Under-Appreciated Audio

I’m feeling the need to express my feelings for the under-appreciated audio components used in our home theater. This would mostly mean the speakers (which I will get to later), but credit is also deserved for our receiver, a Pioneer VSX-815S.

For the price (we got ours a grand total of $255), I don’t think you can find any better unless you already have the necessary equipment to accurately set up the EQ / crossover / time-alignment for your system. I didn’t have anything but my own ears, and I didn’t want to leave it to them alone if some certain persons of small stature were to inadvertently press the wrong buttons. I won’t go on much longer about the receiver, as it has already gotten much credit and has a bit of a following in the Bang-For-The-Buck camp. Let’s just say that it is Very Flexible, with assignable component video and digital audio inputs, and line outputs to mirror each amplified speaker output. Add decent power output and choice of manual or automatic calibration, and this is an amazing deal. Really. If you don’t have a home theater receiver, or (like me) have an older model with no digital audio capabilities, this is a great way to get your foot in the door. One misnomer I have read a number of times is that this receiver comes with a learning remote control. It doesn’t. It does have a preprogrammed remote which can be set up to control a variety of components. I’ll tell you right now that I don’t enjoy using it. It provides access to virtually every function possible, but that also complicates it beyond my desire to hold it in my hand. Get a good aftermarket universal remote for everyday use. Because I’m cheap, I have to recommend a UEI (One-For-All & Radio Shack) non-kameleon model. To get an idea of what these remotes can do, run on over to www.hifi-remote.com.

On to the speakers! While our home theater speakers don’t have some remarkable pedigree, they perform wonderfully well for our living room layout. We have a mix of speakers from Pioneer and KLH.

The Pioneer XW-HT1 wireless speaker system is a nice little package consisting of a processor/transmitter and an amplifier/speaker cabinet. The processor features Circle Surround from SRS, and has 3 modes for each of its two inputs. I leave ours on all the time, set to Wide Stereo, and feed it the line outputs from the back surround channels of our receiver. It also has a subwoofer output which can be used if you need more low frequency response. Audibly speaking, this system isn’t much by itself, but I’m lazy enough about running speaker wires that this was worth it, especially when our receiver has the required line outputs. This system is more ideally suited for folks with just a TV and DVD player, as its processing can be used to generate rear-channel information all by itself. The one fun bit about using these speakers is that, like so many other consumer electronics, it uses the 2.4GHz band. Thus it is possible to produce audible effects from the speakers by way of interference. It was fun to juggle frequencies to get our cordless phones, wireless network, and wireless speakers to all get along without stepping on each other’s toes. It’s more fun when my neighbors also have wireless devices. A few months back we started hearing some strange clicks coming from the speakers and found that somebody had set up a network access point using a conflicting frequency. Don’t tell anyone, but I checked out their setup from my laptop and found that they hadn’t enabled any encryption or security settings on their system, nor had they changed the default factory password. I took it upon myself to change the channel they were using to something less obvious to my speakers. I don’t think they will know or care.

Our main speakers are a set of KLH MP06HTs. KLH does not go out of their way to advertise themselves, but they have quite a following, and are known for producing high-quality products. This set literally came with everything you need: Subwoofer, five matched speakers, wires, mounting brackets, and wall hardware. Right now we are only using 3 of the 5 sats, but it is comforting to know that our 7.1 channel receiver is ready to make use of the two spare speaker should we so desire to use them. While these speakers can be had for a very low price, don’t be fooled. They are very well constructed and have gold-plated 5-way binding posts that can accept huge wires.

All of these components work very well together and should easily meet the requirements of most budgets. I still consider myself lucky to have found them all, and then to have found great deals when purchasing them. They look great and, more importantly, sound phenomenal. Everyone has their favorites, but if you are in the market you really should check them out!