New stereo day!

After years of investing time and money into guitar-related gear I realized that although I had more gear than Jimi Hendrix, I was still listening to music through crappy TV or (even worse) laptop speakers. So I did a little research and bought a stereo system consisting of Monitor Audio BX5 floorstander speakers and Yamaha RX-V375 receiver.

ma_bx5_walnut

It’s been 2-3 weeks since buying them and first impressions are settled. I love the new system! Speakers are just awesome. Great build quality, attention to detail, and of course sound. Has plenty of bass, so ground will shake when watching the movie. But it’s still not overbearing, so vocals and instruments are crystal clear. And they look fantastic, even better without the grills installed.

yamaha375

As far as the receiver goes, it’s good enough for what I need. Didn’t compare it with more expensive models, but I can’t find any flaws in the sound. More expensive models up to twice the price of the V375 only offer more features (LAN, 3D, more channels) that I don’t need, so paying more for them didn’t make sense. I hooked it up with Samsung smart TV, which I use as a hub for all multimedia sources and one HDMI cable takes the audio and remote signals to Yamaha and picture back to the TV. Very elegant.

Comments
2 Responses to “New stereo day!”
  1. Spud says:

    Hey Bane!

    The one big thing you’re going to notice with your new setup is that the MP3 format will be revealed for what it is: shit. It’s a very compromised format that was developed for creating audio on computers but it’s been perpetuated by Apple as a music reproduction format. What you’ll hear with your new setup when playing MP3 is significant loss in fidelity and distortion galore – esp when you turn it up loud! You’ll be back to CD’s in no time. To me that’s where the weakness of MP3 is revealed, not with those mini ear buds, when you crank it up on the high fidelity speakers you will hear all the compromises.

    My stereo setup is super old – I bought it “back in the day” (80s/90s) when I had money to blow on stuff like cool cars, guitars and stereo stuff -before the wife and kids 😉 I have some good stuff, not super high end but decent. A Yamaha A-1000 Receiver – just stereo, not even Dolby ProLogic.(5.1). Just 2.0! Well, I guess 2.1 (with a sub-woofer)! I have a low end Nakamichi cassette deck – yes I still have one of those. a recent model Sony 5 disk carrousel CD player., a pair of B&W 600i speakers. A Yamaha sub-woofer. Oh, I did buy a Pioneer Dolby Pro-logic home theater receiver around 95/96 but it’s first generation so it only does 5.1 – it sounds pretty good and with the pro-logic, movies are fun. Mostly I’m the one that listens to it – it’s in my basement and my wife doesn’t like it – she calls it my grandpa stereo because it’s big and to her, complicated – takes up an entire “rack” of gear”) – but it still sounds great, esp when you crank it up loud!

    Jim

Leave A Comment

  • About

    The idea behind this site is to share my experience with Do It Yourself approach to guitars, amplifiers and pedals. Whether you want to save a couple of bucks by performing a mod or upgrade yourself instead of paying a tech, or want to build your own piece of gear from scratch, I'm sure you will find something interesting here. Also, this is the home of DIY Layout Creator, a free piece of software for drawing circuit layouts and schematics, written with DIY enthusiasts in mind.