Please help a speaker newbie!

[admin_exported]

Hi. I'm wanting some questions answered about speakers. I've not gone too far into audio stuff as I'm more into HD movies and games, but I'm about to upgrade my gear and wanted to know a couple of things.....

1) What the heck does biwiring/biwireable mean? (hope I've spelled that right)

2) Do the speakers always have to be higher powered than the amp?

3) If I'm using the 5.1 setup of a particular brand of speakers (I'm looking at the Q Acoustics 1010i's) and a cinema amp (Denon AVR-1910), will this sound as good as a dedicated stereo amp and two speakers? (My primitive ears may not be sensitive enough to tell any major difference.)

4) When I order lengths of speaker cable (looking at QED Silver anniversary XT or XT Evolution), do they come with connections already connected and do all speakers have the same connection? Sorry I'm so ignorant on this subject, but it's just not something I've got into yet.

Any help/advice will be appreciated - please go easy on me!

 

[davejberry]

Bi wireable speakers have seperate terminals for the different drive units. This allows the running of individual cables from the amplifier for the bass and treble signals. many people believe that this can improve the sound. ( i am one of them)

Search 'biwiring' for numerous explanations and opinions.

No the speakers dont have to be rated higher than the amp. (obviously you wouldn't normally partner 30watt speakers with a 250watt amp). Damage can result from running an underpowered amp at full volume into big speakers because of the distortion that can be produced.

A lot of people suggest that an AV amp and speakers will not sound as good as a dedicated stereo set-up. I think it depends on the kit and money spent. My advice is try it and see. If your AV system plays music in a way you like why incur extra expense but, each to their own, there will be others who insist you must run a seperate hi fi set up if you are serious about music.

Most if not all hi fi speakers come with binding post terminals, many of which also include the ability to accept banana plugs.I don't know about your choice of speaker wire, others on here can better advise you when partnering it with the amp and speakers you are suggesting. I just use good old QED 79 strand without terminations and am extremely pleased with the results.

 

[Anonymous]

that choice of AV amp and surround speakers look well suited, you will love watching movies with the sound it will produce!

As far as connections go you can either use bannana plugs or just terminate the bare wire onto the pillars. If you use banana plugs make sure they are good quality ones otherwise you will just make the connection worse than using bare wire connections.

I used Chord Carnival Silverscreen with Chord banana plugs to connect my Yamaha amp and Kef surrounds and the souds is awesome for the money!! The Silverscreens are chunky cables though, so as long as you have a good place to hide them or you are not bothered about seeing the cables then they are well worth a look!

 

[matthewpiano]

I think it depends where the balance of use is going to be. If you are going to be listening to huge amounts of music then a stereo amp and two speakers is the way to go. However,if the music is more of a side-line to films and games then I think you could be very happy with the home cinema amp. Depending on your budget the Sony STR-DA5400ES would provide superb quality across all three uses. At a cheaper price the new STR-DH810 (or an end-of-line STR-DH800) would do an extremely competent job, particularly if you could afford to partner if with something like the B&W 685 package, which is absolutely superb.

With cinema amps you should also look at Denon, Yamaha and Onkyo. I particularly like Yamaha's AV amps which tend to be extremely musical.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks, guys. I feel slightly better about the whole speaker thing, now. Since posting my original questions, I've changed my mind about the speakers. I'm now fancying the Kef 2005.3 K1 setup. I've liked the look of them since I saw them a while back, but thought they were a bit too expensive for my room/setup, but have since come to realise that if I'm going to own them for however-many-years, I'd have to love the look of them instead of just putting up with the ones I could easily afford. Thanks again.

 

[Anonymous]

Not quite my cup of tea but the KEF KHT2005.3 K1 speaker system at £600 has gathered some good reviews.

 

[Anonymous]

davejberry:
Bi wireable speakers have seperate terminals for the different drive units. This allows the running of individual cables from the amplifier for the bass and treble signals. many people believe that this can improve the sound. ( i am one of them)

Search 'biwiring' for numerous explanations and opinions.

No the speakers dont have to be rated higher than the amp. (obviously you wouldn't normally partner 30watt speakers with a 250watt amp). Damage can result from running an underpowered amp at full volume into big speakers because of the distortion that can be produced.

A lot of people suggest that an AV amp and speakers will not sound as good as a dedicated stereo set-up. I think it depends on the kit and money spent. My advice is try it and see. If your AV system plays music in a way you like why incur extra expense but, each to their own, there will be others who insist you must run a seperate hi fi set up if you are serious about music.
Most if not all hi fi speakers come with binding post terminals, many of which also include the ability to accept banana plugs.I don't know about your choice of speaker wire, others on here can better advise you when partnering it with the amp and speakers you are suggesting. I just use good old QED 79 strand without terminations and am extremely pleased with the results.

Nice post, well said.