chit chat thread
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I used to be into home stereo stuff, but never got interested in anything with more than 2 channels, since my primary interest is music which is only recorded in stereo.
My NAD CD player took a crap, but that was feeding a Rega Brio (40w integrated amp), which was driving a pair of Polk RTi25 bookshelf speakers. It sounded great and I have less than $400 in it.
You can spend a lot more, but like you said, it's a rabbit hole. Costs increase dramatically at the high end, and your returns diminish rapidly once you start spending more than $500-1000 on an amp or a pair of speakers. A lot of the high end stuff actually measures worse on the test bench (THD on amps for example), despite allegedly sounding "better".
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I used to be into home stereo stuff, but never got interested in anything with more than 2 channels, since my primary interest is music which is only recorded in stereo.
My NAD CD player took a crap, but that was feeding a Rega Brio (40w integrated amp), which was driving a pair of Polk RTi25 bookshelf speakers. It sounded great and I have less than $400 in it.
You can spend a lot more, but like you said, it's a rabbit hole. Costs increase dramatically at the high end, and your returns diminish rapidly once you start spending more than $500-1000 on an amp or a pair of speakers. A lot of the high end stuff actually measures worse on the test bench (THD on amps for example), despite allegedly sounding "better".
Yeah, these speakers were the absolute top of the range I wanted to spend. My center channel, surround, and sub cost $250 all together. I think it sounds great for movies.
I mainly listen to music like you do, so I wanted something that was quality and would last me for years. Sound World also gave me a 10% discount off the price which was phenomenal.
I just power these from my Onkyo receiver which surprisingly puts out a ton of per channel(I think like 240W?). All my media feeds into it and the speakers come from it and just have one HDMI to the TV. IR from the Apple TV remote turns on the receiver and the TV when you interact with it, so it's really easy to work with.
But check out Sound World when you're back at the shop next, cool to browse around. Have a sales person demo their $30,000 system they have set up.
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check out Sound World when you're back at the shop next, cool to browse around. Have a sales person demo their $30,000 system they have set up.
I bought a phono cartridge there many years ago. Got it for way below list price, and the staff seemed pretty knowledgeable. Their "used" section has some cool stuff in it sometimes too.
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Have you found a noticeable difference between FLAC and 320? I've read there is almost no discernible difference between 320 and 256. 256 is what the Apple TV outputs to my receiver.
My little experience with FLAC was years ago, I haven't touched my actual music library in a while. Because I've always lived with roommates I didn't have a private place for a proper setup. Now the wife and I spend most of our time watching TV and movies. Short term goal is to get some atomos uppers to put my Sony STR DN1080 to work, then I'll replace the rest of the basic yahmaha home theater speakers when I can. All my music listening is through streaming services while I'm driving as that's mainly when I have time.
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Pre-facelift Rega Brio. Bought it off ebay for $260-ish? This thing has been satisfying all of my amplifying needs for maybe 15 years now? It's got an input selector and a volume knob. All the features you need, and none that you don't. #purist
Also swapped out the Polks for a pair of Mission M71s that I wanted back in the day. Not much different really, just better looking.
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my home audio comes out of a pair of sony bluetooth battery powered speakers. sounds great to me.
*flamesuit on*
Dan
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my home audio comes out of a pair of sony bluetooth battery powered speakers. sounds great to me.
*flamesuit on*
My home audio comes out of the back of my television
I would strongly recommend look into getting a a receiver and two front speakers. The difference between a bluetooth or TV speakers and dedicated speakers is staggering.
There are a ton of options for speakers in the $100-$200 range that perform extremely well for their price point.
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If i decided to spend $200 on a receiver and some speakers for a small basement game room TV, what brand would you point me to?
Dan
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My home audio comes out of the back of my television
This is a real travesty, even most cost effective sound bars these days blow stock tv speakers out of the water.
My old 5.1 channel stuff bit the dust so I grabbed an ATS-1080 bar and have been quite pleased with it. Compact and very clear audio.@HipMF that rega looks sweet, I enjoy the simplicity of it.
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If i decided to spend $200 on a receiver and some speakers for a small basement game room TV, what brand would you point me to?
You'd be hard pressed to find both for that combined price.
Your receiver will handle both your audio and video. If you want to go budget, you could go with this receiver and these speakers.
If you wanted a little more oompf and better sound, these speakers would be a good upgrade.
Just like with cars, there is a ton of manufactures that all have their different spin on things. I would just search Amazon for "bookshelf speakers" and see what fits your price and read reviews. Also doing google searches of "best bookshelf speaker for $XXX" is a good way to get an idea of whats out there.
Receivers that handle audio and video you won't find a ton of wiggle room in the price. Differences will be number out video inputs and outputs, power to each speaker(not really that big of a concern for smaller speakers), and other features like bluetooth, wifi, Chromecast, etc.
But you can get into something that will be significant step up from your current setup for ~$300-$400. Feel free to PM with any other questions.
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I’d agree with @SteelBlue that the Denon is a good choice, we have an older version and it’s been great, lots of features and pretty easy to use and set up. I personally went used when buying my receiver, but I did a lot of looking before I found one that I liked. HDMI comparability was the biggest thing for me, along with some sort of wireless connectivity to my phone (AirPlay in the case of the receiver I picked up, a Harman Kardon AVR-1700). While it’s not the best money can buy, for $100 I’ve been pleased with it and it allowed me to spend the extra money on better speakers where I feel that money is better spent, at least for now.
TL;DR: Don’t be afraid to buy used, just do your research first and make sure it’s actually what you want and isn’t going to stop working within a month.
Wharfedale Diamonds? I bought a $90 Yamaha center channel that has worked pretty well for what I wanted out of it. Definitely plan to upgrade in the future based on how much audio is pushed out of it.
Yeah, the Wharfedale Diamond 10.1’s. For what it’s worth, I way prefer the Chane’s. The mids in the Wharfedale’s seem to be more recessed and veiled, and they just don’t sound as fun/aren’t as enjoyable to listen to. They’ve been excellent surrounds though, especially for the $125 I paid for them.
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It's amusing to think that all end users can have different takeaways when it comes to audio equipment.
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@straight6pwr also had some interesting experiences with his gauge cluster this morning per his Instagram. I for one have not set foot outside my building and don't plan to until 3:00 tomorrow when I have class.
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@straight6pwr also had some interesting experiences with his gauge cluster this morning per his Instagram. I for one have not set foot outside my building and don't plan to until 3:00 tomorrow when I have class.
Damn they didn’t cancel class? uwec was canceled today and tomorrow. Where do ya go?
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LOL, yeah my cluster was freakin. but the car started, so that was a miracle.
gas gauge = non op
temp gauge = non op
OBC display = said "Code?"
tach = pinging back and forth like it had ripped some coke
also, my 5 speed refused to stay in 2nd or 4th gear until it got warmed up. i had to hold the lever until i shifted to the next gear.
power steering was struggling, too. the load it put on the car when i backed out from my parking spot dipped the rpms so much it killed the motor
coldest day I have ever experienced.
Dan
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I didn't try starting my e36 today. I did start my Sienna and it puked a bunch of oil out around the oil filter for about 30 seconds and sounded really angry that I woke it up. It wouldn't shift into gear until I let it warm up for several minutes.
I like this being a teacher thing, cancelled Monday, Wednesday, Thursday this week. I was super helpful because one of our gilts had piglets on Sunday afternoon so I have been able to care for the animals better with the frigid temps. She is doing great and the piglets seem to be doing good buried in the straw bedding.
Tomorrow I will see how the BMW does when I have to go do some work for my father in law.
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If i decided to spend $200 on a receiver and some speakers for a small basement game room TV, what brand would you point me to?
Find the best hand-me-down receiver/amp that you can get for $20 or less and spend the rest of your budget on speakers.
A decent sounding amplifier can be built at just about any price range. My old bookshelf speakers are connected to my computer with a $30 plastic amplifier that's designed to run on AAs (og Tripath T-Amp) and it sounds almost as good to my ears as my Brio which retailed for $595 back in the 90s. You just need to find something that was designed by someone who cared enough to put in an off-the-shelf amplifier circuit and follow the recommendations in the application note. I'm not trying to say it's easy to build amps, just that a good one can be built cheaply if you don't need a lot of power. If you're powering bookshelf speakers at any reasonable volume level, you don't need a lot of power, so a cheap amp will work as long as it's reasonably well designed.
Speakers on the other hand require a large material and labor cost to build, and are probably more difficult to engineer. Choosing/designing multiple drivers that, together, can get you a reasonably flat frequency response curve, designing a box that doesn't vibrate, but also doesn't cost a lot to manufacture... probably a fair amount of testing and revisions on the engineering side to get something that actually sounds good. It's pretty rare that I'm pleasenty surprised by the sound of cheap speakers...
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