drkhwk

Hi all, I recently decided it was time for a serious upgrade to my current speakers now that I have some extra cash to spend. I have about $600-800 to spend, and am having a hard time deciding what to buy. I plan on spending another $1000 or so in about 3 months to finish off the upgrade if necessary. I am living on the 3rd floor of an apartment so I really don't want anything for the sake of blasting it really loud, I'm more interested in the overall sound quality. My current HT system is the Kenwood HTB-502 home theater in a box set. I have been looking into getting a full 5 speaker setup consisting of the NHT SuperOnes (fronts), SuperCenter (Center), and SuperZeros (rears) to replace the not so great ones that come with the HTB-502 Set. I have heard that these speakers can sound bad if they are not paired with a high quality reciever. I am wondering if I should:

1. bother getting them with my current reciever
   
2. consider different speakers (i have been looking into the Paradigm Atom speakers also. Also open to other suggestions)
   
3. get a better reciever and get new speakers later
   

If I am going to need a new reciever what kind should I look into getting? Any help would be of great assistance!

stevef

I just posted my opinion about speakers in an above post. I am partial to Polk Audio speakers. I had a Kenwood receiver before I got my Onkyo. As soon as I got the Kenwood, I set it up, cranked it up, and decided it was time to give it up !!!!!! Yes,sorry,it took about that long. I now have an Onkyo TX-DS 474, unfortunately I got it at the end of the year and soon after I got it the 484 came out, which is essentially the same, but with a few extras. If I were to get another receiver anytime soon, it would be an Onkyo TX-DS575X. I really want a 777, but I can't afford a 777, so I gave up on that idea, for now!!! One suggestion that I learned the hard way, keep your speakers in the same family all the way around. A speaker that Polk has that I have 4 of for surround are the R-10's. They are 2 way with excellent freq resp and power handling. They go down to 55/60 hz and up to 24 khz and handle 100 watts. For a supposed bookshelf they are pretty remarkable. If I didn't have the Polk's that I have for mains (older SDA-1a model), I'd have 6 of these babies in my living room. Of course they do need a sub, but I think you said you have a Velodyne (?). Well good luck!!! SteveF

gcribbs

i would listen to the NHT's. If you want to see how they sound call the local NHT dealer and ask them if you can bring in your receiver to make sure they sound ok with your receiver. i bet they let you. i am biased but i like the sound of denon receivers a whole lot so if you are going to go that route then give them a listen. remember to bring in music or another source for your demos so that you can listen to sounds you know well. the worst thing you can do is listen to the sales persons music if you do not know it then bring the speakers home and only to find out they sound horrible to you on music you know
also do not let the sales person control the sound adjustments because they will often adjust one speakers sound to get you to like it better. for example increase the sound a little so it sound clearer or increase the bass so that it appears to have a deeper range. Not that any salesperson would ever do that

SEH

I would suggest that you listen to the Energy e-xls. If you search audioreview.com, you will see lots of positive feedback on their micro package - Take 5. This is what I was initially interested in, but the e-xls line is fantastic and offers the option of a dipole surround, which I selected (this is not said to start the age old debate). I think you will find that they offer excellent full range sound, although I chose an Energy 10" sub also. There are some excellent deals on these at audioshop.on.ca and I recently saw a post for radarcity.com, although I only have purchasing expereince with audioshop. Good luck.

Dominus

quote:<HR>Originally posted by drkhwk:
Hi all, I recently decided it was time for a serious upgrade to my current speakers now that I have some extra cash to spend. I have about $600-800 to spend, and am having a hard time deciding what to buy. I plan on spending another $1000 or so in about 3 months to finish off the upgrade if necessary. I am living on the 3rd floor of an apartment so I really don't want anything for the sake of blasting it really loud, I'm more interested in the overall sound quality. My current HT system is the Kenwood HTB-502 home theater in a box set. I have been looking into getting a full 5 speaker setup consisting of the NHT SuperOnes (fronts), SuperCenter (Center), and SuperZeros (rears) to replace the not so great ones that come with the HTB-502 Set. I have heard that these speakers can sound bad if they are not paired with a high quality reciever. I am wondering if I should:

1. bother getting them with my current reciever
   
2. consider different speakers (i have been looking into the Paradigm Atom speakers also. Also open to other suggestions)
   
3. get a better reciever and get new speakers later
   

If I am going to need a new reciever what kind should I look into getting? Any help would be of great assistance! <HR>

I recently demoed the NHT setup you mentioned and I didn't particulary like it. It was "ok" for movies, but a lot of the midrange seemed weak, because these are very small speakers in very small enclosures. This became even more evident when listening to any type of music on them.

I also demoed the Paradigm's you referred to and the were wonderful. For the money, I would go for the Paradigms no questions asked. The atoms are the best speakers in that price range period.