Hello all,
im new to the forum, and a fairly new audio enthusiast (would not call myself an audioholic.. yet...)
I have a dilemma related to the following:
I want to replace my current Yamaha HTR 4065, with a new setup.
the AVR is attached to an MA silver set (silver 8 fronts, silver center and 2 silver1 surrounds).
Im running it without a subwoofer, and im pretty happy with the bas tones provided by the fronts, that's when both listening to movies as well as music.
pls. notice in mind the environment is setup I a large room, with lots of windows behind the front speakers ( 2 foot clearance between speakers and window).
when I listen to music, some bass heavy tracks Its will become distorted when playing at loud levels ( ~85db). I love listening to music in surround format, and I noticed the distortion only happens when I select a DB logic surround decoding scheme. When I play direct the distortion disappears and I can listen at even higher DB levels. In my music collection I only have a few songs that will create this artifact.
I want to replace my current AVR with a new setup. And I want to make sure it solves this bass issue.
I'm faced with the following two options and I cant make up my mind:
1) option 1 : I buy a new AVR (model with pre-outs) and in addition by a nice stereo amplifier to drive my fronts. I hope the setup will deliver enough juice to the front to get rid of the issue.
Not being an expert on the matter, I believe the advantage here is as well I still get a nice soundstage from running all the frequencies from my fronts, I love the MA 8 sound.
second good thing is I don't have to buy a subwoofer (which does help with the WAF ;-).
2) option 2: I buy a subwoofer. Again I hope this will take away the issue. the advantage this would have is stunning bass experience especially during movies.
which option do you guys think it the best, or will tey both solve the problem? What are the pro's and con's of each option?
I listen 50% music, 50% movies.
I also wonder what is causing this bass distortion, speakers?, AVR? DB programming sw?
I was able to utilize (from the retailer) a denon X4000, which has double the wattage then my "old" Yamaha. However exactly the same problem appeared, and again it disappeared when switching to straight mode. I can't believe it's the speakers, because of the direct/straithmode non-issue, and I noticed It appeared more on one channel then the other, switching my speakers did not cause the distortion to "follow the speaker as well..