what would you do? AV system

SoapSurgeon · 6 Dec 2007 at 21:42

Hi guys,

I bought a system about 3 years ago but have never used it as my av receiver broke before i got the system complete and i never got round to fixing it! However, I have just found all my stuff in the garage and am tempted to get it back together. Now bearing in mind I don't know much about home cinema this is what I bought:

Eltax Liberty Centre speaker
Cheap eltax rear speakers
some eltax bookshelf speakers that i nicked off my brother (Monitor IIIs apparently)
Gale subwoofer - its huge!

Broken JVC receiver (cant remember model).

Now, it will cost me ~£140 to fix my receiver, which seems expensive because it only cost me £200 new!!

Is it worth getting it repaired? Buying a new AV receiver (about £250 - maybe more) or just selling the whole lot cos its ****!!

Oh I also have a pair of eltax floor standers and a cambridge audio A500 amp for stereo (that any good??) I could use my floor standers in my 5.1 system if there is some way of using the A500 for music cos if i remember correctly AV receivers are generally crap for music.

Just looking for ideas for xmas presents

Neo4 · 6 Dec 2007 at 22:17

I would get a 2nd hand AVR and scrap the JVC.

SoapSurgeon · 6 Dec 2007 at 22:22

Neo4 said:
I would get a 2nd hand AVR and scrap the JVC.

excellent - any particular models in mind? I hear Onkyo are good and a shop owned by a guy called julian have one for £250.

I don't have a high def tv but i have a monitor, laptop, xbox 360 that i use regularly... as you can tell I have no idea what can and can't be plugged into these things.

Martynt74 · 6 Dec 2007 at 23:11

I'm guessing tha Onkyo one will be the 505 which is very good for the price

james.miller · 7 Dec 2007 at 03:50

i wouldnt recommend the 505 to anybody. most people look at the 505 as a cheap way of getting a hdmi switching amp. what they dont realize, is that the amps cant process audio over hdmi. meaning no hd audio support (and without a 7.1 analogue input, there is no way whatsoever), and the need for a seperate audio connection from each component.

Howard · 7 Dec 2007 at 08:50

james.miller said:
i wouldnt recommend the 505 to anybody. most people look at the 505 as a cheap way of getting a hdmi switching amp. what they dont realize, is that the amps cant process audio over hdmi. meaning no hd audio support (and without a 7.1 analogue input, there is no way whatsoever), and the need for a seperate audio connection from each component.

Yeah, get the 605

I love my 705 <3

SoapSurgeon · 7 Dec 2007 at 09:10

OK, the 605 is slightly more expensive but by the sound of it the 505 is a waste of time?

Now considering I'm a noob at this stuff I'm looking at the back of the 605 and thinking what the hell goes in here?! I can see where I'd wire up the speakers, and I guess there are several audio inputs for stuff. What I have never understood is why you plug visual stuff in - what benefits would you get for running your xbox through the receiver rather than directly into the tv? Is it merely so you can have multiple devices running through the same cable? Or are there some other hidden benefits?

Alexrose1uk · 7 Dec 2007 at 09:48

Partially so you can plug more things into your TV at once, with less cables running from the reciever to the TV, but also some models offer SD upscaling or other benefits. That said, if you're plugging HDMI into the box, then you're giving it the picture on passthrough anyway, and there's no way around it

Some models will also send almost anything you want over one cable to the tv, regardless of the connection to the reciever, ie box----component---> reciever----hdmi--->tv, or offer additional inputs which your TV doesnt, for example Im pretty sure I've seen multiple of component inputs on some recievers.

@ James - you always seem to be the Onkyo knowledgable person around these forums - I'm guessing the 605 Onkyo can do HDMI audio passthrough/processing, unlike the 505 which has no HDMI audio capabilities?

SoapSurgeon · 7 Dec 2007 at 09:51

Thanks, that is very informative. So I guess, seeing as I dont need too many inputs at the moment it comes down to which will give me the best sound quality. I will investigate further.

james.miller · 7 Dec 2007 at 11:15

Alexrose1uk said:
@ James - you always seem to be the Onkyo knowledgable person around these forums - I'm guessing the 605 Onkyo can do HDMI audio passthrough/processing, unlike the 505 which has no HDMI audio capabilities?

it does indeed

i did quite a bit of research on them when i was eying up my 805. if i can help other people with them then

Thanks, that is very informative. So I guess, seeing as I dont need too many inputs at the moment it comes down to which will give me the best sound quality. I will investigate further.

lol well with the av amps, its generally spend more = get more. if you are buying blind (ie without listening to one first) then be sure you know exactly what you want from one. budget for things you may need in the future if possible (ie an extra hdmi input for example) because there's no point in putting down a few £hundred for an amp only to be limited by what it can do a few months down the line. oh and read as many online reviews as possible!

at that end of the market i dont know enough to recommend the 605 over anything else, i can only really tell you what it does and doesnt do. although i keep hearing the 604 is the best amp to ever appear under £400, its always best to over to avfourms and ask there

if you want the best sound quality, you'll be spending at least twice the price of a 605 lol

SoapSurgeon · 7 Dec 2007 at 11:20

james.miller said:
it does indeed i did quite a bit of research on them when i was eying up my 805. if i can help other people with them then

lol well with the av amps, its generally spend more = get more. if you are buying blind (ie without listening to one first) then be sure you know exactly what you want from one. budget for things you may need in the future if possible (ie an extra hdmi input for example) because there's no point in putting down a few £hundred for an amp only to be limited by what it can do a few months down the line. oh and read as many online reviews as possible!

at that end of the market i dont know enough to recommend the 605 over anything else, i can only really tell you what it does and doesnt do. best thing you can do is head over to avfourms and ask there if you want the best sound quality, you'll be spending at least twice the price of a 605 lol

Sorry, I meant best sound quality for the price

I understand its a case of get what you pay for, but I really don't think I'll benefit from an all singing all dancing setup due to my lack of equipment and the rubbish room it will be in for a few years. However, being the tech geek that i am I envisage buying an HD tv later down the line and therefore probably a HD dvd player of sorts. My way of thinking at the moment is that any av receiver will sound better than none! Although, like you said, I dont wanna be left with a lemon that I will have to upgrade in a few years...

james.miller · 7 Dec 2007 at 11:41

well, you could do far worse than a 605! just make sure you can live with the looks. some people (fools

) think they look ugly

SoapSurgeon · 7 Dec 2007 at 11:43

it does look rather large... but with so many connections i guess you cant make it any smaller! I might pop into town and check them out - just in case they are completely ugly!

thanks for your help btw.

james.miller · 7 Dec 2007 at 12:19

they aren't that big, pretty much the standard av amp size and measure in at 435 x 174 x 377 (H/w/d) and weight 12.5kg. the 805's measure 435 x 194 x 459 and weight 24kg lol

SoapSurgeon · 7 Dec 2007 at 13:10

compared to my A500 it is big - but i do remember my jvc pretty big.

some more questions regarding speakers...

Should I use my monitor IIIs or my floor standers for AV? Is it possible to use them for both A500 and onkyo?

Is the quality of rear speakers important (relatively speaking) as I only have a pair of cheap ones.

Will the Onkyo blow up any of my speakers? What do I need to know about wattage etc? I was told that the rear channel doesnt receive a lot of power so I don't need to pay too much attention to the ratings... (Do i need to worry about impedance??)

however, since my JVC blew up im taking an extra cautious stance with anything electrical!!

james.miller · 7 Dec 2007 at 14:54

well, it depends on the room really. id probably go with the monitor III's at the front, but experiment and see what sounds best. actually saying that, considering the subwoofer you'd be using, you might be better of with the floor standers at the front and ditching *** sub. but like i said, experiment

rear speaker are important, yeah. well, the all are really. although you can get away with cheaper rear speakers quite easily, its still important to try and match the speakers. if you use cheaper rear speakers you may be fine with sounds that only come from the rear, but anything that pans front to back or visa versa (like a chopter passing over head or something) will quickly show up the difference is quality. i found that when using a cheap center speaker. the difference in sound quality annoyed me so much that i just switched it off all together until i could get a half decent one.

Will the Onkyo blow up any of my speakers? What do I need to know about wattage etc? I was told that the rear channel doesnt receive a lot of power so I don't need to pay too much attention to the ratings... (Do i need to worry about impedance??)

if you turn it up, sure it might lol. you dont really need to worry about wattage all that much, certainly if your in an average sized room. it doesnt actually take a lot of power to drive up to silly spls in a small room. as long as its set up correctly, there's little to worry about

SoapSurgeon · 7 Dec 2007 at 15:37

cool, thanks for the help (again). I think my centre speaker is relatively good - it cost me about £200 at the time! I'm not sure about the monitor III's cos i stole them off my brother and have never used them, im just wary of the rears - I will test them out once I get my receiver and see if I can tell the difference (im guessing yes).

SoapSurgeon · 9 Jan 2008 at 15:48

Hi all...

I have now taken the plunge and bought a shiny black 605 and I love it! My current setup is:

Onkyo 605
Eltax Linear Response 6.6 floorstanders
Eltax Liberty Centre
Eltax Monitor III rears
Gale 3080 subwoofer

I have a few questions now regarding the speakers.

Q1. All my speakers are massive and I hear good things about smaller speaker systems such as the Jamo or KEF 1005, 2005 etc. Will these smaller speakers produce a sound as good (or better) as my current setup? I'm getting fed up with having huge speakers and as non of the speakers are from the same range it can sound a bit odd with sound panning!

Q2. My floorstanders have a frequency response of 40-22.000 Hz (whatever that means) and my subwoofer has 50-150Hz (taking that from the dial). Does that mean that I dont actually need my subwoofer as the floorstanders produce enough bass?

Q3. The auto setup of the Onkyo has all my speakers on full band - should i set the crossover frequency to something like 80 Hz - or is that just for smaller speakers?

Q4. How do you go about selling/disposing of speakers??? I looked on the auction site and the eltax dont sell for much so I may be forced to abandon, there a better place to sell them?

Thanks for any answers!!