Home Audio Receivers

[Dozy_production]

Hey guys. Im moving into a newer house with a couple of mates of mine. Ill be in a relatively smaller room and thats where i want to have some sound.

Take note that i have no fracking clue where to even start with home audio. Lets say i wouldnt mind having sound for radio, CD, and even perhaps for the computer. Where do i get started?

Does it start with buying a home theatre receiver?

Either related or not when i see the the ratings 100 watts x 5 or 7 or whatever... thats 100 watts a channel at usually 8 ohms okay. I know that much for now. Lets say i wanted to go 'active' have two main bookshelf speakers. (and maybe a central channel.... trying to keep it simple)

How can i divide the power for 4 drivers (2midranges and 2tweeters). Simply putting a driver to each channel? Would i be able to divide power in a single channel to several drivers? ( like 2 or 3 drivers to a channel)

Then, to go active... where do i start to look for crossovers that might already be made or adjustable or what not.


Thanks for taking time to read all this and trying to help. Calling me a noob won't do anything since i know that i am one at this.

[Dozy_production]

I know, no one wants to explain all this but if there is a link to a website that can help me, then it would be aight for that. I really dont want to learn all this information from some one who is a fanboy or thinks he knows what hes doing when in reality he doesnt.

[thylantyr]

i have no fracking clue where to even start with home audio.

You might be able to skip some steps if you know what your 'end game' is
with your audio system. You decribed that you want an active setup. That
is a more complex 'system design'. How complex do you want your sound system?

The generic install is receiver -> speakers.

The receiver can be 2 channel or multi-channel for surround sound.

Then you can build on this generic setup by adding more stuff. CD player, etc.

If the receiver doesn't have enough power to satisfy you, then you may get
the itch to get a dedicated amplifier and only use the preouts on the receiver,
not receiver internal amplification. If you see this upgrade path, make sure
the receiver has preouts as not all do.

You can make a hybrid design. Receiver powers the center and surround
for movies, but you may want your mains {left and right front speakers} to
be beefier in size if you want to get higher SPL mains and run the mains with
it's own 2 channel amp.

If you have simple surrounds and fancy main speakers, or DIY mains, you
can venture into an active setup on the mains {electronic crossover, analog = old school, digital crossover = new school},
you can get four amp channels to drive the mains if your mains are tweeters and midwoofers. If your mains are 3 way {tweeters, mids, woofers},
then make sure your crossover has 3 sets of outputs and you need six amp channels.

You can pretty much do what you want, just figure out what your end game is
and you can save money by not buying stuff you don't need.

Whatever recipe you choose, the subwoofer should be a seperate unit with it's own active crossover and amp,
either seperate amp or plate amp integrated into the box. The receiver output {RCA} connects to the sub amp.
A DIY sub is a good project to tackle.

[joetama]

Thy pretty much answered it there...

[ballstothewall]

Thy pretty much answered it there...

Holy Crap! They agree on something

[joetama]

It happens...

It's pretty hard to disagree on basic information. It is the opinionated stuff that gets hairy...

[ballstothewall]

Opinionated stuff comprises about 95% of audio so yea....

[joetama]

Indeed...

[Dozy_production]

i have no fracking clue where to even start with home audio.

You might be able to skip some steps if you know what your 'end game' is
with your audio system. You decribed that you want an active setup. That
is a more complex 'system design'. How complex do you want your sound system?

The generic install is receiver -> speakers.

The receiver can be 2 channel or multi-channel for surround sound.

Then you can build on this generic setup by adding more stuff. CD player, etc.

If the receiver doesn't have enough power to satisfy you, then you may get
the itch to get a dedicated amplifier and only use the preouts on the receiver,
not receiver internal amplification. If you see this upgrade path, make sure
the receiver has preouts as not all do.

You can make a hybrid design. Receiver powers the center and surround
for movies, but you may want your mains {left and right front speakers} to
be beefier in size if you want to get higher SPL mains and run the mains with
it's own 2 channel amp.

If you have simple surrounds and fancy main speakers, or DIY mains, you
can venture into an active setup on the mains {electronic crossover, analog = old school, digital crossover = new school},
you can get four amp channels to drive the mains if your mains are tweeters and midwoofers. If your mains are 3 way {tweeters, mids, woofers},
then make sure your crossover has 3 sets of outputs and you need six amp channels.

You can pretty much do what you want, just figure out what your end game is
and you can save money by not buying stuff you don't need.

Whatever recipe you choose, the subwoofer should be a seperate unit with it's own active crossover and amp,
either seperate amp or plate amp integrated into the box. The receiver output {RCA} connects to the sub amp.
A DIY sub is a good project to tackle.

Thank you very much. That really gets me some where. As you said, i will probably build two bookshelf enclosures holding woofer and tweeter for the fancy stuff and then 2 more probably for for surround. Both drivers require about 100 watts so i don't think ill be needing separate amplifier for that.


Thanks again. Now its just waiting to pay of some tickets and some more cash and ill be under way.

[mlstrass]

Won't you be putting passive xovers into the speakers you build? You'll won't be dividing channels then, as each speaker will only require one channel. Lots of DIY speaker kits out there: partsexpress, madisound, few others I can't think of at the moment.

Pioneer, Sony, Yamaha, all make decent low budget stuff. Get a 7.1 channel receiver, so you have room to upgrade from 5.1 if you ever decide to.

[Dozy_production]

Won't you be putting passive xovers into the speakers you build? You'll won't be dividing channels then, as each speaker will only require one channel. Lots of DIY speaker kits out there: partsexpress, madisound, few others I can't think of at the moment.

Pioneer, Sony, Yamaha, all make decent low budget stuff. Get a 7.1 channel receiver, so you have room to upgrade from 5.1 if you ever decide to.

I will be putting passives xovers. Im putting some drivers that will kinda go for the wow factor.

[Dozy_production]

Aight guys, i might need some help. I was going to use some nice CDT speakers for some book shelf but hell that got thrown out the door.

Excuse my blatant newbieness but of course its possible to have an mt or mtm going on one channel from receiver power yes? Its all in the xover dividing the power?

I was thinking receiver wise to buy a Yamaha HTR-5930SL. With this receiver is there a proper connection required to be able to wire to the computer and what would the cable be.

And then for speakers i wouldnt mind trying the Partsexpress DIY project "tritrix" . With this project though i have to ask how using (2) 4 ohm mids with (1) 8ohm tweeter got him a final load of 8 ohms?


thanks with your patience. Ive been doing a lot of reading online with certain things and im fairly sure i have capable skills in building my own crossover. I can get help from a Marine who use to build his own systems for tractors he was driving in Iraq But im asking these questions to fill in the knowledge gaps.

[Dozy_production]

que?