Todd76

I'm about to buy a new set of surrounds. I have Klipsch across the front so I thought I'd buy some klipsch for the rears. One concern. Because of the room they have to be placed on the side(the couch is against the back wall), and they will be pretty close. Like about 3 or 4 feet. Will the rs3II surrounds be well suited for being placed on the side rather than the rear? Thanks

Ok, I've got it narrowed down to two amps. I would like to know which one would be the best way to go. I can get a Aragon 2004MkII or an Antherm 2 Integrated. I want the Aragon because I hear how good they sound on Klipschs, but I wouldn't be using a preamp for it at first. I would just be hooking it up the the Yamaha. Plus I can get it cheaper. The Anthem is more, but it has the tube preamp built in. I previously used an Adcom 5400 that was hooked straight up to the receiver and it worked fairly well. I don't know what either of these amps will sound like though. The Aragon straight(could get a preamp later) or the Anthem 2 with preamp already? Thanks.

What sort of changes did they make on the second version? How do these sound? I have KG3.5 mains and a KSC-C1 center fiy. Thanks.

Well, you have control over all five channles independently, plus you have bass management(which it is another science in itself. If you only wanted it in 4-channel, just try taking the center channel out. You could mix it like that with the center gone and do your mixing and panning from there on. Then just burn it witht he 5.1 software.

Are you asking me how you might encode a dvd in surroud? Also, you're saying that dvd players are being sold now that are capable of playing dvd-a, people are buying them and not realizing it? I didn't know they were that available yet. I have a sony dvd player that plays sacd's. The reason why I think Sony might win out is the deep pockets bewteen the two companies. I don't think Sony would concede a loss. I could be wrong though.

Oh yeah, I forgot. Go to Cubase.net if you have anymore questions on soundcards. You can get anything answered there by some true experts. Go to the hardware forum.

It's a HTR-5250.

I just got on this forum today because I was looking for a 2chn amp for my kg 3.5's, but I write music also. I have the M-audio Omni Studio, which is a delta 66 sound card with break box for connections and control. As far as surround goes, I'm not familiar with the newer "surround" cards. I can tell you that in the music writing world, M-audio is very well respected. M-audio is actually a subsidiary of Midiman, although they're starting to go by M-audio. Another great product from the same group is Propellerhead. If you've ever heard of Reason, that's who makes it. The group at M-audio are very inovative and have their sh*# together. They make good products and great prices. As far as soundcards go, the sound card is only as good as it's driver. M-audio has awesome drivers. Don't buy any card that doesn't have an ASIO driver, you'll just be wasting your money. Also, don't buy Soundblaster!!!! I repeat, do not buy Soundblaster!!! Crappiest, most commercialized card out there. I don't use my computer for home theater so I don't really know what the M-audio cards sound like. You can bring the signal out at 24bit/96khz. It's not really up to the card to decide wether or not it's surroud capable, technically. It's up to the software. Most of the music writing software out there are starting to incorporate surround mixing. I use Cubase SX. It's not recommeded for the beginner, but it'll almost anything you can think of. If the software mixes in surround you don't need multiple outputs on the soundcard. So you could use to audiophile 24/96 to encode in surround. Cubase will export a surround mix, but to burn it to disk, you need encoding software. It's a bit pricey right now, but give a year. Surround is here to stay. In the future, all music cd's will be surround capable. Most studios now days are mixing/mastering in surround already, although they don't release it. That's because they want to be prepared for the future. Here are a couple of software suggestions for encoding in surround: Minnetonka's Surcode Universal or Audio's SmartCode. As far as SACD or dvd-a? Forget about it. Can you say proprietary technology? Just in case you didn't know, SPDIF is the original format for a cd, which is 16bit/44.1khz. SPDIF stands for Sony Phillips Digital Interface. Sony and Phillips teamed up to develop the cd, so there's you inventors of the cd!!! Sony and Phillips have teamed up again on the SACD. I would bet on SACD over dvd-a since you have to have a different player for either one, plus SACD has a higher sample rate. Anyway, I thought some of this might be informative for some. Have fun with your equipment!!!

Here's the deal. I've had a pair of kg 3.5's for 7 years now. One of my old roommates had an Adcom 5400 so they were powered by that for a while. Now that we've gone our different ways, I'm ready to buy another amp. I want to upgrade though. I've been researching the last few weeks and I've come down to this: I listen to mostly alternative/hard rock and electonica so I don't think a tube would fit me well at this point. I was going get an adcom 555 before I decided to spend more. I think I've got it narrowed down to either an Anthem 2 integrated, or some sort of Aragon. I really want the Aragon because I heard they sound awesome on Klipschs. But...... I don't have a true preamp and don't think I can afford to buy the Aragon and a preamp. Which one do ya'll think would sound better? What if I bought the Aragon hooked it up straight from the Yamaha and got a preamp later? Or might it be better to go with the Anthem 2 and tube preamp from the start? Any ideas or suggestions?