Piecing together 7.1

[Chiken]

I'm new here and been poking around the forum a bit, it's nice to see so many knowledgable people in this area. Looks like I'll get plenty more answers here than going to any store and asking their "Home Theatre" experts.

I've always used the cheaper sony, pioneer, samsung, etc 5.1 theatre systems you get in a package with a non powered amp and cheap quality in general. I used to have a smaller room so it didn't make much sense to really upgrade at the time. I now have a much larger house with a large room where the entertainment will go. Actual room is 20X20 with a 20X25 kitchen attached and vaulted cielings. Just installed hardwood floors and the kitchen is tile. I was pointed towards Klipsch products and I am happy with the quality so far. I recently purchased the Quintet III system and a pair of VF36's. I am on the hunt for a Sub and a Reciever. I am leaning towards a Yamaha reciever with a 90 watt output. I'm sure that sould be plenty for what I am looking for. I have found a few pioneers for around the same price that put out 115 watts per channel but I have not been impressed with pioneers quality in the past. As for the sub, with such a large area I was leaning more towards a 12 rather than the 8 or 10. All of the subs I have looked at from Klipsch seem to be down firing which is what I assume I would need because of my hardwood floors.

I have also noticed that depending on where you buy your klipsch from, they tend to be different speakers, icon, synergy, ref. What are the differences between these? I know my VF36's are Icon and I guess are exclusive to best buy. I couldn't pass them up for half off. Under $500 for the set of towers. The quintets were also half off on black friday so I purchased those but they are synergy and not Icon. Would I be better off matching everything to Icon or Synergy or will I even notice the difference? I knew the quintet wouldn't fill my size of room so that is why I got the towers and to go 7.1, in the store, the towers sound amazing so they should sound even better in my smaller area.

Thanks for any help.

[Jakeg123]

With the different series of speakers, some are better than others. The synergy and icon-V series are the lower quality Klipsch speakers and the Reference is the higher quality series. Are you looking at the Yamaha RX-V665? 90 watts per channel will be plenty for your speakers. Klipsch speakers are very efficient and they don't need a lot of power to be able to sound good. As for the sub-woofer, you should definitely go with a 12 inch sub, if not two 12 inch subs because you room is so large.

As far as sounding the best, you should stick with having all of your speakers from the same series.

[Youthman]

Welcome to the forums. Don't forget to check out your local Craigslist.com for a good, used sub. I picked up my Velodyne HGS15 (15" with 1250 watt amp) on CL for a song and couldn't be more pleased. Lots of great deals out there. Look for subs from Velodyne, HGS, SVS...just to name a few.