New to the game. Please help with set up.


I am new to the all this but I just bought a house with a good size media room. I want to set it up right, but I can't break the bank. I have a small inexpensive focal sib xl system that I use a Pioneer elite A/V reciver to power(Its about 130W per channel). The previous owner left his B&W 805s and I was wondering if the Pioneer could power these speakers as fronts with a sub and use the Focals as the surounds in a 7.1 system.

Thanks for any help you can provide
nitjt

Showing 1 response by kjweisner

Hi Michael:

My comments are should be considered supplementary vs. contrary to the good guidance posted so far. Let me suggest that you look at this as an opportunity to build up a system over time.

Given the 805s are likely the strong player (I have to cop to a pro-B&W bias) in your current setup, you could build from that foundation one piece at a time as budget allows.

Were in in your shoes, I'd follow CKoffends advice and get that matching center channel in place first. Either another 805 or an HTM 2 would be a good fit. You could go bigger into the HTM 1 since the center channel does the lion's share of the work on theater playback.

Given three B&Ws across the front, you have enough of the sibs for both rear and side surrounds (plus a spare), assuming your Pioneer can handle that.

After the matching B&W Center, I would then focus on outboard amplification for at least the Left/Right front channels. Were it me, I'd go for a high quality three channel amp to power all the front speakers. All of the B&Ws are worthy of good amplification and the biggest benefits will probably come in the area of bass control.

That would present a pretty satisfying system and assuming a good amp was chosen, you should get many years of satisfaction and service.

From there, I'd work my way up to a high quality H/T processor (preferably one with two-channel analog bypass for music only).

Then a sub that's able to go pretty deep and pressurize your good sized room.

I also agree with the postings that the rear surrounds are far less critical for timbre matching so they'd be the last thing on my upgrade wish list. I hope this is helpful advice!