Don't know anything...need help

[spudscoob]

I've got some new speakers and I want to get a new A/V receiver to fit them. I don't have a clue about any of this stuff and I've hunted for info and all I managed to do was get even more confused. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I've just acquired some Pro Dynamics speakers.
2 are tower speakers (ES3000)
200W, 8 ohm, 85 db sensitivity w/post connectors

I also have Pro Dynamics sub, with center channel speaker and four other speakers.
I don't know how many watts this sub is (Model is SPL 2800), it has it's own power source and on back of sub is following:

IN LEVEL - Left and right IN spring clip connections
Left and right OUT spring clip connections

INPUT - Left and right - what is that and where does that connect to?

PHASE - can be switch from 0 to 180 - no idea

CROSSOVER FREQ(Hz) - dial goes from 50 to 200 - no idea

Can someone give me some info on the best specs for the proper A/V receiver for these speakers, and tell me what I'm supposed to do with what's on the back of the sub? I also need some advice about the right cable I need. Not sure about that because the tower speaker connections are different from the sub connections.

Thank you for your help.

SJ Wooten

[Jack Keck]

I'll do what I can for ya. I imagine that you want ot set up a home theater. I have never heard of this brand of speaker, so the advice will be generic. You can pick up an AV receiver at Best Buy or Circuit City. The sales help may or , most likely, may not be helpful. They should at least be able to tell you what's in stock. You should get a DVD player while you're at it. I won't recommend brands, but pick what looks like it will be the easiest to use. Any of them should have enough power for your speakers unless you're setting up in a gymnasium. Get about 100 feet of speaker wire. You can cut it with a steak knife. If you're careful, you can strip the ends with it, too. The cord to plug the DVD player into the reciever will probably be included with the DVD player.

You will have to check your TV to see what types of inputs it has in order to select a cord (called an interconnect in these circles) to hook up the receiver or DVD player to the TV.

Now are you thououghly confused?

[Andrew Pratt]

What are you looking to spend? Once we know a budget we'll be better able to help make some suggestions on where to go next...basically though you'll need a receiver and a DVD player. The speakers will all plug into the back of the receiver using speaker cable (2 strands for each speaker). The subwoofer will connect to the back of the receiver using a different cable. You'll want to use the Line level connection to the receivers subwoofer output and it'll look like a round RCA plug. The DVD player will connect using either a similar looking cable to the one you used to connect the subwoofer or a plastic optical cable. Either method is fine and those cables are pretty cheap (under $10 normally).

[spudscoob]

Ok..I got the input on the back of sub, then. Yes, I would like to do the home theater. I'm not sure about the spects for the A/V receiver, such as watts, ohm, etc. Price range of about 500.00 to 1200.00. Not asking for preference on name brand, I just want to make sure that all the pieces will work well together.

The Pro Dynamics speakers, from what I was told and what I've read, are fairly high end speakers (studio monitor). Please keep in mind I'm just repeating what was said to me. We build decks and porches for some of the high profile builders in our area and I bought these speakers from one of the installers. I went to the website www.prodynamicsusa.com but that didn't help me very much. I know alot about horses...notta about home theater systems.

Thanks so much for your help.

[Clive]

Hi SJ thanx for stopping by.

There is soo much that you can do here with the right equipment. Sorry that we don't have the "Newbie" forum setup just yet so we'll all help out here as much as we can.

Together with Andrews', just a few extra questions


1. Are we to understand that you have 7 speakers plus a sub woofer?
2. Two are towers, can you describe the size of the other four?
3. Could you give us a desciption/layout of the room you intend to do this setup?
4. Could you tell us about your TV set? We'd need to know if it has some RED, WHITE and YELLOW inputs at the back.
5. Do you know what a 5.1 or 6.1 home theater setup is all about :T

Wait for your reply

[saurabh]

Hey Guys, we shouldnt forget that SJ is very new to all this remember he wrote "Don't know anything...need help". So he wont be able to grasp all those terminologies and cables and wires and components and questions raised by us.

SJ, what I would recommend to you would be to just forget about your current speakers and go buy yourself an entry level HTIB (Home Theater in a Box). Ask for a 5.1 system (5 speakers for front and rear, 1 sub woofer speaker for those bass sounds).Just for your understanding its an integrated DVD player + amplifier with speakers with built in Dolby/DTS technologies.

So the only effort required from you would be to plug in the speaker wires, place the speakers (take help in this forum by putting your room layout) plug it into the mains and you have your home theater up and running.

And as you grow up asking your queries and read others in this forum, you can move onto a component level HTS. 8)

[m_bathke]

SJ if you really want simplicity in your set up and weren't looking to go into high end components I would suggest Yamaha's HTR-5860 for the reciever, its available at Best Buy and other big electronics retailers.

Here's what it will do for you.
-7.1 surround sound
-On screen setup/menu
-YPAO, basically after you get all the speakers connected and put in place, you plug a mic into it(which comes with it) and hit 3 buttons, leave the room, come back in 5 minutes and your system will be set up better than you could ever try to do it. Its very simple to use.
- Component video up conversion
-basically it will have anything and everything that you could really want on a reciever in the $500 range

Basically what you will need.

-speaker wire, probably more than 100' so you are looking at $60 or more there.

-subwoofer cable, you can get them from 12' to 25' long from what I have seen. IF the sub has an input that says LFE(Low Frequency Effect) by it, I would use that, if id doesn't you will need a Y-adapter with the sub cable to split the signal. Anywhere from $15.00 on up, I would get one that was in the $40-$60 range, better cable can make a big difference.

-Digital Coax(perferably), or an Optical cable to connect the DVD player to the Reciever, and no they don't come with any of the lower end (sub $200) DVD players. For the digital coax you are looking at around $40-$50, CAT Cables(see link at bottom of Page) has some really nice ones at VERY reasonable prices.

-Power conditioner/ surge protector, even the cheap ones make a difference (they help to reduce background noise cause by noise in your power), I would probably get one form Belkin for $150 you can get one with isolated outlets with is nice.

-DVD player, basically lots of options there, but I would look at putting $100plus into it, and maybe even something that plays SACD's(super audio CD's).

-Video Cable, either composite, s-video, or component video, your TV will dictate wich one you use, if the TV has component video inputs(they are Red, Blue, and Green) I would use them, Price between $30 and $70, and better cable can give you a better picture on nicer TV's, but for most TV's the cables in the $30 range perform pretty well.

Now as for hooking it all up, if you go into Best Buy and explain your set-up to one of the sales persons in the Home Theater Department most of them will draw you a diagram of how to connect everything, but it usually helps if you bought something there for the system, be it one cable or everything accept for the speakers.

Hope that helps.

[Lex]

Well, he does it seems already have this speaker package. The towers look pretty good. Do they perform? Anybody's guess. But we will assume they are decent entry to lower mid level quality at least. There's no reason to get HTB.

You need a receiver, you need a DVD player, you'll need a roll or two of speaker wire until you are ready for higher end cables like i sell. Then you will need a digital cable for the DVD player. So far, this is not rocket science.

The Yamaha suggested will work fine, or you could look at the Rotel brand that most everyone here loves. (might be out of budget) But at any rate, you need some receiver to get started. Wattage is not critical. 75-110 per channel is fine.

Goodluck to you. There's enough help here, that whatever you get, we should be able to assist you getting connected.

[Clive]

Matt Bathke has made some great suggestions and outlines.....price wise. I am sure it should help. Just take it step by step. We can also help here with the setup (inputs and outputs) play by play. As Lex said, you already have the speakers so hey let's work with them :T