Need Help, please.

[Henrique R]

Hello everyone!

I appreciate if someone can help me and give some guidance on this subject.
I am new to this audio/video subject and after some web searching and reading several reviews decided to buy my first home theater system.
Looking at my budget and systems available/accessible from my location, just bought, last week, the following system:

- Av receiver Yamaha RX-V473
and, speakers:
- Harman Kardon HKTS60 Complete 5.1 Home-Theater Speaker System

Followed all the directions from the manufacturer and also the tutorials found on this forum related to crossover, best speaker positions and so on after what I've managed to get an acceptable surround sound for home cinema, which is quite impressive at least for a newbie on this subject.

So what's the problem, you may ask?
The problem is, what about music and stereo??
I am really disappointed!!
I was expecting to have also a very good system to listen to stereo music using the 2.1 option on my new amp.
Unfortunately after changing back and forward all the settings I can't get better sound quality when listening to my ipod mp3 files (256kbs) plugged to the Yamaha receiver then I was listening once plugged to my 2.0 creative T20's.
What am I doing wrong here?
Also, if I leave the position centered in the middle of the surround speakers the sound quality goes and again, my old t 20's do a better job.
Should I buy another set of speakers just to listen to music?

can anybody help, please?

Thank you very much in advance!

 

[agarwalro]

Bonjour et bienvenue sur le forum. (Merci, Google Translate. )

- Av receiver Yamaha RX-V473
and, speakers:
- Harman Kardon HKTS60 Complete 5.1 Home-Theater Speaker System

Followed all the directions from the manufacturer and also the tutorials found on this forum related to crossover, best speaker positions and so on after what I've managed to get an acceptable surround sound for home cinema, which is quite impressive at least for a newbie on this subject...

Unfortunately after changing back and forward all the settings I can't get better sound quality when listening to my ipod mp3 files (256kbs) plugged to the Yamaha receiver then I was listening once plugged to my 2.0 creative T20's.

The setup sounds good on movies means you have settings and calibration done correctly. This setup when compared to 2.0 computer speakers should sound much better. If not anything else, you should have a lot more sense of space and the bass should be a lot better. Can you describe in more detail what about the sound is better or worse compared to the T20?

If we try to remove the audio track from the variables, how do things sound when you play a CD rather than MP3s?

Also, if I leave the position centered in the middle of the surround speakers the sound quality goes and again, my old t 20's do a better job.

Can you explain more on this? Are you talking of listening position or something else?

Should I buy another set of speakers just to listen to music?

Not just yet .

 

[Henrique R]

Hello agalwalro

Thank you very much for your quick reply and also the French welcome message

The setup sounds good on movies means you have settings and calibration done correctly. This setup when compared to 2.0 computer speakers should sound much better. If not anything else, you should have a lot more sense of space and the bass should be a lot better. Can you describe in more detail what about the sound is better or worse compared to the T20?

Definitely while watching movies the new 5.1 setup sounds much better than the T20's. As you say, the sense of space, deep bass, it is a completely different world. Maybe I will need some time to get used having different frequencies arriving to my ears from different corners of my living room. But I am happy with the system while playing movies.

If we try to remove the audio track from the variables, how do things sound when you play a CD rather than MP3s?

even when playing a cd the sound is not as warm as I'm used to. I have another old setup which I keep at my parents house, which is a 20yo Harman/Kardon stereo amplifier paired with 2x two ways Pioneer speakers. The setup is not as powerful as my new setup but maybe because the speakers have 10'' drivers the sound is warmer and fills all the living room with a strong bass even without a dedicated sub woofer. On my flat, until now I was listening to music either on my laptop or ipod, plugged to the T20's and even if not as good as the system I keep at my parents place it is a very good warm sound for such a small speakers. I was expecting to improve the sound quality for music as well with my new setup, but until now couldn't experience that appart from a Diana Krall cd listening in 5.1 stereo mode.

Can you explain more on this? Are you talking of listening position or something else?

Well... I meant to say that when I leave the listening position...

It sounds like if the speaker system was built to send all the audio to the position one calibrates the system for and outside that point, everything changes.

Is this just me or is it normal with home theatre systems?

Thanks again
H

 

[Henrique R]

Bonjour et bienvenue sur le forum. (Merci, Google Translate. )

The setup sounds good on movies means you have settings and calibration done correctly. This setup when compared to 2.0 computer speakers should sound much better. If not anything else, you should have a lot more sense of space and the bass should be a lot better. Can you describe in more detail what about the sound is better or worse compared to the T20?

If we try to remove the audio track from the variables, how do things sound when you play a CD rather than MP3s?

Can you explain more on this? Are you talking of listening position or something else?

Not just yet .

After spending almost all weekend playing around with my new setup, think I've managed to set it up properly for my ears.

Apparently the problem was the crossover settings. The tutorials I've been following usually say the best setting for this speaker size is 120khz, which I did, but when I ran the auto calibration YPAO it automatically changed to 160khz. While playing again with the settings, detected this and started trying all the different frequencies with different music styles and noticed the best setting for these speakers and also for my ears is 80khz.

Thanks again for your help
H