New to HT

[kisschicken]

I'm new to this home theatre thing and I just had some

questions. I purchased a pair of the RF15 floor speakers, along with

the RS10 center and a pair of the RC10 rears. I upgraded(I hope) from

an Onkyo HT in a box, and I'm still using the original reciever from

that package. Its rated at 100 watts a channel, but seeing as it came

from a HT in a box I was wondering if I need something better to power

these Klipsch. Also, I paid $750 for all the Klipsch speakers, and was

wondering if that sounds like a decent price. The eventual plan is to

upgrade the RF15s to something better and put the RF15s to the side to

get 7.1. I'm a poor college student so this upgrading idea is farrrr

down the road, but I just wanted some feedback on the direction I was

going. Thanks

[SCOOTERDOG]

Welcome!

Sounds like you are starting your new system in the right direction.

Even though your current HTIAB receiver is rated at 100 watts I can bet

the insides of that puppy will not do you justice. Afetr all is a

HTIAB. I can appreciate being a poor college student and wanting

great tunes. I would look at a used Denon 3802 AV receiver or similar.

I have seen several models from 250-400 bucks on ebay that would do

just fine for you. You may also want to consider some of the HK models

too.

good luck and welcome to our little corner of the world.

scooter

[HTADDICT]

Welcome to the forum, and congradulations on your speaker purchase. It's hard to get a good quality system for under 1,000 bucks anymore so you did well. Klipsch is great for home theater and what you have now will help you step up to bigger and better in the future. Time has a funny way of catching up so farrrr in the future can come quicker than you think. My first HT purchase was a technics receiver that did dolby digital my second year of college. Eleven short years later and I can't believe how good my system is now! (killer system, that came with a wife and 4 kids).

I wouldn't be in as big of a rush to add the back 2 channels as I would a good subwoofer, while your speakers will do just fine, they aren't quite able to keep up with some of the deep audio tracks on todays dvd's, I'd be looking at a subwoofer first and formost so you can set your speakers to small and send that info to something a little more capable. I'd reccomend at minimum a 12" sub, it's probably the funnest part of a good home theater system, and will take alot of stress off of your speakers and your receiver. I happen to have a Klipsch ksw15 that I am no longer in need of since I upgraded to dual svs pc-ultra's. If you are interested let me know. (college bills come first though![]) As far as receivers go, I'm sure you can do alot better than a HTIB one, but as long as you are getting DD&dts you can hang onto it for as long as it takes you to afford something better down the road, I use a yamaha at the moment, some people prefer the denons, there are alot of brands out there that do well.

Congrats & happy upgrading.... as it never ends!

[kisschicken]

Thanks for the tip on the 3802. Found a couple on Ebay, one for $200

that ends in 3 days and another for $385 Buy it now. I bid on the

cheaper one so i hope it doesn't get too high. Worse comes to worse,

I'll just buy the other one. I just came back from a tour in

Afghanistan, so I figure I can splurge a little on myself.

[kisschicken]

Well, I got the winning bid on the Denon 3802 today. About the

sub, I'm still using my existing sub that came with the HTIAB. I

live on the second floor of an apartment, so I can't get away with much

more bass than that thing puts out anyway. Between the speakers and my

jumping around on account of my dance dance revolution habit, I'm

amazed I haven't been evicted yet. Once the Denon comes in, is there

anyway to configure everything to get ideal speaker placement?

[SCOOTERDOG]

You got yourself a great receiver. I would place the sub in the front along with your mains and center. Experiment with your L&R to see what sounds best to you. A lot of folks toe the speakers in about 20 degrees, see what sounds best to you. The denon will give you options for setting up the speakers including the sub. You will be able to set up distance and time delay. Best thing to do is just experiment until you found what you like.

Congrats on the new toy!

scooter

[Zen Traveler]

Well, I got the winning bid on the Denon 3802 today. About the sub, I'm still using my existing sub that came with the HTIAB. I live on the second floor of an apartment, so I can't get away with much more bass than that thing puts out anyway. Between the speakers and my jumping around on account of my dance dance revolution habit, I'm amazed I haven't been evicted yet. Once the Denon comes in, is there anyway to configure everything to get ideal speaker placement?

Welcome to the forum and congratulations on the Denon AVR 3802.

Scooterdog is giving you good advice (along with HTaddict) and it sounds like you are capitalizing on it. I also am a fan of discontinued Denon's, insofar as an excellent bang for your buck AVR recommendation. Good luck. []

[westcott]

Well, I got the winning bid on the Denon 3802 today. About the sub, I'm still using my existing sub that came with the HTIAB. I live on the second floor of an apartment, so I can't get away with much more bass than that thing puts out anyway. Between the speakers and my jumping around on account of my dance dance revolution habit, I'm amazed I haven't been evicted yet. Once the Denon comes in, is there anyway to configure everything to get ideal speaker placement?

Congratulations! I wish my system was that nice when I was in college.

I had two old Fisher speakers hooked up to a McDonald clock radio.

I am sure the new receiver is going to make your whole system come to life.

Here is a link that will help you get started on speaker placement and system set up.

http://www.audioholics.com/techtips/setup/index.php

Good Luck and post pictures when you have it the way you like it!

[Chris Robinson]

I just came back from a tour in Afghanistan, so I figure I can splurge a little on myself.

Congrats on the safe return home. Thank you for your service to our great country!

Chris

PS: Congrats as well on the Denon. They're built like tanks and sound great with Klipsch speakers. I've had an AVR4800 for about five years and it's done just great for me. You'll love yours.

[billyjoe72]

Congrats and welcome back. I'm 40, good job, wife, kids, stable, vacations every year, blah blah..and you have a better receiver than me. That's pretty good I say.[] I'm waiting on those 3805's to come down. Too slow coming down if you ask me. Anyways, you got yourself into trouble buying those speakers. Now you've been bitten. Everybody here knows what I'm talking about. You'll have a system list a big as scooterdog.

Welcome to the show.[]

[kisschicken]

Thanks for the words of encouragement, guys. Now if I could just

actually get some homework done instead of re-listening to all my old

CDs, I might feel productive again. Receiver shipped and should be here

in a day or two. Since I got it off Ebay, is there anything I should

check for to make sure its in perfect working order? I'd hate to have

to drive to Arkansas and use some of my hand to hand combat techniques

on someone for selling me a bad receiver.

[SCOOTERDOG]

One thing I would do is ask the ups driver,if thats how it's being shipped, if he could wait for a couple of minutes so you can open the box and inspect it. That way if there is any damage then you can have him note it. Because if it gets damaged during shipping the seller is not responsibel or may claim he is not responsible. Anyway it will make a damage claim much easire to get reimbersed from the shipper.

scooter

[dtel's daughter]

Now if I could just actually get some homework done instead of re-listening to all my old CDs, I might feel productive again.

A tip from a new grad for studying in a house with a good sound system.

1) Listen and do your dance revolution for 20 minutes.

2) Turn off the music.

3)Begin your home work.

4) Do homework/ study for 35-45 minutes.

5) Turn the music back on.

6) Go to the bathroom/eat/get something to drink and do your dance revolution for ten minutes

7) Turn the music back off and repeat.

If you think you need a longer break,

Sleep less

[BobbyT]

welcome to the Klipsch family and welcome home. sounds like you have a great start on your system. Denon makes great receivers. The 3802 is an excellent unit, I used to own one.

[kisschicken]

I've been having so much fun with the 3802 that I forgot to come and

thank you guys. I can't even imagine going back to a home theater in a

box. I put the HTIAB in the bedroom, and it literally disgusts me with

its sound quality. Now that I've got a foothold in the world of

klipsch, I think its time to upgrade my 2 week old front floor

speakers. Gonna put them to the side of the couch, while running the 2

rears and the center i already have. Question is, what do I upgrade

to? Nothing too fancy. Keep in mind I am a poor college student.

[Arky]

Well that didn't take long. That upgrade bug bites hard.[]

I would look to move up in the discontinued reference line.

JT

[westcott]

I would suggest upgrading the subwoofer if you are more into home theater. The center channel is also a good place to start if you are low in funds.

Movies need a good sub and will make your R15's sound much bigger than they are.

You did not give us a budget but their are a lot of good subs out there, including the RSW series.

Remember, a subwoofer is really TWO components. A speaker and an amplifier so budget accordingly.

Good Luck and welcome to the world of Klipsch and Denon. I would say you are miles ahead of some of us old folk when we were in college.

[atomicskiier01]

I agree about the sub. If you are mostly into movies, what you

have would be greatly improved with a sub. See if you can find an

RW-10 or 12 at a discount since they are going away. If you are

into multi-channel music, on the other hand, having better surrounds

will help with that. But, there is no way that you are going to

get away without a sub in either case. As has been said, setting

your 15's to small on the receiver and letting the sub take over the

low end will be your best bet. You can turn the volume down on

the sub if the neighbors start to complain.

[kisschicken]

Hello, me again. Well, I've had great success in the HT department.

That Denon 3802 is making my speakers sing through DVDs like I was at

the theater. Problem now is, I've been listening to some CDs on it and

they just don't sound like they should. I dunno, it just feels like the

sound is all over the place and the voice doesn't have the inflection

that it should. The sad thing is that my car, with its JBL setup,

actually sounds more appropriate for music than my HT does. Especially

on a Queen track of mine titled "Bicycle Races." I don't know if you're

familiar with it, but there's a part where they have multiple bike

chimes and it just sounds...tinny I suppose. I know a lot of you guys

have a seperate 2 channel setup for music, and I'm worried that my HT

setup just doesn't have the dynamics needed for music. I'm sure

Scooterdog or some other enlightened individual can help me on this

subject.

[jbsl]

I have a Denon 4800 and like your new Denon it has all kinds of setings on it that you may not realize yet.

Do you use the dvd player for cds?

If so make sure when you play cds to set the Denon to stereo instead of Dolby/DTS surround.

I would run a pair of analog cables from the back of the dvd player labeled left and right channel to your Denon marked cd player.

Get the Denon manual out and read from front to back and then go back to the front and experiment with the Denon until you learn and have set the Denon up to your personal tastes.