Looking for some advice on buying a HT receiver
08-22-08, 11:59 AM
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Looking for some advice on buying a HT receiver
Okay, here's my situation....
I've recently moved into a new house (renting). The owners have the house pretty well wired for audio. There are speakers mounted in the ceiling in the shower, the dining room, the master bedroom, the basement, and the back patio. All the speaker wire is coming out of the wall neatly in the living room where we have our entertainment center. The living room also has surround speakers mounted.
I haven't purchased a stereo/receiver in years and I'm just not sure how this all works. I'll also be hooking up my PS3, HD Cable Box, and my HDTV, of course. I have the HDMI cables, so I would prefer the receiver be HDMI compatible as well.
Could someone recommend a receiver that has multiple sets of speaker outputs? I would ideally like to get a whole 7.1 speaker set for the living room eventually, but I'm thinking I need more outputs than that for the rest of the speakers in the house. Right? Or do I get a separate splitter or something?
I'd like to stay under $400-500.
Thanks.
I've recently moved into a new house (renting). The owners have the house pretty well wired for audio. There are speakers mounted in the ceiling in the shower, the dining room, the master bedroom, the basement, and the back patio. All the speaker wire is coming out of the wall neatly in the living room where we have our entertainment center. The living room also has surround speakers mounted.
I haven't purchased a stereo/receiver in years and I'm just not sure how this all works. I'll also be hooking up my PS3, HD Cable Box, and my HDTV, of course. I have the HDMI cables, so I would prefer the receiver be HDMI compatible as well.
Could someone recommend a receiver that has multiple sets of speaker outputs? I would ideally like to get a whole 7.1 speaker set for the living room eventually, but I'm thinking I need more outputs than that for the rest of the speakers in the house. Right? Or do I get a separate splitter or something?
I'd like to stay under $400-500.
Thanks.
08-22-08, 02:23 PM
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Whole house audio does not come in at under $500, not retail.
You want a receiver that has a zone 2 output. Zone 2 can be used to play music separately from the surround sound at the TV. It will be stereo, and can be hooked into a separate amp system for the "whole house" part. That way you can use just the one receiver to control things instead of buying another, plus all your sources can be hooked together to get the most convenient setup. I think most receivers do this these days, the Onkyo 606 has been popular this summer. That part will come in under $500.
One option to save money on whole house is to use speaker selector switches. But then you defeat the zoning purpose.
You want a receiver that has a zone 2 output. Zone 2 can be used to play music separately from the surround sound at the TV. It will be stereo, and can be hooked into a separate amp system for the "whole house" part. That way you can use just the one receiver to control things instead of buying another, plus all your sources can be hooked together to get the most convenient setup. I think most receivers do this these days, the Onkyo 606 has been popular this summer. That part will come in under $500.
One option to save money on whole house is to use speaker selector switches. But then you defeat the zoning purpose.
08-23-08, 07:12 AM
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Okay, so the 606 ( http://www.amazon.com/Onkyo-TX-SR606...9493040&sr=8-1 ) has a Zone 2 output.
Would I also just need to pick up something like this?
http://www.amazon.com/SSW-6-Speaker-..._tdp_sv_edpp_i
Would I also just need to pick up something like this?
http://www.amazon.com/SSW-6-Speaker-..._tdp_sv_edpp_i
08-23-08, 10:00 AM
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You know, when I said the switch would defeat zoning, I was thinking of a 7.1 surround system where the receiver would be all used up for TV. I seem to have that on the brain. You could definitely have a great setup with those 2 items like this:
Use 5.1 surround sound at the TV.
Use the 6th and 7th channels for amplifying the 2nd zone.
Use the speaker selector to pick which room in the house gets sound.
Now, issues:
-I don't know how good that speaker switch is. Sima makes many decent products, but they have had some lemons. Looks like reviews are pretty good.
-Switches like this are an easy place to have problems. Lots of speaker wire in and out means you have to watch carefully to make sure no electrical shorts occur. And check it once a year or something.
-It is manual, so you have to come back to this room to switch where you hear the music. But you are getting plenty of value for your money with a setup like this. Serious integrated systems can cost 10s of thousands. My bro-in-law charges $1000 and up just to program them.
-You only get one room at a time with music. Don't fall into the trap of assuming the 606 can power more than 2 speakers at once in the 2nd zone. If you do this, it will sound fine for a while, maybe months. Don't trust that, because it WILL completely ruin the amp and probably speakers by overstress.
-The 606 has 2 sets of speaker outputs for its 6th and 7th channels. Only plug in one set of these at a time. In your case, the Zone 2 section.
-You won't be able to have 7.1 surround for your TV easily. Without buying more stuff, I mean.
-I would probably test out all the speakers in every room with direct connections to the receiver. You just got into this place, so you never know, some of them might be damaged. Best to test without the switch in the loop. Listen to a CD or something stable (not radio) for crackling or other obvious sound problems.
-I'm pretty sure you will NOT be able to get Zone 2 sound from HDMI or even optical. So if you expect to use something besides radio in the 2nd zone, you may need to also run standard red/white audio connections to the receiver. Like from your cable box if you want to repeat the TV sound in another room while it's on in the living room.
Use 5.1 surround sound at the TV.
Use the 6th and 7th channels for amplifying the 2nd zone.
Use the speaker selector to pick which room in the house gets sound.
Now, issues:
-I don't know how good that speaker switch is. Sima makes many decent products, but they have had some lemons. Looks like reviews are pretty good.
-Switches like this are an easy place to have problems. Lots of speaker wire in and out means you have to watch carefully to make sure no electrical shorts occur. And check it once a year or something.
-It is manual, so you have to come back to this room to switch where you hear the music. But you are getting plenty of value for your money with a setup like this. Serious integrated systems can cost 10s of thousands. My bro-in-law charges $1000 and up just to program them.
-You only get one room at a time with music. Don't fall into the trap of assuming the 606 can power more than 2 speakers at once in the 2nd zone. If you do this, it will sound fine for a while, maybe months. Don't trust that, because it WILL completely ruin the amp and probably speakers by overstress.
-The 606 has 2 sets of speaker outputs for its 6th and 7th channels. Only plug in one set of these at a time. In your case, the Zone 2 section.
-You won't be able to have 7.1 surround for your TV easily. Without buying more stuff, I mean.
-I would probably test out all the speakers in every room with direct connections to the receiver. You just got into this place, so you never know, some of them might be damaged. Best to test without the switch in the loop. Listen to a CD or something stable (not radio) for crackling or other obvious sound problems.
-I'm pretty sure you will NOT be able to get Zone 2 sound from HDMI or even optical. So if you expect to use something besides radio in the 2nd zone, you may need to also run standard red/white audio connections to the receiver. Like from your cable box if you want to repeat the TV sound in another room while it's on in the living room.
08-23-08, 03:13 PM
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This is where I got mine in the beginning of the month. Great customer service and quick shipping as I had to Return a defective one. Great price also...http://www.onecall.com/ProductDetails.aspx?id=91169
