Need help to upgrade system?

I have a ONKYO 484 55 watts
Mains POLK RT55i
Center POLK CS400i
Rear POLK RT25i
Sub. VELODYNE CHT12
Would it be best to up grade rears, sub, or receiver.
Any help on this would be great?
THANKS,
MARC

The receiver is the most obvious weak link, followed by the subwoofer. I would start with the receiver if you got money to spend.

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Originally Posted by Marc B.

I have a ONKYO 484 55 watts
Mains POLK RT55i
Center POLK CS400i
Rear POLK RT25i
Sub. VELODYNE CHT12
Would it be best to up grade rears, sub, or receiver.
Any help on this would be great?
THANKS,
MARC

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I agree with Spacedeckman. If you only want to change one thing, start with the receiver.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Marc B.

I have a ONKYO 484 55 watts
Mains POLK RT55i
Center POLK CS400i
Rear POLK RT25i
Sub. VELODYNE CHT12
Would it be best to up grade rears, sub, or receiver.
Any help on this would be great?
THANKS,
MARC

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95% of what you hear comes from speaker choice and room acoustics. The receiver has little to do with the sound that actually comes out of your speakers.

I have to disagree with the other poster that the Velodyne is a weak link. It is not their best sub and does not really go down to the 20Hz range of more expensive models, to be sure, but Velodyne makes good quality subs and have been in the business a long time. If you are mostly into movies, the sub should be fine, especially considering the rest of the speakers. I would replace the receiver first.

I also agree that the room has a lot to do with the sound quality. I've been doing a lot 'tweaking' in my TV room and I have found substantial improvements in how my system performs.

What is the budget for the upgrade? Two weakest links are the receiver and sub. What size (dimensions) is the room? Any openings into other rooms? If so, what size are they?

The room size is 20 by 18.
Only would like to spend about 600 dollars or so.
There's two openings on both side walls.

The downside of not knowing exactly how big the other rooms are is you may not have enough sub for the room. It is combined cubic footages that makes the difference.

However, that being said you do have a few options. For example, the HSU VTF-2 is an excellent performer around that price range. Others to consider would be the SVS PB12-ISD or, if you have something other than your primary receiver to power it with, the SVS 20-39CS+. The Rocket UFW-10 is another phenominal sub at $599 plus shipping. You may try to get a B-stock one. It should go for around $425 plus shipping. To give you an idea, my SVS 20-39CSi goes slightly lower and is slightly more powerful for HT but the UFW-10 is better for music and comes extremely close to the SVS performance for HT. That is in a combined room size of close to 4,150 cubic feet. Another good one could be the Adire Audio Rava or even a used Paradigm PW-2200.

Id get a new receiver and mabey a Sub, I think your speakers are decent as long as you like them. Id look at a Marantz or mabey Outlaw Denon is good too. Those are my 3 "favorites".