New home audio ideas

B

bucknutmd

Audiophyte
Current system, 5.4.2, kef.rslc34.PB3000s with denon 6300. Sound is crazy good for movies, y'all recommended dual and SVS didn't disappoint. Your bones rattle.

However, this system is a challenge to get music to sound great. I really have to turn up the volume and then adjust Subs down in the app. End up using equalization tricks or a processed format usually. I have to change things around everytime I switch from classic rock, country, Christian rock, acoustic, etc to make it shine.
Maybe the front left/right are just too small. My ears usually get fatigued over the first 30-45 minutes and spl of 65-75, but that's the sweet spot.

So, is this a speaker issue or a room treatment issue? I'm confused why my vaulted ceiling kitchen/great room sounds great for music athough lacking bass with 2 sonos play 5s. Gotta imagine there's an echo but just sounds like a music hall or something. But my living room is so technically challenging. House is an open floor plan.

1. I'm building a new house with similar open floor plan with 12 ft ceilings.
-what left right front speakers will fill a room with less need for help from the subwoofers? Do I go full range? (music oriented) or stick with large subs that my wife accepts but sorta hates. Is there a brand that builds killer wall speakers for this?

Thanks so much,
Kyle
 
MalVeauX

MalVeauX

Senior Audioholic
Hi,

So your kitchen and great room sound good with music, but your theater setup does not? Is your kitchen/great room using the same system or a totally different system?

So ultimately you're listening to and hearing room differences.

The answer is most probably: room treatment.

Your kitchen probably is lively with some reverb but has nulls which are canceling some of your bass out. Your home theater area, if it's not as great with music as it is with movies, I'm betting is just psychoacoustics of the subs in use in movies, since you said you have to turn up the volume for music and turn down the subs. This may be room treatment again, because maybe you have too much absorption going on and you could probably tame the room with bass traps so that you don't build up too much bass.

Can you describe the rooms, what's in them, carpet/flooring, furniture, any treatment you've done, etc?

For a new build, there's hordes of options, but all of having great audio in a room starts with the room itself. Acoustic treatment is critical and should be part of this. Buying good gear isn't going to deliver with no acoustic room treatment. So I would start there before thinking of buying stuff.

With big rooms and big spaces, focus on efficiency; you'll want speakers that are efficient (92db or better maybe) so that you can drive them to high SPL without requiring a nuclear plant to do it and because you'll want lots of headroom for transient peaks and dynamics. Your current speakers may be able to do it. But it all comes down to the room and your listening position relative to the speakers. To answer if you need subs, again, absolutely depends on the room.

One thing I would do is add a calibrated microphone and REW so you can measure room response and start knowing what is actually happening in your room.

Reading material to get you started:



Very best,
 
Eppie

Eppie

Audioholic Ninja
Current system, 5.4.2, kef.rslc34.PB3000s with denon 6300. Sound is crazy good for movies, y'all recommended dual and SVS didn't disappoint. Your bones rattle.

However, this system is a challenge to get music to sound great. I really have to turn up the volume and then adjust Subs down in the app. End up using equalization tricks or a processed format usually. I have to change things around everytime I switch from classic rock, country, Christian rock, acoustic, etc to make it shine.
Maybe the front left/right are just too small. My ears usually get fatigued over the first 30-45 minutes and spl of 65-75, but that's the sweet spot.

So, is this a speaker issue or a room treatment issue? I'm confused why my vaulted ceiling kitchen/great room sounds great for music athough lacking bass with 2 sonos play 5s. Gotta imagine there's an echo but just sounds like a music hall or something. But my living room is so technically challenging. House is an open floor plan.

1. I'm building a new house with similar open floor plan with 12 ft ceilings.
-what left right front speakers will fill a room with less need for help from the subwoofers? Do I go full range? (music oriented) or stick with large subs that my wife accepts but sorta hates. Is there a brand that builds killer wall speakers for this?

Thanks so much,
Kyle
Yes, the music hall effect in the great room will be the echo from the vaulted ceilings, so you won't be able to replicate that in the theatre room. Virtual surround effects like "Rock Arena" usually make things worse and can be gimmicky if you're after hi-fi sound.

Are you listening to concert DVDs in surround or 2-channel music? What modes are you using for music? Stereo mode should retain the Auddysey settings (assuming you ran Audyssey setup) while Pure will bypass all processing. Up-mixing to 5-channels is a personal preference. I'm not fond of synthesized surround but I've seen people here make use of it. Volume levels shouldn't be that different though. It's possible that your music source has a lower output voltage but that would only require you to turn up the volume.

I tune my sub-woofer for music first as the balance is more critical. The result should be good for movies as well unless you're really into shaking the furniture. If you're changing parameters between music genres, I don't know if there's much advice to be given. That could be differences in how the music is recorded and your system won't automatically compensate for that. Some Denons have a manual EQ option that you can turn on and off, but that only allows for two settings. My old Kenwood AVR has 5 different memory settings for EQ, but you don't see that feature in most modern AVRs any more.
 
lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
Music and movies may well need different sound modes/eq modes, but one thing you might check out if you're using Dynamic EQ, is the Reference Level Offset adjustment possible between movies and music recordings. Are you using Dynamic EQ? Dynamic Volume? What sound modes?
 

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