Rookie w/questions

[ahblaza]

Yes, much more to my liking now. Theres so many settings on this thing that I could sit and ask questions all night. Thank you everyone for the help and great advice. You havnt heard the last of me though. I'm sure I'll have plenty more to ask.

I was waiting to chime in with the Direct Mode, thankfully it was suggested. After reviewing your speakers (mains), you have some very respectful specs, and nice FR. Those specs surely indicate that the bass should be there in spades, and an external amp IMO would be a waste. You have enough receiver to drive your mains to decent levels without ear damage.

 

[Burnz]

I was waiting to chime in with the Direct Mode, thankfully it was suggested. After reviewing your speakers (mains), you have some very respectful specs, and nice FR. Those specs surely indicate that the bass should be there in spades, and an external amp IMO would be a waste. You have enough receiver to drive your mains to decent levels without ear damage.

Does bi-amping them help them out at all? Just curious if that means I am pushing twice the power to them or not? I dont really understand the whole break down of the power to speaker concept. I know there is no way this reciever pushes the power that it claims. Is that right or wrong?

 

[Grador]

You can think of it kinda like this. Each amplifier channel is a bucket that can be filled with water. Your receivers power supply is a larger bucket that all of the others is filled from. Most receivers have enough juice to fill two buckets completely, but when you jump beyond that you'll have to start distributing the juice without filling any. Bi amping with your receiver will yield a little more power, but nowhere near 2x

Don't be offended if that analogy sounded childish, it's just the best way I know to put it.

 

[Burnz]

You can think of it kinda like this. Each amplifier channel is a bucket that can be filled with water. Your receivers power supply is a larger bucket that all of the others is filled from. Most receivers have enough juice to fill two buckets completely, but when you jump beyond that you'll have to start distributing the juice without filling any. Bi amping with your receiver will yield a little more power, but nowhere near 2x

Don't be offended if that analogy sounded childish, it's just the best way I know to put it.

Not at all, I'm trying to learn this whole thing. Thats a great way of explaining it. I've always had stereo equipment because I love music. I will say this much, since buying stuff a little more on the high end, the music is that much better, and my stuff isnt even the greatest I'm sure. This is a very dangerous hobby to be part of for sure, lol.

I want to add a surround system at some point too. Any clue of a good brand or is it one of those things where everyone is different?

 

[Grador]

Not at all, I'm trying to learn this whole thing. Thats a great way of explaining it. I've always had stereo equipment because I love music. I will say this much, since buying stuff a little more on the high end, the music is that much better, and my stuff isnt even the greatest I'm sure. This is a very dangerous hobby to be part of for sure, lol.

I want to add a surround system at some point too. Any clue of a good brand or is it one of those things where everyone is different?

It's a very dangerous hobby.......just look at my signature.

Really it's something that everyone is different on, people can point you in certain directions based upon the general characteristics that you like and what you're looking for, but overall the best thing to do is just get out and listen to everything you can. Even if you don't hear something that makes you go WOW it'll give you a better idea of what you find appealing which makes it easier for others to help.

 

[ahblaza]

Does bi-amping them help them out at all? Just curious if that means I am pushing twice the power to them or not? I dont really understand the whole break down of the power to speaker concept. I know there is no way this reciever pushes the power that it claims. Is that right or wrong?

You don't have to understand it really, but the answer is no, trying to be direct without offending you. We're here to help, seriously

 

[ahblaza]

Not at all, I'm trying to learn this whole thing. Thats a great way of explaining it. I've always had stereo equipment because I love music. I will say this much, since buying stuff a little more on the high end, the music is that much better, and my stuff isnt even the greatest I'm sure. This is a very dangerous hobby to be part of for sure, lol.

I want to add a surround system at some point too. Any clue of a good brand or is it one of those things where everyone is different?

There will some good reco's coming, but some you mat not be able to audition, like ID brands, but someone will have experience with what's reco'd.

 

[zieglj01]

You don't have to understand it really, but the answer is no, trying to be direct without offending you. We're here to help, seriously

It is like putting 2 straws in a glass of water. You may get a little more current, and that is about it >
except for being able to adjust the volume levels of the higher frequencies.

 

[monkish54]

Does bi-amping them help them out at all?

Quick answer: Yes it does.

Longer answer: In your case, I don't think so. I noticed the receiver says it can take some of the channels and use them to bi-amp your speakers, but unless it is somehow disabling the passive network (crossover) in your speakers, you're pretty much bi-wiring which does nothing at all.

Now if you built a pair of speakers and used an electronic crossover and then bi-amped....that would be totally different!

 

[Burnz]

Quick answer: Yes it does.

Longer answer: In your case, I don't think so. I noticed the receiver says it can take some of the channels and use them to bi-amp your speakers, but unless it is somehow disabling the passive network (crossover) in your speakers, you're pretty much bi-wiring which does nothing at all.

Now if you built a pair of speakers and used an electronic crossover and then bi-amped....that would be totally different!

Yeah the way I understood the bi-amp in my reciever was basically that it takes one of my extra zone channels (sp1) and runs it the same as the front channel. I initially bi-amped them when I didnt hear much bass because I thought it was going to double the power to the speakers and possibly help. Now I know thats not the case. Obviously I still had problems (which everyone here helped me fix, Thank You all again). I'm just gonna leave them though as I dont think I'll be needing that channel even when I add surround.

 

[monkish54]

I want to add a surround system at some point too. Any clue of a good brand or is it one of those things where everyone is different?

You want a different system for HT or you want to add a center and surrounds?

 

[Burnz]

You want a different system for HT or you want to add a center and surrounds?

I would just be adding a center and surrounds. From what I read I would need to match my center with my polks, but I take it that the surrounds could be of a different brand?

 

[monkish54]

I would just be adding a center and surrounds. From what I read I would need to match my center with my polks, but I take it that the surrounds could be of a different brand?

Surrounds don't matter as much, you can really do any brand. Sometimes it's even better to get other brands.

what would your budget be for center + surrounds?

 

[Grador]

Edit: ^^^what he said^^^

I would just be adding a center and surrounds. From what I read I would need to match my center with my polks, but I take it that the surrounds could be of a different brand?

Unless you're going to be listening to multi-channel music, the surrounds can pretty much be whatever you want.

 

[monkish54]

You can even do it with a center too, really; it depends. People don't like to mix-and-match because, odds are, you're gonna end up with 2 speakers that don't mix, and it will be noticeable.

For instance, the brand B&W has a house sound. If i buy all B&W CM9s for my theater but a Philharmonic 1 as my center, you can bet I will notice.

However, if I buy a very neutral speaker such as the Phil 2, and buy a good center, from say, KEF, that has a good detailed tweeter/mid and measures very flat, I'm probably not gonna notice a difference because both speakers have been "voiced" to be neutral.

 

[Grador]

You can even do it with a center too, really; it depends. People don't like to mix-and-match because, odds are, you're gonna end up with 2 speakers that don't mix, and it will be noticeable.

For instance, the brand B&W has a house sound. If i buy all B&W CM9s for my theater but a Philharmonic 1 as my center, you can bet I will notice.

However, if I buy a very neutral speaker such as the Phil 2, and buy a good center, from say, KEF, that has a good detailed tweeter/mid and measures very flat, I'm probably not gonna notice a difference becasue both speakers have been "voiced" to be neutral.

For instance, if you look at my sig, you'll see that I actually am not running a matched center. When I use the autosetup on my receiver to EQ the center to sound like the mains it is a perfect match. Even without this [which I am not using anymore] they are a match that is close enough to make me happy.

 

[fuzz092888]

You can evendo it with a center too, really; it depends. People don't like to mix-and-match because, odds are, you're gonna end up with 2 speakers that don't mix, and it will be noticeable.

For instance, the brand B&W has a house sound. If i buy all B&W CM9s for my theater but a Philharmonic 1 as my center, you can bet I will notice.

However, if I buy a very neutral speaker such as the Phil 2, and buy a good center, from say, KEF, that has a good detailed tweeter/mid and measures very flat, I'm probably not gonna notice.

To add to what monkish said, before I ended up with center I have now I went through about 3 others. I have Philharmonic 3's as my front towers and my first center, or rather the one I already had was a polk Csi A6. Sounded pretty good, but a bit out of place.

Moved on to an NHT ThreeC. Measured better than the Polk and sounded better with the Phils.

Next up was a rear ported Salk Song Center with the LCY ribbon tweeter. Crossover was done by Dennis Murphy, who designed the Philharmonic 3's. Measured about the same as the NHT, but definitely had a different sound. I felt as though it fit into the soundstage a bit better.

Finally, the center I have now is a Salk Songcenter front ported with the RAAL tweeter. The soundstage could only sound better with another Phil 3 for a center.

The bottom line is that any of the centers I had was workable and the NHT or any of the Salk's would have been fine. I don't listen to a ton of multi-channel music and for movies and TV the differences I did hear I could live with. I would match the center if you can, but if you can't get something that is going to measure flat and sound neutral.

As for the surrounds, I don't necessarily believe in matching. I've heard setups with matching surrounds and non matching surrounds. For music and movies I don't really hear huge differences. I know some guys have said that for panning and this or that it may make a difference, but it just didn't seem to make that much of a difference to me. Maybe I'm just not anal enough

I really think that for surrounds it depends on what you're looking for and what you kind of sound you're shooting for since there are so many different types. Bi-pole, dipole, the mirage nanosats, more traditional bookshelf, or a hundred other designs. Listen to as many of the different designs as you can and see which kind you like the best. Then if the brand you already have makes some of those get them, if not then just get whatever you listened to.

Cheers.

 

[monkish54]

L/R: Emp E55Ti

Nice choice.

Rears: Sony Junk

LOOOOL

 

[Grador]

Yeah....the room I'm set up in is really not conducive to surround speaker placement. I went and got the cheapest thing I could mount on a wall that didn't sound awful. Frankly the way they're set up I don't think anything would actually sound better.

The hilarious thing about the Paradigm Center 1 is that it works far far better with the EMPs than the speakers i was using with i bought it. The 25 year old Paradigm 11 SE's just didn't mesh with it well at all. At the time i was thinking of buying some new paradigm towers, but an EMP sale tempted me to much.

 

[fuzz092888]

Yeah....the room I'm set up in is really not conducive to surround speaker placement. I went and got the cheapest thing I could mount on a wall that didn't sound awful. Frankly the way they're set up I don't think anything would actually sound better.

Keep thinking that, it'll save you a lot of money