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Topic: home audio (Read 2454 times) previous topic - next topic
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home audio

i purchased my first and current home audio system back when kenwood was no longer a sears only product 1988 ish. i've never liked the rack systems they were either to integrated or didn't have the features i wanted or just insanely priced.  since those days i've repaired mine idk how many times and its really just large and dated i'm told i can do a lot better and get better performance if i replace all this. unfortunately this comes from the sales people.  to be completely honest im a price performance shopper and i like what i purchase to have some useful-ness a year from now. does anyone have a strong knowlege of the latest electronic audio equipment and offer some advice what to avoid , what is hype and what not.

what i would need is a dvd/cd player that supports ntsc and pal, a am/fm receiver, then what ever i don't need an eq for the most part unless you strongly suggest it. as for speakers i am kinda old school big and loud, but i'm open to new ideas, so long as i can crank up some acdc and ozzy and it don't sound like total poo. size isn't and issue use mp3 is a must as i have a substantial collection.  this would be in the living room and tied into the tv so theater type use too would be an issue also.  i hope i covered everything, ask me anything you like.

home audio

Reply #1 –
It would help if we knew where you were from, manufacturers don't always sell the same products in different countries.

home audio

Reply #2 –
Quote from: rfmjm3 on
i purchased my first and current home audio system back when kenwood was no longer a sears only product 1988 ish. i've never liked the rack systems they were either to integrated or didn't have the features i wanted or just insanely priced.  since those days i've repaired mine idk how many times and its really just large and dated i'm told i can do a lot better and get better performance if i replace all this. unfortunately this comes from the sales people.  to be completely honest im a price performance shopper and i like what i purchase to have some useful-ness a year from now. does anyone have a strong knowlege of the latest electronic audio equipment and offer some advice what to avoid , what is hype and what not.

what i would need is a dvd/cd player that supports ntsc and pal,


Ntsc and pal are from different regions, and DVD players won't play DVD's that are locked to a different region (ie Europe vs North America vs Asia).  I don't know if Blue Ray (High def) players have region locking, but for the little extra money get a blue ray player.  No point in locking yourself to analog video format which isn't even broadcast in the US (soon Canada) anymore.

Quote
a am/fm receiver, then what ever i don't need an eq for the most part unless you strongly suggest it. as for speakers i am kinda old school big and loud, but i'm open to new ideas, so long as i can crank up some acdc and ozzy and it don't sound like total poo. size isn't and issue use mp3 is a must as i have a substantial collection.  this would be in the living room and tied into the tv so theater type use too would be an issue also.


The big choice (since you mention theater) is sticking with 2 channel stereo or getting 5.1 channel (or up.)  If you stick with 2, and your old receiver is working OK and enough power for what you want, then no need for a new receiver. 

You could probably improve the speakers.  Popular now are smaller stand speakers with a subwoofer.  For 5.1 channel that is pretty much required first because the DVD's have a separate sound channel for subwoofer, plus the extra expense of buying 5 speakers with their own good bass response (which won't be used)  would be wasted.

An audio/video receiver will likely let you use a single cable (or fiberoptic) from your digital audio sources, plus take care of switching the video. 

One hype point:  If the digital audio connection is "coax" you can use a regular audio RCA cable for short runs rather than a special digital cable.  If it isn't good enough, it won't work at all (or cut in and out.)  You don't have to wonder if it's lower performance.
 

home audio

Reply #3 –
Quote from: DonP on
Ntsc and pal are from different regions, and DVD players won't play DVD's that are locked to a different region (ie Europe vs North America vs Asia).  I don't know if Blue Ray (High def) players have region locking, but for the little extra money get a blue ray player.  No point in locking yourself to analog video format which isn't even broadcast in the US (soon Canada) anymore.


Not strictly true. Japan and the UK are both region 2 for DVD, one being NTSC, the other PAL. UK players at least always have multi-format output, you'll also find most (if not all) UK DVD players are easy to unlock for multi-region playback.

Blu-Ray players still have region coding but the zones are different from DVD. If you want multi-region it's usually cheaper to buy a cheap player from each region as multi-region mods are usually hardware based and more expensive. Or settle for something like an Oppo BDP-93 which can do pretty much everything and isn't that much to make multi-region

If you go with a Blu-Ray player, just get a receiver which supports all the latest audio formats and connect via HDMI.