To make a long story short, my living room electronics is just plain too old and had to be replaced. ( old caps, breaking connectors, weak tuner, etc)
Anyway, I finally got my Anthem AVR. The ARC eq actually works, very unlike the Audessey in the Marantz AV5007 and whatever Emotiva was doing that were disasters IMHO.
I am very curious. I have not run a center for years because the voicing of my previous speakers were too dissimilar. Now I use my own mains, I am building a matching center. But, of course it can't be totally matching as it has to be a different size baffle and will be built into a cabinet. So, the big test will be how close do I have to match the voicing ( different BSC, high end eq foe diffraction etc) and how good is ARC and sorting this out?
I have not really pushed it yet to see if I have to re-cap my lovely old HCA's for the mains or if I can live with the AVR amp. It does seem more dynamic than my NAD 757 in my guest room. The big thing was it respected MY choice of crossover and how little room gain bass hump I wanted. They don't touch above 5K. It does not seem to suck the life out of music like Audessey did.
So, with my garage door DIY TV lift, new cabinet to mask the TV when down and full use of my window again, the WAF greatly increased. The real test will be some strong swing band to see how the distortion comes out to her uber-sensitive hearing. WAF is an engineering constraint we must never overlook.
Anyway, I finally got my Anthem AVR. The ARC eq actually works, very unlike the Audessey in the Marantz AV5007 and whatever Emotiva was doing that were disasters IMHO.
I am very curious. I have not run a center for years because the voicing of my previous speakers were too dissimilar. Now I use my own mains, I am building a matching center. But, of course it can't be totally matching as it has to be a different size baffle and will be built into a cabinet. So, the big test will be how close do I have to match the voicing ( different BSC, high end eq foe diffraction etc) and how good is ARC and sorting this out?
I have not really pushed it yet to see if I have to re-cap my lovely old HCA's for the mains or if I can live with the AVR amp. It does seem more dynamic than my NAD 757 in my guest room. The big thing was it respected MY choice of crossover and how little room gain bass hump I wanted. They don't touch above 5K. It does not seem to suck the life out of music like Audessey did.
So, with my garage door DIY TV lift, new cabinet to mask the TV when down and full use of my window again, the WAF greatly increased. The real test will be some strong swing band to see how the distortion comes out to her uber-sensitive hearing. WAF is an engineering constraint we must never overlook.
I would say you already passed the real test, If she's still there you passed with flying colors!!! 😀 Good luck on your rebuild, your gonna need speakers that match pretty close or it'll sound funky..well at least mine did when I paired some small Onkyo surround speakers with my altec 604s.... It was a horrendous mis match actually. 😀
I dumped my earlier center as it was not voiced the same as the mains. ( same brand and line, just not done well) Without "proper" eq, they have to be matched very well or the voicing changes as sound moves. UGLY. So that is the experiment. How well can ARC eq the center to match the mains? If it can't, then I am where I started and have to do the voicing myself as I have always done. They will have the same drivers and crossover. Only the cabinet is different. "Only" which means half the design. Even if the speaker was identical, the surrounds are not, so the voicing will change.
Got the iNuke 1000 today and fired it up. For the subs, it does a pretty good job. However the fan is horrible even inside a closed closet. I will need to redo the heat sinks, baffles and fan.
Got the iNuke 1000 today and fired it up. For the subs, it does a pretty good job. However the fan is horrible even inside a closed closet. I will need to redo the heat sinks, baffles and fan.
Do you really find that matched voicing of the rear / side surrounds to front row makes that much of difference?
I can get that the front row 3 should as close to identical as enclosure constraints for folks not using projector and acoustically transparent screens dictate ( which I assume is not the minority), but it's been my listening experience to date that the 4 or more "channels" of surround effects are just that, and the content can be collapsed to 3.1 without insufferable loss of the experience.
I can get that the front row 3 should as close to identical as enclosure constraints for folks not using projector and acoustically transparent screens dictate ( which I assume is not the minority), but it's been my listening experience to date that the 4 or more "channels" of surround effects are just that, and the content can be collapsed to 3.1 without insufferable loss of the experience.
Rears are just effects for movies, or in my living room, when I put on background music through all of them, so they need to be "reasonable". The old Mirage's I have are pretty neutral, so I've never had a concern. It is the voicing of the center to the fronts that is so critical. Again, the question I will be looking at is if they are close, can ARC pull them in the rest of the way. ( Same drivers, same crossover, different cabinet). Or do I have to voice the center the old hard way? I have been running 4.1 in both room for years because of the center voicing. Now I will try centers again because I have my own mains in both rooms.
Can't answer the question about ARC - I recently upgraded from a Denon 1610 to Onkyo TX NR818,(thanks, Bob!) and have long used only FR drivers in my 5.1 system (Alpair7.2 / 3 and 6Ms for now). A quick run through the THX XT32 and it sounds pretty smooth and as coherent as programming will allow. Funny how that latter part works - we're ultimately at the mercy of mixing engineers - on some scenes in the same show (Game of Thrones, for example) - the clarity of vocal dialogue can range from very precise to rather muddy.
Chrisb,
You can't imagine, if you think it sounds pretty good with FR's, what it would sound like with complete speaker systems. You are dealing with a very limited response. Don't get me wrong, those are good drivers, just they are good midranges and need woofers and tweeters to go with them.
You can't imagine, if you think it sounds pretty good with FR's, what it would sound like with complete speaker systems. You are dealing with a very limited response. Don't get me wrong, those are good drivers, just they are good midranges and need woofers and tweeters to go with them.
Can we agree to disagree, at the very least, as to the need for tweeters with the proposed 10Ps, and certainly the 7, currently in service?
As for lack of imagination as to what this system could sound like with a (as yet undefined) "complete" speakers, I have owned / heard enough multi-way systems in the past 40 yrs of chasing the brass ring on the "audiophile carousel" that is this addiction to be confident in my assessment of the current set-up as "good enough for an old married fart" (i.e. me) . If the implied ignorance is bliss, count me there.
Of course, as I fool myself into believing that I'm still evolving, all above could change - it certainly has more than a few times in the past. Hell, I might even scrounge around for some Klipsch 3-ways 😀
Who am I kidding, sorry, but just not a fan, and I've heard a few
As for lack of imagination as to what this system could sound like with a (as yet undefined) "complete" speakers, I have owned / heard enough multi-way systems in the past 40 yrs of chasing the brass ring on the "audiophile carousel" that is this addiction to be confident in my assessment of the current set-up as "good enough for an old married fart" (i.e. me) . If the implied ignorance is bliss, count me there.
Of course, as I fool myself into believing that I'm still evolving, all above could change - it certainly has more than a few times in the past. Hell, I might even scrounge around for some Klipsch 3-ways 😀
Who am I kidding, sorry, but just not a fan, and I've heard a few
- Status
- Not open for further replies.