Home Theater Receivers

Enough said.

Anyway, now that I ('m going to) own a receiver, are there other tools of the trade that go well along with this? Any advice anyone might have?

Could I somehow get my monitor to hook up on the video part of the receiver, and get input from my VCR to my monitor?

/me doesn't think so

Thanks for the tip SNGX.

Any idea why the KLH is 7 pounds heavier than the Kenwood?! They're roughly the same size...

I'm still sticking with the Kenwood, after reviewing them all (w/ Compare )

When you compare the differences in the recievers, one thing that sticks out is the warranties. Most have a least one year. KLH, 90 days. That says something about quality.

The main reason for weight difference is usually the power supply, which in a reciever is usually the heaviest part. It's hard to believe that the KLH wieighs 7 pounds more than the Kenwood. Best Buy has been know to make mistakes in these specs. Maybe the KLH is including the packing.

Yeah, the Kenwood has a 1 year parts/labor warranty. Good to know. I'll get it!

The question remains: KLH or Yamaha center speaker? I know the Yamaha may be of better quality than the KLH...but the KLH is $20 cheaper. Is the Yamaha really worth the extra money? Will I really notice it? I'm all for quality speakers, but I'm a little strapped for cash.

If you had the two side by side in your home you might be able to tell a little difference, probably the Yamaha would be a little brighter and cleaner, but in the store you might not notice that much difference. I'd go for the price you can afford.

The main concern in a surround system is that all speakers match, frequencywise, I don't mean in the bass region, but in midrange and treble. You can't look at specs and get any useful info on matching. Normally you would want to by all the same brand, but in this case you can't do this. Again, I'd go with the price, since you really can't determine how close they match what you have.

Thank you so much for all your help olefarte! It is greatly appreciated. I'll order the receiver and the center speaker now.

Heh I still have $70 left too...

Thank you so much!!!!

Good luck, Happy Listening.

I suppose this is the nature of things. Get very, very excited about having a great speaker system and then have it all taken away from you like a rug pulled from underfoot. A ban has been set in place at my house, under penalty of speaker confiscation, that no music shall be played, ever, with the exception of headphones...

...which I'm gonna get! Sennheiser HD500's I belive. Or HD280's. I dunno yet.

Ah yes and I forgot to mention, I'll be returning the receiver and center speaker next Friday, since they really won't do much good here currently. I'll just take the money and sit on it. not literally, you wankers

Don't know what the headphones cost that you are buying, but you could still benefit from that reciever (I think I saw some 2 channel stereo recievers at Best Buy that were cheaper than what you looked at). If you get some GOOD headphones they will sound as good as a very expensive speaker system, if you have a good reciver to play them through.

You mean better than if I just played them through my sound card?

The HD500's go for about $100, and are the lowest model in their HD series. The HD's go all the way up to the HD600's, which are like $350.

I thought you were talking playing through your boombox. I haven't used headphones in a long time except when playing games on my computer and then only to keep from bothering anybody, and these are only the cheap $10 or $15 variety. $100 headphones are probably pretty good and would probably sound good on your computer, but might not have quite as much flexability, ie, fm tuner or tv if you wanted to listen to them to.

Subject to arguement, I would think overall a reciever would sound better and have more flexability, but since you're on a tight budget I know you have to consider that to.

My TV's in another room, and I don't have anything else to hook a receiver up to except my PC and CD player.

Since I'm just connecting my sound card to the receiver, then my headphones to the receiver, will it really make the sound sound better? If so, how?

Just go for the headphones and save your money. A reciever cannot make the sound better than the source. You already have a good sound card. I guess I'm dense, I didn't realize that you were only going to hook the PC to the reciever.

Heh.

And now I'm thinking of Sennheiser HD 212 Pro's. Their frequency response and THD are alot better than most speakers.

I think you are right. These appear to me to be the better ones. These look like they have the tightly closed ear cups. This will generaly give better bass response, but they are not as comfortable as the so called open air type. If you have the closed ones on for a long time you will perspire under them. Also don't be fooled by that 12 to 19,000 Hz. They will no dought get down low, but just like I said with speakers, unless it says something like "12 to 19,000 Hz +1-3 DB" or something like that, frequency specs are not of much value. Not saying they won't get bass, but the respose will probably drop of a lot at 40 or maybe 30 Hz, which is not really all that bad. I'm really just nitpicking because you will probably be very happy with them, I know I would.

Do you order off the net. If you can I would recomend going to Best Buy and auditioning what they have and get the ones that sound the best and are the most comfortable. Comfort for long listening periods is a must. Also, the cordless ones are great.