Speaker Upgrade

[Talos4]

I jump in,  I just upgraded my surround receiver from an old Sherwood suround to the Onkyo HTS-650. (HTIB) Not a high level system but, quite a bit more than the old.  

What a difference!  

The mains that came with the system were OK, actually sounded better in the store than at home. Mains are Atlantis 10s.

So, I put my old mains up and that did it. Sonically a world of difference over the old receiver with the same speakers!

After playing with crossover settings, I've settled at least for now on the lowest setting 80Mhz. Big sound, warm, cleaner than I've heard from these speakers in years.

Just my $.02

[Mike Sheahan]

WaukeshaBADGER, I don't think I would upgrade you're receiver if it were in my rack.  It looks like it will process everything that is out there today, but in the future, when they start throwing more channels at us, I would maybe consider it.

I have to say I wish the DTS ES would have taken off more than it did.  I specifically purchased the receiver I have because of it, and there hasn't been an ES release in a long time.  I was really hoping for some of the big ones like Spiderman, or Lord Of The Rings to be available with a DTS ES option.

To this date I have to say the 7.1 system is dramatically under utilized, although it sounds good with the Matrixing enabled through the receiver.

[Pat]

The feature set and power output of inexpensive receivers matches up very well with better equipment.  I guess its in the distortion and noise areas where the better stuff shines.

I had advised my son not to upgrade from an entry-level Panasonic with good features and power to a Marantz with nearly the same but 3-4 times the price.  Being a good son, he did it anyway, and I was chagrined to find a substantial improvement -- it was definitely worth it.

We did AB comparisons.  A hiss that we never really noticed was present with the Panasonic where the Marantz was completely silent, for example.  I hate it when reviewers talk like this, but here goes: even though the power was rated simlarly, the M was "effortless" while the P "struggled" with the big bass.  Nor sure exactly that means -- it just sounds more "transparent" or something -- like the sound is "just there".