This has been a long time coming, but I've finally made it to the end, or should I said beginning, of my home audio/video journey. I've been researching home theater stuff for about 2 months now, and through muuuuch help on this website, was able to piece together a system that would work for me both budget wise, and quality wise.
I had decided on the EMP Impression 5.0 set in black, with the Pioneer Elite 21txh as my receiver. Well, I've had the receiver for a couple weeks and the speakers finally came Tuesday (holy cow boxes). Thank goodness for the girlfriend working near by, she somehow managed to get them inside for me! So, I've been studying for a final all week and told myself I wouldn't touch the boxes until after I finished (last night). Although I did sneak a peak Tuesday night, I finally set up the towers and center channel last night.
Note, I didn't perform any calibration yet, and I'm still trying to figure out all the preset audio adjustments; I'll get to that this weekend.
Anyhow, initial impressions: wow!!! I couldn't believe the sound coming out of these things. I will describe these speakers from a non-professional perspective, and while I was watching the Dark Knight. Midbass was tight, highs were crisp. I had my receiver up to -10db and I was amazed at the clarity. What really did it for me was the ability for the speakers to be so powerful during intense action sequences, and then get so quiet next, but they're not quiet, everything's just detailed. It's tough to describe, but there's no hiss or anything when it's quiet. These are niiice speakers!
What was really cool too was how during the quiet scenes, when dialogue was taking place you could still hear the orchestra on the soundtrack, and they almost sounded separated from the movie, like as though they were actually there playing while people were talking. Sorry if this all sounds common for nice 5.0 (or 3.0 at the moment) systems, but I'm just very impressed. I've never had a surround sound setup, so when I bought my house it was my goal to set up something really nice for my girlfriend and I, plus friends/family. It really feels like a movie theater, but with sound more "in my face" and like I'm in the best seat (plus no annoying other people around me).
I really don't know what else to say, I'm just extremely happy with my purchase. With the prices I was able to get everything, just over a thousand we'll say, I couldn't imagine anything else. Ok ok, subwoofer is next, there definitely isn't that rumble during explosions that I would like to hear with only the speakers. But, don't get me wrong, everything sounds awesome! I would high recommend these speakers to anyone. Please feel free to ask me any questions you may have about them. Check out the pics too...
