Received my Carnegie CSB1's today, a lot of people wanted to know what I thought...

[darien87]

I ended up moving my right speaker to the right another 6" last weekend. I wanted to get them as far apart as possible but I didn't want to go so far to the right that there would be no wall behind the speaker. Plus I didn't want to set the front speakers too offset from the main listening position. I think I've got them placed about as well as I can in my room.

I ran Audyssey on Sunday. I had to do the process twice because it set my subs at -12 the first time. The second time I was halfway through the 8th listening point when my parrot decided to start making noise. I knew I should have put her in the garage. Audyssey set my fronts at 40hz and the center at 60hz. So I guess the bookshelfs will play pretty low. Danny recommended crossing them over at 60hz. One weird thing Audyssey set my VRX surrounds at 150hz! Boston rates those down to 80hz.

 

[darien87]

So the right speaker is 6" further to the right than in this pic. Pretty much even with the edge of the short wall behind it. Thought that was about as far to the right I wanted to go.

Surprisingly my wife noticed the difference last night. She asked me, "Is that speaker farther to the right?" I guess she noticed that it wasn't next to the edge of the AV cabinet anymore. I asked her if she liked the new speakers since they didn't take up as much room as the old towers. She said no. I asked her why and she said they were ugly. I had the grills off and she said they looked like a robot from Star Wars. Women.

 

[j_garcia]

Lol. Mine actually likes them better because they are smaller than my A/V-2s, just not that they are glossy.

Auto-EQs don't work so great IMO. I ran mine 4 times and got slightly different results each time without changing anything but the sub level because it was adding to the sub's level. IMO, I think the reason why it adjusts the surrounds like that is because it considers them to have too much EQ below the point it chose maybe? So it just cuts them there. I don't like that and mine had set everything in mine to 120Hz 2 of the 4 times.

 

[darien87]

Auto-EQs don't work so great IMO. I ran mine 4 times and got slightly different results each time without changing anything but the sub level because it was adding to the sub's level. IMO, I think the reason why it adjusts the surrounds like that is because it considers them to have too much EQ below the point it chose maybe? So it just cuts them there. I don't like that and mine had set everything in mine to 120Hz 2 of the 4 times.

The 2 times I ran Audyssey it came up with the same crossovers each time. It seemed to get my speaker distances pretty close also. I think I remember my UMC-1 coming up with a high crossover for my surrounds also so maybe it's correct. Seems pretty high though. Think I'll put it down to 100hz or so.

 

[fuzz092888]

The 2 times I ran Audyssey it came up with the same crossovers each time. It seemed to get my speaker distances pretty close also. I think I remember my UMC-1 coming up with a high crossover for my surrounds also so maybe it's correct. Seems pretty high though. Think I'll put it down to 100hz or so.

Don't forget, when Audyssey sets the distance it's also setting the delay as well so the distance will almost always be different from the actual physical distance.

 

[darien87]

By the way I didn't notice much of a difference in the CSB-1's with or without Audyssey. I'm not sure if that's a testament to how well designed the speakers are or maybe my room is so bad that Audyssey said, "Sorry man. I can't fix this crap."

 

[ImcLoud]

Sometimes the best way to set up an avr is with a db meter, I never went crazy for room correction, I can live with out it, I set all the distances, set the levels with the spl meter, then fine tune it by ear with some material I am familiar with... HT isn't really that hard to get rite.. My brother gets nuts over getting everything eq'd and setup and constantly adjusting it, while I'm home watching a movie he is listening to test tones for 2 hours.... Set it forget it and enjoy it... I guess I just cant get into "critical" movie listening, I watched the Departed today and Les Miserables yesterday, I didn't once think about the sound, just watched the movies, {and les mis has music}.. When I listen to music I am get concerned with the sound quality, I hear stuff when its wrong or rite.. its hard to explain, I just want my movies Loud and shaking not stirred..

 

[Jimz711]

Haven't been able to order the towers yet, GR Research has been closed for the past few days. Looking at everyone's pictures is really making me hope there are still some towers left.

 

[j_garcia]

I think the towers probably aren't selling as quickly as the others (guess) so I don't think you'll have to worry too much for them. I'm still considering them too.

 

[Jeff R.]

I got the impression they had a lot of inventory when I orders a little over a week ago.


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[Jimz711]

I got an email response that plenty of towers are still in stock, I'll be ordering tomorrow.

 

[Jimz711]

Towers ordered, now the hard part of waiting begins.

 

[ImcLoud]

The dreaded wait for the brown truck, one of my neighbors sons drives a box van for work that sounds just like the up truck coming over the hill, I hate that truck, he walways comes home about 2 hours before ups comes, but after I have been waiting for 6 hours.... Its a viscous roller coaster ride...

 

[Jimz711]

Sometimes UPS doesn't come here until 9 at night, which is quite the pain. I've been waiting to find a great deal on a new pair of towers for a few months now so surely I can wait another week or so, but I don't have to like it.

 

[ImcLoud]

Did you buy the center too or is this for a 2 ch system?

 

[jcl]

I was wondering about the towers and how easy it would be to add all the dampening material. From the diagrams it looked like it might be a tight fit to do it all by just taking the drivers out. Did you inquire about that when you were discussing the towers?

 

[Jimz711]

I'm going to be running them just 2 channel.

I did not inquire about the tightness of the fit but did ask about how much no rez I would need in case I wanted a different damping material.

 

[sawzalot]

It will be a tight fit through the driver cutouts but the pieces can be cut smaller and simply butted up to each other, trial and error with a lot of patience will be key here.

 

[ImcLoud]

the bookshelfs were easy to do, I tossed out the original stuff and replaced it with different stuff, now I wish I listened before and after, but I didn't.....

 

[j_garcia]

I could tell the difference in mine after moving the stuffing around because I spent a lot of time with them before and after. I ended up pulling a bit out based on Danny's pictures, shoved it in the back and opened up a path to the port. They don't sound extremely different, but the bass is a bit smoother. The center is sealed so I didn't really notice a difference with it.