Bryant0086

All 4 of my children love it when I turn the Klipsch up. The girls dance and sing and my son thoroughly enjoys his RF-7 / RC-64ii in his bedroom for gaming and dubstep. My wife does not enjoy loud music so I just send her out shopping or to get a pedicure when I want to crank them up. Ha ha ha...... unfortunately, my five year-old daughter will be loving my system QUITE soon. My Son is conservative like his Mother. My daughter....... more like her Dad in his/my younger days. Having said that, my Son does have very much my taste in music though. He is a little rock/metal-head. Who knows........ Bryant

so do i. so do many of us. stop making excuses. Ha ha ha...... well I didn't say it gets NO exercise. It is simply that MY perception of loud and my wife's and kid's perception of loud aren't on the same page. We do have some fun with it. Bryant

I wasn't aware Klipsch even did that. I know Infinity did, but that was in the 90's WELL after the HK buyout after Infinity went downhill. I also think JBL did/does that as well. Curious to hear a set of those. Can't give an opinion, unfortunately. Bryant

Didn't really think this through well enough when I first replied....... I was worried about timbre matching your center and mains more than anything else. Unless the speaker I am buying is on sale for $20, I am going to listen to it first, especially when it comes to mains. I have a nice center channel. It is a Belle that matches (reasonably close, anyway) my Khorns. However, my Hitachi TV speakers sound almost as good (they actually are good sounding speakers for a TV though) as the Belle just for TV dialogue. When the music comes on though..... it is a different story. My mains need to perform...... the center channel is simply "there." Having said all of that, my ears are much more tuned in to music than some movie or TV show. Listen to the R-15s and see if you like them.....I have never heard them, so I can't give an opinion. What I am saying is that my initial speaker investment would be in the mains I like the best, because TV dialogue and even movies are much less demanding on the sound quality of the speaker. Bryant

I have no experience with a Sony AVR, so I can only go by what I have read in different forums. I actually have not seen many negatives on things like sound quality, but I have seen several complaints on reliability......and just flat out failing. On specs and connectivity, both the STR-DN850 and STR-DN1050 look like nice receivers for the money. As far as reliabilty, one also has to realize, people are more prone to go on forums and complain as opposed to congratulate when it comes to their experiences. Having said that, I am partial to the Yamaha RX-V677 in that price range, given my experience with Yamaha and the reviews I have read, but as I have said in other threads, I really don't like to steer people too hard toward a particular brand nor model of AVR as I feel like it is more personal taste than anything. I find that modern lower and mind-priced AVRs are really much more alike than they are different. Bryant

One other thing I failed to mention is value in a model that is a year or two old, as well as the significance of a meaty powered sub. Since you specifically said you want to blast your eardrums out, the difference in sound pressure of a ten watts or twenty watt increase, is actually pretty minimal. However, you can find a receiver a model or two previous (still new mind you) than the current offerings that gives you somewhere around 140wpc in that price range. Bass reproduction is extremely power hungry as well. A powered sub with a proper cutoff point matched to the sub will also free up a good bit of headroom in your amp and keep it cool as a cucumber. Bryant

I would like to show off mine, but there are toys and stuff sitting in front of/on top of my Khorns........99% of the time. My kids are so spoiled that we have ran out of room in their bedrooms for their stuff. I am too embarrassed to show a picture like it is and too lazy to remove everything (like the cool *** skull that blows smoke and bubbles out of his mouth) from around it. Bryant

As Jim noted, I think the voicing should be pretty close. Yamaha has a very basic but effective EQ on the receiver though, should your center sound a little brighter or darker than your mains. Bryant

I am not going to bad-mouth the "orthodox audiophiles." I actually have respect for their tenacity at getting the perfection from their systems that they strive for. However, I can't hear the difference in many things some of these audiophiles are funny about, like super expensive speaker wires, for example. Take a small piece of this screen and have your wife place it in front of the tweeter of one of your mains while listening to Vanden Plas or one of your favorite pieces of music and see if you can hear a difference. Let her do it while you have your eyes closed. If you hear the difference tell her. She can determine if you heard it when she put it over it, or just when your mind thought it did. Bryant

Please don't think I am being a smart-*** on this reply. That is FAR from my intention, but some of it, I sort of feel like I have to be Captain Obvious......... First and foremost, put the speakers in the front that sound best to you. Second, use the room correction "thingy" as a starting point, not a finished product. Third, don't be scared to use the equalizer built into the amp. Make the music/movie sound like you want it to sound. Last and not least, become friends with your receiver and speakers. Tweaking and experimenting gives the best results..... at least for me Bryant

My system is dying to be cranked. I DO have a wife and a couple of kids, so my system doesn't get the exercise she needs too much. Ditto. I live in the sticks on five acres and can see one neighbor from my front deck. Or until the drunks like me start blaring death metal, at 3 in the morning. Well, don't do the growling vocals, but I can do thrash........ ^___^ I think that's against the Klipschood's HOA bylaws. Bieber too. And no country on my cul-de-sac. Happy Turkey Day everyone! Don't make me play you "I Like Beer" at PPUSA, now. Ha ha ha. I don't do much country either, but there is a song here and there I like...... especially folk music disguised as country, like John Denver. Bryant

The 15 appears to have an aluminum tweeter and the 42 a titanium. Both are 1" and appear to have similar, if not identical horn surrounds though. It is a tough call to make, but at the same time, if I were forced to give an opinion, I would think they would be voiced more similar than not just by looking at the speakers. If one seems a little brighter than the other, you can always use the EQ built into your receiver. It is there for a reason. I say go for it. I understand budgets as well as anyone. I have a family of four on a single income. I am fortunate to own a pair of Khorns, but they get pushed by a mid-priced receiver because I can't fork out the money to pay a few grand every five years or so for some high dollar something that is obsolete in five years. Play it and tweak it..... Bryant

This is my take......... I am an Oppo fan. If I could load a piece of gravel into the tray of my Oppo, it would try and play it. However, my Oppo is a DVD player, not a Blu-Ray. I play Blu-Ray discs through my PS3. My favorite band is German and my Oppo can play their PAL discs. It can also play my very small SACD collection.......etc. etc. You might look into buying a standard Oppo DVD player and a less expensive blu-ray player. It is only a suggestion, but that is how I am set up, and don't see an upgrade in the immediate future. Bryant

I would simply try to tweak your current AVR before buying one. Work with your AVR and see if you are happy with it. My Yamaha (had it for several years now) was slightly "midrangish" with my oldschool setup (Khorns and a Belle center) so I boosted the eq just a bit on the top and bottom end. Your RF 82 speakers don't have the sensitivity mine do, but even with "squatty refrigerators" as mains, I still use a powered sub, and I recommend you invest in one. Your Yammie won't have to work as hard with a powered sub and a cut-off frequency tailored to the sub. Although I love Klipsch speakers (wouldn't be here if I didn't,) you aren't really going to get that ground pounding bass from a couple of 8" bass drivers that come in that RF 82. You will get some serious improvement in bass response (which will feel like more power) with a 12 inch sub. If you don't mind even a bigger cube hanging out in your living room, a 15" is even better. Bryant

I am not normally big on recommending certain things, including AVRs simply because I think there is too much gray area, and it seems to be more personal preference more than anything else. Having said that, I will be upgrading my AVR within the next year and have been doing quite a bit of research. The more research I do, the more I find the Yamaha's mid-priced line-up floating up to the top for me. One of the few complaints I see with Yamaha is their "brand" of auto setup called YPAO. I am a tweaker and although I use the auto setup, I end up tweaking it anyway, so that is far from a dealbreaker for me. I am not suggesting to go buy one, BUT I am suggesting to go and try one out and keep Yamaha on your list. Bryant

I am sort of in the same boat as others. If you really love it, keep the NAD and just find some sort of other component for networking. On another note, while I see absolutely NO problem with the Denon, the newer Yamahas get consistantly great reviews EXCEPT for their YPAO auto setup. And you seem like more of a DIY/tweaker type of guy, as opposed to an audio purist. Not trying to toss a wrench into this thread, or dismiss your choice of AVR, just want to throw out that opinion. I bought a refurbished RX-V963 a few years back as a stop gap when I bought an HDTV to replace my lovely doorstop (connectivity wise) AVR5600. I never "upgraded" the receiver. I will probably buy a new AVR in 2015 and probably will go with another mid-priced unit (as they become obsolete so quickly) I am looking into all the big names, but I don't know if another brand could make my old khorns sing any better than the Yammie and I like the feature set for the money. Having said all of that, all these brands of AVRs sound much more alike than different.

Bag-End Infrasub 18. Normally thought of as being more for home theater as opposed to music reproduction, but it is quite musical considering it's size. Great for rock music or modern jazz with lots of kick drums or heavy bass guitar played on low strings.

This is my opinion only, and I am no expert, but for HT ONLY, I think it is simple. If you are not listening to multi channel audio, I think you should buy the best sounding center you are willing to part the cash with. If you do think you will listent to multichannel audio or care a lot about how the movie soundtrack sounds, then buy an inexpensive (but decent sounding center) and build your theater around another F3 and you will find one soon enough. Just unscrew the legs when you find one and carpet the front in audio grill cloth. Instant matching center channel. Bryant

Well, it didn't suggest Khorns. Many may not think of Khorns as HT speakers, but the way I see it, they were the "original" HT speakers. They simply had to wait for the front-end to catch up. Bryant

Help me here. Are we talking audibly better for BD movies, SACD's, DVDA's, or CD's? I know HDMI can pass high resolution audio and optical and digital coax can't but for redbook CD's, is there a noticeable difference? Bill For CDs, the biggest question is whether you have a higher quality CD player or receiver as far as doing the DAC decoding as well as if your CD player has a digital out. Two channel audio is probably the most scrutinized (ala the audiophiles) but it is one step up from morse code as far as carrying it digitally. Truth be told, I wouldn't be able to tell the difference (most likely) from a cheap CD player decoding it over an expensive AVR doing it or vice-versa, but just to take the high road, the higher end component should decode it and if both are equal, the receiver should decode it because you would have less loss from the cable as digital is easier to transmit. Basically, I said it doesn't matter for CD music. Sorry if I sound like a wordy know-it-all, because I definitely am not (not a know-it-all, but maybe wordy ^__^) an expert. Bryant

The L100 speakers were home speaker derivatives of the JBL 4311 which is probably responsible for mixing more classic rock albums than any other speakers. The 4311 was the most popular studio monitor throughout the 1970's. They aren't "audiophile" quality speakers by many people's standards, but they certainly have a strong character. Having said all of that, a modern AV receiver with a phono input takes you into mid to high end stuff, unless you add a preamp ($75 or so) or buy an Onkyo. They seem to be the only mfg that offers budget line receivers with the phono input. TheTXNR636 is an example at about $500 or so. If he is going for higher end than something like that, I would carry my speakers there and ask to hook them up to the receiver before I bought it. Just my opinion. Bryant