, so you don't have all these sound waves bouncing back and forth off the walls. Time delay is something else entirely and much easier to understand. It's when one of your speakers may be further from you than the other. Even though they are playing at the same time, one's sound might take longer to reach your ears, so time delay is your receivers tool to maybe play the sound from one speaker just a tad bit later than the other so both the sounds reach your ears at the same time. As far as understanding it more, I couldn't find a lot of places online with good write-ups, especially pertaining to speakers.

To try and de-derail the thread, there is a very nice set of RF-82's in the garage sale forum. Would be extremely hard to do better for the price. RF-82s

Happy to hear they are meshing well with your current system! That is definitely a huge money saver if you can stick with keeping the rest of your gear.

I believe a good rule of thumb is think of them as yourself as 3 points in a triangle and then try and get that triangle as close to as equilateral (all points the same distance from eachother) as possible. I also think you need a good 2 ft. from the wall and toed in slightly. I think i was caught in the same boat as you. I was plenty happy with my VF-35's and was pretty much completely out of the HT scene. And than one day I was a little bored at work and decided to check out Audiogon to see what some of the Klipsch stuff was selling for and seen a very nice pair of RF-83's, and than freaked out when the zip code looked familiar. Decided to drive 3 hours to have a listen because I used to visit Klipsch.com and lust over them. I just got a decent job and had some money saved up for nothing in particular, and decided I had to have them. What I didn't realize at the time was how much more I was going to have to spend to catch the rest of my system up to do them some justice. Looking back though, I don't think I would have done anything different, and I am very happy with my purchases, and I hope you are too!

For speaker placement, I think the rule of thumb is that the speakers and the listening position should make an equilateral triangle. So the distances between each speaker and your ear and the speakers themselves should all be the same. It did really help the soundstage when I toed them in slightly as well. And yes, please let us know what they sound like behind all the McIntosh gear! I am going to be mad if this turns out to be one of those stories where the main character wakes up in the end and realizes everything was just a dream. The last and only time that ever worked was for Wizard of Oz.

Khorns for 150? O.o Someone got extremely lucky that day! Not sure I like the look though. If it were me, I would of had the china cabinets custom made to match the khorns.

Very nice! I hope to attend a pilgrimage at least once. Not sure when though, but it sounds like a blast!