I'm a new guy moving upwards in my quest for audio setups that please my ears and my income. i'm no 'phile yet. nor am i full noob. just looking for some helpful advice.
i recently got a new setup in my car which consists of some alpine electronics (cda-9887 hu and pdx-4.150 amp) driving some focal 165k2p front components and a 10" jl w3v3 sub. this was a huge upgrade for me from my honda s2000's crappy stock system and i did a fair amount of research putting it all together. it has sparked up my interests in audio and now i've got the home theater itch..
i'd never heard much about b&w speakers until i started doing some digging around looking for the use of kevlar in home theater speakers (since i was so impressed with focal's polykevlar driver but i noticed focal doesn't seem to use them in the home audio lines) and b&w were one of the first brands that caught my eye. well now after some initial reading i'm so blown away by the endless positive reviews of pretty much anything b&w builds (the subs seem less stellar i guess) i've decided to feel out a system that could fit my needs. the 8xx and 7xx and even cm series all look great but i just cannot afford to piece together a setup using any of them so the new 6xx series is the right spot for me to look. and on paper (and in pictures) they look beautiful.
I'd like to keep costs around $5k and i want a setup that will work great with ht use as well as recreate beautiful music. so right away i have to start playing with the numbers. what i've found quickly is that the electronics will have to be the weakest link in my setup and i will not be able to implement classe or mcintosh gear here and even the likes of rotel would be very tough to involve. this is due to the fact that i would like to make use of the new dolby truehd and dts master audio.
so this leaves me looking for a japanese 'big brand' black box and the receiver i've gravitated most towards so far is the yamaha rx-v3800. it would give me 140w x 7 channels. they retail around $1600 or $1700.
now i have a big choice to make and this is where i am looking for my first pieces of imput from you guys..
5.1 or 7.1?
i have worked out my basic set of choices with the b&w 6xx line to be:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
for 7.1
htm61 for center
683 towers for front
any combo of 4 from:
2 htm61's stood upright
685 bookshelves
ds3 dipoles
asw610xp sub
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
for 5.1
htm61 for center
683 towers for front (bi-amped)
either:
2 htm61's stood upright or 685 bookshelves or ds3 dipoles
asw610xp sub
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
now it would be helpful to have some info on bi-amping because i only understand the basics of it.
the main thing i think about here is the towers. when i have 140w driving each of the components as it would be in 7.1 all the speakers except the towers are rated for 100w so they should have plenty of overhead. the towers however are rated 200w. so if they were only getting 140w and the other components in the system are getting over overpowered when the towers are underpowered is that going to make the towers sound pretty quiet when its all playing? or would there be a way to increase the volume of just those front channels independently of the rest to get them matching the volume modulation from the rest of the speakers?
this confusion leads me to an interest in bi-amping and using a 5.1 speaker setup. as far as i understand it would entail using the extra 2 surround channels to drive a part of the fronts (on the 683, which seems like a true 3 way speaker i don't know if they would split the power up having one amp drive the tweeter and fst mid and the other amp drive the alum midbass drivers or what.. i think they are only bi-ampable as opposed to tri-ampable however) so i could have a total of 280w drive the complete speaker. it seems like this would allow for enough power to keep the towers outputting loud enough to match 140w going to the other pieces. and we all know that extra power is going to help keep the sound clear as well. i don't know how the receiver works it all out but it seems that it would be smart enough to allow for the bi-amping to work well on the towers if i switch to a simple stereo mode for some music playback music.
the other part is the center channel which is rated for 150w. i have thought about using them as replacements for the 685 booksheleves or ds3 dipoles as the surround speakers to keep an fst in every part of the system but at the same time i know the surrounds won't matter as much and prob any choice will work fine for filling the rear.
so what do you guys think? the ones who actually read through that (i hope it was easy enough to follow)
thanks so much for any insight!
i recently got a new setup in my car which consists of some alpine electronics (cda-9887 hu and pdx-4.150 amp) driving some focal 165k2p front components and a 10" jl w3v3 sub. this was a huge upgrade for me from my honda s2000's crappy stock system and i did a fair amount of research putting it all together. it has sparked up my interests in audio and now i've got the home theater itch..
i'd never heard much about b&w speakers until i started doing some digging around looking for the use of kevlar in home theater speakers (since i was so impressed with focal's polykevlar driver but i noticed focal doesn't seem to use them in the home audio lines) and b&w were one of the first brands that caught my eye. well now after some initial reading i'm so blown away by the endless positive reviews of pretty much anything b&w builds (the subs seem less stellar i guess) i've decided to feel out a system that could fit my needs. the 8xx and 7xx and even cm series all look great but i just cannot afford to piece together a setup using any of them so the new 6xx series is the right spot for me to look. and on paper (and in pictures) they look beautiful.
I'd like to keep costs around $5k and i want a setup that will work great with ht use as well as recreate beautiful music. so right away i have to start playing with the numbers. what i've found quickly is that the electronics will have to be the weakest link in my setup and i will not be able to implement classe or mcintosh gear here and even the likes of rotel would be very tough to involve. this is due to the fact that i would like to make use of the new dolby truehd and dts master audio.
so this leaves me looking for a japanese 'big brand' black box and the receiver i've gravitated most towards so far is the yamaha rx-v3800. it would give me 140w x 7 channels. they retail around $1600 or $1700.
now i have a big choice to make and this is where i am looking for my first pieces of imput from you guys..
5.1 or 7.1?
i have worked out my basic set of choices with the b&w 6xx line to be:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
for 7.1
htm61 for center
683 towers for front
any combo of 4 from:
2 htm61's stood upright
685 bookshelves
ds3 dipoles
asw610xp sub
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
for 5.1
htm61 for center
683 towers for front (bi-amped)
either:
2 htm61's stood upright or 685 bookshelves or ds3 dipoles
asw610xp sub
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
now it would be helpful to have some info on bi-amping because i only understand the basics of it.
the main thing i think about here is the towers. when i have 140w driving each of the components as it would be in 7.1 all the speakers except the towers are rated for 100w so they should have plenty of overhead. the towers however are rated 200w. so if they were only getting 140w and the other components in the system are getting over overpowered when the towers are underpowered is that going to make the towers sound pretty quiet when its all playing? or would there be a way to increase the volume of just those front channels independently of the rest to get them matching the volume modulation from the rest of the speakers?
this confusion leads me to an interest in bi-amping and using a 5.1 speaker setup. as far as i understand it would entail using the extra 2 surround channels to drive a part of the fronts (on the 683, which seems like a true 3 way speaker i don't know if they would split the power up having one amp drive the tweeter and fst mid and the other amp drive the alum midbass drivers or what.. i think they are only bi-ampable as opposed to tri-ampable however) so i could have a total of 280w drive the complete speaker. it seems like this would allow for enough power to keep the towers outputting loud enough to match 140w going to the other pieces. and we all know that extra power is going to help keep the sound clear as well. i don't know how the receiver works it all out but it seems that it would be smart enough to allow for the bi-amping to work well on the towers if i switch to a simple stereo mode for some music playback music.
the other part is the center channel which is rated for 150w. i have thought about using them as replacements for the 685 booksheleves or ds3 dipoles as the surround speakers to keep an fst in every part of the system but at the same time i know the surrounds won't matter as much and prob any choice will work fine for filling the rear.
so what do you guys think? the ones who actually read through that (i hope it was easy enough to follow)
thanks so much for any insight!
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