Mordaunt Short Premiere plus? must decide today :(

micks_address

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Hi folks -

I've been mulling over the Mordaunt Short Premiere plus system for a week or so now.. today's decision time. Either i plump for it or i stay with what i have. Currently i have Sony entry level pascal speakers and an entry level sony receiver... 485 i think is the model. The thing is i'm heading off today for a few weeks so its either bite the bullet now or forever hold my peace

The plan would be to buy the speakers now and then later buy something like the marantz SR5400 to drive them. Hopefully i'll be able to sell my sony system to help raise funds for the receiver.

The thing thats biting me is this - will i notice a radical improvement over the sony system i currently have? Money is tight as always and this is likely to be the last speaker upgrade i do for sometime so i would like to be impressed with whatever i buy. Unfortunately i'm based in dublin so i can't really get a demo of the speakers :(

Any help or adivce will be very much appreciated

Cheers,
Mick
 
I'll state with a fair degree of confidence that the Premieres will outperform the Pascals. My concern is that the 300 series speakers will be a bit much for the receiver, whilst small and reasonably efficient, they lurk around the 4 ohm point which can be a bit beyond the entry level receivers.
Despite being a in the employ of a speaker manufacturer, I am firmly in the belief that the biggest gains in performance can be had from electronics upgrades. If you're itching to buy something (and I know the feeling) I would go amp first and then look towards speakers when you know what you're after.
Ed
 
Thanks Ed - i had thought the receiver would be up to the job... maybe i should hold off and come back to it in a month or so... still though its hard to resit the itch! the premiere plus setup seems to be a good price at 309 - i think i'll sleep on it... one way or another a decision has to be made tomorrow as heading away to get married and honeymoon for a few weeks!

Cheers,
Mick
 
Originally posted by Tons of fun
My concern is that the 300 series speakers will be a bit much for the receiver, whilst small and reasonably efficient, they lurk around the 4 ohm point which can be a bit beyond the entry level receivers. Ed

I'm thinking of adding 2 x 302 and 1 x 304 to my Marantz SR4300. Will they be too much for my amp?
 
No this should be fine- Marantz is our distributor and we ensure that our products work with theirs! The 4300 is quite a way above the 475 in the epic amp heirachy (it is roughly comparible to the old sony '780) and we've clocked up hundreds of hours with 4*00 amps and premiere bits. Are you thinking of these as fronts or rears?
 
I was going to use them as fronts. I realise they only go down to 100Hz, but I was going to try them out without a sub to see if I would find them acceptable.

They are on offer at my local hifi shop (£59 a pair) so I thought I would give them a go, and if it is no good then think about adding a sub, move them to rears or Ebay them.

My wife is determined that we have small speakers, and is not happy about having a sub. I was hoping that we might be OK with the 302s for the time being, until we move house in the new year where I will hopefully upgrade to bigger speakers and move them to the rear, or add a sub.
 
Yeah i will probably buy the premeir plus system and a set of 914/906 and possibly replace the center with the 905 center to match the bigger fronts and use the 302's as surrounds in a 7 speaker system as they will all match tonally.
Either that or im gonna get some AE evo3's and the evo center and sell the 304 center on her or ebay and use the 302 or by eltax bi-polars depending on which sound i prefere as the surround speakers.
Art I think you will miss so much by not having a sub with the 302's as they dont go down below 100hz. I tmay also be worth looking at the MS 902's and the 912's as they go down to 55hz.
:D
 
The 906 can run with the 304 with a reasonable consistency across the front channels- this is less successful with the 914 as the driver is a size up again. The 905 is obviously a better match and provides more oomph with it. Some of the logical upgrades from the premiere and premiere plus that I've seen include.
Adding a pair of 902/4's to create a 7.1 system
Adding a pair of 903's at the rear for a better rear effects spread and 7.1
Adding an additional 304 for 6.1 or a 905 at the front and sending your existing 304 to the back.
308 owners changing to 309
Binning it and buying a THX pack :devil:
 
As you will see from my details below I have the Marantz SR5400 with the standard Mordaunt Short Premier system. The speakers still surprise me how good they are, I think they are nearly run in now and I'm starting to hear more detail even when just watching TV (NTL cable via the Amp).

If I upgrade my next thought would be the sub from the plus system, and perhaps slightly bigger fronts. Would look to the next size up MS speakers if I can match the grey Premier set.
 
OH yeah I would love a THX system but I think i would end up living on the street with it :eek: when the other half found out how much i paid for it lol
Hey tons is the 914 being phased out as I can only find 1 online retailer who has any in stock :( and kelkoo said you cant buy them online at all !!! The 903 bi-polars are a tad to big and to expensive for my taste and the WAF.
Thanks for the recomendations though. I will keep thinking.:lesson:
 
914 is very much still in production- it is as popular in a fart in a space suit with online retailers due to the size of its cartons though which may explain the limited online availability. Try RS if all else fails..............
The 903 isn't at a giveaway price but is about the same as most dedicated rears- I'll be selling my black pair on here in a couple of weeks though if that's of any interest. Its funny Mrs Tons thought they were quite a sensible size after she'd seen the 506's that replaced them.

And remember, the THX pack is only bulky until you remember it carries its own subs :).
 
Hi folks - me again zzzz

well on the way home from work i popped into harvey norman in the off chance that they had the mordaunt short speakers on demo. Low and behold they did. They only had the premiere system - not the plus so it was using the smaller sub. The sales guy said the bigger sub was way to heavy for normal homes but i resisted his wisdom.

i got to hear some of gone in 60 seconds on the speakers hooked up to the marantz 5400 and to my untrained ears they sounded pretty good. Dialog was strong - unlike my sony's which sound a bit tinny. When things got busy the sound still separated well and i think the whole package worked together quite well. I was suitably impressed - got to listen to some of michael jacksons dvd as well and that sounded good as well.

Now crunch time... i want the speakers... i'll get the amp later after i sell my own system.

They would do the premier system for 539 euro

i can get the premiere plus system delivered for about 560 euro. Is it a no brainer? Should i be getting the premiere plus system?Will the sub be too big for my room? The room is about 15' by 8' long -


or should i settle for the premiere pack with the standard sub?

Any advice appreciated - i'll be doing something tomorrow - i'm just not sure what yet!

Cheers,
Mick
 
Same here . Buy the plus system. A review said that the old sub can struggle while the 309 has had dome rave reviews on its own and you can always turn the volume down :D
 
Ive gone for the 906's front for 250 quid a 905 for 120 and the bipolars for the sides at 79quid as i have a 7.1 amp i then use a pair of 302's for the rears that cost a ton but you might pic up a single one on e-bay i then bought the sub seperate Dfour i dont think its worth you shelling out on the prem system then replacing half of it with the 900 series speakers
 
Sorry for the thread hijack!But i have a question for TONS OF FUN.I have the thx system running through a pioneer ax5i amp and am really pleased with the results when watching films,it's a marked improvement over my old denon 3803 but in straight stereo mode it seems to be a bit bass light,have you any experience with this combination?What settings would you recommend?Should i leave the subs switched to THX mode?Any thoughts appreciated.


TIA marc.:smashin:
 
In straight stereo mode, the AX5, like the AX3 (which I own) will KO the sub output which does leave one feeling a bit bass light :). You can either.
1) Switch the Sub output to PLUS in the speaker setup menu. If you are running it in THX the speakers are in small and will need to be set to large. AFAIK all the THX modes are still selectable
2) Run a high level input into the back of each 502- messy I know.

The AX3/5 do seem to be softer in stereo than my previous amps but I took this as an acceptable trade for movie performance- I also have a stereo upstairs :).
 
Thanks TOF for your help,by high level inpu i take it you mean sub cables from the sub output on the amp into the speaker amps?Which i already have,i have selected plus from the OSD and this seems to have done the trick however does this affect the surround settings significantly to the degree that everytime i watch a film i will have set it back to yes in the sub menu?

Regards marc.
 
I meant a speaker cable connection from the Pioneer terminals to the speaker cable terminals on the back of each 502. There's no real load on the amp so even if you're 7 speakers up, it will still work.
As to the PLUS setting affecting films- yes it does. I reset the pioneers sub each time I watch a film- normally during the unskipable FBI warnings :mad:.
 
so three years later i finally got my MS premiere plus package :)

just installed last night.. happy so far.. just need to convince the missus once she comes back from holidays that they were a necessary purchase :)

question re dialog levels - listening to pcm soundtracks from the ps3, i need to have the volume on my receiver fairly high to get a nice volume for dialog.. trouble is when the surrounds and sub kick in i need to quickly turn down the volume to avoid waking the neighbours.. if i up the db on the centre speaker by a couple of db will that solve the problem?

i auto calibrated with the receiver and it set all speakers to small accept the centre and set it at -2db

cheer,
mick
 
Set all speakers to small. Also adjust anything you are not happy with to suit so you can up the dB's on the centre, but set them all to small and try that first. Oh, and tell the Mrs. it was a bargain or give her an amount equal to what it cost for clothes or shoes. ;)
 
should i set the centre to small even though the auto calibration set it to large?

if i want to increase dialog levels is it ok to notch up the centre speaker a couple of db? at the current settings for good dialog levels - the surronds are loud (as they should be) but for my neighbours sake.. i probably cant listen at these levels..

cheers,
mick
 
should i set the centre to small even though the auto calibration set it to large?

if i want to increase dialog levels is it ok to notch up the centre speaker a couple of db? at the current settings for good dialog levels - the surronds are loud (as they should be) but for my neighbours sake.. i probably cant listen at these levels..

cheers,
mick

I have the MS' and I have to crank up the level of the centre too.
 
have you the centre set to small or large in your receiver settings... ?
 

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