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Post by davidl81 on Apr 16, 2019 15:11:19 GMT -5
Wnydel, What I have learned so far as I have played around with this hobby is below: 1) You do need a minimum quality of speaker to get "good" sound. But that minimum does not mean a ton of money. Some something like the Emotiva T1/T2 or the Klipsch I mentioned earlier are great speakers. The difference is SQ going up from there starts to become fairly small, but the price jumps become pretty big. 2) Your AVR or Pre/Pro will become the main sound quality driver for your system. Your Onkyo is a good unit, but for all intents and purposes it will be your bottle neck for the time being. I do not mean that in a bad way, as you can have a good sounding system using that AVR, but there will be a very clearly defined "ceiling" using it. 3) External amps are your friends, and you do not have to buy the $2000 units to get good sound. For a five channel setup something like the Emotiva A-500 ($500) is perfect and will give you 90% of what you can get with a XPA-5. 4) A good subwoofer will help a ton in overcoming any weakness in your main setup.
Since you have the AVR already I would get good speakers/sub next, but don't go crazy and spend a ton of money. Your Onkyo does not have outputs for an external amp, so your next step later on would be to replace the Onkyo. You can wait a while on that, since you may be very happy with the sound you get from your setup.
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Post by selind40 on Apr 16, 2019 15:11:47 GMT -5
wnydel On your 3 different rooms, will all be HT + music or will 1 be music only? If so...I'd strongly consider snapping up the T2's at the sale price now to the music room. There are many good amps you could get to drive them well, from Emotiva and others. What source will you be using for music? For music, do you only stream, only use CD's, or a mix? Mark All rooms will be a mix. At least that was my thought. But they are at a good price. I never looked at the Emotiva amps. I’m goibg to now. I usually stream, but I would get a CD player for quality purposes Are you still in WNY? If so, I may have a deal for you on a CD player if you have not gotten one yet. I've got 2 Music Hall players.....one has a remote, the other does not. One is HDCD the other isn't. I'm done in the Corning, NY area, but moving to WNY within the next couple months.
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Post by wnydel on Apr 16, 2019 15:22:53 GMT -5
All rooms will be a mix. At least that was my thought. But they are at a good price. I never looked at the Emotiva amps. I’m goibg to now. I usually stream, but I would get a CD player for quality purposes Are you still in WNY? If so, I may have a deal for you on a CD player if you have not gotten one yet. I've got 2 Music Hall players.....one has a remote, the other does not. One is HDCD the other isn't. I'm done in the Corning, NY area, but moving to WNY within the next couple months. Let me know when you are here. That timing might be perfect
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Post by wnydel on Apr 16, 2019 15:25:58 GMT -5
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Post by davidl81 on Apr 16, 2019 15:33:56 GMT -5
It looks like it will support 4 ohm speakers, you have to go into the setup and select 4 ohm. I'm guessing it activates some type of limitation on the amp as to not drive it too hard so it does not overheat. EDIT: I just did a quick google check and yes when you put the AVR into 4 ohm mode it limits the rail voltage so the AVR wont overheat.
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Post by wnydel on Apr 16, 2019 15:36:22 GMT -5
It looks like it will support 4 ohm speakers, you have to go into the setup and select 4 ohm. I'm guessing it activates some type of limitation on the amp as to not drive it too hard so it does not overheat. Thank you! I was hoping that was the answer. And I figured it must do something different with them (limitation).
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Post by wnydel on Apr 16, 2019 15:53:08 GMT -5
It looks like it will support 4 ohm speakers, you have to go into the setup and select 4 ohm. I'm guessing it activates some type of limitation on the amp as to not drive it too hard so it does not overheat. EDIT: I just did a quick google check and yes when you put the AVR into 4 ohm mode it limits the rail voltage so the AVR wont overheat. Thank you for looking into this. This very good news, glad I can run them.
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Post by creimes on Apr 16, 2019 15:59:14 GMT -5
It looks like it will support 4 ohm speakers, you have to go into the setup and select 4 ohm. I'm guessing it activates some type of limitation on the amp as to not drive it too hard so it does not overheat. EDIT: I just did a quick google check and yes when you put the AVR into 4 ohm mode it limits the rail voltage so the AVR wont overheat. Thank you for looking into this. This very good news, glad I can run them. Also it looks as though if you don't go any higher than a 5.1 setup the fronts can be bi-amped, correct me if I am wrong someone but bi-amping and running two speaker cables to each speaker(removing the jumpers on the speaker) it would presented as 8ohms on each connection ??
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Post by wnydel on Apr 16, 2019 16:04:50 GMT -5
I’ll keep the dump questions coming...
I currently have two 170 se speakers from ascend. They are my only good speakers. If I were to go with T2s for LR and a C2 center, should I add the ascends for rears, or would this sound bad and I would be better off using the ascends for another room?
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Post by davidl81 on Apr 16, 2019 16:15:41 GMT -5
I’ll keep the dump questions coming... I currently have two 170 se speakers from ascend. They are my only good speakers. If I were to go with T2s for LR and a C2 center, should I add the ascends for rears, or would this sound bad and I would be better off using the ascends for another room? Some people get really into tone matching speakers (ie all speakers being the same), but IMO that only really matters for the front channels (LCR). The surrounds are really only for effects and your Ascend speakers will sound virtually identical to anything else you use back there. I would just use those for surrounds for the time being.
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Post by creimes on Apr 16, 2019 16:16:04 GMT -5
Should be fine, best to keep the front three voiced the same for dialogue sounding it's best
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Post by selind40 on Apr 16, 2019 16:16:20 GMT -5
I’ll keep the dump questions coming... I currently have two 170 se speakers from ascend. They are my only good speakers. If I were to go with T2s for LR and a C2 center, should I add the ascends for rears, or would this sound bad and I would be better off using the ascends for another room? I also have speakers that I'm not sure are going to be used once I get resettled, I've got more speakers than equipment to hook up to. If I decide to sell, I'd rather sell locally and avoid shipping costs & potential damage.
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klinemj
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Post by klinemj on Apr 16, 2019 17:13:54 GMT -5
wnydelOn your 3 different rooms, will all be HT + music or will 1 be music only? If so...I'd strongly consider snapping up the T2's at the sale price now to the music room. There are many good amps you could get to drive them well, from Emotiva and others. What source will you be using for music? For music, do you only stream, only use CD's, or a mix? Mark All rooms will be a mix. At least that was my thought. But they are at a good price. I never looked at the Emotiva amps. I’m goibg to now. I usually stream, but I would get a CD player for quality purposes I stream exclusively, and I can tell you - streaming can be excellent quality (as good or better than CD's). I recently got an ultraRendu, and the sound quality is amazing. I don't ever use a CD player anymore. I have not for years now. On doing a mix of multichannel/HT and 2 channel in multiple places, my advice is to not do that. You will spend a LOT overall and sacrifice quality in each place if you spread the $ out over 3 rooms and hold to your budget. Do 1 HT room very well, and maybe make it a mixed room of HT/music, then decide what the other rooms really need. Maybe have 1 "all in" theater room, 1 "all in" stereo room, and then whatever else you want to do in room #3. Mark
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Post by wnydel on Apr 24, 2019 11:31:54 GMT -5
I’m still confused enough, that I would appreciate a more expert opinion on comparing these two towers.
Airmotiv T2
Chane A5.4
Do you think one is inherently superior to the other?
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Post by creimes on Apr 24, 2019 12:41:28 GMT -5
I currently own the Chane A5rx-c and now have some T1 as well, I hear more lows coming from the T1 compared to the Chane's, but otherwise a pretty lateral move, though the T2 should have an even more prominent low end, if not using a sub I would prob go for the T2.
Chad
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Post by gus4emo on Apr 24, 2019 13:58:59 GMT -5
Speaking of numbers and speakers, some manufacturers post almost no specs, they want people to judge the speaker by how it sounds, a certain brand comes to mind, but I won't mention it, just adding a little something....
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Post by MusicHead on Apr 24, 2019 19:06:20 GMT -5
I’ll keep the dump questions coming... I currently have two 170 se speakers from ascend. They are my only good speakers. If I were to go with T2s for LR and a C2 center, should I add the ascends for rears, or would this sound bad and I would be better off using the ascends for another room? In my humble opinion, since you have the two 170s from Ascend, get a set of three CMT-340SE as your LCR speaker and move the 170s to surround duty. With their the sensitivity and 8 Ohm rating they can get plenty loud without taxing your receiver. Of course I am biased since I have the CMT-340SE, but that also means I speak from experience 🙂
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Post by wnydel on Apr 24, 2019 19:13:30 GMT -5
I’ll keep the dump questions coming... I currently have two 170 se speakers from ascend. They are my only good speakers. If I were to go with T2s for LR and a C2 center, should I add the ascends for rears, or would this sound bad and I would be better off using the ascends for another room? In my humble opinion, since you have the two 170s from Ascend, get a set of three CMT-340SE as your LCR speaker and move the 170s to surround duty. With their the sensitivity and 8 Ohm rating they can get plenty loud without taxing your receiver. Of course I am biased since I have the CMT-340SE, but that also means I speak from experience 🙂 I was thinking about that. I’m very confused between Ascend, Chane and The Airmotiv’s. I want them all, so my only solution is to very slowly set up 3 rooms. So I’m assuming you are happy with the Ascends? Someone commented that the Ascends as fronts “played it a little safe” and didn’t provide a rich sound. But I have read plenty of comments from people who love them. How to they do with music? I’ll be using it mostly for HT, but there will be a decent percentage of music as well.
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Post by MusicHead on Apr 24, 2019 19:43:18 GMT -5
In my humble opinion, since you have the two 170s from Ascend, get a set of three CMT-340SE as your LCR speaker and move the 170s to surround duty. With their the sensitivity and 8 Ohm rating they can get plenty loud without taxing your receiver. Of course I am biased since I have the CMT-340SE, but that also means I speak from experience 🙂 I was thinking about that. I’m very confused between Ascend, Chane and The Airmotiv’s. I want them all, so my only solution is to very slowly set up 3 rooms. So I’m assuming you are happy with the Ascends? Someone commented that the Ascends as fronts “played it a little safe” and didn’t provide a rich sound. But I have read plenty of comments from people who love them. How to they do with music? I’ll be using it mostly for HT, but there will be a decent percentage of music as well. I am very happy indeed with the way they work with music. Although I use my system for both 2-ch music and HT, I wanted something geared primarily toward music. If you like the sound signature of the 170, you will like the CMT-340SE. With the two midwoofers and higher internal volume, it will reach lower and have a more robust midrange. Ascends are considered neutral speakers, which does not sit well with some. I like that quality in speakers, so I am very happy with the sound. Important detail, though: as you can see in my signature, I also have a Rhytmik L12 sealed sub, which I always use, even with music. It is crossed at 80Hz with the CMT-340SE, which reduces the burden on both them and the receiver, increasing even more the overall dynamic. For being a "poor man" system, it sounds like a million buck 😁 Before I pulled the trigger on the Ascends I too was looking at some of the Chane and the Airmotive. All good speakers in their own right, I believe. Hard to go wrong with any of them in that price range. What tipped the scale in favor of the Ascends was the higher sensitivity and the benign load they present. Having a receiver (even though the Fusion 8100 is surprisingly good as far as receivers go) I wanted to maximize every ounce of power available. Although I could not obviously audition them, I ended up liking their voicing very much too, so no buyer remorse or accepting to live with the speakers just because they are a great value and have high efficiency.
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Post by wnydel on Apr 25, 2019 10:43:09 GMT -5
I was thinking about that. I’m very confused between Ascend, Chane and The Airmotiv’s. I want them all, so my only solution is to very slowly set up 3 rooms. So I’m assuming you are happy with the Ascends? Someone commented that the Ascends as fronts “played it a little safe” and didn’t provide a rich sound. But I have read plenty of comments from people who love them. How to they do with music? I’ll be using it mostly for HT, but there will be a decent percentage of music as well. I am very happy indeed with the way they work with music. Although I use my system for both 2-ch music and HT, I wanted something geared primarily toward music. If you like the sound signature of the 170, you will like the CMT-340SE. With the two midwoofers and higher internal volume, it will reach lower and have a more robust midrange. Ascends are considered neutral speakers, which does not sit well with some. I like that quality in speakers, so I am very happy with the sound. Important detail, though: as you can see in my signature, I also have a Rhytmik L12 sealed sub, which I always use, even with music. It is crossed at 80Hz with the CMT-340SE, which reduces the burden on both them and the receiver, increasing even more the overall dynamic. For being a "poor man" system, it sounds like a million buck 😁 Before I pulled the trigger on the Ascends I too was looking at some of the Chane and the Airmotive. All good speakers in their own right, I believe. Hard to go wrong with any of them in that price range. What tipped the scale in favor of the Ascends was the higher sensitivity and the benign load they present. Having a receiver (even though the Fusion 8100 is surprisingly good as far as receivers go) I wanted to maximize every ounce of power available. Although I could not obviously audition them, I ended up liking their voicing very much too, so no buyer remorse or accepting to live with the speakers just because they are a great value and have high efficiency. One more question. I highly doubt this is what is considered neutral. Likely something isn’t working exactly as it should with my tv or receiver. At the moment I have the 170s as R/L. No center, which could also explain this. Other sounds, sound normal/good. Human voices sound...different. I don’t want to go so far as to use the word muffled, but they aren’t as clear/clean as my cheap built in tv speaker. Am I doing something wrong? This is the one thing that help me back on ascends for the fronts. Im guessing the answer is no, but is that how they make human voices sound?
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