New surround sound receiver

[Ronstar]

Our 5.1 surround sound system is very old. Separate amp and receiver. Amp is 25 years old. I think our 5.1 receiver is about 20 years old.

We now have no sound. I think the amp blew.

Most surround sound equipment I see online is an integrated receiver/amp. And I’m seeing 5.2 but haven’t found any 5.1’s in my research yet.

Couple of questions.

What do you have and do you like it?

Do you know if I could stick with only 1 subwoofer if I get a new 5.2 receiver that allows 2 subwoofers?

 

[RobbieB]

Not a problem.

 

[timo2]

I have a Denon AVR-X2300W. It works great. [The new 2019 model of this is Denon AVR-X2600H.

I wanted a soundbar that could be used with a A/V receiver. Most soundbars are powered and can't be used with an receiver. I bought a Definitive Technology Mythos SSA-50 Passive 5-channel home theater sound bar from Crutchfield. This has the clearest sound I've ever heard from a speaker setup. You could set up rear speakers with it if you wanted.

 

[zinger1457]

I have a Yamaha 7.1 AV receiver and like it. I connect all of my HDMI outputs through it so only have one HDMI cable going to the TV. I tried using a powered soundbar with my TV but was not pleased with the sound or volume levels, the receiver with 5 speakers in surround mode is so much better. The Yamaha receiver also supports a second zone so I can power speakers in my workout room.

 

[davebarnes]

Ronstar,
Is this for just music or TV + music?

 

[Ronstar]

Tv and music

 

[RobbieB]

I'm running a $250 36 inch 2.1 Visio soundbar under a 43 inch monitor in my office. Sounds way better than I thought it would.

But if you already have a 5.1 speaker set you love a receiver will be the easiest and best a soundbar.

 

[jollystomper]

I have a Yamaha RX-V379 5.1 receiver in my man cave in use for a couple of years with my HDMI projector (the current follow on model is the Yamaha RX-V385). It works fine for my needs. More than enough options for my uses.

 

[Music Lover]

I listen to music and watch TV and movies through 2 good quality tower speakers. IMO, that's all you need. Maybe go with surround again if you have a dedicated theatre room and the other surround speakers, but if you don't I wouldn't bother.

 

[Ronstar]

^ tower speakers are the best. We had some great tower speakers 25 years ago before we built this house and put in the surround sound system.

We gave our tower speakers to my MIL back then. She still has them. I told DW a few days ago that I wanted her to tell her mom that I wanted those speakers back. She won’t do it.

Oh well. Speakers are next on the agenda. Our current speakers would be better if I didn’t enclose them in our entertainment center wall behind another layer of speaker cloth

 

[Jerry1]

I have a Yamaha RX-V379 5.1 receiver in my man cave in use for a couple of years with my HDMI projector (the current follow on model is the Yamaha RX-V385). It works fine for my needs. More than enough options for my uses.

I had a Yamaha receiver and some Klipsch speakers. It sounded great for TV and music, but with my new TV I got a sound bar with a wireless subwoofer and I’m very happy with it. Truth is that most good quality equipment is better than my ears so it really doesn’t matter.

On a different note, what I really like is my Klipsch earbuds with the Comply foam tips. My ears can tell the difference with those. The tips keep out external noise.

Anyway, if I had a built in set up, I’d get a Yamaha receiver in a minute and just replace the part in your system that went bad.

 

[ERD50]

I purchased a Sony STRDH590 6 months ago. Very happy with it in 5.1 mode. It replaced our older 5.1 that only had discrete component inputs. This accepts HDMI (from our DVD), and optical (from TV).

So now we get surround sound from OTA broadcasts and DVD. Nice.

$232 at the time from Amazon, seems to have gone up in price and limited availability?

$279 at Best Buy.

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/sony-7...heater-receiver-black/6187502.p?skuId=6187502

-ERD50

 

[Ronstar]

^ I’ve been looking at the Sony dh590. Great reviews on Amazon.

 

[DrRoy]

We have a 15+ year old Sony 5.1 integrated. We have replaced the original center and rear speakers with new Sonys and the fronts are old Harmon Kardon small bookshelf units. It sounds great.

 

[RonBoyd]

I have a Yamaha 7.1 AV receiver and like it. I connect all of my HDMI outputs through it so only have one HDMI cable going to the TV. I tried using a powered soundbar with my TV but was not pleased with the sound or volume levels, the receiver with 5 speakers in surround mode is so much better. The Yamaha receiver also supports a second zone so I can power speakers in my workout room.

Same here. Except we have a Yamaha 9.2 AVR. (https://usa.yamaha.com/products/audio_visual/av_receivers_amps/rx-a3080_u/index.html) I have all of the nine main speakers connected but only one of the sub-woofer channels in use. It works fine. I would suspect that one could do without any sub-woofer speakers but you would give up the "just like being there" vibration sensation.

I, too, was dissatisfied with a soundbar. We have a 2019 Vizio PQ65-F1 with a Vizio soundbar (https://www.vizio.com/home-theater-system/sb36512f6.html) that has a remote wireless subwoofer that also powers the two rear speakers. It, of course, is better than listening to the built-in TV speakers and would be sufficient for most people (no judgement, intended).

 

[Dawg52]

I bought a Sony STR-DH790 a few months ago. Very similar to the Dh590 already mentioned. Main reason I got the 790.... it has 2 more channels and includes dolby atmos. Not using all the channels but thought it would be nice to have in case I wanted to expand my system. I have Polk speakers primarily and it all sounds great. Oh....the 790 was roughly the same price at the time due to a sale so I figured why not buy the next model up. Below is a comparison of the two.

https://www.zkelectronics.com/compa...taiwan/sony-str-dh590/usa,-canada-and-taiwan/

 

[wmc1000]

We have a 16 year old 6.1 onkyo receiver/amplifier which was used strictly for a 5.1 sound system until late in 2019 when I finally bought a rear center speaker on Ebay to add to it. Made a distinct overall sound improvement that we didn't know we were missing for the previous 15 years!

 

[redshift]

Got one about 6 months ago. Great for the price, passes 4K, has Bluetooth.

^ I’ve been looking at the Sony dh590. Great reviews on Amazon.

 

[Montecfo]

I have 2 surround sound systems. Integrated amp and receiver in both cases.

One is Pioneer VSX-D711 with Bose satellite speakers (stand-mounted in corners plus front speaker) and JBL subwoofer.
5.1 The speakers are 25 years old. Still sound fantastic.

The other is newer, Onkyo TX-SR605. I think it supports 7.1 but you could deploy 5.1 without the middle speakers. Speakers are Energy- towers in front and wall mounted Energy theatre speakers in back. Pioneer subwoofer.

Everything sounds great. Receivers die after 5-10 years, I switch those out, but speakers are longest lived IMHO.

 

[Ronstar]

Op here. Thanks for all of your help. Went to Best Buy today and got a Sony DH590, partially based on posts in this thread. Just removed the old receiver and amps. Put the Sony in the rack, connected speakers and other cables. Works fine.

Tomorrow I’ll get the remote going with our ir setup. And see if I can get my iPad/iPhone to play via Bluetooth.

Front speakers that I installed in the top of my entertainment wall still seem a little muffled. I’ll get into that later.

 

[ERD50]

Op here. Thanks for all of your help. Went to Best Buy today and got a Sony DH590, partially based on posts in this thread. Just removed the old receiver and amps. Put the Sony in the rack, connected speakers and other cables. Works fine.

Tomorrow I’ll get the remote going with our ir setup. And see if I can get my iPad/iPhone to play via Bluetooth.

Front speakers that I installed in the top of my entertainment wall still seem a little muffled. I’ll get into that later.

Did you run the calibration routine with the external microphone they give you?

One of our side/rear speakers was bad (really low output), I had kinda noticed it before, but we really didn't have much surround sound content to play on the old set up, so I didn't give it much thought. But when I ran the calibration on this new receiver, it tried its best to balance the levels, so I think it dropped the other side/rearspeaker level to match? IIRC, there was a manual set-up/test that I tried, and it was obvious that speaker was bad. Replaced it with a good pair, re-ran the calibration, and it sounded great after that.

-ERD50

 

[Ronstar]

Did you run the calibration routine with the external microphone they give you?

One of our side/rear speakers was bad (really low output), I had kinda noticed it before, but we really didn't have much surround sound content to play on the old set up, so I didn't give it much thought. But when I ran the calibration on this new receiver, it tried its best to balance the levels, so I think it dropped the other side/rearspeaker level to match? IIRC, there was a manual set-up/test that I tried, and it was obvious that speaker was bad. Replaced it with a good pair, re-ran the calibration, and it sounded great after that.

-ERD50

I haven't run the mic calibration yet. I think the muffle problem stems from how I built my entertainment center. It is between the finished and unfinished portions of our basement. I put 3 front speakers high behind a false wall, and the area behind the speakers is open. The area above is open joist space. Sound is traveling all over the place. I can hear sound coming out of the bathroom floor heating vent upstairs just as well as in front of the tv.

I'm going to get some insulation today to stuff around the 3 upper speakers.

 

[ERD50]

I'm not sure insulation will do much/anything.

Try running the calibration, and see what you think. It seems to be quite capable of adjusting for the room.

If there is room on the shelf, try to get those speakers angled down so they are pointing at your ears at your seating position. The high frequencies from the tweeters can be very directional, and on most speakers the 'sweet spot' will be narrow side-to-side, and even more narrow top to bottom. If those speakers are meant to be upright, and you have them on their side, that can exacerbate the problem, making it even more muffled.

But the calibration just might be able to compensate for all that. I'm not sure if it creates a new EQ for each speaker/pair, or just adjusts levels between them. I've been tempted to purposely mess with the speaker response (add a low pass filter to kill the highs), and re-run the cal, to see if it tries to compensate. I'm thinking it does, the DSP (digital signal processing) chips available today make this possible at this price point.

-ERD50

 

[wmc1000]

Ronstar, that looks really nice! Insulation above the speakers should help with the transient sound traveling through the joist spaces above the speakers and stop some possible reverb off the hard surfaces surrounding the speakers behind the grilles.

 

[ShokWaveRider]

Denon 2500h 7.2 95w.

https://www.accessories4less.com/ma...-7.2-ch-x-95-watts-a/v-receiver-w/heos/1.html