HiFi Speaker Advice

fubar_2

I had a good Easter and managed to pick-up a couple of bargains, Toshiba HD-E1 for only £239.99 and an Onkyo TX-SR674 AV Receiver for only £299.95 currently I have a LG LH-W551TB theater system (lost the manual and can't find the details at LG).

I'd like to know if I could run the speakers from the LG system through the Onkyo Receiver just temporary without blowing them to bits until i can find a better speaker package at the right price that would compliment the Onkyo.

I don't play anything too loud (I consider my neighbors privacy too much) but I wanted a package that at least at a later date there would be room to turn up the volume if I wanted too, and I needed HDMI inputs through the receiver to the 37" LG.

Cheers in advance to those that understand the speaker techno jargon in whats workable and whats not.

Little_John

A few things here
the amp on thr onkyo site stated it outputs at 6 ohms at 150w the speakers are 8 ohms 70W but the manual says the amp will do 8 ohms at 95w. as long as you don't crank the amp up too much you should be ok.

from what I have read the speakers may be wireless? I don't know.
you will need to connect them to the amp in some way if they are wireless there will be a transmiter that you need to connect to the amp now that may have a single cable for connecting to the LG dvd/amp/receiver box rather than a set of 6 wires (1 per channel). if the speakers are not wireless then you need to connect them to the amp some of the kits like this have a connector on them rather than normall bare ends for connecting to binding posts that you will have on the new amp. either cut them off or whatever you want just make sure polarity is correct.

fubar_2

Cheers LJ,

The wireless side is the 2 surround speakers but they actually wire onto another gizmo (the wireless receiver) so I suppose I could drop that box and just wire directly back to the Onkyo.

Where did you find the LG manual? I looked on LG's site and the system ain't listed (not even when doing a search)

Jeezuswept how can speakers be so blummin expensive done some searching since my post and the average speaker system (speakers nothing else) is anything from £400 upwards (upwards = into the thousands) my god I thought I was spoiling myself when I got the LG system 18 months ago, but its a different ball game when some people are willing to spend thousands on a set of speakers that at times looking at the pictures of them look no better than those you can get from Argus, as you can probably guess I don't have an ear for sound so I probably wouldn't understand what makes all the difference maybe if I heard it I would have a different outlook but right now even spending £500 on a set of speakers I would feel that I have just ripped myself off, but i know I'm going to have to spend the money on speakers to compliment the system (I'll probably cry handing over the dosh though )

Little_John

I got the manual for the amp not the LG.

Decent speakers are expensive, I paid £400 for my front 2 speakers £200 for the centre and another £200 for the 2 rear speakers my sub cost me £800.

Was it worth it? a big YES the sound is amazing, I auditioned loads of different setups even £2500 sets of THX certified speakers but that was cheap for for a system like that the problem was that I would have needed a room the size of a small cinema to fit them in and look ok. I was blown away by the sound it was awesome but the size was huge.

The only way to decide which speakers to buy is to listen to them, they should all sound pretty good but you will find a few that have that little bit extra. I listen to music with my system also so that was another important thing to consider, take your own DVD and some music you like to listen to and get them to put that on I used the scene from the matrix where they entered the building to save Morpheus chapter 29 I remember and I still use that scene when showing the system off.

Hifi shops are usually very accommodating if you contact them in advanced and ask them to set some systems up for you maybe drag your amp along so you can really see what it is capable of I would hope you will be able to hear the difference.

At first I only bought the 5 speakers, amp £500 and DVD player £550 ohh and don't forget to buy decent speaker cable and interconnects. They can add a bit to the price. most places recommend about 10% of the price of your system should be spent on wires as a rule of thumb. I spent about that but I have replaced some interconnects with better ones as I have added new bits to the system.

The all in a box systems like the LG look great, no wires fewer boxes etc but there is no upgrade path thats your lot. buying a system like you are you can buy bits as you go along go for a basic 5 speaker set, then buy a sub then go for the centre rears giving you the 7.1 setup. I intend upgrading my amp soon to a 7.1, I had a listen of loads of 6.1 systems but found the effect of the rear centre speaker a bit crap to be honest. the sound seemed to confuse things slightly. 7.1 with 2 speakers doing the job of that 1 rear is better as the sound field is wider after all you have an ear on each side of your head not 1 in the back of it.

Other options you can play with is bi wiring where you run 2 wires to each speaker for an improved sound, I would just get the system running before worrying about that, it is a way you can improve the sound without spending too much money but actually the different probably isn't that noticeable I thought.

Have fun and annoy the neighbours my best compliment was next door at the opposite side of the front speakers complaining that something on her mantelpiece had fallen off due to the vibrations and that was before I got the sub. I have managed to annoy the guy living over the street as well. :rotfl:

fubar_2

LJ,

Just agreed to buy these for £185 think they are worth it?

Going to get a demo and collect on Thursday (as I'm working in London) Only problem I have is they seem too cheap especially when you look at the price list offered, I understand the company that makes them (USA/Canada) have gone bust so they don't come with the 10 year warrenty (be a blummin bargain if they did ) but even then they are still alarmingly cheap.

Fubar runs off looking for a woofer in the bargain basement (ebay)

gavinp

I would recommend you visit a branch of Richer Sounds and have a listen to some of their surround speaker packages - made by companies that may have been heard of before!

http://www.richersounds.com/productlist.php?cda=productlist&sgroup=SPEAKERPACKAGES&sort=price

If you do get these ones from Ebay, I would recommend you unbox and test each speaker in the set before parting with the money to ensure that they sound identical to the "demo" system...

Thanks

Gavin

Little_John

STOP

dont go buying them just yet

I am looking in to them there may be somthing dodgy about these

Little_John

OK after a bit of looking around
Stage as a brand is almost unheard of except the "companies" website https://www.stageelectronics.com forwards to http://www.primatedesigns.com/customers/stage/ an image and 2 price lists in pdf formate hardly strike up confidence in the company infact the site is still hosted on the design companies site. Also why would a US based company have their site stored on a UK server and have a UK company design the site? and the registration details are from the UK. It all screams someone who has imported cheap speakers from china and are selling them on ebay.

Acording to the price lists on their site these are alot of moneys worth of speakers but everything just says they are a scam info is very hard to come by about stage nevermind their quattro speakers but it looks like a scam thousands of $$$'s worth of speakers for £185 is just too good to be true and It proberbly is. even the site wildwestelectronics.net doesnt have any sign they ever sold nevermind highly rated the speakers.

fubar_2

Yea,

I'm struggling trying to find any details about the speakers or even the ex-company (got some USA friends doing some searching for me) but as the old story goes if it looks too good to be true then it probably is or they are cheap Chinese nockoffs

ManAtHome

Ears first, cash later...

As previously suggested get yourself down to Richer (my favourite) or another HiFi shop which has a room-sized listening room (not a DSG/Comet warehouse space).

Many years ago, white-van men were flogging impressive-looking speakers (over-ordered honest guv..), which were less than impressive when you listened to them or even took the front grilles off... be warned.

turbobob

Some of the "expensive looking" speakers from brands you've never heard of are made up using drivers from cheap car speakers, and may lack crossovers. Sold from white vans and probably now Ebay. Avoid them. I would think potentially they could even damage amplifiers in some cases.

Personally I think this looks a reasonable buy at £150 from a good manufacturer - http://www.richersounds.com/showproduct.php?cda=showproduct&pid=TANN-FX5.1-SIL

Review here - http://www.audioholics.com/reviews/speakers/satellite/tannoy-5-1-fx