Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater New here, needing a little advice.

I am currently starting to look at putting a new HT together and I'm not real familiar with anything other than your standard Best Buy and Circuit City electronics. I have only owned Pioneer, Toshiba, Cerwin Vega, and Yamaha in the past and I really want to get something nice. I have been looking at different speakers and stumbled across a forum that mentioned Axioms. Since then, I have been on this forum reading as much as I can about them and I think these are what I'm looking for. I can't really afford anything, "high end", so these seem to give you the "high end" sound with a decent price.
All I currently have to start with is my tv. We just moved into a new house that we had to furnish from top to bottom so I had to go with a cheaper display (Toshiba 52HM84), but it does produce a great picture and I'm very pleased with it. The room I am going to put the finished system in is 15x12x9. It has wooden floors, but I am going to put down a large area rug. The back of the room has a 10ft. opening into the entry way with a tile floor. Anyway, I am looking to add a receiver, dvd player (a new one), and speakers. I plan on starting with just the receiver and front towers, then eventually add the center, surrounds, sub, etc... I am interested in the M60's, QS8's, and the EP500. I want to start with a quality receiver and the M60's.
I would like to know if these speakers sound like a good fit for this room. I would also like to know what receiver to use with this setup as well as a nice dvd player. I have read a lot about Denon, HK, and Pioneer on this forum and while these sound like okay choices, I have heard some negatives on other forums. Could someone please help me with this? I would like something reliable, that has great sound for movies as well as music. If there are other brands mentioned such as Rotel, Nad, Marantz, etc., please include links to buy these online. I have looked for better online pricing and have come up short.
I apologize for the long post. Thanks in advance for any help.

Welcome, Billy. You should do very well with the speakers you plan on getting. Really, any receiver will be able to power the M60s. Just look for a receiver that has all the functions you are looking for. Personally, I prefer H/Ks because they offer an extensive bass management system. I don't know if other brands offer this, but it would be at the top of my list of things to look for.

You can find negatives on just about any piece of audio gear if you dig hard enough. People like different things, and others just seem to enjoy knocking certain brands. The most important thing is to find something you like. The internet is a great place to find out info on audio gear. It can also be maddening because there can be too much to digest.

Thanks for your reply. You're right, there is a lot of information on the internet about this and it does sometimes get overwhelming. I have been looking at the HK AVR635. It looks pretty good. I've also been looking at the Marantz SR7500. These are both around the same price on Ebay and they both seem to have great sound quality and nice features. Decisions, decisions.

Welcome Billy,

I couldn't agree more with St PatGuy. If you're looking for choices, or are one who likes to have a selection. The new Denon 3806 as well as the new Onkyo 803, both have adjustable crossover settings for each individual channel, as do the HK's, and they're all very good brands. As previously said, when doing your research, look over the features, and go with whichever you not only like best, but also has all the features you're wanting.



Sutter

Billy, welcome. Your room has nice proportions from the standpoint of minimizing room modes and the speakers that you mention would be excellent. If you don't have any HT receiver now, then yes, that should be bought first along with the M60s. If there was already a reasonably up-to-date receiver, I'd suggest using it and buying QSs now instead.

Don't know why you "came up short" looking for good online pricing since typing just about any receiver into Google will bring up a list of buying services such as this . I'd suggest that to simplify your search you pay little attention to power ratings and none to any claims about "sound quality". Any of the receivers that you'll be considering will have more than enough power for your speakers in that room and all will amplify the sound transparently (regardless of whether it happens to be music or a movie)without adding any characteristic sound of their own. Buy the features you want at a price within your budget and don't pay attention to bizarre old audiophiles' tales that you may read on the net. Just a few of the obvious candidates would be the Denon 2106 and 3806, HK 435 and 635 and Yamaha 1600 and 2600.

Thank you very much for your replies. I really appreciate it. Again, I'm still learning, so please bear with me. Thanks again.

Any more questions and we start charging!

$5.00 per.

Haha.... Send me the bill. I want as much info as I can get before I start spending the cash.

Billy,
one tip would be, as is usually a good practice on EBay/internet, be very careful from whom you buy your receiver. There are many shady, fly-by-night resellers out there and you'll want to make sure you don't get burnt. Both Marantz and HK should list their authorized dealers on their websites.

I'm not saying all unauthorized dealers are untrustworthy, and if you want to save some money, buying through an unauthorized dealer is the way to do it, just be careful. Good luck!

Marantz makes wonderful stuff, but they DO NOT sell online. Period. The end. If you elect to purchase a Marantz product via eBay or another online retailer, you're almost assuredly forfeiting a very nice three year warranty.

Just a cautionary note. Good luck with your search!

My understanding was that accessories4less was an authorized online Marantz dealer.

Looks like they're offering refurbs. Factory-certified, which I suppose is about as close as you'll get to new. However, you're not getting the full three year warranty, and you have to be comfortable with buying a refurb. Some of us are; others aren't. In any case, $699 for an SR7500 is a pretty sweet deal.

The sites that offer brand new Marantz products typically have a couple of disclaimers, the most prominent being that they won't ship the item -- you can buy it online, but it's in-store pickup only. Often they won't advertise a price, either -- they'll list the MSRP and encourage you to call or stop by for the store's price.

Marantz's distribution model may have changed in the last year. I could easily be wrong (certainly wouldn't be the first time). The information I'm passing along is based on what I've observed over the past few years.

Gotcha, Mike. Thanks for the clarification.

Thanks for the info. I definitely plan on buying from a reputable source. I would hate to spend a large sum of money only to get something that doesn't work.

It would appear at first glance that you can buy new Marantz stuff online at cambridge soundworks

They also have a factory outlet for open box deals. Also ubid has refurb Marantz and I thought that they offered the full manufacturers warranty on their items. But I could also be wrong.

Thanks everyone for the information. Keep it coming. I think I've narrowed it down to the HK 635, Denon 3805, and possibly the Marantz 7500. These are all around the same price, refurbished. I'm still looking at features and such, but they seem to be pretty similar in that area.

I own a Denon 1804, so my observations may not be relevant to your models.

It is a sonically fine and functionally flawless machine. That being said, the manual is unintelligible and the remote warranted replacement (with a URC MX-700) almost immediately to satisfy other household users. Also, the menus and functionality simply haven't ever felt intuitive to me. The person who programmed the thing obviously looks at the world in a different way than I do. Having fiddled endlessly, I am convinced that the independent crossover points offered in comparable HK models would have been satisfying to me.

If you have not already done so, my advice would be to download and study the manuals for all of your prospects in some detail.

accessories4less is a authorized online seller of marantz products. you can see this at the marantz website. mike the guy who runs/ownes accessories4less is a great guy, i bought an amp/receiver from him about a year ago... and you do get the full factory warrantee.

Good idea. I guess I'll go ahead and download these things so I can start reading. Thanks again.

I stand corrected. I visited the Cambridge site and you can order Marantz items from them online, and they're not charging MSRP.

The accessories4less site is kind of confusing, though. Did you buy a refurb? Those prices are terrific. Most of the items I'm seeing on the site say "certified", and those that don't aren't the current models. You click on the link for more information about the "certified" products and you get:

In reply to:

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Buying factory-certified (reconditioned) is a great way to get "as-new" Marantz products at a considerable savings. Each product has been thoroughly tested, repaired if necessary, cleaned and otherwise renewed to original condition by Marantz certified technicians. Each is repackaged with all accompanying accessories (manual, cables, remote, etc).

When you consider that a factory-certified Marantz product undergoes such close scrutiny for defects and workmanship, you might actually be buying something that is in many ways better than new. And for your piece of mind, our Marantz Certified items are covered by 1 year parts and labor Marantz warranty, valid at any Marantz authorized service center.

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In any case, if you had a positive experience and the product is covered, that's a tough deal to beat. All of a sudden I'm wanting a new SR8500...

I can say that my customer service experience with accessories4less was fantastic. Granted, it was only a few cables, but they handled the error on the order very well, and very quickly.