How to hook up a set of Tapco S5's

[elton]

Hey guys,

I currently run a Marantz S8300 reciever, with JBL speakers. (I know, certainly not audophile), but it works. I just picked up a 2 sets of Tapco S5 monitors, and I thought, why not use them as front and rears in a 6.1 system. They seem like very nice clean speakers, good sound, at least as far as my untrained ear can tell. The problem is this, that when you run pre-outs to them, they seem to drop a huge dB level. My center and rear are overpowering them, they don't have much volume at all. Is this because they are usually used with a mixer, and that puts out a stronger signal? If I hook them up directly to a cable box, which I then use the volume control on the box, they put out plenty of sound, but as soon as I hook them to the pre-outs on my Marantz, they once again drop the sound level. It's there, it sounds good, just very low compared to the center and rear (which by the way are speaker level output, not pre-out). Should I drop the volume on the center and rear, and boost the volume for the front and surrounds. Should I run out all speaker level, and put a Speaker to Line level converter on the Tapco's', or just say the with it and put the tapco's away or sell. (PS, I'm using standard RCA pre-outs, no XLR anywhere in sight, even though that's what the Tapco's would usually use. I'm using unbalanced RCA's, which the Tapco's do have an input for. ) Any help is apprecieated.

Thanks.

E

[eugovector]

I think JBLs are fine speakers, though as with all the brands that cover every market segment, it depends on what model you have.

You want your front and center speakers to be matched, so I'd use 3 tapcos up front, adjust the volume level for the rears, and consider it good to go.