Have I Lost My Mind?

[venomclan]

Dear Fellow Polk Enthusiaists,
I love my Polks. I have been a Polk fan for about 8 years now. Since that time I have been putting together my system, mixing and matching the best I could afford at the time, with what was available. My current system is as follows:
Mains: RT16
Center: CS350
Surround: LS/FX
Sub: PSW150

Receiver: Onkyo THX828 (Pre-amp)
Amp: H/K PA5800
Wire: 16GA Monster All Around

Last night I went to my girlfriends to hook up a small 2 channel system in her apartment so that she could listen to music and play DVD's at least in stereo (upgrade from TV speaker only).

Her father had given her an old Fisher stereo Receiver from the early 1980's that he was not using anymore but still worked. So all we had to do is get a pair of speakers to complete the system. I went to the electronics store near me (Unfortuantly they no longer carry Polk) and saw a small Jensen bookshelf speaker on sale for $18 each. Now for me, I would never even consider a speaker like this, but I thought that if they sounded bad at home I can always return them. So at $40 out the door I was on my way.

I then hooked them up to the Fisher, always thinking in my mind that I hope they dont sound that bad.

What then occured amazed me, I put in the latest Coldplay CD (awesome Piano and accoustic Guitar samples) and the sound was clean, deep, accurate. Deep Bass was not totally there, but with a 5 1/2", I wasent expecting to rock the foundation.

We then proceded to listen to more tracks and changed the CD to Evanescence. The same clean sound eminated. I could not figure out why these sounded so good. I am not sure of the power the Fisher puts out but it was Good sound.

So I was then left pondering, the thousands of $ spent on my system, the time invested searching for every last tweak on the planet. This Jensen/Fisher system system I would say sounded at least 70% as good as mine in stereo. Am I crazy? Maybe it was the environment? She has carpet compared to Pergo in my place.

And I ask you, has any of you ever looked down upon a system at first, surprized later to find it wasent that bad?
I seek all opinions and advise.

Best Regards,
Jeremy

[scottvamp]

That old Fisher amp you have - probably has some very solid clean power. It may even some type of tubes. In saying that using a "modern day" new speaker- (even though it's a Jenson)
YA - you may have a clean low power stereo setup. It may sound really good. Sometimes it is amazing what you can put together at a low budget. Don't trip too much - Enjoy!!!

[GZ]

And I bet that old Fisher receiver will pick up FM stations alot better than most newer HT receivers.

[Zero]

Quite a bit of older gear possess much more powerfull and cleaner amplifcation by contrast to todays standard recievers. Anymore, it seems aquiring high quality amped recievers will cost you an arm and a leg.

I have come across quite a bit of low-budget gear that far exceeded my expectations. The KLH 15'' sub would be a great case-in-point. MSRP'd at $250.00, it seems to be the only sub in that price range that can actually come close to, if not reach, sub-sonic frequencies. With some toying around with the crossover and placement, it can also become musical to boost.

These days, I have noticed that most speakers produce great sound for the money. Many of them seem to be worth their weight in gold. Now its simply a matter of the sources, as I notice they tend to lack dynamic qualities.

All in good fun (until you loose thousands.....heh).

Sean

[RuSsMaN]

Yeah, what they said.

What model Fish is it?

[dave shepard]

Well I'll probabley be flamed for this, but my father in-law had a birthday the other day and for a gift my brother in-law wanted to get him a surround system but being on a very tight budget he couldn't afford anything near mine so asked if we would go in halfers with him and buy him one as a togther gift. We said yes and he choose a Wal-Mart $90+tax Apex system with reciever (am-fm,dvd,dvd-audio,mp3,cd,cd-r/rw and dts decoder) 5 prewired cube speakers and sub. I must say that when I seen what we bought I thought what a wast of money and this couldn't poss. sound good at all. The room is 10x16 and when we hooked it up we played XXX and my wife and I were amazed at the sound that this very cheep system put out while it didn't sound as deep as mine the sound was very acceptable and bieng a 5.1 the seperation was good everybody was very pleased and now they too can enjoy surround sound. I must say that I will no longer laugh at those very cheep systems until I hear it first.

Dave