Hi. I would like to upgrade my home theater from 5.1 to 7.1 .Why Boston - I can get good price. Setup now is - center Boston VRC , front floorstand Boston VR1 , surr. Boston Bravo , sub. Boston PV 700 , surr.rec. Yamaha RX-V1400 . I do not know , if I should buy Boston CR 55 or 65 or VRX or forget Bravo and buy 4 better ones. Please help me figure this out.Thanks for help !

how big is your room?

Thank you OEX - let me measure it - room is 10ft.wide and 17ft.long and 8ft.high ceiling , so what do you think?

I would first consider what you are willing to spend to "enhance" your system. If you have $400 to go, then maybe a nice remote would be the ticket. It would make your system easier to use. Check out the MX-700. Maybe your DVD sucks and that may be a great upgrade. If your into music check out SACD and DVD Audio players like the Yamaha DVD1500 coming this fall. But we'll assume that everything else is in decent shape and a few speakers is the best place to put your money to work. I'm going to assume the video is on the 10' side. Maybe add a VRMEX in the rear center. An $800 pair of rear surrounds may be overkill compared to the rest of the system. If your willing to drop it for the VRMX, then put them on the sides and your bravos on the rear. The RXV1400 is a nice piece and wouldn't suggest changing it. It would seem your system would be decent as it sits though. Without seeing it, I bet there is something else that your system could use. Whether it be better video cables if you used really crappy ones or a cool looking rack. Your room is under 1400 cubic feet which is pretty small. The gain with 2 additional speakers may not be that great. Hell, you may be better off with another sub. My 2 cents. I'm sure someones going to disagree with this though.

I LOVE my Yamaha receiver and I would never change it for some crap like is Denon. I am sorry Denon lovers , but radio tuner sucks and remote control -please!!!I would like to see , how you explain to you custumers functions of Denon remote ,if they can hardly turn on tv. My wife learn how to operate with Yamaha remote in couple minutes and I really don not have to spend $$$ for Pronto - why should I ???? I do not need fancy touch screen!!! I want to enjoy sound of my home theater . I do program Prontos and Home theater masters and I have to say - I like more HT master (price with RF)-they look worst but they are more friendly with customers.How many times you had to replace Pronto because of broken glass on display (80% of my custumers has kids and hard wood floors) .But I did not want to talk about this . I want to add 2 speakers to finaly listen THX and better sound.What about add 2 more like presence speakers to the front ?Is this going to sound better? OEX -do you think my room is too small for 7.1 . This is not good news for me :-( . Thank you for feedback!!

OEX - that dvd player looks cool. This is exactly what I need , because I want to move back to Europe , I found all possible connections on back.Thanks

Its not that its too small but, in my opinion, small rooms re sufficient with 5.1. If your are happy with everything else in your system then by all means get a pair of vrmx and use them on the sides and move your bravos to the rear. Why not buy a mx-700? I like them better as my customers dont seem nearly as intimidated by them. The "touchscreen cool factor" is what scares most customers. The wives never want to even touch them.

Why not buy a mx-700?
mx-700 has no RF and if I would want to buy remote , it would by first thing what I am looking for. I am going to buy Boston VRX and VRMX next week and I let you now how it sounds. What is wrong with VRX . Are they much worst then VRMX?I want to listen both at my home and decide whitch pair I like more.Thanks OEX

Rob,
the vrx would be fine and would be a perfect fit with the ohers in your system. You'll have a dynamite setup when done. I no longer sell Boston but the last system I did was about 7 months ago. I used VR965 (Disc) for fronts, VRi553 center, VRMX on the sides, PV1000 sub and a pair of in -ceiling rear surrounds in a room that was very similar to yours. It was about 13'x17'. It sounded great. Boston speakers are very decent. Please do let me know how you make out. Try the mx-800 if you need RF. Recommend the mx-700 because you had indicated you currently use the factory ir remote. Good luck.

thanks OEX! I will let you know.Why did you stop sell Boston speakers? My friend works in Tweeter and she can give me big discount , so it si always really good price.Our company sell Boston speakers over 2 years and everybody likes how they sound.Thank you for help!!

it just worked that way - we sell def tech and mirage only

Robsaudio,

I'm thinking part of the reason that your friend can get you such a good deal on BA is that Tweeter is no longer carrying Bostons home speakers. They will continue to carry their in-walls and car stuff, but no floors, bkshelfs, or sub/sats. That being said, scoop 'em up while they're still around. Better yet, put a deposit on the ones you want, and wait a month or so. They'll go down again in price, and your deposit will ensure that they're still there and can't be sold.


marcus


p.s. I'm not sure if the dropping of the home line is regional, or national, but your friend will know.

Just thought this was an interesting conversation... I have a couple of wonderful Bostons, and a 7.1 set up in a very small room, using Klipsch all around. I'm here to say that the addition of a couple of small Klipsch for the extra "rear" speakers added an additional sparkle and zap to my DVD soundtracks (some optimized, most not, for 7.1). Certain sound-effects were more obvious (e.g. arrows in Gladiator battle scene). It is true that only a very small percentage of the signal gets sent to those centre-rears, but it is noticeable, and any audiophile worth his nut is going to enjoy the experience.

... Mike

I did not have time to install my speakers , but a can not wait to hear them.Gladiator battle scene is one of my favorites (great in 5.1). I do not know Mike , what receiver you have but I would like to know , if hook up presence speakers on my Yamaha would help to get better sound. I should hook them up and listen... I know. You guys know how it is - all customers enjoy their surr.sound and no time to take care of my own.Thank you Mike for your feedback.

You can safely use the smaller ones of the Bostons. the 7.1 encoding pushes out very little power to those guys and as such your focus is more on the upper range and quality. Most cases the biggest difference is not the quality or the size of the "fillers" but the placement. going from 5.1 to 7.1 does indeed make a big difference if the are placed correctly. You can make it sound horrible if you do not spend the time setting up the correct distance and placement and "volume". I had a 5.1 setup of a Quad Center L, Quad 22L's, and Quad 12L's. When I looked at adding 7.1 with Quad 11l's, I played with placements with my game room Pinnacle Bookshelf's. it took a while but eventually it sounded great and I was convinced 7.1 was worth the investment in buying pair of Quad 11L's. I got the dealer to get me a pair. When I replaced them with the pinnacles, I could not justify the price increase. In proper 7.1 they were ambient sound. And did not make a big difference over the small pinnacles i had. I promptly returned them and traded them for a Monster HTS5100 power conditioner. I still have the same system and I am going to hold back till I have more 7.1 media that justify's the cost upgrade to way more expensive speakers.

A side note though. the quads were great with some of my DVD-Audio collections. Some of the composers/directors use channels differently. But my collection and budget just could not justify the upgrade cost for now.

In short. Spend time on speaker placement. It would reward you handsomely. You have a great base of equipment that looks well matched. If you have allot of native 7.1 media then it is well worth the upgrade. my 2cents.