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Am I going insane?

I am not what most of you would call an audiophile, although I do appreciate a nice soundstage. I figured this was a good place to ask my questions. First I want to give you my situation though...

Last year I bought the Sony 40"XBR. I love it. Now it's time to purchase a very modest sound system for HT and 2channel. I don't have ANY equipment yet. I do know that the speakers are the first, most important piece to aquire.

So, I was at a dealer last week. I was listening to the B&W CDM NT1 series in both 5.1 and 2 channel. The sound was clear and I was pretty impressed. This is the B&W series (at least retail) that is in my price range.
Then, the fella helping me switched to the Boston Acoustics VR-M60s, with the matching center and surrounds. I thought that the BAs sounded better...much better...more free, less boxy. Both sets were being played from a Yamaha reciever (not hifi to be sure, but I can't afford good components yet). AM I NUTS? Would seperates make this setup sound better? The room was setup nicely, at least as far as my limited experience can tell.

Since then I have listened to a PSB setup, but wasn't as impressed. I also teased myself with a BEAUFIFUL Sonus Faber setup that I might be albe to afford in about 1000 years. I am looking for other options, but am limited by around a $2000 budget for speakers. If I can get something used that is higher quality (but able to be pushed from a reciever for a while), I certainly will go that way. I read similar posts as this regarding Thiel 1.5s. I am searching for a place to hear these.

I have decided to go with the Velodyne SPL800 or SPL1000 sub, as I really liked how it dissapeared in the B&W and BA setups.

Please help a really green newbie who is trying to get some bang for bucks.

Thanks,
Z
zstokes

Showing 3 responses by inscrutable

inscrutable
312 posts
 
Bose is at very good at one thing for sure - marketing. They fully understaznd their market segment (heck, they created it) and they are very good at servicing it. None of us may be in it, and i'm sure they are losing untold seconds of sleep over it. Anyway, before this becomes another tiresome Bose-bashing thread ...

Z,
Are you really in this for the music or the movies? If it's movies, I'm afraid I would have to beg to differ with the prevailing sentiment here and say that a decent modern receiver (say a Newcastle, Nakamichi, NAD, Marantz, etc) will get you much more quickly and cheaply into a very nice movie experience, and a quite adequate music experience, until you can afford to add a separate 2-ch preamp (with receiver still used in surround processor loop) and a high quality 2-ch amp for the mains. I'm not convinced that a $1000 used pre/pro and amp will be of that much better quality than one of these receivers, especially if you buy one of them used.
inscrutable
312 posts
 
In simple terms the resistance of the speakers may be a nominal 8 ohms, but the actual impedance and phase angle change over the frequency spectrum. Lower impedances will demand more power/current from the amp. If you listen at sane levels with a reasonably well built receiver/amp, and the extreme is not too low, you'll be fine. You should notice distortion or overheating as symptoms before anything is damaged.
inscrutable
312 posts
 
Glad you found something you really like. I heard a Nak AV10 drive either these or the 816's (can't quite remember) fine as well. They *do* have impedance dips down around 3 ohms I think, but I can't recall at what frequencies ... *might* be covered by the sub ... but most decently powered receivers should handle it ok. Enjoy!
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