gyrovague
New member
Hi
My current system, about 10 years old, is a Jazz Speakers J9931B ( http://jazzspeakers.english.eyp.com.tw/eyp/front/bin/ptdetail.phtml?Part=J9931B&Category=200011185 ) 5.1 DD/DTS system (audio receiver with speakers), with optical/co-ax digital inputs as well as some stereo analogue inputs. It has "only" 10W RMS per channel (x5) into 4ohm and 50W RMS for the subwoofer. To me, this cheap&nasty (I think I bought it for about R2000 10 years ago) system sounds pretty great (and volume is more than sufficient, I never use it close to max volume). I say this to highlight the fact that I'm obviously not an audiophile, and in fact I believe a certain amount of cognitive dissonance is involved when people claim the superiority of their tens-of-thousands-of-rands speaker systems (except maybe when it comes to superb reproduction at deafeningly loud volumes, which I'm not interested in anyway). (This comic comes to mind: http://xkcd.com/915/ ) I've never been particularly interested in AV systems either, so am not very knowledgeable about them, but I am an electronic engineer so I do probably have (most of?) the technical understanding of how they work and what all the specifications really mean etc.
So, that was all just background information, hopefully I haven't now alienated everybody here
I recently purchased a second hand Denon AVR-1803 receiver (6.1 system) for quite a bargain (R900) from a friend who is upgrading his system. To me the immediate benefits of this are all the extra inputs it supports, as well as the bonus feature of being able to switch between a number of video inputs, and support for a wider range of digital encodings (e.g. DTS-ES) than my current system.
The new receiver supports 80W RMS per channel (x6) into 8ohm, and so my existing speakers will not work?. so, I am now looking for a set of "reasonably good" speakers (2 front, 1 center, 2 surround, 1 (or 2 optionally, since it supports a bridged pair too) surround back, 1 active subwoofer (preferably able to reproduce under 80Hz sufficiently) ), either (cheap) new or preferably second hand (presumable better value for money?).
I found these: http://www.sony.co.za/product/sa-p55h
which I thought sounded fairly promising (costs R4100 currently), but when I googled for reviews, one of the first hits was a link to a thread on this very forum ( http://www.avforums.co.za/index.php?topic=7923.0 ) basically telling the guy to not bother with Sony and rather get something else. (That is actually how I became aware of this forum, and have thus now registered?) Keep in mind, as I said, that I am not an audiophile, I just want something which sounds reasonably good and doesn't have obviously noticeable distortion or other artifacts? My current system already sounds fantastic to me. My primary use is for movies (I use an Optoma HD20 1080p projector for the video, with a home-made screen), not music. Something like this ( http://www.avforums.co.za/index.php/topic,14165.0.html ) sounded like a good deal to me, but its sold already. These Infinity Dynamic ( http://www.pqsound.co.za/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=5_41 ) speakers sound reasonably priced to me also?
Thoughts/recommendations? Anybody selling something good-but-cheap ? Ideally I don't want to spend more than R4k total for all the speakers, to give an idea. (I'm sure this is going to evoke some knowing laughs from the purist audiophiles here?)
My current system, about 10 years old, is a Jazz Speakers J9931B ( http://jazzspeakers.english.eyp.com.tw/eyp/front/bin/ptdetail.phtml?Part=J9931B&Category=200011185 ) 5.1 DD/DTS system (audio receiver with speakers), with optical/co-ax digital inputs as well as some stereo analogue inputs. It has "only" 10W RMS per channel (x5) into 4ohm and 50W RMS for the subwoofer. To me, this cheap&nasty (I think I bought it for about R2000 10 years ago) system sounds pretty great (and volume is more than sufficient, I never use it close to max volume). I say this to highlight the fact that I'm obviously not an audiophile, and in fact I believe a certain amount of cognitive dissonance is involved when people claim the superiority of their tens-of-thousands-of-rands speaker systems (except maybe when it comes to superb reproduction at deafeningly loud volumes, which I'm not interested in anyway). (This comic comes to mind: http://xkcd.com/915/ ) I've never been particularly interested in AV systems either, so am not very knowledgeable about them, but I am an electronic engineer so I do probably have (most of?) the technical understanding of how they work and what all the specifications really mean etc.
So, that was all just background information, hopefully I haven't now alienated everybody here
I recently purchased a second hand Denon AVR-1803 receiver (6.1 system) for quite a bargain (R900) from a friend who is upgrading his system. To me the immediate benefits of this are all the extra inputs it supports, as well as the bonus feature of being able to switch between a number of video inputs, and support for a wider range of digital encodings (e.g. DTS-ES) than my current system.
The new receiver supports 80W RMS per channel (x6) into 8ohm, and so my existing speakers will not work?. so, I am now looking for a set of "reasonably good" speakers (2 front, 1 center, 2 surround, 1 (or 2 optionally, since it supports a bridged pair too) surround back, 1 active subwoofer (preferably able to reproduce under 80Hz sufficiently) ), either (cheap) new or preferably second hand (presumable better value for money?).
I found these: http://www.sony.co.za/product/sa-p55h
which I thought sounded fairly promising (costs R4100 currently), but when I googled for reviews, one of the first hits was a link to a thread on this very forum ( http://www.avforums.co.za/index.php?topic=7923.0 ) basically telling the guy to not bother with Sony and rather get something else. (That is actually how I became aware of this forum, and have thus now registered?) Keep in mind, as I said, that I am not an audiophile, I just want something which sounds reasonably good and doesn't have obviously noticeable distortion or other artifacts? My current system already sounds fantastic to me. My primary use is for movies (I use an Optoma HD20 1080p projector for the video, with a home-made screen), not music. Something like this ( http://www.avforums.co.za/index.php/topic,14165.0.html ) sounded like a good deal to me, but its sold already. These Infinity Dynamic ( http://www.pqsound.co.za/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=5_41 ) speakers sound reasonably priced to me also?
Thoughts/recommendations? Anybody selling something good-but-cheap ? Ideally I don't want to spend more than R4k total for all the speakers, to give an idea. (I'm sure this is going to evoke some knowing laughs from the purist audiophiles here?)
