Suitable Amp+speakers with Pioneer DV668AV?

P

porko

Guest
Hey all,

Looks like there are people here that know far more than me about this subject, so here goes: :clown:

I am just about to embark on the Pioneer PDP 434 plasma and the Pioneer DV668AV DVD Player.

Can anyone recommend a good Amplifier and speakers for this setup? To be completely honest I've pretty much blown my budget on the TV and the DVD player, but I understand that it would be a waste if I didnt have a decent sound system to complement them. I would prefer something in the £500-£700 range (total price).

The VSX-AX3 looks nice, but which speakers should I go for with it? As does the VSX-D912, but same again: Which speakers to go for? Will the S-V40 A/V or the SV-50-B A/V Speakers go with these units OK? Or even the SV-310-QL, but wheres the sub-woofer? (speaker link: http://www.hifibitz.co.uk/subcategory.asp?id=20&srchoption=1&manid=25&pagesize=10)

If not a Pioneer unit, then can anyone recommend another manufacturers product?

Yours confused :confused:
Paul
 
i wouldn't recommend pioneer speakers but there amps are well worth considering, For speakers I'd reccomend Elac or kef.
Elac cinema 1 is going for about £300 now and extra speakers are £50 each.
 
These speakers are worth looking at and they include a sub ;
http://www.richersounds.sv01.net/index.php?f=itemdetl.php&p=301710
Within your budget you cant afford the ax3 and any speakers. You must be looking in the £300-£400 price range. If you want 7.1 you can get the Denon 3802 for apporx £400. Its not pretty to look at but it performs well.

As with ALL H/C stuff see if you can get a DEMO FIRST!!
 
I have done the same as you, and just purchased the 668+504

Completeley blowing my budget , so after agreeing with my wife not to get anything other than small surrounds, i went with Mission FS1 6.1 AV being driven by the PIO 501 Receiver 6x 100 watts.

The Missions only arrived on Thursday, so have to still properly run them in for apparently 24 - 100 hours, as according to Mission the NXT panels are coated with ferro fluid, and need to be used before they mellow out

Having a small problem driving these to a reasonable vpolume with the Pio 501 so might have to swap for the more powerful Pio 912.

The Mission are definitely not very good straight out of the box, however after 24 hours they are now much smoother with a relatively tight bass, and a very detailed surround sound.
This could be within your budget, and sound pretty good on AV and CDs
 
Hey guys,

Thanks for all your replies... that's been helpful.

I am considering the MISSION FS2AV which I can get for £300.. (5.1 speaker package).

Are these compatable with the D912 amp? It looks like the speakers plug into the Sub-woofer and I guess there's some connection to the amp from the Sub?

Sorry to sound dumb, but I've been stung with incompatable speakers before and dont want to risk wasting cash (esp. considering how much I've already outlaid). :)


Thanks again everyone,
Paul
 
Think you will find the FS1 is better than the "2".

LEconcepts are doing the 6.1 @ £350 & Electrosaver have the 5.1 @ £299

Hope that helps.

B.;)
 
porko... Sorry to be the voice of negativity, but I do question the amount you are budgeting for speakers...

Let me see; you've got a plasma screen, a £500 DVD player and a reasonable AV receiver - and you are looking at spending only £400 or so on your entire speaker package??? And the Tannoy Fusion doesn't aven have a subwoofer - you will miss out on so much not having one.

I'm sure I wouldn't be the only one to suggest that they'd be the weakest link in your system. May I suggest that you'd consider something in the next league up - KEF KHT 2005.2's, B&W VM1's or MA Radius, or the like?

I do, however, fully appreciate that you may be, by now, on a budget!
 
LOL!!!

I knew this would come up!! :)

I know that you are right, but I have just spent about £5K so I;m finding it hard to buy expensive speakers that I know I probably wont be able to tell the diffference between them or cheaper ones.

Convice me. I'm weak.

:smashin:
 
Originally posted by porko
I probably wont be able to tell the diffference between them or cheaper ones.

Believe me, you will. My budget kept escalating until I struck a balance between musical and AV capability. Oh, and looks; a big factor - see my sig...
 
OK then...I'm up for it...Told you I was weak!


Trouble is: I know so little about AV systems, so choosing the speakers is really difficult. I really dont want to buy something incompat. especially from an online retailer (who seem to have the best prices).

Therefore:

1. Is 6.1 worth it, or should I stick to 5.1? (I noticed the speakers you mention are 5.1) except I couldn't find the MA Radius, so I dont know about them.
2. I see various speakers rated as 4/6/8 Ohms and 100/200 watts etc. Which ones are compatable with the D912? I can just match the speakers up to the spec sheet, i.e. 8 Ohm, 100Watts. But I have a feeling I am not restricted to this?

:suicide:
Paul
 
I learnt a very valuable lesson over the past few months - don't go by fashion or vogue - use your ears and a local specialist. I know that prices can be cheaper online, but I actually felt rather smug knowing that I'd bought an AV receiver, speakers and subwoofer after I'd auditioned them and compared them to others. It was a choice that I'd made, rather than one driven by other influences.

From things I've read here, I don't know if it's (yet) worth worrying too much about 6.1 as there isn't too much media available in this format yet.

I wouldn't worry too much about impedance and power ratings - a decent AV receiver should be able to cope.
 
IMHO 6.1 are beter than 5.1 if you have the room for tthe extra speaker, it just fills in the sound feild more.
The Pioneer can drive all speakers. It will have problems with some speakers and be able to drive others very easily. Dont take to heart the power and ohm ratings. Find some speakes you can afford and like then try to get a demo to see how they sound with the pioneer.
 
You pay for the service in a specialist, they sit you down and account for your every whim and probably give you an extra couple of years without an upgrade cause you choose the right system. Especially with speakers, buying from opinion other than your own is a false economy, as they tend to be very personal taste!
 
OK then everyone... I can feel a trip to my local audiophile shop coming on (B+B HiFi) ......


Thanks again for all of your help and opinions...

I'll update this thread with the end result so you can all flame me ;)

Paul
 
I visited the local audio shop and listened to various speakers.

Well, yeah the difference was amazing....!!

I like the Missions (M33,M31,M3C2) but I also liked the Kef (Q4,Q6,QComp).

The Missions were much better with CD Audio than the Kef's but seeing as the Kef's are mostly to be used for Films (and they are more wife friendly in size) I opted for them instead. I'll be putting a REL Quake sub in there too.

So, lesson learnt... dont be such a tight ass.... ;)

Thanks everyone for all your help... Only 1 problem now.. My Amp has just turned up and my speakers dont get here for over a week!! :(

So... next question...Is 50p/meter OK for speaker cable??
LOL!!! Dont answer that one!! I have some half decent stuff on the way.

Paul
 
Oh yeah... I forgot to say...

I saw the Pio PDP-434HDE in the shop while I was there, connected to a 868AV.. they were playing Finding Nemo on it.... drewll... amazing..I couldnt believe the difference between that and my Sony Wega CRT at home... Just hope my 668AV lives up to a similar standard as the 868AV.
 
Porko,

I have the Pio 504 + 668.and i can assure you that the 668 is an exceptional piece of kit when using HDMI.

You wont be dissapointed, and i doubt if you could see any difference with the 868, especially when connected to either the Pio 434, or 504.

Let me know what you think after hooking up your 668
 
Sure will S2Mike!

I found out on Friday that the Plasma turns up on Monday, thanks to another customers cancellation. :)

The rest of the setup is arriving on the following Saturday though, so I wont be able to 'really' play until then....

I guess I'll hook up the Xbox for some big screen gaming in the meantime :)

Paul
 
Plasma panel is here!! As is the Amp. The DVD player should be here tomorrow and the speakers by the end of the week.

I must say that the 'normal' SKY TV quality is as expected, i.e. not great but watchable. Not yet having my nice spangly DVD player to try yet, I hooked up the Media Center 2004 PC and played the WMV HD videos from: www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia which look stunning at 720P!!! Unfortunately, MY PC cant seem to cope with 1080... The panel is running at 1280x768 so I guess if I play a 1080 video the PC will scale it down to roughly 768(ish) which causes the image and audio to jump really badly. I guess a P4 2.8 cant cope with it :(.. Maybe I need to upgrade the video card from a GeForce 4 MX440, not sure if that will help the quality anyway because of the panel running at 768... any ideas here?

Cheers all.
Paul
 

The latest video from AVForums

Is 4K Blu-ray Worth It?
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Back
Top Bottom