Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Best speakers for Yamaha 1400 series

Hello guys. I just bought the Yamaha 1400 series and just wondering what is the best speakers that would go with it. My room is about 15'X 20' and I would like the tower speakers for fronts and I would like to spend around $1500. I will mostly watch movies and 30% music. I'm a newbie and luckily I stumbled into this site. Thanks.

Welcome, Isabel, and excellent receiver choice. If you mean about $1,500 for 5 speakers plus sub, and want towers, I'd suggest the M60s plus an M2 vertical center and QS8 surrounds. Add to that your choice of subwoofer, if you want.

Thanks JohnK. I'm still shopping around for good speakers on the $1500 range. I think the axioms are good speakers based on what I read on some bulletin boards. I don't have any hands on experience with them so I'm asking for opinions. Are there any other good speakers out there or can I make combinations of all other speakers? Thanks for the welcome John and hope to build this HT soon.

Oh by the way, what exactly is the power amp and the pre amplifier? Do I need these or can Yamaha 1400 do all the job. Can I add these later on also? What are the advantages of having these amps? I'm sorry I have to ask these questions cause I'm don't know too much about electronics. Thanks again.

Isabel, welcome to the board! Great choice on the 1400. I have the RX-V2400 which is it's bigger but not much bigger brother. Your 1400 is an all in one box meaning it contains the pre amp section and the amps for everything you need.
More powerful amps could be added later but you shouldn't need more power unless your speakers are power hungry and you have an unusually large space to fill with sound. It will do just fine in your 15'X20' room.

JohnK's suggestion on speakers is right on.

Do you have the 1400 all hooked up and running or is it just sitting there awaiting the speakers?

Isabel, speakers from different manufacturers can certainly be combined, but it's especially important that the three front speakers(if you use a center)should match closely in their tonal character. The simplest way to do this is to use three identical or closely similar speakers of the same brand.

The pre-amplifier processes the low-level signals from a CD, FM tuner, etc. and the amplifier then makes them strong enough to drive the speakers at loud levels. A receiver such as your 1400 is a combination of a tuner, pre-amplifier and amplifier, so you already have all this. Some choose to hook up their receivers to separate amplifiers in the often misguided belief that they'll get better sound, but this is seldom necessary.

Hi mwc. Thanks for the welcome. Yes I went to Good Guys and the salesman directed me to the 1400 and said that it is a good buy for $799. He told me that the difference between the two is only 10 watts and the 2400 is going for $1099 and on sale for $999. As for the speakers I did not buy it cause I still have the bose acoustimass that I'm using with my old system. Anyway what do I know about all these stuff,I just rely on the good guys for help. They sold me my HDTV also. The good guys hooked everything up for me for a small fee, and it's quite good. The set up has been up for about three weeks now and a friend of mine suggested to search the net for reviews on good speakers cause he said the bose are not that good. That's why I'm doing my research before I buy anything and found you guys to be real helpful. Let me know if it is worth upgrading to the 2400. Thanks.

John, thanks for the explanation and I'm learning a lot from you guys. So in short I'm all set up and don't need all the other amps anymore. I will do a little more research and I think I should all be set to buy the speakers this week. I will let you know what I feel I like on the features and of course how they look, that's important to us ladies, and I'll let you guys comment on it. Thanks again and if you come up with any other suggestion please let me know and in the meantime let me do some more reading and learning. Thanks.

Isabel, I'm just curious, did the salesman at Good Guys tell you that $799 for the 1400 was a discount price? Because $799 is msrp for the 1400. Also, $999 is the msrp on the 2400 not $1099. I don't know much about Good Guys but that makes me skeptical of them. I bought my 2400 from Tweeter Electronics (locally) for $899.

You probably don't need to upgrade to the 2400. You can see a comparison of the two here: www.yamaha.com/yec/products/RECEIVER/REC_RX-V.htm

I think your friend is correct about the Bose. Should you decide to get new speakers you can always sell the Bose. They sell well on the used market.

In reply to:

---

That's why I'm doing my research before I buy anything

---

You are doing the right thing by researching but you should also try to listen to as many different speakers as you can so that you can get a feel for what appeals to you.

Isabel, it's a bit disturbing to hear that those "good guys" charged you full retail on the 1400 and then actually charged you a fee in addition to hook it up. I'm not familiar with their return policy, but can you still do so? You can get the 1400 with the new DPLIIx feature which has just been added for $529 delivered.