Audiophile Alert - Page 6

Low-level (Component Specifications)

After I identified what speakers I liked, I confirmed:

The amperage the speaker required was handled by the receiver I planned on getting.

Further to the previous, I confirmed the receiver could achieve an acceptable THD value <0.1%, or ideally < 0.08%, on all channels, at the given amperage, for the frequency range 20Hz-20kHz (this is not always something that’s easy to find).

I also noted what sensitivity the speakers were, higher is louder. That said, these numbers are challenging to find, and, even if you do find them, you aren’t likely to find what distance this was measured from. As far as this goes, I can’t see how it matters, since, as I’ve already shown, very cheap amp / speaker combos produce sounds that are already too loud for continuous listening.

What I will say (repeatedly), however, is to avoid finding speakers you like, shopping around, finding you can get the next model up at a lower price – having not actually heard them with the receiver you intend to get. The better the speakers, the more power they are likely to draw and the less likely your receiver is going to send them enough power.

There’s no doubt more to it than this, especially at higher cost brackets. Further, I’m almost certainly overlooking several things (as I’m no expert).

My Choices:

Again, my system represents the low-end of the $$$ spectrum, that said, I did make some choices.

Receiver: As per my table 30% of a 2.1 Setup @ $3300 = $990 for this.

Sony and Denon have quite a few in this range.

My choice here was simplified by what Stereophonic stocked (I wasn’t fond of purchasing things from different stores. Also, Klapp and Stereophonic had recommended the same receiver (with no prompting from me). Also, shopping at 1 place is going to increase the probability and value of a discount.

As at the time of writing this, the receiver is no longer available from Stereophonic – here’s a link to Klapp (at the time of posting this, their website says $1,150, I paid about 800. So, again, don’t believe anything the Klapp site says) http://klappav.com.au/collections/receivers/products/nr1604

All that said, I’ve compared against the Sony STR-DN1050, as this model came up in conversation. Most specs I deemed noteworthy were similar, except for:

Front Speakers: As per my table 44% of a 2.1 Setup @ $3300 = $1452. Choices here were more restricted.

http://www.stereophonic.com.au/polk-audio-rti-a5-floorstanders-pair/

http://www.stereophonic.com.au/polk-audio-rti-a7-floorstanders-pair/

http://www.stereophonic.com.au/focal-jm-lab-chorus-714v-new-2013-black-style/

The 5’s and Focal speakers sounded similar to me (the 5’s have a little more bass), their technical specifications are comparable. That said, the 7’s sounded ‘crisper’ to me. I asked to listen to a significantly more expensive speaker ($15,000 mark) to hear what that was like, and concluded the 7’s were closer to that than the 5’s or the Focal’s.

Subwoofer: As per my table 20% of a 2.1 Setup @ $3300 = $660. One brand came highly recommended. SVS. I did not listen to the sub before purchasing, the reason for this is sub’s vary so much based on room configuration, there’s really no point confirming how good it sounds in the shop (as I knew it wasn’t going to sound as good at my rental).

The tip here was to take it home, place it where the couch is, play something bass-heavy, walk around the potential spots the sub might go, and determine which one sounds best. That said, subwoofers are quite large, and in my current room, only 1 spot was applicable. Subs come in either ‘sealed’ or ‘ported’ boxes. I was told sealed works best for movies (this is what I picked) and ported works better for music, however, there’s other differences (which went over my head) between the two.

Rear Speakers: I conveniently already owned 2 bookshelf speakers, so I simply used these, to save some money. They create the ‘surround’ effect, and as far as music goes, I’m choosing to listen in stereo anyway (not that the rears degrade the sound quality in a noticeable way).

Cables: As per my table 6% of a 2.1 Setup @ $3300 = $198. Chord was the recommended brand, but a 3 metre pair was going to set me back $300 (or $50 a metre!), well above my price range. Fortunately, the owner had some leftover EWI cable from a concert he had setup, and offered me that instead at $10 a metre (and ended up throwing in an extra metre for good measure).

Spend Summary: