I now own 2 Receivers. Which to use w/my Axioms..

[darthkringle]

Hello all- My wife and I just moved from our cozy apartment to a new condo. I made an impulse purchase and bought and HK7300 to replace my Yamaha RX V2400.

In listing my other equipment below and my room specs, do you think the HK will tame some of the highs that are produced by the Axioms in our new room:

Here is the setup:

2xM60
1xVP150
2x QS8
1xEP500

Now for the room. It is 29ft Long, by 13.5 feet wide, and 10 feet high. It is ALL Hardwoods which is creating a fairly bright environment. We do have a large shag are rug that runs the length of the plane of the fronts all the way to the primary listening postion.

With the Yamaha currently hooked up, the movie peformance is great; however, music is good, but the room is adding to the highs.

If I take the time to unhook the Yamaha (not excited about that), do you think the HK7300 will help tame the axiom/hardwood combo at all? It seems like around here that HK is thought to pair w/Axioms better than some of the Yamahas.

Thanks for any guidance.

P.S.- THE SUB CRAWL THING TOTALLY WORKS!!!!!!!! WOW What a difference for 5.1.

 

[tomd51]

Questions...

Couple of questions:

1. When you set your system up in the new room did you re-calibrate you settings using an SPL meter or the built-in YPAO?
In my own experience, I've found the YPAO (Yamaha) EQ as well as the Audyssey (Denon) EQ work very well in taming certain frequencies using the 'Front' or 'Flat' modes. In both of my setups, I found that these modes had very little boost added to them and mostly knocked down the higher frequencies. My secondary HT setup has paneling on the walls w/a wall sized built-in bookshelf directly behind the front soundstage, so this room could be fairly bright w/out any FR modification or changing room acoustics. If you haven't run the YPAO using the 'Front' or 'Flat' modes, I would suggest doing so to see if this helps. Keep in mind that it tends to set a fairly high crossover level (200hz in my case), so you may need to change this to the standard 80hz manually afterwards. I'm not sure if the HK has this option, but if so and you decide to switch them out, I would consider using it.

2. Have you considered implementing any room acoustic changes to help with the higher frequencies?
Something as simple as a semi-thick tapestry placed in the first reflection point(s) of your mains can help tame some of the highs you're experiencing in the new room. Not sure if this is a dedicated theater (don't think so from your description), but would it be possible to use any acoustic panels to help in this capacity as well? GIK Acoustics makes some fairly inexpensive panels that would absolutely improve some of the room acoustics. Here's a review AH did earlier this year on these panels if you're interested.

Even if you were using the HK instead of the Yamaha, you'll likely still have some of the same high frequency issues as it sounds (no pun intended) as though they are most likely due to the listening environment and not the equipment.... -TD

 

[darthkringle]

Couple of questions:

1. When you set your system up in the new room did you re-calibrate you settings using an SPL meter or the built-in YPAO?
In my own experience, I've found the YPAO (Yamaha) EQ as well as the Audyssey (Denon) EQ work very well in taming certain frequencies using the 'Front' or 'Flat' modes. In both of my setups, I found that these modes had very little boost added to them and mostly knocked down the higher frequencies. My secondary HT setup has paneling on the walls w/a wall sized built-in bookshelf directly behind the front soundstage, so this room could be fairly bright w/out any FR modification or changing room acoustics. If you haven't run the YPAO using the 'Front' or 'Flat' modes, I would suggest doing so to see if this helps. Keep in mind that it tends to set a fairly high crossover level (200hz in my case), so you may need to change this to the standard 80hz manually afterwards. I'm not sure if the HK has this option, but if so and you decide to switch them out, I would consider using it.

2. Have you considered implementing any room acoustic changes to help with the higher frequencies?
Something as simple as a semi-thick tapestry placed in the first reflection point(s) of your mains can help tame some of the highs you're experiencing in the new room. Not sure if this is a dedicated theater (don't think so from your description), but would it be possible to use any acoustic panels to help in this capacity as well? GIK Acoustics makes some fairly inexpensive panels that would absolutely improve some of the room acoustics. Here's a review AH did earlier this year on these panels if you're interested.

Even if you were using the HK instead of the Yamaha, you'll likely still have some of the same high frequency issues as it sounds (no pun intended) as though they are most likely due to the listening environment and not the equipment.... -TD

Yes, I have re-calibrated w/SPL and correct distances etc. W/the Yamaha, I did not typically use the Auto EQ function as I liked the Axiom sound w/o any eqing. However, in the new room, I am wondering what can tame some of the shrieking highs. The HK does not offer an auto EQ; however any advice on the range of frequencies that represent the highs? Is it all above 1Khz?

 

[tomd51]

The YPAO can flatten or smooth out any frequencies from 63Hz all the way up to 16kHz. Running the YPAO is pretty simple, you can try out some sample material to see if it helps and if you don't like it, don't keep the settings. I'm not sure if the 2400 has the same feature, but the 2500 allows you to keep 6 different memory configurations based on the settings you've configured, so if it does or has something similar, it should be real easy to try a few of the modes from 'Front' to 'Flat' or any of the additional EQ setting options.

You can even manually tweak the frequency settings yourself on each speaker, however I would suggest trying the YPAO to do this first. Here's a link to AH's review of the RX-V2400 that explains a bit about the YPAO EQ and it's options... -TD

 

[mulester7]

.....question....in a room that is totally bright with hardwood floors and say paneled walls, has anyone ever considered the prospect of damping speakers as soon as the sound comes from the cones like with some type of structure sitting on, or mounted to, the speaker itself?....like maybe a three or four sided something with open front that has carpeting mounted on the inside walls with the walls only extending about 6-7 inches past the front of the speaker enclosure?....would this have a detremental effect on imaging?....might would, but it might beat paying hundreds for room conditioning.....just thoughts....

 

[tomd51]

Any kind of room treatment (e.g. tapestry, curtains, furniture, bookcase, etc.) that can disperse the first reflection point of the mains should help soften the high frequencies... -TD