Audiophile NOT

[snooker]

I'm putting together a modest home theater and considering the Quintet Microsystem. I know nothing about digital surround receivers or how to put together a well-matched system. Since I'm leery of salespeople, any feedback or info to help steer me in the right direction would be appreciated.

[Foost]

With this group, just give us a budget and room size.

[snooker]

quote:

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Originally posted by Foost:

With this group, just give us a budget and room size.

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I'm trying to determine where the price breaks from average to better-than, to excellent. I think around 6 or $700. Room size is small 11' x 15' but I'll be in bigger digs in the near future.

[dougdrake]

Tell us also how important music (versus HT) reproduction is for this system. In other words, what percentage of time will this be used for music?

[snooker]

Probably 70/30, HT over music. While we're at it, I'm told speaker cables can make all the difference. Does it need to be labelled 'speaker wire' or will any heavy gauge appliance cord do the trick?

[dougdrake]

I've heard (not personally) that the Quintets do a great job on HT and a little light on music performance, so with your intended use you should be fine.

IMHO, I think that speaker wire investment should be taken in context of the entire speaker system. A lot of people have had good success with plain old zip cord (lamp cord, essentially). Others feel better about 12 gauge Monster or even the esoteric brands that run $10/foot or more. I'd suggest buying a length of each in your budget range and listening for yourself to see if YOU hear a difference with YOUR equipment/speakers. Several Home Depots have Monster 12 gauge, and an off-brand about half the price. They also have zip cord.

Just my .02

Doug

[Ray Garrison]

Speaker cable wise, definately start off with basic plain old wire, say 12 gauge just to play safe. Use that for the first few months your system is set up, so you're sure you have a really, really good idea of how it sounds, and you're familiar with all the nuances of the stuff you play. Then try getting some pretty exotic stuff from, say, Audio Advisor ( http://www.audioadvisor.com ) or another dealer that will allow you a thirty day evaluation and no questions asked return. If you don't hear any difference between you basic wire and the spiffy speaker cables, well, that's that, live long and prosper. If, on the other hand, you DO hear a difference, now you know what to listen for, and you can try evaluating a range of cables and see where your personal price / performance factor kicks in.

Don't start with fancy cables on day one, though, or you'll never know whether they were worth the difference, as you'll have no base line to compare them against.

Ray

[snooker]

Thanks for the feedback (no pun intended).

Any ideas on receivers in the 6 - $700 range

that would be well matched to these speakers?

[dougdrake]

Many receivers to choose from. I'll suggest the Denon 2801 or 3300. I know you can find the 2801 for that price, not sure about the 3300 - you might have to look a while for that.

[Foost]

You are going to get recommendations for Denon and sony on this board. Don't forget to check out Harman kardon. You get get some excellent deals right now on their website.

[Quenten]

The new Yamaha's are out & boy have they challenged the price market. Definatley worth checking out (excellent entry level models for < $500)

[Aberdeen]

Snooker

why not look @ the synergy monitors from Klipsch. "Entry level " for Klipsch products, Kick *** for other lines. I just purchased SB-3s( 480.00/pr retail) for my initial mains.Will move the to rear in fall and maybe get into SP-1s or Legend series for mains. The SB-1s (Probably 1/2 of cost of SB-3s) would be a nice start and throw in the matching center SC-1 (250.00) as I did later . I just purchased an Onkyo TX-676 and will be hooking it all up today. Check out the Onkyo's. Good luck

[brian_donaldson]

I have a pair of quintets in my BR that I use as center speakers. I've got some 6" in-ceiling Klipsch speakers that I use as the fronts. If you listen to any music on quintets, I think you'd be disappointed. I am, anyway. The in-ceiling speakers do a much better job by comparison, and they're inexpensive.

For sitting around watching TV, the quintets are fine. I gather that the quintet system comes with its own center channel and a sub. I use a KSW-12 with the quintets and think it's satisfactory, even though I didn't care for the '12 with the Heritage line of speakers because it was very slow and muddy.

The more I listen, read, and learn about these sorts of things, the more I subscribe to the bigger-is-better theory of speaker design, which has sort of turned me off to satellite systems, but my applications are more than 50% music driven rather than HT. I would invite anyone to correct me if they think I'm wrong, but I think most systems that sound really good with music also do well at HT, but not all systems that do good HT play music well.

I would encourage you to spend as much time and money finding the things you like the sound of. Once you find things you like, consider buying used or refurbed items off the net--you can get a lot more for your money. But I've never regretted spending additional $s to get higher-end gear and it's always been worth it in terms of quality and enjoyment.

[BLOOMIS914]

Snooker, excellent advice for all items given here. I own the Quintet system with KSW-100 in one room and I own the KLF-30's with the C7 and KSP-S6's and two Klipsch subs in the other. Quintets are great for HT in your size room and weak for Music.

I would recommend spending just a little bit more and upgrade to the Klipsch Synergy System 6 if money will allow. Major improvement over Quintets on Music. See the main Klispch Web page for more info on the System 6. Good Luck