Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Gear: I need new speakers!

Here's what my stereo looked like when I was a junior in college (pretty decent for a 1999 college student):
  • Amp: Denon AVR-65 (Dolby Digital, 5 x 70W amps)
  • Fronts: Technics whatevers (junkers w/ 12" drivers)
  • Center: Infinity CC-1
  • Rears: Infinity RS-2000 (6.5" drivers)
  • Subwoofer: Infinity BU-120 (12" driver, 150W amp)
Here's what my stereo looked like a year ago:
  • Amp: Denon AVR-65
  • Fronts: Technics whatevers
  • Center: Infinity CC-1
  • Rears: none (a casualty of marriage -- the RS-2000's ended up in my brother's closet)
  • Subwoofer: none (the BU-120's amp is a notorious piece of junk and despite my best efforts to keep it going over the years by replacing blown capacitors, it finally died)
About 2 months ago I decided I was sick of the sound quality and ridiculous size of the Technics speakers and decided to revive the RS-2000's from my brother. They're old (an internet search reveals they were produced between 1986 and 1989) and the surrounds were completely shot, but I figured they still had some life left in them. I looked around town briefly to find a shop that replaces surrounds before I discovered an ebay store that sells very detailed and reasonably priced do-it-yourself refoaming kits (right up my alley). Had I started this blog back then, I could have shown you the process. It's actually pretty easy! Alas, DIG-B was not yet born. (If anybody's curious about the process, drop me a line in the comments.)

So, with the RS-2000's back in business my stereo looked like this:
  • Amp: Denon AVR-65
  • Fronts: Infinity RS-2000
  • Center: Infinity CC-1
The Infinity RS-2000's are nice little speakers but, not surprisingly, they completely lack the low-end punch that the Technics + BU-120 combo could muster (great for college parties!). However, they do a much better job with mid-range and high-end frequencies than the Technics. They're so good, in fact, that they've exposed how terrible the CC-1 center is. Voices are tinny and distorted. Over the weekend, I turned it off. My once proud Dolby Digital Surround Sound setup has been reduced to this:
  • Amp: Denon AVR-65
  • Fronts: Infinity RS-2000
I'm starting to feel like Gene Hackman in Hoosiers. I've broken the boys down, now it's time to start building 'em back up! I think it'll be a while before I add rears back to the system (most likely once we move into a house) and when I do, I'll probably buy new fronts and move the RS-2000's to the rear. But does anybody have suggestions for a center channel speaker or 10" subwoofer? Or good audiophile places to shop in town? I haven't been in the market for audio equipment since I moved to Indy, so I'm completely clueless. I'm probably not in the market for new audiophile-level equipment, but you never know what kind of used stuff you can come across at those places. Any help would be very much appreciated!

1 comment:

osxdude said...

You should have used the speakers included with the system, they are great. I do, however, not prefer the included subwoofer. It's ok, but I like my crossover adjustment.