|
New member Username: Bpryan422Post Number: 1 Registered: Jun-08 | Ok, all i have to say is that i am fairly new to this stuff. I bought a couple thousand dollar set of Atlantic Technology Speakers (5 speaker set) with a 12" KLH Subwoofer. I need help choosing what receiver to buy.........ONKYO 505 or the Yamaha 550W 5.1-Ch. A/V Home Theater Reciever. They are both 300$. I am going to be watching movies, and listening to country/rock/rap music. I am going to be connecting Moster Cables also for the wiring What should i get?????? |
|
New member Username: Bpryan422Post Number: 3 Registered: Jun-08 | Aslo i am going to be hooking this up to a flat screen TV with the speakers and possibly my laptop to play the music through. |
|
Silver Member Username: DmitchellOttawa, Ontario Canada Post Number: 1000 Registered: Feb-07 | Skip the Monster cables and use that part of your budget to put towards a receiver. Grab some 12 or 14 gauge speaker cable from Home Depot. Just saved you a hundred bucks. |
|
New member Username: Bpryan422Post Number: 5 Registered: Jun-08 | Is that going to make it sound the same? I have heard to buy gold plated wires to make it sound at the highest level. Also, what receiver should i buy!!!! I am leaning towards the Yamaha just because of what everyone is saying, i just dont get what the difference between them is. Why should i choose between them, what makes one better then the other if they are the same price? Somebody has to know the answer to this haha |
|
Gold Member Username: DmitchellOttawa, Ontario Canada Post Number: 1001 Registered: Feb-07 | Everyone here will tell the same thing. Go out and listen for yourself, buy the one you like best. We can't tell you what you like. That being said, I like Yamaha AVRs for HT. For music? Not really. |
|
New member Username: Bpryan422Post Number: 6 Registered: Jun-08 | So are u suggesting that i just listen to them and make a decision myself. I will do that butttt, if i didnt have the option in doing that, which one would u buy personally if u are going to be watching movies on a flat screen tv, playing music through my laptop into the receiver and playing Wii. I want to hook my 5 set Atlantic Technology Speakers, 12" KLH Sub, Plasma TV, Wii, and my laptop for music into the receiver. What do you suggest if you were in my shoes. The ONKYO 505 or the YAMAHA 550W 5.1 Channel????????????? |
|
Gold Member Username: DmitchellOttawa, Ontario Canada Post Number: 1002 Registered: Feb-07 | I've never heard the Onkyo, so I can't comment on that. Also, keep in mind that Yamaha way over-inflates their wattage ratings. Not that it really matters anyway. |
|
Gold Member Username: Nickelbut10Post Number: 1610 Registered: Jun-07 | In my recent experience I have found that Onkyo is much better in the sound quality department. Personally, I would pick the new Onkyo line any day over anything Yamaha has made recently. I personally can't handle listening to a Yamaha AVR, for surround or for music. Just my opinion. Don't get suckered into buying Crap, Mass Marketed, sale pushing Monster cables. They will not make a single difference in sound, only to your pocket, and to the sales guys commission. Do what Dave suggested. Pocket the few hundred you will save from not buying Monster crap, and put that toward a better Onkyo receiver. Last, go out and listen to some. You may hate both. Who knows. Do they match up well with Atlantic speakers? If your using a laptop for your source, make sure the files are uncompressed FLAC, not compressed MP3, or it won't matter what you guy. |
|
New member Username: Bpryan422Post Number: 7 Registered: Jun-08 | Does anyone know if the Onkyo 505 or the Yamaha 550W 5.1 plays well with Atlantic Techonolgy Speakers. I need a good receiver because the speakers were a few thousand alone, over 3 grand. So you agree with 12 or 14 gage wire Nick from Home Depot? I really appreciate you 2 helping me out because i dont know what i need in order to get what i want. Thanks and hope to hear from you soon. |
|
Gold Member Username: Nickelbut10Post Number: 1611 Registered: Jun-07 | I have never heard Atlantic Technology. Sorry. If you can budget more for the AVR, do so. If possible. If not, buy what you can and have fun. |
|
Gold Member Username: ArtkAlbany, Oregon USA Post Number: 6987 Registered: Feb-05 | I would do my best not to listen to music on either and buy (as I did) a Yamaha for HT use. |
|
Gold Member Username: Mike3Wylie, Tx USA Post Number: 1324 Registered: May-06 | What Art means is you would be best to set up a separate quality two channel system for Audio and not worry about how poorly your surround system delivers music. I would suggest that you invest in a high quality 2 channel music system and let it double for your HT without the surround system. Since you already spent almost 3K on speakers ask yourself why. What was it about the speakers that got you to put out the cash for them? What did you hear the speakers on? If you liked the presentation so much buy that, you don't need our advice on that. Do you really think you are getting the most out of $3K in speakers with a $300 amp? I prefer to have a little better balance in my components and speakers. If you are trying to stick to a budget you may want to consider returning the speakers and sub and allowing a little more money for your receiver. Perhaps a NAD, Outlaw, or Rotel? Can you still return the KLH sub? I suspect you could do much better than that for not a whole lot of cash, like HSU subs. Home Depot wire is an outstanding value for its performance and just kills what you get from Monster for the price, IMO. |
|
Gold Member Username: ArtkAlbany, Oregon USA Post Number: 6992 Registered: Feb-05 | Well said my friend and that is pretty much what I meant (the first part). |
|
Gold Member Username: Frank_abelaBerkshire UK Post Number: 2990 Registered: Sep-04 | Ryan So you spend a coupla thousand dollars on speakers, and then expect a p1ss poor entry level AV-Receiver to muscle up and drive those speakers. Neither receiver you have suggested is in the right ballpark to drive $2-3k's worth of speaker package. You should be looking in the $1000 price bracket minimum to have a hope in hell of the system not sounding like absolute gobshite. Yamaha and Onkyo both have models in this price range - think the Onkyo TX-SR805 or 875 and Yamaha's equivalent. The reason the Onkyo comes highly recommended is that it's good quality with all the features you're likely to use at this moment in time. Yamaha have just launched a couple of new receivers which have similar features but I don't know that their more powerful $1000 models have all the features. If you're interested in Blu-ray, the new high resolution disc format, then going for all the new features is a good thing, but if you just want DVD to play well, then you don't need all the new features. Only you can make that decision. finally, i hope you have a halfway reasonable source component (i.e. DVD or blu-ray player). A PS3 is a good source. It doesn't output the latest High res audio from blu-ray, but it will unpack it internally and send it through HDMI to your new AV-Receiver provided the latter can accept uncompressed PCM (see above). So get it right and get the right thing. Shame you bought the speakers before seeking advice. Now that you've bought them you need to stump up for them! As for cabling, any good cable will do. Any cheap 12 - 14 gauge cable will not be as good as a well designed cable, but there are lots of those about and there's lots of rubbish about. If you haven't got the cash for the nicer cables, then go for standard 12 or 14 gauge mains wire as a starting point. I'm a big believer in cables but even more of a believer in getting the electronics right. If you go cheap on the AV-Receiver, the result is going to be ... bad. Frank. |
|
Gold Member Username: Nickelbut10Post Number: 1613 Registered: Jun-07 | Well said Frank. |
|
New member Username: Bpryan422Post Number: 8 Registered: Jun-08 | I just bought the 505 and love it, thanks for th help. Ill keep ya all updated at a later date on how they perform. |
|
Bronze Member Username: Bpryan422Post Number: 12 Registered: Jun-08 | If you have the onkyo 505 with 2 inputs and 1 output and an LCD TV with an HDMI port right on the back of the TV. If i just have standard cable with NO cable box. Can i just use ONE HDMI cable from my receiver to my TV and have what ever the HDMI is suppose to give me? |
|
Gold Member Username: Frank_abelaBerkshire UK Post Number: 3037 Registered: Sep-04 | Well, you'll get the audio and video as passed through to the TV. If you have just one HDMI source (e.g. DVD player) you can just as easily plug the DVD player directly into the TV which saves you the cost of an HDMI lead. You should get the same quality. If you have two HDMI sources (e.g. DVD player and cable box), then you can connect both using HDMI to the 505 and then use one cable to the TV. The 505 will switch between the two inputs for you and you'll get the best quality picture out of the connection. As for sound, if the TV will decode the HDMI signal, it may give you sound, it may not (most do). As for sound from your 505, you need to connect the sources (DVD player, cable box etc) to the 505 using an ordinary digital or analogue interconnect depending on the capabilities of the source. A DVD player would be connected with a digital connection. A cable box may not even have that (depends) and just give you stereo. HDMI 'gives' you nothing. It's just a connection mechanism. The question is what the units that it's connecting give you. unfortunately HDMI is not implemented in the same way everywhere, as you're beginning to find out... |
|
New member Username: Voodoo_painterCalgary, Alberta Canada Post Number: 4 Registered: Jun-08 | Ryan, I don't know if this helps, but I have my cable box hooked up to my tv via a dvi cable, which hooks into one of the tvs hdmi slots. For audio, I run a fiber optic cable from the cable box to my reciever. Mor me this is the only way I can get dolby digital while watching tv, and if my cable box was hdmi and not dvi I would do the same thing by hooking the hdmi direct into the tv and using the fiber optic connection. The reason for this is I would not want to use up one of my hdmi inputs on my reciever for something like a cable box that can not even use the benefits of hdmi for sound. The best sound you can get from a cable box to my knowledge you can get from fiber optic cables. |
|
New member Username: Voodoo_painterCalgary, Alberta Canada Post Number: 5 Registered: Jun-08 | Hey frank, heres the features for the "more powerful" Yamaha reciever I think you were talking about. http://www.yamaha.ca/av/Receivers/HTR6190B.jsp |