hi,am looking to get a receiver for my Bose speakers.there are 2 i am looking at the first is a new Yamaha RX-V471 OR a second hand one which is ONKYO TX-SR875.any ideas on which is the best to get. i will be using it mostly for surround sound/home cinema. jhaye2x
I would say the Onkyo is the better choice in this case of sound quality. If you are looking to run floor standing speakers in a medium to large room the Onkyo is the clear choice. With that said, if you plan to add a 3D TV to your system at some point the Yamaha will give you less headaches down the road. It has HDMI 1.4 (supporting the Audio Return Channel (ARC) feature and 3D video pass-through). It sounds like your getting the Onkyo for a great deal. If you want the sound quality of the Onkyo and the future security of the Yamaha, go with the Onkyo and spend the extra money on a 3D Blu-Ray that has two HDMI outputs!
All good advice.. for the price the Onkyo is defo the better choice. My personal preference is for more "industrial" kit, which is why I run Crown .. but it's horses for courses. Good speakers make more of a difference than any amount of money spent on an amplifier.. I can tell you the difference between a solid state top end amp and even a not great valve amp.. the valves sound better (and I know why as well, but thats another story) .. but that comes after more than 10 years in a professional music environment.. most people can't tell one amp from another.. even cheap ones sound fine unless they don't like the speakers or are pushed too hard. Rules for audio (basic and true) Good quality speakers.. listen to lots before deciding GOOD!! speaker cables.. not those "oxygen free" con trick.. but decent mains cable 10 amp twin core.. and cut them exactly the same length. (can't stress that enough.. good cables) Enough power to drive your chosen speakers.. there will be a rating in the figures for the speakers somewhere DbW/M .. thats the efficiency.. get above 95 and you only need a 5 watt amp.. seriously!! A good pair of vintage Tannoy Golds or similar are about 95-97.. and will blow your head off at 20 paces with 10 watts into them.. as long as those are good honest valve rated RMS watts!! Pay attention to the acoustic properties of your listening room (whole books have been written on the subject) .. you don't want it too bright, but at the same time most rooms are over damped.. try it and see.. take the big padded sofa out and listen again. (I clap my hands in a room a couple of times before setting up a system.. and deal with any "nasties" as much as possible.. a bad sounding room will sound bad.. 2x length to width and 1/2 height is awful.. (any brit sound engineers will shudder when I say.... Tamworth Arts Centre) Think why the bathroom sounds so different to the other rooms in the house.. I used to record guitar in a bathroom.. nice and bright.
I definitely agree with going Onkyo. Get better speakers. Almost anything is better than Bose. Speaker wire isn't as critical. Just don't believe the hype about "Monster" brand stuff. I got a 100 ft. spool of 14 gauge speaker wire from Lowe's, for about $25, and have been using it for almost 10 yrs., and it works very well. Sorry, but I disagree with speaker wires being the same length. I've never cut them the same length, and you can't tell a difference.Now if one is 50 ft., and the other is 1 ft., you might tell a difference. But, maybe not. With the speed that sound travels, you'll not notice a difference, until you get the big boom, from breaking the sound barrier. Good luck!
Interesting! This is the only part I diss agree with. Oh there are much better speakers on the market, and the cost/value ratio stinks but to discount a good brand of speaker without even knowing which speakers they are seems quite waistful. The speaker wire effect is on of those audio myths. As long as the wire is heavy enough to carry the peak power you will be fine. Where wire matters is when the current is tiny. Still the connectors are much more critical than the wire quality. The shorter the better. Speaker wires carry enough current to make everything else a mute point as long as the wire is heavy enough. Anyone saying differently is a fool who might think they are an expert. Here is a lecture about this kind of foolishness. Audio Myth Workshop
I do know which speakers they are.................. they're Bose! Bose Blows! No good highs, no good lows.....they must be Bose. If they are Bose speakers from the 60s, or even the early 70s, they aren't too bad. But, still not great. I wouldn't give you a nickle for every Bose speaker made after about 1972-73. Have you ever noticed in A/V stores, they'll have several brands of speakers setup for demos. Beside each speaker, there's usually a card with speaker info on it, such as frequency response, amount of power they can handle, etc.? Ever notice how Bose doesn't give you that info? They know that if you understand the numbers, you'll realize you're not getting your money's worth. A guy I know used to work at Best Buy. A customer was asking for info on some Bose speakers they had. He didn't know the info, so he called Bose and asked them. They told him that they don't give out that information. He proceeded to tell them how stupid and sorry they were. He ended up being fired for it, but he didn't mind. Want to read some fun reviews and other stuff about Bose? Check this out. Click on the links and read them too. http://www.firstadopter.com/fa/archives/001749.html Go to any Home Theater Forum, and do a search for Bose, and see what HT professionals and enthusiasts think of Bose. Look on Craig's List and see how many Bose systems are for sale. People get brain-washed by the sales people and commercials, buy the Bose system, and soon afterwards, they have them for sale on Craig's List. Their Wave Radio sounds pretty good for what it is, but no way I'm paying over $500 for a clock radio, which is basically all it is.
Well you got me to look. 20-30 yrs ago they made a decent speaker but were over priced. Not any more... They only make crap and for good money. Correction- Actually 20-30 yrs ago was an estimate when I really think about it the speakers I was referring to would have been made before 1973. Even then they were good but not high end. They were good enough that today they would be great speakers if the paper didn't rot but they would be worth re-coning. Today most speakers are crap unless you pay an insane amount of money and know what you are buying. Then you need to find an old amp to drive them. I was able to pick up some great speakers super cheap $50/spkr maybe 20 yrs back because the store was closing and that store didn't have an amp/receiver powerful enough to do more than warm them up (100 W RMS/per channel). They need 5 times that to to play them. They had super lows, 4 Hz but the highs are not as good as some of the new technology.
