I have been putting together an audio system for many years. Like many of you, I'm sure, it's a work in progress. I have gone into home theatre over the last few years, but once again, I am in a position to upgrade, but I am not certain where my weakest link is. I am mostly concerned about audio as that is primarily my primary use - video is secondary.
I am using a 6-7 year old Yamaha DSP-1092A Integrated amplifier which I think may be due for an upgrade. For speakers, I have PSB's Century 800's as the mains, the C2 as the center, Ambient 2's as the rear surrounds, an Atlantic Technology HO12 for a sub, and NHT Super Zero's for front surrounds. Television is a 65" Mitsubishi Platinum Series HDTV. (Onkyo Tuner, Toshiba DVD, Pioneer CD, JVC Cassette)
I am actually very pleased with the theatre, but my two-channel listening just seems to lack something. I'm wondering if a speaker upgrade or an amplifier upgrade would be most logical? And would it be prudent to begin moving to seperates and, if so, which would be a piece I could buy and use it in conjunction with current system?
I have a rather large, unusual listening room (it's a loft with 17ft. high ceilings)which may be a problem. The PSB's put out some pretty good sound, but I seem to lose some of the mid and high's at higher listening levels. I listen to mostly vocal music (ie, James Taylor, Paul Simon, Carla Bonoff, Jimmy Buffett, etc.) although for parties we do crank it up (eg., AC/DC, Twisted Sister, Kiss, etc.,) so I would like something that handle this range. I would like to limit next purchase to $1000 but I could go to $1500. I was considering PSB Stratus Gold i's....does anyone have any experience with these or other speakers I should look at? And, finally, does anyone have any opinion on Magnepan's or Definitive Tech speakers?
(Added later - narrowed down to PSB Stratus Gold, Klipsch Ref-7, or Soliloqy 5.3...any ideas?)
Thanks, Dave Harris, M.S.
Anonymous
Posted on
Hiya! IMHO, as far as the Klipsch go, I like the sound of the RF-3 II's better then the RF-7. This was a comparison I heard on a high end Yamaha reciever. The RF-7 were just too bright for my ears; but I understand that alot of this is personal pref. Another guy listening in the same room ended up purchasing the RF-7's. I realize that the RF-7 are about twice as much, but the price was not the determining factor in my purchase. For whatever that is worth.
Anonymous
Posted on
Check out the wonderfully informative board at Klipsch.com Very good people there.
Thanks for the information. To complicate things, I found a pair of NHT 3.3's to listen to, and I really liked them better than the Klipsch RF-7's. Still have not been able to actually hear the Soliloquy's or the Stratus Gold i's.
I also listened to a pair of Definitive Techs (3BPV?) and I was told that they were similar speakers to the NHT's, but I didn't care much for them either.
Dave see my note I sent to you this evening. Also, please don't get the maggies if you want to rock. You will never ever fill that loft with sound from maggies. Even the timpany IV's (which are a VERY good sounding machine) will be inadequate for rockin' your house with that much air volume in your room. And you'd be into several grand for amps to push them, as well. See my comments and others here about the Klipsch. If you want to really crank, i'm still in favor of the LaScalas. But for the same money, the Paradigms will beat them in every category except "loud" and sound TONS better when you want to ENJOY the music, not just hear it in the parking lot.