help!! need advice on what surround speaker package to buy

cdsaredead

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hi,

ive just bought a pionner vsx923 av reciever & now im looking for a speaker package to go with it

ive seen this Pioneer S-HS100 Black | 5.1 Speaker Package | Richer Sounds but ive been advised by the guy in the shop that the quality may not be good enough, im not sure as they seem to have good ratings, is he just trying to get more cash out of me?

also im becoming confused about power ratings, the reciever is rated at 150w per channel, what sort of wattage should i be looking for in a speaker package?

my budget is £150 which i know isnt alot but im also looking at the second hand market i also dont want anything too loud as i have a grumpy mrs :) and a 2 year old i dont want to wake up while iam listening to music, playing on my xbox & watching films
 
I'll jump in and say it - the rule of thumb is that you should be spending 3x your amp cost on your speakers.

My father-in-law has a similar Yamaha set of speakers and in all honesty they are not that good but given the price what can you expect.
 
The receiver has more than enough power to drive most speakers to above accepted reference levels within a small to medium sized room.

Your proposed £150 isn't really enough to acquire the quality level of speaker that you'd ordinarily want to partner with your level of AV receiver. You really need to be spending anywhere from £600 up to £1,500 to get the best from it and in order to have a well balanced set up. The combined price of the speakers plus that of an active subwoofer should ideally always be greater than that of the receiver itself. The rule of thumb rule as already mentioned by Ghostrider is one often posted on these forums and one that works.

What you are addressing by spending more on the speakers is the quality of the audio being output by them and not their ability to play the audio louder.

There is no real requirement to match the speaker's power handling to the receiver's rated output. Even if speakers are rated with a lower handling ability than the highest constant wattage of the receiver, it is unlikely that you'll damage the speakers unless you go mad with the volume dial. You are more likely to cause your hearing damage than you are likely to damage the speakers. I would suggest you avoid speakers with an impedance below 6 ohm though because this may cause the receiver in question some issues relating to overheating at higher volumes.
 
I would recommend using the £150 to start off with a couple of front speakers and then build the system up piece by piece (although I appreciate when you have a nice shiny new receiver, you really want to go 5.1 straight away).
 
excatly!!!!

got a set of pionner surrounds and sub 5.1, £150, sounds great but i have a few issues-
1. what sort of height should the two front and rear surround speakers be positioned at on the walls?
2. will i get a better sound is all four speakers are place in the corners of the rooms?
3. can i wire the supplied cables to some other cables i had from my seperates to add length?
 
Front speakers should ideally be located at your seated head height while the surround speakers need to be 60 - 90cm higher. No, you should try to avoid placing speakers tight up into corners as this propagates issues with bass boom. I'd suggest buying new cables if you need longer lengths rather than joining cables.
 

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