Confused...floor standing vs bookshelf

[Deleted member 38504]

Hi guys,

I live in chennai temporarily. I am looking for a set of speakers and a av receiver for my living room which measures about 16' X 20'. My budget for the av receiver is about 25-30k and so is the budget for the speakers.

I went to a few places yesterday. Here is my detailed visit.

1. The audio people T nagar.

Monitor Audio MR4 for 33000
pioneer vsx amp 28000
marantz 33000
denon 27500

2.Decibel close to cenotaph road.
Raghu there was great to talk to.Nice guy for sure. Very helpful and informative.
Floor standing were out of my budget.
Saw Q acoustics bookshelf for about 18000.

3. Pro FX Annai Salai

Polk Audio TSX330T for 27000.
Mr James very helpful and informative.

4.Vipul Audio at Kilpauk.
Mr Praveen super nice guy! Showed me lots of stuff!
Yamaha 8390 for 19500
Yamaha NSF140 22000
Yamaha NSF150 25000

Yamaha RXV AV receiver for 30800.

DALI Zensor 3 bookshelf (he didnt have stock) but he said they wud blow my mind. they were for 29000.

Till now my mind was made up on floorstanding speakers.

Now im confused. maybe i dont need floorstanding. Just a good pair of bookshelf speakers.

For bookshelf my option wud ne the Qacoustics from Decibel with a subwoofer like pioneer (about 11000) or spend a big deal more and get the DALI Zensor 3.

Or get the floorstanding?

I listen to all kinds of music from latin to hiphop to lil bit of EDM and soft rock. NO classical or Jazz.

And i wanna watch movies that i download from the net.

Please help me guys!

Thanks!

 

[rajudhs]

Go for Dali zensor 3 or wharfedales

 

[Deleted member 38504]

Hi raju,

Thanks for the prompt reply....please can u elaborate as to why i shud get the bookshelves? Are the DALI really that good?

And Wharfdale.....any specific model?

 

[Sawyer]

Till now my mind was made up on floorstanding speakers.

Now im confused. maybe i dont need floorstanding. Just a good pair of bookshelf speakers.

Other things being equal, you will get a better quality stand mounted speaker than a floor stander for the same price. With the latter, you are paying for expensive cabinetry and the manufacturer's mark up on that.
And for the technology/equipment to deal with all the additional air in that extra space.
Stands also just need to be a safe and stable space to keep the speakers, of the height needed to have the tweeters at your listening position ear height. Nothing fancier is needed, unless for aesthetic reasons.
Bottom line - if you find a stand mounter, and you like its sound for the music you like, don't lose sleep over it not being a floor stander.

 

[Deleted member 38504]

Thanks Sawyer..... so ur definately saying get the bookshelves..... hmmmm ok thank u.

Can u now throw any light on the DALI Zensor 3 / the wharfdale (no model) and the Q Acoustics??

Thank you so much!

 

[elangoas]

Are you looking for an AVR and use it in 2.0/2.1 mode ? (or) you planning for a full fledged 5.1 system ?

 

[Sawyer]

Can u now throw any light on the DALI Zensor 3 / the wharfdale (no model) and the Q Acoustics??

Sorry, I can't do that. There are so many variables at play in speakers, and the liking of the way it sounds is so subjective that I never recommend specific speakers.
What I can say is listen to the one you like, with the music you like for an extended session to make sure you still like it. Speakers that sound exciting at first, can end up being fatiguing after some time.
As I said, I can only give general guidance - today there are many good speakers out there.

 

[Deleted member 38504]

elengoas..... when u say 5.1 u mean will i be connecting more speakers at a later stage? Then the answer is no..... i am happy with two speakers and a subwoofer IF i am getting the bookshelves and they demand it.
Sorry Im not really that well versed of technical......

Sawyer..... ur just being mean nowmate I need guidance from u guys thats why im writing here..... u guys know ur stuff hence im asking for names..... its really difficult for someone like me.....

 

[Sawyer]

Sawyer..... ur just being mean nowmate I need guidance from u guys thats why im writing here..... u guys know ur stuff hence im asking for names..... its really difficult for someone like me.....

Don't worry, lots of others here will give you names.
Why are you looking for an AVR? For 2 speakers, a stereo amp will be more VFM.

 

[Deleted member 38504]

Sawyer....point is.... lots of others havent replied.... YOU my friend....HAVE..... so! come on help an idiot out will u please?

A stereo amp will have a USB slot to put my pendrive in right? And i wanna watch movies too.... hence.... or does a stereo amp play movies too? Sorry....im a lil doh....

 

[Sawyer]

Sawyer....point is.... lots of others havent replied.... YOU my friend....HAVE..... so! come on help an idiot out will u please?

A stereo amp will have a USB slot to put my pendrive in right? And i wanna watch movies too.... hence.... or does a stereo amp play movies too? Sorry....im a lil doh....

Read the entire thread below:
http://www.hifivision.com/what-should-i-buy/51819-essentials-getting-yourself-good-music-home.html
I have invested a lot of time and effort in it.
After that if you still have questions, I will be happy to answer.

 

[balajeem]

Stereo amp with USB slot to play from pendrive - yes some models have that can support only songs format such as mp3 for example. can't play movies though..

I do have QAcoustics 2020 - those are very nice speakers with wide sound stage, really good one for music , I don't have rear speakers in 5.1 setup , rather mine consists of Left, right , centre and sub.
I don't want to run wires to the rear, hence never thought of including 2 more speakers for the rear for the movie experience.

 

[Deleted member 38504]

Sawyer...thanks buddy i, reading and trying to understand as much as i can..... 90% is going way over my head though......

Balajeem.... stereo amp with usb will ONLY play music..... I need it to play music and movies.....hence i guess i need a AV receiver right??

 

[rajagopal_j]

If you are just going to have 2 speakers for your movie watching as well, then all you need is a stereo amp and 2 speakers of course.

You can get some really good deals on old stereo amps here in Chennai. You can get some real beauties for < 10k.

Most amplifiers 2 channel or more will definitely take atleast 4 inputs (Phono, CD, Tuner & Aux). You should be able to plug in an off the shelf DVD player to play your DVD and CDs. Most of these players will come with an usb option which can take a pendrive/external hdd.

 

[asliarun]

Sawyer...thanks buddy i, reading and trying to understand as much as i can..... 90% is going way over my head though......

Balajeem.... stereo amp with usb will ONLY play music..... I need it to play music and movies.....hence i guess i need a AV receiver right??

What do you mean by play movies? To my knowledge, an avr does not play anything. You will have to have a DVD, blu ray, or a streaming media player to play movies.

What prevents you from attaching your blu ray or streaming media player directly to your TV via HDMI? And almost all these devices allow you to plug in a USB drive nowadays. Heck, most TVs have USB support nowadays.

 

[balajeem]

Hi,

You need to be clear on what's your need :

1. Movies with 5.1 experience - you need AVR

2. Music - 2 channel or 2.1 - if you want just 2 channel experience, a stereo amp would do. if you want a subwoofer also you can go for that with some stereoamps that may have preouts to connect a sub.

Source here would generally be a CD/DVD player or a bluray player. DAC would be of the one in those source. Amp is only for amplification. you will connect using the RCA, digital outs could be there in the source, however if the stereo amp doesn't have a DAC , then you can't take digital out from source and feed the stereo amp. Alternatively, if you have a good DAC, you could take digital out from CD/DVD player, feed to DAC and then take the analog out to stereo amp

3. Stereo amp with USB to play ipods/iphones , pendrives - this plays only music and not music. They would have DACs in them already.

Hence if you have a CD/DVD player and would want to connect using (3) method above, depending on the quality of DAC , you can decide if you want to feed analog to amp (source in cd/dvd player does the conversion) or digital to amp ( dac in stereo amp does the conversion)

 

[balajeem]

just to add , for (1) i.e. 5.1 experience also you need a source - cd/dvd player or bluray,media players, etc.

 

[Deleted member 38504]

Hi guys thanks so much about all the info! Sorry was away from home two days

Ok now....I will add floorstanding and a sub later for sure.... hence i definitely need a 5.1 amp right? something like the pioneer VSX523 right? Or marantz or yamaha..... brand to be decided later

These amps have a USB. That means i dont need a cd/dvd player for movies right? Just hook it up to my TV and viola!!!

Im really confused...

 

[Arjun4]

Hi guys thanks so much about all the info! Sorry was away from home two days

Ok now....I will add floorstanding and a sub later for sure.... hence i definitely need a 5.1 amp right? something like the pioneer VSX523 right? Or marantz or yamaha..... brand to be decided later

These amps have a USB. That means i dont need a cd/dvd player for movies right? Just hook it up to my TV and viola!!!

Im really confused...

The amp USB is meant for the audio files but for Movies you must have a cd/dvd player or bluray,media players, etc.

 

[Deleted member 38504]

arjun! Thank u so much! That has cleared my doubt!

I see u are into the Dali.....can u please recommend me how the Dali zensor 3 are?