Advice sought from the Gurus

rg666

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Oct 26, 2009
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New Delhi
Let me start off by giving out the background info

My bedrooms size is 13 x 10 ft

Present Rig:
Amp Sony TA AV490 (nearly 20 years old, I think)
Sub Woofer Polk Audio PSW 110 (connected to the Surround output on the Amp it does not have a pre-out)
Primary Speakers Bose Acoustimass 5 Series III
(had initially connected them through the Sub, which was connected to the main A speaker output on the amp, but later disconnected for fear that this threading may violate warranties)
DVD Player/s Philips DVP 5100K (a few years old, now getting fussy about reading certain discs) augmented by a cheap Chinese USB/DivX DVD player. Use these to play audio CDs too.
Others Wii, Pioneer Laserdisc player, Akai GX M10 Cassette Deck.
Telly LG 32LC2R (720p output)
Audio / Video play ratio 70% : 30% (like to have music playing in my room whenever Im home, but cannot crank it to 11 coz I live in an apartment)
Musical preference Jazz, Classic/Prog Rock, Western Classical

Thinking of upgrading my telly to a 40 Sony (1080p), getting a PS3 to play games and Blu-Rays, and replacing the DVD players with the Sony DVP-NS728HP/B up-scaling DVD player (if it is region-free).

I also need to replace the aging amp, so my questions are

01. Should I go in for an Integrated Amp (with a pre-out) or should I bust some more bucks on a 5.1 AV receiver?​

Important consideration #1 Im TOTALLY deaf in one ear. :sad:
But quite a few of my DVDs are live performances that only come in a Dolby/DTS 5.1 mix (no PCM 2.0 stereo) so I fear Im missing out on tons of shit.
02. If I go in for an AV receiver, should I buy the Bose 161s for my rears and Bose VCS10 for my centre, or should I mix and match with surround/centres from others like Yamaha, Polk or Cambridge? Is it better to blend, or stick with one kind of sound?​

Important point #2 - I generally like the Bose AM5s sound, but find it lacking in the lower frequencies (which led to my procurement of the PSW110). Although the lack of bass on the 161s shouldnt be a problem.

03. If I do go in for an AV receiver, should I bust even more bucks for one that has video upscaling, or is that better handled by the DVD player / telly?​

Would be hugely grateful of the Gurus could enlighten me.

Oh and one more thing. Since the Bose centre / rears are near about 11K each, my budget for an Amp/AV recevier would be around 30 K. Maybe a bit less.

Cheers,

RG
 
"had initially connected them through the Sub, which was connected to the main A speaker output on the amp, but later disconnected for fear that this threading may violate warranties"
Wait...what? Can you please explain this connection scheme in more detail? I suspect this may have a lot to do with the sound quality you're currently hearing.

"connected to the Surround output on the Amp it does not have a pre-out"
Again...what? same comments as above.
 
"had initially connected them through the Sub, which was connected to the main A speaker output on the amp, but later disconnected for fear that this threading may violate warranties"
Wait...what? Can you please explain this connection scheme in more detail? I suspect this may have a lot to do with the sound quality you're currently hearing.

"connected to the Surround output on the Amp it does not have a pre-out"
Again...what? same comments as above.

Hey, thanks for the quick reply.

Sorry if the connections were not clear. Let me try and explain.

The old Sony amp I have doesn't have a dedicated sub or preamp output. But it has outputs for A & B (main speakers) and for 2 surrounds. So I initially connected the Polk sub to the main speaker output of the amp and connected the Bose AM5 to the "speaker out" on the sub. So it was Amp, to Sub, to AM5, with the latter two always playing simultaneously.

Later, I connected the AM5 to the main speaker output on the amp and connected the sub to the surround output on the amp. This way, when I want to add some more "thud" to the music I'm listening to, I just enable the "surround mode" on the amp so that the sub kicks in.

The impedance and wattage are fine - there's no mismatch there.

I know Bose is a much maligned word in the realms of the www, but I just happen to like their overall sound and "spread" (for want of a better term). As I mentioned earlier, I have zilch hearing in one ear, so pinpoint accuracy in terms of channel separation and "sweet-spots" are something I am oblivious to. I don't know how many hearing impaired folks are members of this forum, but I'd sure like to hear about their HT/HiFi experiences and preferences.
 
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