Gradual home theater upgrade/ Fluance good? Bad?

[marc]

I have an older Sherwood surround receiver with some low-ish priced floor (6-7 years old) and bookshelf (12+ years old) speakers. Looking at gradually (as $$ allows) upgrading the system.

I stumbled on comments and reviews for Fluance speakers and am wondering if their center and powered sub would be wise buys, especially if I later upgrade to things like a low to mid Onkyo or Denon receiver and DVD. Etc.

[Bryan]

Here is where it depends upon what your final budget for the upgrade will be. For example, if you wish to spend $2,500 on a complete system then I wouldn't recommend getting a $200 HT system in the interim. Excellent entry level subs go for $400 on up. There we are talking the likes of the Adire Audio Rava, HSU VTF-2, or passive SVS 25-31CS or VMPS New Original Subwoofer (the latter two will need something other than your primary receiver to power them with).

My preference is to go with better speakers and sub an entry level receiver from Onkyo, Marantz, Denon, Yamaha, etc. than get a better receiver and lower end speakers and sub. Used gear is another excellent option worthy of your consideration.

[marc]

Yer probably right. And you hit it on my eventual ballpark budget

Obviously the customer comments at the fluance.com site are very positive. I searched really hard for other input on them and pretty much could not find anything that wasn't connected to their site somehow.

They look well-made, although some of their towers are a little odd-looking. But I'm still a newbie to upgrading!

Did see some interesting possibilities on eBay ... Polk, Infinity, Cambridge, although I kind of worry about used electronics.

Another Q:

My Sherwood RV4060 manual says about the rears: "Terminals for connecting a pair of rear speakers, impedance of 4 ? each, to obtain a surround sound effect."

Does that mean I need special speakers to put there? What are 4-ohm speakers??

[Bryan]

Impedence is 4 ohms. Typically that is on the lower side of things for speakers but you should be fine regardless of what you get. For now, why not save up and get a new receiver? Hold onto your current Sherwood one as you may be able to use it either as part of a bedroom system or as an amplifier for a passive subwoofer. Used speakers are generally fine but also look over at audiogon.com and audiocircle.com for some excellent ones. When are you actually looking to purchase the speakers?

[marc]

Probably within a month or so. The way I'm looking at it, I have four lowend speakers and a lowend receiver now. So I just thought I'd go with the center and sub to generate a surround environment -- 15 x 20 room. Actually if I got a better receiver now, I'm not sure that the four speakers I already have could handle/are rated for it.

I've also taken a look at Home Theater Direct speakers which seem to have a little more spec/price range. They were mentioned in another forum, alongside Aperion, Aspire, Axiom, and AV123 so they seemed to be in good "company."

Checking out audiogon.com and audiocircle.com makes me feel like I know even less than I already knew I did before