2. home-theater
  3. 1149907858

Upgrading HT Receiver and Speakers

Hi All, I’ve been looking into upgrading my current home theatre system, and have spoken with some retailers around the area I live, and would like to ask some questions of actual owners if that’s okay?

I live in Western Canada, my bonus room is fairly enclosed at 16ft long (including 2ft depth shelving), 12 feet wide, and a 9ft ceiling.

My primary use is movies (around 90%), but will increase music listening with a decent system!

I am limited to a 5.1 bookshelf system due to pre-wired built in home entertainment center, rear speakers are in the corners, so no dipoles.

Retailer options in my area and product suggestions, prices between retailers have come in around +-$500 from each other:

Retailer 1
Rotel 1057 Receiver, B&W CM1's and CMC center, REL subwoofer, (or B&W 602S3's with matching center)

Retailer 2
Arcam AVR-300,Totem Rainmakers, matching center, and DefTech Supercube 2 Sub, (or def tech bookshelves?)

Retailer 3
Arcam AVR-300, Quad 12L front, Quad 11L rear, matching center, HSU VTF2 Sub

Retailer 4
Sherwood Newcastle R865, Paradigm Studio 20's front and rear, CC570 center, and PW2100 sub

Now the questions and opinions that I’d be grateful to hear answers for:
1) Which combination provides the highest level of detail without being bright/forward if you’ve listened to the above?

2) Cost vs quality benefit: are you paying more for B&W & Quad vs Paradigm due to country of manufacturer, and therefore would the similar price of the paradigms be indicative of better build quality and sound over the aforementioned 2? The same goes for the receivers, but I have been reading great things about the Arcam.

3) Has anyone compared the B&W CM1's to the 602S3's?

4) Why are bookshelves better on stands vs an actual shelf? Are there any recommendations to remedy this since I'm stuck with shelves?

5) I think we pay a little more in Canada due to lower volume sales than the USA, but how do the prices sound of the above combos compare?

I’m thinking it would be good to stick with one retailer as all have been very helpful when I’ve spoken to them, but they all (understandably) have their personal biases on the equipment they are selling. I will be calling them to set up demo’s to have a listen, but the better prepared I am with information, the better I’ll feel.

Thank you all so much from a former forum lurker……
britcanuck

Showing 3 responses by britcanuck

britcanuck OP
3 posts
 
Thanks for all of your responses. Sounds like the Arcam is the way to go, even a lower model such as the 250? The Rel sub was also almost twice the price of the HSU.

Totem's Model 1's are quite expensive I think (and worth every penny probably), but I'm still concerned that I'm going to pay a lot of money for speakers that will lose their sound quality once I put them on my shelves. Would the Arcam be able to drive these speakers properly?

The basement development is still going to be a few years out, so I'll be using the bonus room entertainment center for some time yet.

The big box store that carries Totem let me borrow the Dreamcatchers this weekend to listen to on my current system. I used my sub and didn't bring the dreamcatcher sub home. There was a sound improvement, but not dramatic over my current speakers. This told me that I would have to definately upgrade my current receiver as well. When I took them back, I asked him to hook the speakers up to their system which is an Onkyo (don't remember model) and again, there was an improvement (or seemed to) over my system at home. The other location had the Dreamcatchers and Energy speakers hooked up to a Denon and I seem to remember more detail coming from the Denon.
britcanuck OP
3 posts
 
Thanks for all of your responses guys. Sounds like the Arcam will be the way to go.

Unfortunately I will have to wait a while longer to do some upgrading since my dog just had a back operation. It was hard justifying a new system vs saving the dogs life.Oh well.

I have bought a Denon 1906 to get me by for now. I know it says 85W/channel, but not sure what that rating would be with all channels driven.

Thinking of getting the Klipsch RB-51 bookshelves + center, since they're not a bad price. Thinking they'd go well with the warmer Denon???

I hooked up a pair of Energy c100's and while they provided more depth, my original polk htib sub sats sounded more detailed on the higher end.

I hate to ask again, has anyone mated a mid to lower end denon with Klipsch? Any other speakers in that price range that can provide good detail?

Thanks again
Rich
britcanuck OP
3 posts
 
Thanks for your response Markphd, and I feel a little more comfortable, however,I think your answer to my question 4 has me quite worried now. This is a fair chunk of change for me to drop on a system that isn't going to perform the way it should with the speakers going on shelves.

Unfortunately, I can't wall mount the speakers. The home entertainment unit is shaped in drywall, with oak shelving. The shelves are 22" wide and 24" deep. Probably easier to attach a picture if possible.

I dropped by one of the big box stores and listened to the Totem Dreamcatchers in one of their home theatre rooms. The salesperson also had some similar sized bookshelves from Energy to compare them too, and I was amazed at the difference. We watched a scene from my son's favorite movie Robots, and the detail difference was very good with the Totems versus the Energy's. I also know what I'm missing now with my current sub/sat speaker system.

Having listened to the Rainmakers in a higher end store some time back (when I was first thinking of buying just new speakers and realized I'd have to include a new receiver in my upgrade) I was very impressed with them, but would like to hear them with the center channel as well with a movie playing.

I would also still like to listen to the others in my list. I see Quad's are actually being discussed in the Speakers section of the forum, and seem to be very well regarded. I imagine my shelves wouldn't do them justice though.

Perhaps I should hold off on buying the higher end equipment until I can develop a dedicated sound room (basement), and go with something cheaper like the dreamcatchers and a newer receiver from the big box stores.

I forgot to mention, that I would rarely be cranking the volumes (to reference levels if the term is correct????) since our little guy would be sleeping when we watch most films. So detail at a lower volume is an important factor as well. When he's up and wants to watch Robots or play xbox, that's a different story. :)

Thanks again for your time
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