Need help with speakers and different brand reciever.

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djkeogh

djkeogh

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Nov 30, 2008
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Hello,

I am a complete noob to setting up speakers systems with a receiver and all the cables needed and speaker/subwoofer compatabilty with the receiver.I am really interested in getting into this and becoming an audiophile,i am looking at purchasing these items:

Speakers (Set of 5)
http://www.pixmania.ie/ie/uk/127156/art/kenwood/ks-3200ht-speaker-pack.html

Subwoofer
http://www.pixmania.ie/ie/uk/1240737/art/yamaha/yst-sw012-active-bass-sub.html

Receiver
http://www.pixmania.ie/ie/uk/6594480/art/yamaha/htr-3063-av-receiver-3d-r.html

I must also choose a soundcard for my pc,my options are:

ASUS XONAR XENSE 7.1
CREATIVE SOUND BLASTER X-FI TITANIUM
ASUS XONAR ESSENCE STX
AUZENTECH X-FI FORTE 7.1

Are these cards able to connect and output sound to my receiver of choice?

The back of the reciever is like this
http://inglele.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/image_thumb2.png?w=954&h=330

The back of the speakers are like this
http://c0.dmlimg.com/1fc1c1c2db5852e08ffc380475e26336c3f45ed238e283b16c78d1f42b2dcaef.jpg

And the back of the sub is like this
http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/346/yamsub1.jpg

Would i need to purchase extra cabling and coax/sp-dif cable's? If so what type of cable's/cabling and i think it's gauge size? Room is quite small so less than 80 feet.

I can only purchase from Pixmania.ie as i live in ireland 🙁

My budget is 400 (EURO'S!!!!)

Hope i havent forgotten anything and all question's welcome,
Sorry if this is in the wrong section,
Thank you all.
 
i think you are off to a good start given your budget .i favor Yamaha receivers and amps for any budget . this shouldn't be tough at all to hookup , just connect the corresponding speaker to its connection on the receiver be sure to observe polarity . + and -. the sub has a line level plug , and your front left right center and surrounds are pretty straight forward . you could use 18 gauge wire but i would go with 14 gauge ,and for your sub-woofer any cord will do for now but you will want upgrade cables if you go cheap right now. now the hdmi is supposed to simplify things but i still connect my components the old way patch cords . i am not sure which sound card you would want use , i thought most computers came with a sound card today .

so if i have this right the sight you have linked is the only place you are able to shop, being in ireland?
 
you know i just looked and i don't think i care for the selection they have at pixmania , i feel for you if this the only place to shop for this sort of stuff
 
Wow,thats suprisingly good news thank you and yes pixmania is the only place i can shop for this kind of stuff unfortuantely 🙁.

My other question is these sound cards have either an SPDIF,RCA(i think thats the word for the red and white ports) digital output or a 15-PIN analog output which of these with be best for connecting to the reciever.

Also yes my pc has a sounds card but an onboard one and they are bad quality,it would be pointless getting this stuff otherwise haha.
 
you know i am not so sure about the sound card and as to which connections are appropriate .but i will say that regardless of what sound card you have and what is connected to , if you are playing digital music that is highly compressed (low quality) , it is going to sound like *** . it has been my experience that the standard sound card is sufficient for music to be played on a stereo .

about the digital compression ,cd quality sound has a sample rate of 44,100 samples per second . i know that windows media player's default quality is lower than that ,not sure how much lower but i can hear it on the least revealing audio setup . the good news is you can choose a higher quality or higher sample rate with most digital media programs .

something to consider before you condemn your stock sound card
 
Dont worry i have my high quality music 512kbps and some lossless files too no windows media player its no good and i can adjust the sample rate in my realtek audio manager and will be able to still once i change my sound card :) thanks for your replies again.
 
Get yourself NAD equipment and you will never go wrong or Rotel.
Yamaha is junk today.
 


I agree with you 100%, standard onboard audio sound-cards (especially newer Mobos), play music no worse than the most expensive sound-cards...other than a small hint of noise, the actual sound quality for MUSIC is equal/unnoticeable. For movies and games that require surround effects and processing...thats a different story, in this case a good sound-card will help, but for stereo music, onboard is excellent.

CD Quality theoretically is the best, but if you use an MP3 file thats 320bit (even 256bit), with the same sampling rate as the CD (Files are around 9-11MB based on song length), the quality difference is unnoticeable (Ive compared the two on a $120,000 stereo system and didn't notice...). I'm still playing and trying to notice the difference on my stereo system and I can't hear any difference.



MP3's max out at 320bit. You won't need anything more than a 256bit mp3 anyway.

And you can adjust sampling rate in realtek audio mananger (I also use it for the EQ), but if the file is 44khz sampling, you can't make it 192khz...so whatever the song is what is going to play. Once you compress a file to a point of data-loss, you can't uncompress it back to its original state.
 


NAD and ROTEL are way higher end...

And yamaha isn't junk, they make great amps at great prices.

Personally, I think compared to McIntosh, everything sounds like/and is crap, but we're talking about a different level of audio.
 
you know i have seen about as many nad products in need of repair on ebay as i have yamaha or a handful of other consumer brands . i would be happy if a nad amp were to fall in my lap , but if i had that kind of money to spend i am not sure if that would be my choice .

i guess i can't say much about the current models from yamaha ,as i don't own a new model . hard to say right away if their line is full of lemons or ok .the place where i read some my reviews on products has some kind words for yamaha av receivers though .
 
Thank you all for your replie's i have bein looking at the NAD and ROTEL equipment but i really dont have that kind of money 🙁 but still thank you!

Blackhawk thats really good to know i must have been confused thank you so main thing is that your music is high quality and not compressed otherwise it will be pointless? and yes i will be using this sound card for heavy gaming too :)

Just so you all know i went with the Asus Xonar Xense 7.1 sound card and it comes with a Sennheiser PC350 Headset. :) I know PC350 aint the best but for 200 euro's in total i think its a good set.
 
Nad and Rotel is mid fi equipment not really high end. McIntosh years ago was good gear today no.
 


I agree Nad and Rotel, are high end compared to most other brands...they are mid-fi equipment compared to more expensive brands.

And have you heard McIntosh lately...they undoubtedly make the best amplifiers/preamplifiers I've ever heard and I've heard just about every common brand out there. McIntosh is the cream of the crust, the highest end audio equipment dealer around...if you can find me a company (other than goldmund) that makes better amps than McIntosh, ill retract.

Their higher end amps produce extreme low harmonic distortion levels, way lower than average, they deliver pure power at all frequency ranges, they produce absurdly small levels of noise and listening to them is just a joy.

I have a McIntosh tube stereo amplifier (Which I got on a killer deal) and it is by far my prize possession, sounds better than anything. Im not defending McIntosh, because I own one...I bought one, because I heard them before. It is a wallet killer, but well worth it if you like to listen to quality music. Mine is one of thier lowest end-ones (Cheapest tube amp in thier line up I think it was), the higher end ones sound even better, and Im talking from experience hearing them.

However, everyone to their opinion, I cannot speak for your ears. I am McIntosh fanboy all the way though...because there really is no competition, denon, marantz, nad...etc...are all good, but they all suck compared to mcIntosh. Sorry for the rant.
 
i might have to try and find a Macintosh , there is a pawn shop that i deal with some times and the guy that runs it probably started this business because of his love for hi-fi and McIntosh was his top pick .

the type of guy i am , i think i would like to experience them all at some point , adcom , rotel , nad, mcintosh,krell and probably a few brands that i don't know to exist yet
 
I am not being snobbish but ever since McIntosh was taken over their quality control went down hill.Compare Levinson,CJ,Cary,Rowland,Lamm, and many more esoteric brands and than tell me. Thanks Marv
 
Well I haven't been around long enough to know what quality McIntosh had back in the day, but right now their quality is unbeatable in comparison to what I've seen, I know I haven't heard many brands, but from my personal experience, I am a big fan of them. IMO. They sound absolutely out of this world and are worth every penny.

Mark Levinson is also very good, although I thought they only make car amplifiers. However they are good, infact I might get one once I finished building my subwoofer for the car.

Technically, the highest end audio dealer on earth is Goldmund, but other than the top 100 richest men on earth, I don't think anybody buys from them.
 
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