Yana_Carl
10-17-2005, 09:25 AM
Greetings,
My knowledge base is very low and I've spent the last few days reading forums and reviews trying to get a better grasp. But still I lack the vocabulary and background for indepth discussion. Any constructive advice is greatly appreciated in advance.
Background: I'm an American living in St. Petersburg Russia. I mention this because 1) The prices of high end electronics are usually quite a bit higher because of the import taxes, 2) I don't have all the options for where to buy, and 3) because I'm not a native Russian speaker, it's difficult to communicate in depth with store people.
My wife and I are two weeks away from moving into our newly built and renovated apartment. We've been on a spending spree the last few months as everything is brand new. We had successful year business wise and while not rich, I'm just trying to get across that if an additional $500 in some category will make a big difference in quality, I'll spend it (but not $5,000). My main priority is to have everything bought and paid for this year, so I'm not looking for an entry level set up.
The Monitor will be a gift from my brother in law and is undetermined at this point. Knowing him, it will will likely be near top of the line. It will most likely be a 42 inch Plasma. He is the enthusiast and has directed us to a high end specialty store. The owner has made his recommendations which I'll list below. My main fear is plain and simply making a huge mistake on something out of ignorance such as buying an expensive component that is already out of date. I simply don't have the ear for subtle tonal differences that many/most of you appear to, so while I love the sound of a good quality system I can't even begin to tell you what sounds better between systems. Like the infamous Justice Potter definition of pornography "I can't tell you what it is, but I know it when I see it."
Lastly, a little about the room where the equipment will go. It's between 250 - 300 square feet. The monitor will be on a curved wall. Behind the curved wall is an office and there are some decorative openings in this wall. Across from the TV is the main wall with couch. The distance from TV to wall is nearly 15 feet. The couch wall will be mostly decorative brick. We have had speaker connections wired about 2 feet from the ceiling on both sides of the couch. On one side there is a bay window that will have full length curtains in front of it, and large chair in front of this. The other side is more less open leading to halls and the kitchen. Wooden floor, likely with some area rug. All in all, not a very acoustically designed room.
So this is the proposal in front of us:
1. DVD Pioneer DV-868 $850 US
2. Receiver Pioneer VSX-2014-S $1,070
3. Frontals ELAC FS 207.2 $1800
4. Rears ELAC FS 203.2 $1090
5. Central ELAC CC 200.2 $830
6. Sub ELAC Sub 211.1 ESP $1600
7. 2 RCA/Phono - same $19 x 3 = $57
8. Subwoofer interconnect 1RCA-same $37
9. Coaxial Digital $65
10. TOSLINK optical digital $26
11. Speaker Wires $9 per meter estimating 50 meters = $450
12. Installation, Instruction, and some sort of lifetime service plan $709
Subtotal $8584
Discount 7%
Total $7983
note 1: I did find the same Pioneer DVD & REceiver for about $350 less in another store, though the high end store says it will charge more for installation if we buy separately.
note 2: I think there's some negotiation still to come here for a final price as there is obviously some play here.
All comments are welcome, but afew specific questions I have
1) Any thoughts on the ELACs. I just can find a lot about them on the websites. What I do find is pretty favorable, but I haven't read enough reviews to know how to read between the lines. A few other stores we visited of course had different models they recommended including EPOS.
2) This was the cheapest speaker wire they offered. Is this still much to high a price to pay?
3) Can somebody give me an idea of how long it will take for them to install and instruct? While the imported components will be more expensive in Russia, the labor should be much cheaper. This is is a city where a talented young man in his young 20's is very lucky if he's earning more than $1,000 a month with no benefits. I realize that I'm not only paying for labor, but also for his training, expertise, equipment, store profit, etc. but I'm having a hard time coming to grips with paying $700+ for this when an electrician here costs me about $50 a day.
Apologies for such a long message.
Carl
My knowledge base is very low and I've spent the last few days reading forums and reviews trying to get a better grasp. But still I lack the vocabulary and background for indepth discussion. Any constructive advice is greatly appreciated in advance.
Background: I'm an American living in St. Petersburg Russia. I mention this because 1) The prices of high end electronics are usually quite a bit higher because of the import taxes, 2) I don't have all the options for where to buy, and 3) because I'm not a native Russian speaker, it's difficult to communicate in depth with store people.
My wife and I are two weeks away from moving into our newly built and renovated apartment. We've been on a spending spree the last few months as everything is brand new. We had successful year business wise and while not rich, I'm just trying to get across that if an additional $500 in some category will make a big difference in quality, I'll spend it (but not $5,000). My main priority is to have everything bought and paid for this year, so I'm not looking for an entry level set up.
The Monitor will be a gift from my brother in law and is undetermined at this point. Knowing him, it will will likely be near top of the line. It will most likely be a 42 inch Plasma. He is the enthusiast and has directed us to a high end specialty store. The owner has made his recommendations which I'll list below. My main fear is plain and simply making a huge mistake on something out of ignorance such as buying an expensive component that is already out of date. I simply don't have the ear for subtle tonal differences that many/most of you appear to, so while I love the sound of a good quality system I can't even begin to tell you what sounds better between systems. Like the infamous Justice Potter definition of pornography "I can't tell you what it is, but I know it when I see it."
Lastly, a little about the room where the equipment will go. It's between 250 - 300 square feet. The monitor will be on a curved wall. Behind the curved wall is an office and there are some decorative openings in this wall. Across from the TV is the main wall with couch. The distance from TV to wall is nearly 15 feet. The couch wall will be mostly decorative brick. We have had speaker connections wired about 2 feet from the ceiling on both sides of the couch. On one side there is a bay window that will have full length curtains in front of it, and large chair in front of this. The other side is more less open leading to halls and the kitchen. Wooden floor, likely with some area rug. All in all, not a very acoustically designed room.
So this is the proposal in front of us:
1. DVD Pioneer DV-868 $850 US
2. Receiver Pioneer VSX-2014-S $1,070
3. Frontals ELAC FS 207.2 $1800
4. Rears ELAC FS 203.2 $1090
5. Central ELAC CC 200.2 $830
6. Sub ELAC Sub 211.1 ESP $1600
7. 2 RCA/Phono - same $19 x 3 = $57
8. Subwoofer interconnect 1RCA-same $37
9. Coaxial Digital $65
10. TOSLINK optical digital $26
11. Speaker Wires $9 per meter estimating 50 meters = $450
12. Installation, Instruction, and some sort of lifetime service plan $709
Subtotal $8584
Discount 7%
Total $7983
note 1: I did find the same Pioneer DVD & REceiver for about $350 less in another store, though the high end store says it will charge more for installation if we buy separately.
note 2: I think there's some negotiation still to come here for a final price as there is obviously some play here.
All comments are welcome, but afew specific questions I have
1) Any thoughts on the ELACs. I just can find a lot about them on the websites. What I do find is pretty favorable, but I haven't read enough reviews to know how to read between the lines. A few other stores we visited of course had different models they recommended including EPOS.
2) This was the cheapest speaker wire they offered. Is this still much to high a price to pay?
3) Can somebody give me an idea of how long it will take for them to install and instruct? While the imported components will be more expensive in Russia, the labor should be much cheaper. This is is a city where a talented young man in his young 20's is very lucky if he's earning more than $1,000 a month with no benefits. I realize that I'm not only paying for labor, but also for his training, expertise, equipment, store profit, etc. but I'm having a hard time coming to grips with paying $700+ for this when an electrician here costs me about $50 a day.
Apologies for such a long message.
Carl