Converting my stereo speakers to HT

[sharnyo]

Hi,

I've been on 'stereo' all of my life, and it's about time I move on to renovate my hifi system to a home theatre to have a full audio experience with my DVD movies.

As always, budget is limited so I am trying to salvage my existing speakers:

- JBL2600 bookshelf speakers
- Bose Acousticmass 5 speakers

I've just been offered a cheap Onkyo sr-600 receiver. Can I get good output from those speakers as my front and rear ? I am also wondering whether it's necessary to get a subwoofer since my Bose speakers already come with one. And I am at lost as to what center speaker would be a good fit for this configuration.

Would appreciate any comment / suggestions.

Thanks,
- Andi

[N. Abstentia]

The first thing I personally would do is dump the Bose speakers, but that's just me. You really can't use them in a 5.1 system properly because they DON'T have a subwoofer and you can't use the sats without the 'bass module'.

As far as a center, get one that timbre matches with your front speakers.

You could probably sell those Bose speakers for $400, with which you could buy an entire 5.1 system that would smoke the Bose.

[Bryan]

Do not think of the bass module as a subwoofer. It doesn't go low enough. In this instance, I am of the opinion you should sell the Bose speakers. Invest that money into a quality subwoofer. Of course, this is all without knowing what your budget, before and after receiver, is.

[sharnyo]

Thanks for the helpful information.

Budget has always been a problem. So, I plan to upgrade a step at a time. Is it a good idea to start off with a receiver and a centre speaker ? The front and rear speakers can use my existing ones. Any suggestion to the order of purchase ?

[Woochifer]

Thanks for the helpful information.

Budget has always been a problem. So, I plan to upgrade a step at a time. Is it a good idea to start off with a receiver and a centre speaker ? The front and rear speakers can use my existing ones. Any suggestion to the order of purchase ?

You're best off starting with the receiver and then probably running the JBLs as your mains for a while. Personally, I think you have to look at upgrading the front three speakers as a group. Don't even bother with a center speaker if you don't know what main speakers you'll eventually go with. It doesn't matter how good the center speaker is, if you don't have something that properly voice matches the mains, then you're actually better off without a center speaker.

I think those JBLs don't have any matching center speakers, and the center speaker that Bose recommends for its Acoustimass systems is a poor match. And even if matching centers were available, it's probably not worthwhile to add a center speaker if you plan to eventually replace the speakers.

That Onkyo 600 has virtual surround DSPs built in will give you a simulated surround effect as you incrementally add onto your system. Right now, you already have four speakers, so go ahead and hook them up. I would start auditioning speakers and budget out for the front three.

Replace the front speakers first, and sell either the Bose or JBLs, moving the set that you keep to the back for surround duty. If you can only afford a pair, it's fine to delay purchasing the center speaker, but you should definitely buy the matching center speaker next because speaker series get updated frequently and the succeeding models might not be as good a voice match.

The next step is to go with the subwoofer. And the last step is to get the matching surround speakers. Normally, I would recommend getting the surrounds right after the mains, but you already have speakers that you can use as surrounds, so you can afford to get the other parts of the system situated first. Matching the surrounds to the mains is not as vital as getting the match between the center and mains right. It's still important, but you can get away with mismatches more with the surrounds than the center speaker because most DVD soundtracks don't have the surrounds outputing identical sounds at comparable levels to the mains.

[sharnyo]

That sounds like a good suggestion. Bose Accousticmass comes with a subwoofer so-called 'accousticmass'. Not sure if it qualifies as subwoofer really.

May be I should just move the Bose to the rear speakers. Get the front and centre (thinking of B&W - like the sound demo). At later stage, get a subwoofer. For the time being, the Bose accousticmass can serve as a subwoofer, until such time to be replaced totally.

Anyone has experience on B&W speakers to serve as front and centre.