May I start by saying how thrilled we are to have you here. We are such fans of your music and all of your records. I'm not speaking of yours personally, but the whole genre of the rock and roll.

Who has a Pinnacle speaker and would like to share how awesome (or not) they are?

Hello Everyone!

I'm Arin with Pinnacle's customer service and support team. I report directly to one of the "brother-owners" of Pinnacle Speakers, Mickey Rothenberg. I've been with Pinnacle 7 of their 36 years and can assist with any questions.

pinnaclespeakers wrote:Hello Everyone!

I'm Arin with Pinnacle's customer service and support team. I report directly to one of the "brother-owners" of Pinnacle Speakers, Mickey Rothenberg. I've been with Pinnacle 7 of their 36 years and can assist with any questions.

Welcome!

You heard the guy, fire away!

what are the physical dimensions of each of the speakers in the 9500 setup?

mlear82 wrote:what are the physical dimensions of each of the speakers in the 9500 setup?

Here they are:
Center Channel: 11.75" W x 4.8" H x 6.9" D (with Grille, when laying horizontally)

Surround Channels: 4.8" W x 7.56" H x 6.75" D (with Grille)

Powered Subwoofer:13" W x 14.3" H x 14.5" D (with Amp & Grille & Isolation Cones)

Does the baby boomer sub have an LFE input?

DFB11 wrote:Does the baby boomer sub have an LFE input?

Yes, the Baby Boomer has two inputs that are summed together to allow for LFE or stereo inputs. Our engineers designed the crossover to include a bypass switch to bypass the filters that are made redundant by filters in the receiver.

Pinnacle makes some good stuff. They produce better sound quality than Bose or other Wal*Mart brands and the Woot! prices on them are pretty nice.

I've long used Pinnacle center channels. Those I've used seem to emphasize high frequency more than most. They are pretty good though -- a year ago, due to a misconfiguration, _only_ my center channel was playing and I didn't notice (from the other room) except for the lack of bass, which isn't its job.

How much power is recommended for these systems?

Can I plug the 3 element center channel speaker into my TV on its own, or does it require a receiver/amplifier of some sort?

azd827 wrote:Can I plug the 3 element center channel speaker into my TV on its own, or does it require a receiver/amplifier of some sort?

Depends on how many watts your TV is pushing out. My guess is that you definitely want to hook this up to an amp.

justinaqui wrote:How much power is recommended for these systems?

Any quality brand 5.1 receiver of 50 watts or more per channel will do a fine job...the more power in a receiver, actually the better.

jgotsch wrote:Depends on how many watts your TV is pushing out. My guess is that you definitely want to hook this up to an amp.

It depends on the TV itself. If the TV has outputs for Center channel and the hook-up is for speaker wires than the TV can accept the Center. Otherwise, the Center channel would need to be hooked up directly to the center channel section of your receiver.

CharlesBurns wrote:They produce better sound quality than Bose

Surely you can set the bar a little higher than that.

craigthom wrote:Surely you can set the bar a little higher than that.

Are you implying that Bose speakers are bad or just ok? I can't speak for newer Bose systems but I have an old school 2.1 Bose setup (from the early 90's or so) and they are still extremely solid speakers.

I also had a pair of Bose Reflecting Bookshelf Speakers that were good. I've never really heard anyone say of Bose speakers sounding bad.

So even if these Pinnacle speakers are just "good," seems like there are some deals here. Maybe I would hope the sub woofer for $550.00 to be "really good."

Is the Babyboomer's 600 Watt RMS or peak?

Bought the 800w supersonic subwoofer a minute ago. Need the rest of my 5.1 speakers now - either in wall or freestanding. Prefer pinnacle. What would pair well? Any ideas? Thanks!

can this stuff get me laid?

Um, the specs on the SuperSonic dual 12" driver sub currently say:

Subwoofer Low End Frequency Response: 23 kHz (-3 dB)

Somehow I suspect you mean Hz, not kHz.

That having been said. I'm currently using an older HTD Level III sub, and it's pretty good, but looking for an upgrade. The SuperSonic should have more power, and the price is favorable, but being rated 23 Hz (versus 22 Hz for the HTD), I'm not sure I'd be happy with it. Perhaps there's just no getting around it and serious subs just have to cost serious money?

I am sure I have to be late to the party but wow has woot gotten bad. THese speakers can be found in several places for much less including shipping. Very disappointed in what Woot has become...

If you haven't hear complaints about the sound of Bose speakers built after the 80s then you really do need to google for a sec. I am not saying I agree or not but Bose is not thought of very highly by those that call themselves audiophiles.

dfunkmaster wrote:Are you implying that Bose speakers are bad or just ok? I can't speak for newer Bose systems but I have an old school 2.1 Bose setup (from the early 90's or so) and they are still extremely solid speakers.

I also had a pair of Bose Reflecting Bookshelf Speakers that were good. I've never really heard anyone say of Bose speakers sounding bad.

So even if these Pinnacle speakers are just "good," seems like there are some deals here. Maybe I would hope the sub woofer for $550.00 to be "really good."

benrenfro wrote:THese speakers can be found in several places for much less including shipping.

Such as?

There are several, had to google again and picked the first that came up
http://www.savinglots.com/lotprod.asp?item=SUPERSONIC

kmartind wrote:Such as?

http://shop.neobits.com/pinnacle_speakers_supersonic_pinnacle_speakers_supersonic_dual_12_800_watt_supersonic_subwoofer_1032090537.php

kmartind wrote:Such as?

benrenfro wrote:There are several, had to google again and picked the first that came up
http://www.savinglots.com/lotprod.asp?item=SUPERSONIC

You missed a fairly important piece of info at that site:

"Discontinued
No longer available for sale!"

Edit: And the other one too...

benrenfro wrote:http://shop.neobits.com/pinnacle_speakers_supersonic_pinnacle_speakers_supersonic_dual_12_800_watt_supersonic_subwoofer_1032090537.php

"Stock Status:Currently Not In Stock"

Rite,.... so now the speakers are even older, so the really important point you missed was that several other stores sold the same speakers (google the others) for less money. So once again the theme of my post is to point out and lament that Woot has become just another daily deal site that offers uninspired products, unimpressive pricing along with increasingly stale and predictable stories in stark contrast to the extremely creative and quite funny descriptions of very fun, usually interesting products that made the site what it was. I dont say this with anything but a heavy heart because as an early follower of Woot it is not even close to its former self....

kmartind wrote:

nypapaya wrote:Is the Babyboomer's 600 Watt RMS or peak?

In my experience if it IS RMS the manufacturer never fails to say it is RMS, and if they don't say RMS they don't want you to know what the real power is, and it isn't RMS.

I personally would not buy speakers where the manufacturer doesn't mention Watts RMS. There is no good reason not to.

mkski123 wrote:can this stuff get me laid?

Yes.

Seriously though. Last time this was on woot!, I purchased a complete Pinnacle surround setup... sub and all. I must say, it is one of the better surround setups I have ever had the pleasure of hearing!

benrenfro wrote:If you haven't hear complaints about the sound of Bose speakers built after the 80s then you really do need to google for a sec. I am not saying I agree or not but Bose is not thought of very highly by those that call themselves audiophiles.

Obviously never heard the saying, "No highs, no lows. must be Bose."

I got a Pinnacle sub a couple years ago and it's working great. As an apartment dweller I'm kind of sick of the pattern of downward firing subwoofers, which is by I got one. They carry the sound better, but also are a lot more likely to piss off neighbors...

benrenfro wrote:Rite,.... so now the speakers are even older, so the really important point you missed was that several other stores sold the same speakers (google the others) for less money. So once again the theme of my post is to point out and lament that Woot has become just another daily deal site that offers uninspired products, unimpressive pricing along with increasingly stale and predictable stories in stark contrast to the extremely creative and quite funny descriptions of very fun, usually interesting products that made the site what it was. I dont say this with anything but a heavy heart because as an early follower of Woot it is not even close to its former self....

So why keep coming back?

mkski123 wrote:can this stuff get me laid?

Keep asking and report back with your findings.

I'm the PINNACLE, that's why I reign supreme
And I'm Notorious, I'll crush you like a jelly-bean.

I'm Bad

I just snagged one of the baby boomers. It seems like a great price for a well-reviewed sub. I normally do more research before purchasing speakers but I will have a need for a sub for a small theater room I'm working on in the basement. I think this will fit the bill nicely and save me some cash. I wish I had more research time but from what I could gather, I highly doubt I could find anything as good as the baby boomer for $300. I can't speak for the other speakers, but this sub I couldn't find it priced this low anywhere else.

For reference, my living room theater setup is using a Paradigm PDR-10 sub (older model of probably 8+ years ago) that I've been happy with. If this Pinnacle one is at least roughly on par with that I'll be plenty happy. My quick look at the specs suggest that it should be a decent step up though so even better.

pinnaclespeakers wrote:Hello Everyone!

I'm Arin with Pinnacle's customer service and support team. I report directly to one of the "brother-owners" of Pinnacle Speakers, Mickey Rothenberg. I've been with Pinnacle 7 of their 36 years and can assist with any questions.

I'm a bit under-educated when it comes to speaker buying, but I can't seem to find anywhere that talks about the speaker sensitivity and frequency response rates for the speakers and subwoofers included in the "Pinnacle Speakers 5.1 Channel 700W Audiophile Home Theater System MB9500+" speaker set. Any insight as to what those might be?

nypapaya wrote:Is the Babyboomer's 600 Watt RMS or peak?

The amplifier in the Baby Boomer is 300 Watts RMS, driving a single woofer. However, when it is driving dual woofers dropping the impedance the wattage it is therefore doubled.

This product, no product, should be judged by wattage specifications. There is great misunderstanding that somehow the wattage specifications in any way parallel a speaker performance. That is simply totally untrue.

This particular design has 2 heavy duty 8" drivers in a sealed cabinet (sealed meaning no air can escape), known as acoustic suspension design. In layman’s terms it’s non-ported. Since no air can escape from the cabinet during the movement of the woofers, it creates tremendous pressure inside the cabinet. That internal pressure can only be overcome by driving the woofers with a very high powered amplifier. That is why these designs produce exceptionally deep and powerful bass, yet in tiny footprint cabinets.
Pinnacle does its best to educate and re-educate. But the common misperception that high watts = high performance, though quite true in this instance, should never be used as a barometer.

Further, manufacturers have great flexibility in how they can determine a wattage specification, which is tied to other factors such as THD (total harmonic distortion), and a variety of other factors. Simply put, the Baby Boomer is unequivocally exceptional, has been run through its paces with the critical industry press, has been a strong market performer for many years at triple the Woot giveaway price…and it also has a lot of watts.

kmartind wrote:Um, the specs on the SuperSonic dual 12" driver sub currently say:

Somehow I suspect you mean Hz, not kHz.

That having been said. I'm currently using an older HTD Level III sub, and it's pretty good, but looking for an upgrade. The SuperSonic should have more power, and the price is favorable, but being rated 23 Hz (versus 22 Hz for the HTD), I'm not sure I'd be happy with it. Perhaps there's just no getting around it and serious subs just have to cost serious money?

Correct, the low end frequency response is 23 Hz at -3 dB.

This is another example where specifications can be highly misunderstood and misleading. So, we wish to educate.

Pinnacle uses -3 dB in the low end specification, which is the most conservative rating that manufacturers use. For example, if we said low end frequency response at -6 dB the rating would become 20 Hz. Many high end manufactures, who’s names we will not mention, use the specification at -6 dB, which automatically decreases the low end frequency response number.

In either instance, the low end frequency in and of itself is only part of the story. The other part of the story is how loud the product will play in maximum volume at that low end frequency number. That specification is known as Maximum SPL.

This subwoofer goes both DEEP and LOUD, and those two characteristics combined is what truly determines the acoustic properties of a high end subwoofer. Many subwoofers can go down low, but their low end output is so insufficient that you will not be able to hear it or FEEL it.

In the case of the SuperSonic Piano Lacquer, and the other subwoofers in this deal, you will both hear AND FEEL the depth and power of bass.

Considering the president of Pinnacle Speakers is himself a drummer and in charge of product development, Pinnacle knows a little bit about bass…and yes, this is quite a serious subwoofer.

pinnaclespeakers wrote:Considering the president of Pinnacle Speakers is himself a drummer and in charge of product development, Pinnacle knows a little bit about bass…and yes, this is quite a serious subwoofer.

This was super informative, thanks!