Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater New system setup

After reading as much as I could in this forum and a few others, here's the system I came up with:

Pioneer VSX-45TX - $800
Axiom M60ti, VP150, QS8 - $1620
SVS 2531pc+ - $775

For a grand total of $3195. Ideally, I'd like to get the price down to $2700. Any ideas? Maybe a cheaper (but still good) receiver?

BTW - My boyfriend came home last night with a Bose Lifestyle 28 - and I was like nooooooooo. So I'm going crazy trying to come up with something that will sound good for around the same price.

tims,

I got the Epic 60 system with the VP150 - expecting the speakers to be delivered today. I got the Yamaha RX-V1300 for $565 from Etronics.com including shipping to New Jersey. I bought the Yammi based on reviews, forums such as this one and conversations with other owners. Can't wait to set it up. The Yammi will save you $200+.

Good luck.

ok - I did a bit of fooling around with stuff and here's what I have now:

Denon 2803 $600
Axiom M22ti, VP150, QS4 $1060
SVS 2039pci $600
$2260

Now that system is well below the Bose and should be tons better. I'm curious if the M60 is worth the extra $400 compared to the M22. We'll be using this is our living room, which is about 16'x16'.

Your original configuration is fine.
Have you considered the Factory Outlet deals?
You may have to wait a bit longer for your speaker choices to come available, but the cost savings is phenomenal for the product that you get.
The 'blemishes' that are supposed to be on the speakers are often so unnoticeable that you laugh yourself silly. Here is a link to the 'blemishes' on my Factory Outlet deals:
QS8 scratch
same qs8 at a distance
the only flaw i can find on my vp150

As for comparisons of M22s and M60s, check out my post from yesterday in which i gave some links to several posts here in the forums on the tower speakers.
I did however have the opportunity to audition both the M22 and M60s and although our basement room is also not very large, the M60s had a presence that the M22s simply cannot match. If home theatre is more your thing then the M22s will do the job fine, same if you have a small and cozy room with no future possibility of moving.
However if music is more your thing (or even 50:50) or you feel yoru room is large enough or you plan on having a larger room sometime later, then think to the future and buy the M60s.

That's my three cents. (good call on the Bose)

Tims, I'd suggest that you stay with the Pioneer 45TX. You'll get a very powerful receiver with the MCACC for setup.

For speakers, the M22s with the SVS sub(but the 25-31PCi, tuned to 22hz by Tom at no extra charge, should be plenty)would be excellent in your size room. I haven't found that a bigger speaker necessarily has a "bigger" sound, especially if the sound level isn't extremely high. As is my usual preference, I would use a vertical M2 for the center.

I'd definitely take Avian's advice and purchase the Yammi instead of the Pioneer. Yamaha has a better reputation for building better receivers.

Ok, so we made our decisions - thought i'd post for other newbies.

We ended up with:

Denon 2803
Axiom M22, M2(center), QS4
SVS 2039pci

After reading tons and tons of posts on speaker wire, i ended up using 14 gauge speaker wire from home depot. I considered 12 gauge, but from what I read, decided it wasn't worth the effort to battle with the larger cable. Also, I tried to make a subwoofer cable using RG6 coax and rca connectors, but that was more trouble than it was worth. For $15 I bought a premade 15' cable at Home Depot as well. Much easier.

First impressions - wow. The SVS absolutely shakes the house. The Axioms were crystal clear, full sounding. For the price (our total was about $2300 for everything), the system is incredible. Far better than Bose, and probably almost as good as systems costing much more.

The only thing left, is I'm still toying with upgrading to the M60's... the M22's are very nice, but the M60's would be even nicer - hmmm. Worth the $400 or not? Decisions, decisions.

Reasons for choosing what we did:

Denon - was the best price receiver that had what we wanted. Got it at Tweeter for $800. Found it online for $600, but all the online dealers are not Authorized Dealers, so you don't get the warranty from Denon. The Online dealer offers the warrenty - and personally I'd rather have the warranty from Denon. Salesguy at Tweeter recommended it over the Pioneer.

M22s - cheaper than the M60.

M2 - cheaper than the VP150 and according to John a better center channel. Seems like a win/win. Plus it fit in our entertainment center better than VP150 would.

QS4 - seems like plenty for our room - QS8 would probably be overkill. Right now we only have two - will add 2 more in the future for 7.1.

SVS 2039pci - first, decided the pc+ was way more than we needed for our room. so then to decide 25-31, 20-39, 16-46. eliminated the 16-46 as just too big - plus since we got the M22s for fronts, the 16-46 wouldn't fill in the higher bass tones as well. (although it could probably explode my floor.) so it was down to 2531 vs 2039 - ended up deciding the 2039 was a good compromise between higher and lower bass tones, plus it's only $50 more than the 2531. as a warning - the 2039 is HUGE - it doesn't just hide in a corner - it is a piece of furniture. i can't imagine the 1646. i also can't imagine actually needing the 1646 - we listened to LOTR part 1 at about -11db on the Denon and 1/2 power on the SVS, and it was more bass than you could want.

In reply to:

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Denon - was the best price receiver that had what we wanted. Got it at Tweeter for $800. Found it online for $600, but all the online dealers are not Authorized Dealers, so you don't get the warranty from Denon. The Online dealer offers the warrenty - and personally I'd rather have the warranty from Denon. Salesguy at Tweeter recommended it over the Pioneer.

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Hmm... You actually one-step downgraded the receiver from your initial candidate Pioneer 45TX, which in fact competes with the Denon 3803. If the 2803 costed you significantly less, I would not have said anything. But you can actually get the 45TX for only $50 more, from an authorized dealer with full factory warranty.

Not that 2803 is a bad receiver; but the 45TX should really be compared to the 3803, with respect to both performance and price. I do not think it was a best buy for you in this case, regardless of what the salesperson told you (remember, the collective information on the net is far more reliable and honest than the opinion of a single salesguy).

$50 more? I couldn't find either receiver online from an authorized dealer for less than I could buy them at Tweeter. The Denon 2803 was $800 and the Pioneer VSX-45TX was about $1200. If you know of an online authorized dealer offering them at better prices, please forward me a link.

You've got my PM.