Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners Bang for the Buck

I just recently purchased M22's and VP100 for a surround sound system I am setting up. I currently have an Onkyo dolby digital 5.1 receiver(TX-DS777), and subwoofer(Velodyne CHT-8). In my new quest for higer fidelity I was wondering what one purchase would get me the most "bang for my buck" I was thinking maybe a stereo amplifier to drive the m22's I want to work on incremental upgrades with the end result having a system based on seperates and getting rid of the receiver.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

You already got the biggest bang for your buck items purchased. From here on in, it's baby steps to higher fidelity. There will be improvements, but nothing to the degree that you'll get from your new speakers and sub.

That being said, I'd say your next step would be a new receiver, or amp if you're going to go the separates route.

Good luck and enjoy!

If you listen to a lot of music, a dedicated CD player would be a big upgrade from a standard DVD player; I dont' know what you have. The other thing would be the amplifier in your receiver; these are the things typically compromised the most in integrated units.

My $450 HK 3470 stereo receiver (100Wpc), which I got new for $300, has more power than all other Harman Kardon surround amps, except for the top-of-the-line, $2000 unit, I believe. It also has pre-out/main in jacks so I can use it as a dedicated amp for front channels, when I get a surround receiver.

I just saw an Onkyo 100Wpc dedicated amp on Circuit City's website for $300, and Harman Kardon has some 4-channel amps. The main difference would be the dynamic range of the amp. If you're happy with your DS777 in terms of performance at high volumes, then don't worry about it.

-Cooper

Thanks for the info, I currently have a 5 cd changer from Onkyo I am not sure of the specs because I never used to pay attention to that before now, and I am almost positive it is just a run of the mill type player. I have done some searching on the various forums and from what I can tell it seems the higher quality cd players do make a difference. Now with the advent of multi purpose players that do dvd/sacd/dvd-a and most of the recordable formats would I be giving up something by purchasing that over a dedicated cd player.

Thanks again,

HSU sub will do light years more than any ampification changes. That Cd changer is good. If you are a sensory anomolie maybe a change there would make difference. Otherwise go for m60's. Beyond that probably ego and fantasy.

Hopefully I'm not opening another do the components matter debate, but why do you say a dedicated CD player will perform better then music than a DVD? I would expect both to handle that job equally well.

Chuck,

Did you mean you ordered four M22's? At this time, one of the best bangs for the buck for you may well be upgrading the VP100 to the VP150 or another M22 (if you can place it as a vertical center speaker).

In reply to:

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Hopefully I'm not opening another do the components matter debate, but why do you say a dedicated CD player will perform better then music than a DVD? I would expect both to handle that job equally well.

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Right. Especially if you connect the player digitally to the receiver or prepro so that you use the DAC on the receiver/prepro (which is the way most people choose anyway), the sound should be IDENTICAL, period, unless the player is overtly defective.

Oh, and with regard to the quality of DACs/ACDs, I currently have my Pioneer DVL-919 DVD/LD/CD player hooked up via both digital and analog connections to the Elite 45TX receiver, so that I can instantaneously A/B switch between the digital and analog routs. And I CANNOT hear a difference. To me, this is a fairly significant finding, because when the analog connection is chosen, the signal undergoes the conversion three times -- the DAC on the player, the ADC on the receiver (for the digital bass-management and other processing), and then the final DAC on the receiver. Again, I didn’t do this as a blind test -- I knew that all these conversions were carried out via the analog rout, and accordingly looked for the slightest sign of degradation of sound quality or imaging/staging. My Hales speakers are no slouch, either; they are very revealing and the resolution is no less than, say, that of the Axioms. I have to conclude that, at least to my ears, the DACs/ADCs on my “mass-market” player and receiver are as good as I ever need. This completely discourages me to seek for the possible upgrade of the player.

I was under the impression that you were keeping the sub you had. If that's not the case, then Hsu, Hsu, Hsu!!!

The BIGGEST bang for the buck improvement in my system came from my Hsu VTF-2. Sorry Axiom...even more so than the M60's.