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Rowdy S13

Rowdy S13

Audioholic Chief
Hey guys, a good friend of mine recently bought a house and I convinced him to set up a nice home theater. He had some surround sound before, but he really stepped it up in the new place. The system consist of the following,

TV: Samsung UN60F6300AFXZA
Blu-Ray: Samsung BDE5400
Receiver: Pioneer VSX-1019
Front: EMPTek E55Ti
Center: EMPTek E5Ci
Surround: EMPTek E5Bi
Sub: SVS PB12-NSD
Remote: Harmony 900

I will get some shots of the install, but it will be Audioholics approved! The TV is hung above the fireplace, with the center on the mantle below. The center is wired directly because of space constraints, but the rest of the speakers have a wall plate with banana plug terminated wires so it looks nice and finished. All of the equipment is located in the basement and all of the wiring is run through the walls. We need to make some nicer wires from the plates to the speakers, but it all looks VERY nice.

Anyway, we are going to dial it in this weekend. Everything is just HDMI, and I can never remember what I should have the BR player output set to. That is my main question I guess, but I am open to any other tips and tricks you guys may have. I am curious what people think about toe in, and how I can determine if its needed or not. I am not sure if that is just a personal preference thing, or if its more technical than that.



Thanks,
Sean
 
fuzz092888

fuzz092888

Audioholic Warlord
Room size and layout will help determine toe in, but we can only give a range and you and your friend will have to experiment a little with it. Depending on your room it may sound best with no TI, with them crossing slightly behind the LP, at the LP or maybe in front of the LP. Toe in has a lot to do........well a lot of stuff. Long story short, just experiment with toe in to see what sounds best to both of your ears, or I guess his ears.

As for the blu-ray player, what exactly are you asking for? Are you asking about what to set the audio over HDMI to? Bitstream is what I used to have my old samsung BD player set to.
 
Rowdy S13

Rowdy S13

Audioholic Chief
OK, I figured we would play with it and see what he liked best. The Room is about 16' x 13' I think with 9' ceiling that is vaulted some. It is open to the kitchen in the rear as well. What I think is the worst (for audio) is the L shaped couch and its close proximity to the front left speaker. Like any other multipurpose room, it is not anywhere close to perfect for HT. The issues don't seem all that bad though, and I think once we are done it will be nicer than a LOT of other set ups.

You are right on for what I was looking for. I can never remember the difference between bitstream, PCM, and so on. I know there is always 5 or 6 options, and some are better than others. I will probably update this once I am there and I can see what the options are if I am still not sure.


Thanks,
Sean
 
fuzz092888

fuzz092888

Audioholic Warlord
Rowdy S13 said:
OK, I figured we would play with it and see what he liked best. The Room is about 16' x 13' I think with 9' ceiling that is vaulted some. It is open to the kitchen in the rear as well. What I think is the worst (for audio) is the L shaped couch and its close proximity to the front left speaker. Like any other multipurpose room, it is not anywhere close to perfect for HT. The issues don't seem all that bad though, and I think once we are done it will be nicer than a LOT of other set ups.

You are right on for what I was looking for. I can never remember the difference between bitstream, PCM, and so on. I know there is always 5 or 6 options, and some are better than others. I will probably update this once I am there and I can see what the options are if I am still not sure.


Thanks,
Sean
Click to expand...
My guess, with an L shaped couch, would be that toeing them in so they cross just in front of the main LP would probably be best for the widest area. How does your friend like his bass? That sub, in that space, which is also open to the kitchen won't produce a ton of it, but maybe enough for him if he isn't a bass head.

Bitstream is the best, because it's taking exactly what is on the disc and giving it to the receiver. PCM can be just fine though.
 
Rowdy S13

Rowdy S13

Audioholic Chief
fuzz092888 said:
My guess, with an L shaped couch, would be that toeing them in so they cross just in front of the main LP would probably be best for the widest area. How does your friend like his bass? That sub, in that space, which is also open to the kitchen won't produce a ton of it, but maybe enough for him if he isn't a bass head.

Bitstream is the best, because it's taking exactly what is on the disc and giving it to the receiver. PCM can be just fine though.
Click to expand...
We will give that a shot for sure! I am trying to get him understanding that we want good sound across a wide area. So I plan on taking measurements in multiple seats to get it as even as possible with what we have.

Funny thing about the sub, I think its a bit weak but he is floored by it :) He like bass, but has never had anything even half decent in a house set up before. I am working him and his girlfriend over on adding a second sub. It sounded good, don't get me wrong, but there is a lot of area to fill. We will see what it does when we get it adjusted and start pushing it.

Thats what I thought, but I had it confused with PCM. More or less it is preferred to let the receiver decode the audio right?


Thanks,
Sean
 
Rowdy S13

Rowdy S13

Audioholic Chief
No problem. I made two threads hoping to get more specific responses in each, but I copied and pasted the bulk of the post.

So lets get some recommendations on reference material. He is mainly concerned with movies, so what ones (and what scenes) have the best video, best bass, best surround, and so on!


Thanks,
Sean
 
Rowdy S13

Rowdy S13

Audioholic Chief
Well we got it all dialed in yesterday, but its not really done. We were actually doing a few projects at once, and calibrating the system was low on the list. So we patched up the hole in the wall where we had run all the cables, and worked on lighting most of the day. As time was running out I finally decided to quickly get it dialed in. I say quickly because everything will have to move again to finish the mud work on the patch, and to paint the whole room. So I set the front speakers close, and was pretty rough on distance measurements. Audio wise though I got it all sounding pretty damn good! I was really impressed with the EMPTek speakers, though he should have gotten the larger center. As soon as we put in a movie I noticed almost instantly that it didn't match the towers as well as it should have. On test tones they were all balanced, but on playback the center was less pronounced. When I dial it in again I may bump it up a db or two to help. Other than that though, I think the sub did a very good job filling the room. It did not blow you away, but it was keeping up very well considering the size of the room (and adjoining rooms). It also blended very well with the speakers.

Unfortunately I did not get any pics of the install yesterday. We were just too busy with everything else. Plus I want to wait for them to get it all finished anyway. You may notice that I didn't mention the video at all in this thread, that is a much longer story! Check the other thread in the display section for that one.



Sean
 
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