Tales From the Rabbit Hole

[Pogre]

Stood the subs back up this morning and ran Audyssey again.

Hard to get a good pic inside my house in the morning. The camera on my tab is very fickle with lighting.

I like the way it looks in the last one. those speakers are just too pretty to cover up! Plus now I have somewhere to set my BS for a little A/B testing...

 

[Tankman]

When it comes to clean watts, too much is just enough. You've got that amp problem covered, for now and into the future. Just heed Tankman's cleverly worded advice about avoiding throwing a rod.


One of THESE.

When I posted, about Porge, new amp pun was intended, he already knew about ATi amps. I picked that up from reading some of his older post. Matching that amp with his new Marantz unit no doubt he did his research. As for the other post, it goes as it says, in this hobby without taking into count all the year's spent, money and so on the layman's terms 'Rabbit Hole' wouldn't be much fun if it really didn't exist.

 

[Pogre]

As far as A/B testing with my bookshelf speakers and towers I don't know if it'll work out right. Unless I can do an Audyssey calibration for "A" with my towers and a calibration for "B" for the bookshelf speakers. I haven't dug through my manual yet. I was hoping someone here knows if that's possible.

 

[KEW]

Lookin soooooo goood!
Tv is a little small though. Lmao!!!!!!

He can buy a bigger TV as a peace offering to the wife, that always works!
LOL!

 

[Verdinut]

As far as A/B testing with my bookshelf speakers and towers I don't know if it'll work out right. Unless I can do an Audyssey calibration for "A" with my towers and a calibration for "B" for the bookshelf speakers. I haven't dug through my manual yet. I was hoping someone here knows if that's possible.

Pogre,

If I were you, I wouldn't bother trying to do A/B testing. Anyway, I'm sure you wouldn't intend to install your Ultra towers as BS.
You already noticed a difference when you tried the towers for the first time and there was some improvement.
Why not enjoy your more complete system and start to relax a little bit?

 

[Hetfield]

Pogre,

If I were you, I wouldn't bother trying to do A/B testing. Anyway, I'm sure you wouldn't intend to install your Ultra towers as BS.
You already noticed a difference when you tried the towers for the first time and there was some improvement.
Why not enjoy your more complete system and start to relax a little bit?

I actually agree with this. A lot of trouble for nothing. Enjoy the system and that new amp.

Sent from my Pixel using Tapatalk

 

[KEW]

As far as A/B testing with my bookshelf speakers and towers I don't know if it'll work out right. Unless I can do an Audyssey calibration for "A" with my towers and a calibration for "B" for the bookshelf speakers. I haven't dug through my manual yet. I was hoping someone here knows if that's possible.

I don't believe it is.
I normally do speaker comparisons in pure direct mode (or maybe stereo direct so you can use subs w/o Audyssey). I figure the better it sounds before Audyssey, the better it will sound after. Also for the benefit of others, it seems like adding Audessey into the mix needlessly complicates things!

 

[Pogre]

He can buy a bigger TV as a peace offering to the wife, that always works! LOL!

A new tv is what will be next. I gotta slow down for a while now though. I pretty much blew my wad on the speakers and amplifier.

I've been listening to music all morning with my son and the towers are awesome. I wouldn't say there's a huge difference, but it's there for sure. I can hear it. Every time I look at them it makes me smile. I finally have a big boy system. I've wanted something like this since I was a child.

One thing I was afraid of is that the towers would render my subs basically useless because of the much lower bass extension offered by the them. That is not the case. I would still not want to go without the subs, even for music. I do listen to a fair amount of music that dips into the 20's and 30's here and there.

 

[lovinthehd]

As far as A/B testing with my bookshelf speakers and towers I don't know if it'll work out right. Unless I can do an Audyssey calibration for "A" with my towers and a calibration for "B" for the bookshelf speakers. I haven't dug through my manual yet. I was hoping someone here knows if that's possible.

You can save a calibration but takes a while to load, so not much use for A/B comparos...and if you mean A/B speakers dont know if B is even calibrated....

 

[Pogre]

You can save a calibration but takes a while to load, so not much use for A/B comparos...and if you mean A/B speakers dont know if B is even calibrated....

Thought about the calibration files. Like you said though, not really good for quick A/B testing. I'm going to listen to Verdinut and just relax and enjoy now that I have it dialed in.

The mounts for my bookshelf speakers should be here Monday. I can't wait to get them mounted up.

 

[Pogre]

I don't believe it is.
I normally do speaker comparisons in pure direct mode (or maybe stereo direct so you can use subs w/o Audyssey). I figure the better it sounds before Audyssey, the better it will sound after. Also for the benefit of others, it seems like adding Audessey into the mix needlessly complicates things!

I think the difference between the 2 are definitely going be obvious in pure direct. The towers are very boomy without some room calibration. I think what I'd end up with is "crappy" and "crappier" switching back and forth.

 

[2channel lover]

A new tv is what will be next. I gotta slow down for a while now though. I pretty much blew my wad on the speakers and amplifier.

I've been listening to music all morning with my son and the towers are awesome. I wouldn't say there's a huge difference, but it's there for sure. I can hear it. Every time I look at them it makes me smile. I finally have a big boy system. I've wanted something like this since I was a child.

One thing I was afraid of is that the towers would render my subs basically useless because of the much lower bass extension offered by the them. That is not the case. I would still not want to go without the subs, even for music. I do listen to a fair amount of music that dips into the 20's and 30's here and there.

Yeah...slow your roll and stay married...happily

That said...what are you working with for a source?

I got 11 SACDs to start the party off and I might get one of these mics but I'm on the sidelines for hardware for a while...so I can stay married...happily!

I'm sure your towers go lower than my B&Ws and I feel pretty good crossing them at 50 now...I started at 80, then 60, last night I dropped them to 50. The subs are not working hard on music, but when you get that thump of the bass, I feel it like you would at a concert.

 

[lovinthehd]

Yeah...slow your roll and stay married...happily

That said...what are you working with for a source?

I got 11 SACDs to start the party off and I might get one of these mics but I'm on the sidelines for hardware for a while...so I can stay married...happily!

I'm sure your towers go lower than my B&Ws and I feel pretty good crossing them at 50 now...I started at 80, then 60, last night I dropped them to 50. The subs are not working hard on music, but when you get that thumb of the bass, I feel it like you would at a concert.

I found this searching for bass thumb

 

[2channel lover]

I found this searching for bass thumb View attachment 21436

LOL. Thumb, thump, after a few cold ones does it really matter...problem is I haven't had the 1st cold one yet...good catch.

 

[Pogre]

Yeah...slow your roll and stay married...happily

That said...what are you working with for a source?

I got 11 SACDs to start the party off and I might get one of these mics but I'm on the sidelines for hardware for a while...so I can stay married...happily!

I'm sure your towers go lower than my B&Ws and I feel pretty good crossing them at 50 now...I started at 80, then 60, last night I dropped them to 50. The subs are not working hard on music, but when you get that thump of the bass, I feel it like you would at a concert.

To date I haven't even explored SACD's. I haven't played around with the crossovers yet, but I'm going to. I'm thinking like you, drop it down a little lower and see if it suits my tastes. Right now it's at 80hz and sounds amazing.

My sources. I'm using a retired laptop to play my ripped cd's (WAV files) via HDMI, I also have an Xbox 1S for 4K content and DTV. Nothing fancy there. I've seen it typed here plenty of times, get your speakers straight first, then the electronics.

For now I'm happy with the setup. I use foobar2000 as my player and it has an app in the android store I can control it with. I've got it on my tablet and my phone. Works really well and it's free.

 

[Pogre]

The left one is in a corner. Check out what Audyssey showed me for room correction results.

The right now is kind of in a corner too, but further from the side wall. The left one is a little tight. I'm 20" from the back wall and ~the same for the side wall. Well, it's actually next to a sliding glass door that's 70" wide.

Anyhoo, I thought it was kinda cool that the before measurements actually do reflect what I'd expect.

 

[Pogre]

I was right about that stand not being rated 135 lbs on the middle shelf. There's some metal bracing underneath the wood, but it's more robust on the top shelf. I was getting some sagging.

It's rated for 135 lbs now! Originally I had it propped up only in the middle, but I was getting some sag underneath the Monolith. You really have to pick it up to appreciate how heavy this thing is. I threw around 60-80 lb boxes around all day at work. This thing made me grunt. The back of the shelf is attached to the spine and I'm not seeing any sagging back there.

 

[Hetfield]

Ok I have a "rabbit hole" question. Porge you can yell at me for asking this here if you like? I am in this hobby which auto makes me crazy. I recently finished putting my latest HT together and buying everything and its basically done. Since then I have become obsessed with PSA speakers. I have for those of you that don't know Def Tech SM 65 mains, SM 65 center speaker, SM 55 surrounds, SVS PB-1000 sub. I have been thinking of because yes I am crazy with going with 5 PSA MT-110 speakers all the way around. Now I really can't do this now, but wanted to get your take on just how much or if it would be an upgrade in sound quality? I mean would it be a very, very big significant step up in sound quality? The thing is the system I have now sounds really, really awesome. Its really incredible, and I love it. Just wanted to see what you guys think?

 

[2channel lover]

To date I haven't even explored SACD's. I haven't played around with the crossovers yet, but I'm going to. I'm thinking like you, drop it down a little lower and see if it suits my tastes. Right now it's at 80hz and sounds amazing.

My sources. I'm using a retired laptop to play my ripped cd's (WAV files) via HDMI, I also have an Xbox 1S for 4K content and DTV. Nothing fancy there. I've seen it typed here plenty of times, get your speakers straight first, then the electronics.

For now I'm happy with the setup. I use foobar2000 as my player and it has an app in the android store I can control it with. I've got it on my tablet and my phone. Works really well and it's free.

Oh...I think you had pretty good speakers already but I do agree...with hi res music and upgraded sources, the speakers are a big part of discerning the difference in SQ.

I got most of the SACDs Wed and I purposely played a stereo SACDs that I already owned in redbook version...based on a very small sample..I'm giving SACD a thumbs up so far. I will say this SACD (Nora Jones - Come Away With Me) had received a lot of good reviews on the SQ...they were right.

Crossovers...seems like Audessey would do that but I guess it defaults to 80 too. We got rain tomorrow so no golf...I should have the Atmos completed in the morning and run the EQ and see what happens.

 

[Pogre]

I know one thing. Upgraditist can be contageous and you were recently exposed to it right here. Probably from eating a chunk of mushroom you found down here in the rabbit hole. Stay away from those and that crazy caterpillar and whatever it is he's smoking. You'll be spending money before you know it!

Man, I think you already know the answer. You gotta listen and hear for yourself (I get that one a lot too). I've only ever heard the 65's in a magnolia room and every speaker sounded like poop in that room... I will say I owned the SM55's and I did like them for the price. Despite the bad rap I think they still make some good speakers.

One thing I would say is, if you're gonna do it with upgrading in mind it's gonna cost more than a few bucks to significantly best the 65's imo.