Hi all from a newbie,
I've recently did the upgrade from my 20 year old Yamaha 530 Stereo and JBL 44's.
I've purchased a Onkyo 606 with some Klipsch Quintet II surrounds/center and the KSW-12 Sub. I am setup with a Squeezebox Duet (FLAC streams) and using the Onkyo DAC via digital Coax. 60/40 Music/Movies.
I was not at all happy with the Klipsch for front speakers when listening to music in 2 ch. OK for movies.
I bought some Energy RC-10's for the front and broke them in. Wow,what a difference there. I feel they are equal to my old JBL's in bass response and tightness with much tighter and cleaner mids and highs? Quite happy.
I have a couple questions if anyone is willing.
1. How am I doing for a low budget guy? Is this hodgepodge a decent setup? Sometimes I feel I have too much sub and the center speaker worries me. Thoughts?
2. I have the Klipsch center from the Quintet II for my center. It is quite a bit different from the energy speakers. I am not sure if I should look for the RC-mini or the CC-100 center to match the RC-10. The RC-mini has the same Kevlar speakers so I'm guessing that's the one? The CC-100 matches the frequency response a bit better but has composite speakers vs. Kevlar? Is this important for music? Any thoughts?
3. I ran the Audessy setup and I like what it did for my sound. It however set my speakers at something like this... -1 -4 -1 -5 -- -- -4 -11 (5.1 channel L C R RS RSBack LSBack LS Sub)
Seems like this will reduce the volume available to me? Could I just increase each by 5 or even 10 to positive values? What's the negative?
3a. Should I turn the power down on my sub and re-run it as Audessy has the sub at -11? Am I waisting power/energy?
4. Is using the DAC in the Onkyo likely to be a better solution than the DAC in the Duet?
Thanks for any help.
Regards,
John
I won't answer everything but here are a few responses...
2) Yes, you need to match your front three, otherwise the imaging will be off due to the different characteristics of each speaker. At least use the same brand/series, if not the exact same speaker.
3a) Audyssey says to calibrate your system with the gain on your sub set to 50%. I ran my sub at about 20%, and got good results.
4) You wouldn't be using the DAC in your Duet unless it has an analog out you can run to your Onkyo, which is doubtful. I think you have it set up the best way, although I'm not familiar with the Duet.
Good luck!
