Hello to my GE brothers/sisters. I Have begun my home theater and 2 channel listening project with the Triton 5's and the XL supercenter, and a SVS XB13 , and Onkyo TX NR818. Of course I need to graduate into a much better receiver and add an external amp or even better choice of going Pre/Pro? As I am still a novice I have next to zero knowledge of higher end gear. I have done extensive online research of Anthem, Nad, Integra AVR's. Parasound, Outlaw, Emotiva Amps, Emo or Marantz pre/pro and a few others in each category. Not having an understanding of much of the numbers and terminology in reviews and specs I am still kind of lost. Furthering my confusion is there are always at least a few people that have negative reviews and complaints about products that 80-90% of others that ABSOLUTELY rave about. My first thought was just to go with one of the new Pioneer Elite receivers, sc-95, 97, or 99 and an Emotiva XPA-5 (I will either be adding a 2nd pair of Triton 5's or Sat's for rears) and just call it a day. But before doing that I thought I would reach out to the community here for recommendations. Pertinent info would be, I have about 3K (otherwise I am just a poor security officer, and this will be my Christmas bonus lol) to spend and I also would like to upgrade my BDP. currently using an older pioneer elite model. my listening preferences are about 70% movies and 30% music. I definitely wouldn't qualify as an audiophile, I am just hoping for loud but clean music playback, movies that sound visceral and impactful. One last note, when I was younger and lived with my adopted family early 80's. My sister had a Marantz stereo, and I thought it sounded absolutely incredible, but through reading up on their current products they have fallen out of favor? I very much look forward in knowing what the people here that have infinite more knowledge than I do have to suggest. thanks in advance, Rick P.S I also need advice on adequate cables, right now I'm just using the ones my local Hi-fi store where I bought my triton's included with my purchase, and I am sure they are sub standard quality.

bambam841 wrote: Hello to my GE brothers/sisters. I Have begun my home theater and 2 channel listening project with the Triton 5's and the XL supercenter, and a SVS XB13 , and Onkyo TX NR818. Of course I need to graduate into a much better receiver and add an external amp or even better choice of going Pre/Pro? As I am still a novice I have next to zero knowledge of higher end gear. I have done extensive online research of Anthem, Nad, Integra AVR's. Parasound, Outlaw, Emotiva Amps, Emo or Marantz pre/pro and a few others in each category. Not having an understanding of much of the numbers and terminology in reviews and specs I am still kind of lost. Furthering my confusion is there are always at least a few people that have negative reviews and complaints about products that 80-90% of others that ABSOLUTELY rave about. My first thought was just to go with one of the new Pioneer Elite receivers, sc-95, 97, or 99 and an Emotiva XPA-5 (I will either be adding a 2nd pair of Triton 5's or Sat's for rears) and just call it a day. But before doing that I thought I would reach out to the community here for recommendations. Pertinent info would be, I have about 3K (otherwise I am just a poor security officer, and this will be my Christmas bonus lol) to spend and I also would like to upgrade my BDP. currently using an older pioneer elite model. my listening preferences are about 70% movies and 30% music. I definitely wouldn't qualify as an audiophile, I am just hoping for loud but clean music playback, movies that sound visceral and impactful. One last note, when I was younger and lived with my adopted family early 80's. My sister had a Marantz stereo, and I thought it sounded absolutely incredible, but through reading up on their current products they have fallen out of favor? I very much look forward in knowing what the people here that have infinite more knowledge than I do have to suggest. thanks in advance, Rick P.S I also need advice on adequate cables, right now I'm just using the ones my local Hi-fi store where I bought my triton's included with my purchase, and I am sure they are sub standard quality.

Hi, bambam841

Welcome to the forum!!!

You'll find lots of people here wanting to help, without judgement, plus the Moderator Dude, who keeps us all on a level playing field. Yes, I love this forum!

Not sure which Rick you are looking for some advice from. My own advice, based on my experience: first, get the speakers you want. Only they can play quality music whatever you send, through whatever amps/interconnects/cables you change to later. You have chosen great speakers in the T5's and the SCXL! So, you're off to a great start. Congratulations!

Re Marantz, I just changed over to a Marantz AVR, and find the same sound qualities you liked so much on your sister's Marantz. There are lots of pre-amps, amps, AVR's that you can choose from in the $3k range. If you have a dealer near you, I suggest auditioning some options and see what fits your listening preferences.

Re speaker cables.... lots of opinions here. I ended up with ULTRA copper cables from Signal Cable, but there are lots of options, and others will chime in here, I suspect, with more experience on this subject. I think most folks would recommend getting moderatelu priced cables that deliver 90+% of the sound quality you would get from more expensive options.

You have great speakers! IMHO don't be in too much of a hurry to change everything else all at once. Enjoy the great sound, get to know your new speakers and how they sound, and give yourself the luxury of changing things a little at a time, auditioning one or two new things at a time. Let your ears tell you what you like!! It's taken me two years to "grow" my system, and I don't think it would have worked as well if I had tried to figure it all out at once. I had to listen, get to know each change, decide if it made a difference in a direction I liked. The one constant has been GEt speakers. They LOVE being fed good audio, and will reward you with many years of listening pleasure.

Just my opinion.

Happy listening!

Rick


o

Bambam841,

Welcome to the forum and congrats on your new gear! Rick has given you some great advice already. As far as receivers go, I'd avoid Integra. I've owned Integras for over a decade and have had a lot of HDMI switching issues. A lot of retailers have stopped carrying them due to reliability issues. We have also had some recent discussions on their sound as well and several of us agree that our next pre/pro/AVR will not be Onkyo or Integra.

Anthem would probably be my first choice in and AVR, while Marantz is my choice for my next pre/pro. You can pick up an AV7702 or the older AV8801 for $1,100. Combine that with an Emotiva XPA-7 that is on sale for $1279 (also on sale) and you would have better sound and headroom than just about any AVR. I have an XPA-5 and two XPA-1Ls and am very happy.

Yes, you will find negative reviews on any brand and or model. Take reviews and recommendations with a grain of salt; including mine. As Rick said, go out and listen to as many options as you can first hand. Nobody can tell you how you are going to like a particular product and sound. That is going to have to be your call. You also have to decide how much you are comfortable spending. Whatever you decide, you've already made the most important decisions as the speakers will make the biggest impact on your sound and you've chosen some great gear! Happy hunting!

Cheers,

T Cobe

Thank you T Cobe and Rick, first to clear up a little confusion. My screen name is bambam841, and real name is Rick. My fault for the confusion. Great input from both of you, and your time do so is very much appreciated. I was hoping that one of the higher end AVR's such as Anthem would be enough to power a 5.1 GE setup. Alas that was a futile wish. I will take a more in depth look at the Marantz/Emotiva combo.

bambam841 wrote: I was hoping that one of the higher end AVR's such as Anthem would be enough to power a 5.1 GE setup. Alas that was a futile wish. I will take a more in depth look at the Marantz/Emotiva combo.

Not at all, the vast majority of GoldenEar home theater systems are driven with a high quality AVR. The big Anthem receiver would do a great job for you.

Bambam841,

Moderator Dude is correct and I apologize if I strayed a bit in my post. If you're going 5.1, the entry level Anthem MRX, I think the 310, would be a great option. Unless you like it really loud or you have a very large room, the MRX would be plenty. If you have $3k you want to spend to get a little headroom, you can spend more... You could even start with the Anthem and add an amp later. Anthem makes some fine gear and their room correction is supposed to be pretty good as well. Does your GET dealer carry Anthem? If so, set up an audition with the T5s and see how you like the sound. Let us know how it goes.

Cheers,

T Cobe