Looking for advice on setup....

[saguppy]

I have the following...

Mains- RT800i
Surround- RT600i
Center- CS400i
PSW650 Subwoofer

Yamaha HTR-5460 Receiver
Yamaha CDM-900 110-disc cd changer
Panasonic DVD-CV50 5-disc changer
Panasonic 53" Projection hdtv
Sony RM-AV3000 remote

Right now I have all five speakers wired with the basic monster cable, the dvd and cd player are connected to the receiver and to the tv with basic monster optical/s-video cables, and I am using the sub out on my receiver to connect to my subwoofer. I have read some articles that give suggestions about bi-wiring the 800i's and the cs400i, but I dont know how much improvement I will see or whether or not it is worth the extra $$ right now. I also think that the sub is not connected in the most efficient way... so I am looking for advice. I am going back to school soon... in August, so I am looking for effective (and relatively cheap) improvements to my setup.

Also: I'm looking for an mp3 player to hook up to my stereo in the living room and draw music from my computer in my bedroom without losing any sound quality... thinking about buying the Slimp3 player (www.slimp3.com) which hooks up to my network. Has anyone got one of these or have any other suggestions?

[Tour2ma]

Welcome saguppy, glad you joined in the posting.

Maybe the cheapest improvement you can make is to replace the stock jumpers on your speakers. 1' of speaker wire, MC if that's your preference, will do them all. If you notice/ like the change, you may wish to bi-wire later.

Sub or LFE out is the most common way around here, if folks have that option. We refer to it as "the Club way". Polk advises running the main's wires via the sub. We call that "the Polk way."

Can't comment on your MP3 player. Will say though that with MP3 you already lose sound quaity vs. CD, but if you have a large MP3 library go for it...

With that HDTV, I understand why you are looking for improvements on the cheap-side... :)

[dorokusai]

I agree w/ Tour, replace those jumpers and see if that gives some cheap improvement.

Make sure that if you are able to adjust your LFE output frequency(crossover point) that it is set, on the average, to 80hz. I set mine to 100hz, personally. If set as such, ensure that your frequency adjustment on the sub is all the way up. Your volume may change from source to source, but that frequency adjustment should always be the same.

Maybe pick up some information on the forum thru the search function on Bi-Wire, there is a bunch of good stuff.

Hope this has helped you. Good luck in school.

[saguppy]

Thanks for the advice guys,
I am going to try replacing the jumpers then for sure, and I think I might biwire the center channel at least. As far as adjusting the LFE freq., I am not sure that is a possibility with my receiver. I changed the freq. setting on the sub all the way up to 100 hz. I already notice a difference
Thanks for the help!

[Dr. Spec]

Originally posted by saguppy
I changed the freq. setting on the sub all the way up to 100 hz. I already notice a difference
Thanks for the help!

Ruh Roh - I smell double filtering.

Take over dorokusai/tour2 - my spine hurts. :o

Doc

[Tour2ma]

Gotcha covered Doc...

sagpuppy,
If you are using the AVR's sub-out and its internal cross-over is in play, you want to do zero filtering at the sub. Crank the sub's setting to maximum to avoid double filtering.

I was assuming that you were using the sub's LFE input, but if you are not its filter is in play.

[Dr. Spec]

Just use the LFE (Unfiltered) input on the 650 if you are using the AVR and the sub pre-out.

Doc

[dorokusai]

Yea what he said, I am so used to my own low end sub that I didnt see the unfiltered option he always had. Unfiltered input if you use the AVR is correctamoondo :)