rusty shackleford Posted July 18 Posted July 18 I thought I would start a dedicated thread to this topic. I talked to a bunch around here about audio equipment and setups over the years on offshoot threads; it seemed like it would make sense to pull that all together. Anyways, I have a dedicated basement home theater/high end sound system in my basement, but I’ve been thinking of upgrading my casual living room system lately. Currently running a newer Denon 2800 and Polk audio RTi series bookshelf’s with an Outlaw Audio sub. Thinking about upgrading just the speakers to the Monitor Audio 100 7G series but unsure if I want to keep putting money into a casual living room setup. Any thoughts from our great community? 3 Quote
BringMetheHeadofLeonLett Posted July 19 Posted July 19 I only give a ***** about 2 channel audio. I guess I'd consider myself on the middling ground of what people would call audiophile, so maybe I should keep my mouth shut, but I'm not that smart. As a radio dj, I first fell in like with the Techinics 1200. It was a gorgeous platter. At home I have a Denon DP-62L with a Sumiko Point 3 High MC. That part is ***** awesome, but I need to replace my Carvers (I love them, and they're almost powerful enough, but they're too tinny when all is said and done) I've definitely got an imbalance of things - speakers are Advent Legacy Ii's Honestly, I love those things- but they ultimately can't handle what i want to drive. ,,, but this album: ,,, I'd basically never ask another sound system to sound better I like what I've got, but it's getting upgraded I totally love this adventure. ) Quote
Mr Info Posted July 19 Posted July 19 I cannot comment on the speakers because so much depends on the size and dimensions of the room. Props to using the Denon amp as you can use the mike to calibrate your speaker setup. Due to the dimensions of our room, we placed the rear speakers in the ceiling just behind where our heads would be located and used Denon’s supplied mike to calibrate the speakers properly. Quote
rusty shackleford Posted July 19 Author Posted July 19 5 hours ago, BringMetheHeadofLeonLett said: I only give a ***** about 2 channel audio. I guess I'd consider myself on the middling ground of what people would call audiophile, so maybe I should keep my mouth shut, but I'm not that smart. As a radio dj, I first fell in like with the Techinics 1200. It was a gorgeous platter. At home I have a Denon DP-62L with a Sumiko Point 3 High MC. That part is ***** awesome, but I need to replace my Carvers (I love them, and they're almost powerful enough, but they're too tinny when all is said and done) I've definitely got an imbalance of things - speakers are Advent Legacy Ii's Honestly, I love those things- but they ultimately can't handle what i want to drive. ,,, but this album: ,,, I'd basically never ask another sound system to sound better I like what I've got, but it's getting upgraded I totally love this adventure. ) I have a Denon DL-103R moving coil on a Pro-ject Debut Carbon in my theater room setup. It sounds great but I really need to upgrade my phono pre amp to take full advantage of the MC. The non adjustable gain is too low for it, making the noise floor too high at above moderate levels. Quote
AlCowlingsTaxiService Posted July 20 Posted July 20 I’m more of a ‘70s era vintage collector, but have recently added newer gear to my stable (Yamaha AS801, Elac bookshelf speakers and Jamo towers … heading out shortly to pick up a NAD preamp to pair with a 120 wpc Kenwood power amp … as kids, we were regulars at Radio Shack, so I’ve recreated their marquee system (STA2000/Mach Ones/Lab 500) 1 Quote
Augie Posted July 20 Posted July 20 (edited) We should have our first meeting at my house. Beers on me if you get me fixed up! upstairs is a Marantz receiver and KEF speakers and I’m sure a setting could be changed to help pick up dialogue more clearly. Downstairs is great, but we had a pipe leak and have to replace the av cabinet. I miss my old technics turntable. Can you still get albums? One finger typing, so forgive me Edited July 20 by Augie 2 Quote
davefan66 Posted July 21 Posted July 21 Late 80’s Denon turntable, mid 90’s Denon receiver and late 80’s Polk Audio bookshelf speakers. Also have an early 90’s Nakamichi cassette deck. Have a Yamaha receiver that keeps blowing fuses that I’d like to get repaired. Nothing super expensive, but it sounds great. Quote
US Egg Posted July 21 Posted July 21 Years ago put in hardwood floors in the family room. It ended my running wires underneath and because of the vaulted ceiling, over the top wasn’t an option, so scrapped the surround sound and went with a humdrum sound box. A few years back saw some wireless surround systems and gave it a go. Settled on a JBL 9.1. It whips the sound around satisfactorily imo. These systems have since been improved on. They are easy to setup, no fuss, no wires and quite convenient. Quote
rusty shackleford Posted July 21 Author Posted July 21 1 hour ago, US Egg said: Years ago put in hardwood floors in the family room. It ended my running wires underneath and because of the vaulted ceiling, over the top wasn’t an option, so scrapped the surround sound and went with a humdrum sound box. A few years back saw some wireless surround systems and gave it a go. Settled on a JBL 9.1. It whips the sound around satisfactorily imo. These systems have since been improved on. They are easy to setup, no fuss, no wires and quite convenient. I've been lucky in both my houses that for my living room/family room setups it was relatively easy to drop wires into my basement and run along to floor joists to the back of the room even with hardwood floors. For my theater room, my basement was only half finished when I moved in, so it was also easy to run everything through the walls and ceiling as I finished into a full blown HT. That said, I visited my friends parents in Florida recently where they obviously don't have basements to do that. They had a nice Sonos wireless setup and I was really surprised how good it sounded. The trade off in quality and convenience has definitely come a long way over the past few years. 3 1 Quote
Augie Posted July 21 Posted July 21 32 minutes ago, rusty shackleford said: I've been lucky in both my houses that for my living room/family room setups it was relatively easy to drop wires into my basement and run along to floor joists to the back of the room even with hardwood floors. For my theater room, my basement was only half finished when I moved in, so it was also easy to run everything through the walls and ceiling as I finished into a full blown HT. That said, I visited my friends parents in Florida recently where they obviously don't have basements to do that. They had a nice Sonos wireless setup and I was really surprised how good it sounded. The trade off in quality and convenience has definitely come a long way over the past few years. We have KEF speakers for tv/surround sound on the first floor, but when we listen to music we use Sonos for the indoor/outdoor ease and continuity. I have zero complaint with the sound quality. Quote
US Egg Posted July 21 Posted July 21 48 minutes ago, rusty shackleford said: That said, I visited my friends parents in Florida recently where they obviously don't have basements to do that. They had a nice Sonos wireless setup and I was really surprised how good it sounded. The trade off in quality and convenience has definitely come a long way over the past few years. Bought the JBL 9.1. when it came out in 2021, it was the 1st true wireless surround, there were some kinks initially but worked them out. Want to upgrade but nothing wrong with it. They're like half now of what I paid, I can't say enough good things about it, particularly that it has Dolby Atmos and the simplicity of the set up. Quote
BillsFan4 Posted July 21 Posted July 21 What is your basement setup Rusty? I am big into home theater and audio. More so the theater side of it, but I do listen to music a bunch as well. I have a Denon x3600h. I got it right before receiver prices skyrocketed. I don’t feel any need to upgrade it yet. It has 4k 120hz output for gaming and 9 channel audio with Atmos, etc. I also bought Audyssey MultEQ-X for it (it allows tons of custom tuning using a PC connected to the receiver. You can do way more fine tuning to Audyssey and set custom filters, curves, etc). I do have the multeq app as well but multeq-x is a huge step up. I have a MiniDSP too if I wanted more customization, plus REW (room EQ wizard) and a custom calibrated mic for it. I have a 5.2.2 setup currently. Front L + R are JBL 590 towers. Center channel is an Emotiva C2+. Surrounds are Emotiva B2+. I have 2 Boston on ceiling speakers for atmos. My subwoofers are where I spent the most money. I have a pair of Power Sound Audio TV18’s. They are ported and low tuned with B&C 18” pro audio woofers + 2000w RMS (4000w peak) ICE amps. Because they are pro audio woofers they have tons of mid bass punch, but in the large low tuned cabinets they can hit under 10hz in room. The 10hz bass opening to the movie “edge of tomorrow” is nuts. You don’t really hear it you just feel it. The entire room starts flexing and pulsating 😂 1 Quote
dhg Posted July 22 Posted July 22 And i thought I had it going on with my Klipsch floor speakers and my 20 year old JVC receiver! 1 Quote
rusty shackleford Posted July 22 Author Posted July 22 (edited) 2 hours ago, BillsFan4 said: What is your basement setup Rusty? I am big into home theater and audio. More so the theater side of it, but I do listen to music a bunch as well. I have a Denon x3600h. I got it right before receiver prices skyrocketed. I don’t feel any need to upgrade it yet. It has 4k 120hz output for gaming and 9 channel audio with Atmos, etc. I also bought Audyssey MultEQ-X for it (it allows tons of custom tuning using a PC connected to the receiver. You can do way more fine tuning to Audyssey and set custom filters, curves, etc). I do have the multeq app as well but multeq-x is a huge step up. I have a MiniDSP too if I wanted more customization, plus REW (room EQ wizard) and a custom calibrated mic for it. I have a 5.2.2 setup currently. Front L + R are JBL 590 towers. Center channel is an Emotiva C2+. Surrounds are Emotiva B2+. I have 2 Boston on ceiling speakers for atmos. My subwoofers are where I spent the most money. I have a pair of Power Sound Audio TV18’s. They are ported and low tuned with B&C 18” pro audio woofers + 2000w RMS (4000w peak) ICE amps. Because they are pro audio woofers they have tons of mid bass punch, but in the large low tuned cabinets they can hit under 10hz in room. The 10hz bass opening to the movie “edge of tomorrow” is nuts. You don’t really hear it you just feel it. The entire room starts flexing and pulsating 😂 I have a pretty elaborate setup in my home theater. It’s a open floor plan with a bar area, equipment area, and extra seating taking up about 1,500 sq ft… I have a 135 inch screen with a Epson 5050 projector. For audio I now have a somewhat aging Marantz 7702mk2 processor running a 7.1.4 (but multiple subs on one channel). A mix of amps… two Parasound monos for left and right, Outlaw Audio mono for the center, Outlaw Audio 5 channel for the 4 lower surrounds, Emotivia 5 channel for the atmos ceilings. All the speakers are Golden Ear with the passive Tristan 5 towers for left and right. Subs are 3 SVS sealed box 4000s. I have a mini dsp processor equalizing the subs and was professionally calibrated. I do use the Audyssey Eq doing the rest of the equalizing work through. On top of all that I have a few dedicated AC circuits feeding everything. A pair of APC power supplies/ surge suppressors, and a whole vinyl setup with a pro-Ject turntable, cart upgrade, Parasound pre amp, etc… and I like your philosophy, if you make a good home theater sound good, the 2 channel aspect will work too, which was a big component of my build . Edited July 22 by rusty shackleford 2 Quote
UConn James Posted July 22 Posted July 22 Running a Sony receiver DH590(?) I got new-in-box on FB Marketplace for $150... not the latest and greatest but has HDMI connections for tv audio (with a 2021 Sony smart tv) and Bluetooth for music from phone. Used to have an old '90s Sony CD player but it gave up the ghost last year and haven't tried the BluRay for CDs yet. Have it paired with some Polk ES20s and the corresponding ES series center speaker that is the bigger of the two offered. Small room so I don't push it much. Search FB Marketplace for a deal on a subwoofer every so often but not high priority. Had tried a newer Sony AN1000 before getting the older 590 and was seriously disappointed with the app -- it's fragging useless! -- and was pushing all of the subscription service things SOOO hard on setup and the 'Use TV as Center Channel' didn't work -- so didn't see a reason to pay $900 and returned it and went with the older one. A Denon _?_540 that I got in 2016 and have in the garage bonus room / guest space has a very good app. One thing with receivers is that they've gotten wider and wider over the years. The center space with the glass panel door in my tv base cabinet (made of solid red oak and which I stained / finished in a deep Bombay mahogany color to match the rest of the living room in 2004) only gives 17" and most are 18"-20"+ now. Sony has so far remained at 16.9" which is a very tight fit. Quote
AlCowlingsTaxiService Posted July 22 Posted July 22 10 hours ago, dhg said: And i thought I had it going on with my Klipsch floor speakers and my 20 year old JVC receiver! At least you decided that quality sound is important and that a Bluetooth speaker and earbuds don’t always cut it 1 Quote
dhg Posted July 22 Posted July 22 2 hours ago, AlCowlingsTaxiService said: At least you decided that quality sound is important and that a Bluetooth speaker and earbuds don’t always cut it I do have this little Bluetooth device (Esinkin is the brand) plugged into the receiver using an auxiliary port. Works really good if I want to stream YouTube or Pandora from my phone. Found it on Amazon 2 Quote
BillsFan4 Posted July 22 Posted July 22 13 hours ago, rusty shackleford said: I have a pretty elaborate setup in my home theater. It’s a open floor plan with a bar area, equipment area, and extra seating taking up about 1,500 sq ft… I have a 135 inch screen with a Epson 5050 projector. For audio I now have a somewhat aging Marantz 7702mk2 processor running a 7.1.4 (but multiple subs on one channel). A mix of amps… two Parasound monos for left and right, Outlaw Audio mono for the center, Outlaw Audio 5 channel for the 4 lower surrounds, Emotivia 5 channel for the atmos ceilings. All the speakers are Golden Ear with the passive Tristan 5 towers for left and right. Subs are 3 SVS sealed box 4000s. I have a mini dsp processor equalizing the subs and was professionally calibrated. I do use the Audyssey Eq doing the rest of the equalizing work through. On top of all that I have a few dedicated AC circuits feeding everything. A pair of APC power supplies/ surge suppressors, and a whole vinyl setup with a pro-Ject turntable, cart upgrade, Parasound pre amp, etc… and I like your philosophy, if you make a good home theater sound good, the 2 channel aspect will work too, which was a big component of my build . Nice! Sounds like a cool setup. I’ve thought about adding external amps for my speakers, or at least my front sound stage but haven’t done it yet. I’ll probably upgrade my speakers or add another subwoofer first. lol I really, really want to get one or two JTR captivator 2400ULF subwoofers or one captivator 4000 ULF. But their prices have doubled in the last 5 years. The prices went up a decent amount in 2021 ish, then they went way up again in 2025 with the tariffs. That’s why I ended up going with PSA. I could get 2 for the price of 1 JTR. But I still regret not splurging for the JTR back before prices first went up. I do still have a ported SVS 12” sub. That thing is bullet proof! The SVS sub was so much easier to set up than the PSA’s. I love my PSA subs but they are harder to set up and dial in. They don’t really have any built in limiters so you can overdrive or clip them if you’re pushing them too hard. That’s part of the reason I paid the money for the Audyssey MultEQ-X upgrade so I’d have the ability to set high pass filters as low as 10hz. Since you have a mini DSP hooked up, have you ever heard of or tried “bass EQ” for movies? (BEQ) or EZBEQ (easy bass EQ). It restores all of the low bass frequencies to movies. It’s really cool. https://ezbeq.readthedocs.io/en/latest/ https://www.avsforum.com/threads/bass-eq-for-filtered-movies.2995212/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic There’s a whole home theater enthusiast community that works on creating BEQ files for thousands of movies. 1 Quote
BillsFan4 Posted July 23 Posted July 23 https://www.jtrspeakers.com/jtr-captivator-4000ulf this is my dream subwoofer. ⬆️ Total end-game subwoofer. It’s the most violent subwoofer I’ve ever experienced and that includes some pretty crazy car subwoofer setups. The only other things I’ve heard that compares is a DIY Devastator horn subwoofer, or the old Danley horn subs. But they produce a different type of bass. https://shop.gsgad.com/collections/horn-subwoofers Horn subs are very violent too but the JTR is a different kind of violent. A lot more low end punch and just a more thick or “meaty” overall sound. The horn subs punch insanely hard in the mid bass regions. Nothing can match a horn sub in mid bass. But they don’t have the same low end as JTR. that GSG audio site linked above has some really cool DIY kits. Their Marty sub kits rock. I was going to build a couple Marty subs but I was able to get the PSA’s at presale pricing which was just incredible value. It would’ve cost me roughly the same amount of money to DIY a Marty kit as it did to buy the pre-built PSA with a 5yr warranty. I have a pair of these ⬇️ https://www.powersoundaudio.com/products/tv1813m-new With the pro audio driver the bass is super, super clean. Every bass note sounds well defined and the drivers stop on a dime so there’s no sloppiness to them. They don’t sound like typical ported subwoofers. Much cleaner. They’re very good for movies but they truly excel at music. It’s amazing how much better dialed in subwoofers make everything sound. 1 Quote
AlCowlingsTaxiService Posted July 23 Posted July 23 12 hours ago, dhg said: I do have this little Bluetooth device (Esinkin is the brand) plugged into the receiver using an auxiliary port. Works really good if I want to stream YouTube or Pandora from my phone. Found it on Amazon You’ll eventually want a WiFi streamer such as the Wiim Ultra. Bluetooth is not the best delivery method for streaming audio in terms of quality. 1 Quote
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