At wits end with two channel system and need a little advice.

[Swerd]

You might be able to get a warmer sound with higher quality speaker wires. They can make a huge difference in the warm/cold area of the sound…

I'm glad you said might with all those modifiers . It also might not.

The idea of using speaker cable with flawed performance is not worth recommending. In my opinion, it's like painting racing stripes on a minivan to improve it's top speed. There are better methods to accomplish that.

… That being said, the price of speaker wire goes up fast for that achievement. You'd have to talk to a professional to see which wire would suit that need, and if it's even within your budget.

A speaker with an overall smooth performance, but with a treble-heavy balance, might benefit better from the careful use of tone controls. That would cost nothing.

In the OP's case, I suspect, but don't know for sure, that his speakers have a ragged mid range. If so, no tone controls or speaker cables could be expected to correct that.

 

[GIEGAR]

You might be able to get a warmer sound with higher quality speaker wires. They can make a huge difference in the warm/cold area of the sound. That being said, the price of speaker wire goes up fast for that achievement. You'd have to talk to a professional to see which wire would suit that need, and if it's even within your budget.

I personally went with decent but reasonably prices speaker wire when I had my system installed. I wasn't looking for a "warmer" sound, but just fidelity with movies. I do use my speakers for music too. I use DLNA on Media Monkey to send music to my home theater, or use Rhapsody via my Oppo blu ray player. but my primary concern was for movies, and in that regard, most home theater wire is designed for fidelity rather than a warmer sound.

That's just nonsense.

Unless the speaker wire is vastly undersized for the given application (length, speaker impedance etc.), it makes no distinguishable difference to the sound. Even if there is a physical issue with speaker wire, any differences are totally swamped by the speaker's interaction with the room. Stating that "higher quality" speaker wire can make huge differences in the sound - the "warm/cold area" or otherwise - is irresponsible and plain wrong.

This is about all you need to know about speaker wire, including selecting the correct gauge for your application: Roger Russell | Speaker Wire.

Here is a handy calculator for determining minimum wire gauge: Speaker Wire Selector Assistant.


The OP is on the right track with his plan to measure and analyse his room with REW.

 

[MacPro]

I was away for a few days, but here are the photos from my phone of the space I am trying to improve. I'll have the frequency sweeps from the center sofa later this week once I receive my Behringer UCA222 working with REW. I suspect a midrange dip.

 

[zieglj01]

I was away for a few days, but here are the photos from my phone of the space I am trying to improve. I'll have the frequency sweeps from the center sofa later this week once I receive my Behringer UCA222 working with REW. I suspect a midrange dip.

Thanks for the pictures - not saying Focal is right or wrong for you - however your restricted set-up
is causing some issues, and with the cabinet and swing doors - reflection city is playing havoc.

Hope things can work out for you one way or the other.

 

[zieglj01]

You may want to consider some bookshelf speakers on top of the cabinet - and aiming down some,
towards the listening area

 

[Swerd]

Thanks for the pictures - not saying Focal is right or wrong for you - however your restricted set-up is causing some issues, and with the cabinet and swing doors - reflection city is playing havoc.

I hope these measurements are useful in deciding if the Focals, or their locations are the biggest source of trouble.

Don't be surprised or discouraged if the answer isn't immediately obvious.

 

[ImcLoud]

That is a tough setup... Speakers are facing straight forward inside the listening position, in a cabinet with a door 4" to the outside straight open.... Placement is your nightmare in this one... I would scrap the tower idea and get some bookshelfs, or move them outside you cabinet towards the corners..

 

[GranteedEV]

Thanks for the options on a lot of brands I haven't been exposed to. I like the idea of a ribbon tweeter on the Philharmonic. Truth be known, most of my speaker experience comes from exposure to Paradigm, PSB, Monitor Audio, B&W, and Focal in different settings. I am located in Canada, although we have a distributor for SVS here, I am unsure if some of the brands mentioned would ship cross border, as I would like to demo if at all possible.

My advice - start looking at these:

Home

One thing about this company's speakers is that they are designed for the sound to not be influenced significantly by room contributions.

Where abouts in Canada are you located?

 

[MacPro]

My advice - start looking at these:

Home

One thing about this company's speakers is that they are designed for the sound to not be influenced significantly by room contributions.

Where abouts in Canada are you located?

Nova Scotia

The website seems to be under construction, but I like their company ethos on the home page. Sounds promising.

 

[jcparks]

I'm not sure how handy you are, and I'm sure this wouldn't be an ideal fix, but maybe...
You can line the inside of the cabinet the speakers are in with a sound absorbing material. Then you can pull the doors off and redo them with a white acoustically transparent fabric so you can just leave them closed permanently. Just pull the grills off your Focals when they are in the cabinet. Again I'm not sure how ideal it would be but if you have the right tools and are knowledgeable in woodworking... you could save yourself quite a bit with minimal effect on the rooms aesthetics.

 

[jcparks]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cV2vqelnA80
Amazon.com: Speaker Grill Cloth White Yard 70" Wide: Industrial & Scientific

 

[MacPro]

Finally some measurements from the room. Hopefully this will make sense to people familiar with this program. Not exactly sure what it reveals, but I think my curve should be somewhat smooth with an upward curve as frequencies get lower.

 

[ImcLoud]

You need a mountain bike for that graph, lol... I have no idea what they mean, but I am sure someone here will be all over it, its awesome you got this going what did you use? REW and pe mic?

 

[MacPro]

You need a mountain bike for that graph, lol... I have no idea what they mean, but I am sure someone here will be all over it, its awesome you got this going what did you use? REW and pe mic?

Haha! It's a beauty, thanks.

I used just a plain digital Radio Shack SPL meter and a Behringer Ua222 into my Mac laptop. I did the loop back for the sound card and downloaded the calibration file for the RS meter. Hopefully it will be somewhat accurate as to what I am hearing.. Or not hearing.

 

[ImcLoud]

Haha! It's a beauty, thanks.

I used just a plain digital Radio Shack SPL meter and a Behringer Ua222 into my Mac laptop. I did the loop back for the sound card and downloaded the calibration file for the RS meter. Hopefully it will be somewhat accurate as to what I am hearing.. Or not hearing.

Cool, I have no idea how to do any of that or read it, I am afraid to dive in because I may find out all my systems sound like sh!t, it looks pretty good from 1500-4000, lol...

 

[GranteedEV]

Finally some measurements from the room. Hopefully this will make sense to people familiar with this program. Not exactly sure what it reveals, but I think my curve should be somewhat smooth with an upward curve as frequencies get lower.

View attachment 13908View attachment 13909View attachment 13910

I need you to take some 15ms gated measurements for me @ 2m, and drop the smoothing down to 1/12th or 1/24 octave. I can't tell anything usefull from those measurements that correlates to your perception, even if the waterfalls and wavelets are cool.

 

[MacPro]

I need you to take some 15ms gated measurements for me @ 2m, and drop the smoothing down to 1/12th or 1/24 octave. I can't tell anything usefull from those measurements that correlates to your perception, even if the waterfalls and wavelets are cool.

Thank you. I'll try that as soon as I can. I am still a novice when it comes to REW, so I'll check the manual as how to run gated measurements at 2 meters. If that is what the "m" is in the @2m..? The smoothing I have found and won't be a problem to re-adjust.

 

[3db]

Thanks for the options on a lot of brands I haven't been exposed to. I like the idea of a ribbon tweeter on the Philharmonic. Truth be known, most of my speaker experience comes from exposure to Paradigm, PSB, Monitor Audio, B&W, and Focal in different settings. I am located in Canada, although we have a distributor for SVS here, I am unsure if some of the brands mentioned would ship cross border, as I would like to demo if at all possible.

Have you auditioned the PSB Imagine series speakers?

 

[ImcLoud]

...................................

 

[MacPro]

Have you auditioned the PSB Imagine series speakers?

They are on my short list for consideration, as are the B&W 683's, and Epos Elan towers.