Speaker Comparison Test Setup Question: CM6 S2 vs RT400 w/ RX-A860 and JL Dom 10

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chitownduck78

Audiophyte
Hello All,

I am a first time poster to this forum. Thank you for having me.

I am considering a replacement of my existing front tower speakers with new bookcase speakers plus sub. I am not 100% confident that bookcase speakers plus sub will fill my room (25 x 45 ft) as good as the towers do. As a result, I want to test drive the new bookcases against my existing towers. It is rather difficult to access the back of my receiver so I would like to have both pairs plugged in at the same time but listen to them independently. This would allow me to play a various test tracks and quickly switch back and forth between speaker pairs. Is the best way to accomplish this by plugging one pair into the front speaker inputs and the other pair into the front speaker presence inputs and use the software/remote to control which speakers are enabled?

My setup:

Yamaha RX-A860 Aventage AVR
Polk Audio RT 400 Tower Speaker Pair
B&W CM6 S2 Bookcase Speaker Pair
B&W CM Centre 2 S2 Center Speaker
JL Audio Dominion 10" Sub


Thanks!
 
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everettT

everettT

Audioholic Spartan
Thats a large Space for that sub. In that price I'd be starting with one HSU vtf3 and look to add another. If you want to consider a more dynamic bookshelf speakers, that would also help. What's the total budget?
 
William Lemmerhirt

William Lemmerhirt

Audioholic Overlord
You didn't say why you are considering replacing your existing gear. Not sure what kind of sound levels your looking for but that is a lot of space for any subwoofer as Everett said, and I don't know the seating distance but I wouldn't even look at a bookshelf speaker for that room. Budget and usage would also be helpful.
 
KEW

KEW

Audioholic Overlord
On the JL Audio sub...
I believe (based on my ownership of the JL Audio E112) that JL Audio makes some amazing products if you have severe size constraints. They get amazingly deep bass out of such a compact form factor!
However, allowing a larger sub will provide some combination of improved performance & reduced cost.
My E112 actually had too much low bass after room gain was factored in...so much that Audyssey could not tame it (admittedly, I could only place them within 4' of the corners of the room), which is my other complaint. At the price of the JL Audios, I feel a sub should have some way to tune it through EQ settings. Look at images of the controls for Rythmik, PSA, and Hsu to see some of these options (SVS has it as well, but their's is in a menu LCD display - not as easy to recognize).

Do you have the 8" or 10" Dominion? What is your experience with it? They may be a different animal than their E series (which was designed to be similar, but value option to the F series)!
 
KEW

KEW

Audioholic Overlord
Sorry that no one has yet addressed your question.

I am spoiled. When I compare speakers, I use two receivers (Marantz), and level match the two pairs of speakers. Then I mute one of the receivers after which pressing the RC mute button will instantly swap speakers.

What you are proposing sounds reasonable, but wait and see if someone knows a faster way to switch. I assume you have to work your way through a menu system to change the speaker assignments.
 
C

chitownduck78

Audiophyte
Thats a large Space for that sub. In that price I'd be starting with one HSU vtf3 and look to add another. If you want to consider a more dynamic bookshelf speakers, that would also help. What's the total budget?
THe new Speaker Pair plus sub was $2800.
 
C

chitownduck78

Audiophyte
You didn't say why you are considering replacing your existing gear. Not sure what kind of sound levels your looking for but that is a lot of space for any subwoofer as Everett said, and I don't know the seating distance but I wouldn't even look at a bookshelf speaker for that room. Budget and usage would also be helpful.
I am upgrading because we recently moved to a new house. The seating distance is about 12 ft. The speakers are about 8 ft. apart. I am going to use my old speaker and receiver in a secondary room and upgrade the family room which will be used for both TV and Music.
 
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C

chitownduck78

Audiophyte
On the JL Audio sub...
I believe (based on my ownership of the JL Audio E112) that JL Audio makes some amazing products if you have severe size constraints. They get amazingly deep bass out of such a compact form factor!
However, allowing a larger sub will provide some combination of improved performance & reduced cost.
My E112 actually had too much low bass after room gain was factored in...so much that Audyssey could not tame it (admittedly, I could only place them within 4' of the corners of the room), which is my other complaint. At the price of the JL Audios, I feel a sub should have some way to tune it through EQ settings. Look at images of the controls for Rythmik, PSA, and Hsu to see some of these options (SVS has it as well, but their's is in a menu LCD display - not as easy to recognize).

Do you have the 8" or 10" Dominion? What is your experience with it? They may be a different animal than their E series (which was designed to be similar, but value option to the F series)!
I have the JL Dominion 10". It is new so I don't have much to share at this point until I do some thorough testing.
 
C

chitownduck78

Audiophyte
Sorry that no one has yet addressed your question.

I am spoiled. When I compare speakers, I use two receivers (Marantz), and level match the two pairs of speakers. Then I mute one of the receivers after which pressing the RC mute button will instantly swap speakers.

What you are proposing sounds reasonable, but wait and see if someone knows a faster way to switch. I assume you have to work your way through a menu system to change the speaker assignments.
You are right on point with my question. I do have another receiver, which is a good idea. However, I prefer to toggle the speaker inputs with my existing receiver using the menu settings. I think this will be easier than plugging and unplugging repeatedly. What I am wondering is that if I plug in the second pair into the front presence speaker input, will they sound differently than if I plug them into the regular front speaker inputs.

I considered posting this question to the receivers forum but thought I would try here first.
 
BoredSysAdmin

BoredSysAdmin

Audioholic Slumlord
You are right on point with my question. I do have another receiver, which is a good idea. However, I prefer to toggle the speaker inputs with my existing receiver using the menu settings. I think this will be easier than plugging and unplugging repeatedly. What I am wondering is that if I plug in the second pair into the front presence speaker input, will they sound differently than if I plug them into the regular front speaker inputs.

I considered posting this question to the receivers forum but thought I would try here first.
Using two receiver will allow you do level matching. Vast majority of speaker switches will not.
Without level matching - it would make such comparison not fare - since humans perceive louder as clearer. I'd recommend getting a cheap but decent spl meter for that.
 
William Lemmerhirt

William Lemmerhirt

Audioholic Overlord
Using two receiver will allow you do level matching. Vast majority of speaker switches will not.
Without level matching - it would make such comparison not fare - since humans perceive louder as clearer. I'd recommend getting a cheap but decent spl meter for that.
Can't disagree. I was thinking he just want to see A/B how they filled the room. Not necessarily SS&I and all that.
 
C

chitownduck78

Audiophyte
Can't disagree. I was thinking he just want to see A/B how they filled the room. Not necessarily SS&I and all that.
Thanks SysAdmin and William. I don't want to get too crazy precise with my testing....I just want to get a general feel of how my ear responds to both. I've been messing with my setup and put each speaker pair in different zones and I am now getting a pretty good sense of the difference between the two.

I had previously noted erroneously that I was looking at the B&W CM2 S2. It is actually the CM6 S2 which is standing up pretty well to my legacy towers after some setup tweaking.
 
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KEW

KEW

Audioholic Overlord
You are right on point with my question. I do have another receiver, which is a good idea. However, I prefer to toggle the speaker inputs with my existing receiver using the menu settings. I think this will be easier than plugging and unplugging repeatedly. What I am wondering is that if I plug in the second pair into the front presence speaker input, will they sound differently than if I plug them into the regular front speaker inputs.
I am confused! The beauty of using two receivers is once you initially set things up, you do not have to do any plugging and unplugging! If the same RC will work on both receivers, the switch between speakers is instant! If they are two different brands or otherwise not on the same frequency, it takes about a second (there is interference if you attempt to press both mute buttons at the same time, so you have to do it sequentially). But you can level match things very easily and it affords a very good platform for comparison while being much more convenient that changing speakers assignments and then having to adjust the volume.

I am assuming that you have a source with more than one output. The DVD/BD (&CD) players I have all have at least HDMI, optical, and RCA outputs, so you can feed the same signal to both receivers at the same time. Alternately, you can use the "Tape Output" or "CD-R Output" to go from one receiver to the other.

If you own a second receiver, that is how you should do this unless the second receiver is a total piece of junk! Just be sure all settings are pure direct without any EQ.

If you have any qualms about differences between receivers affecting the sound, go ahead and do the comparison and after you have a good sense of the differences, you can swap the receiver-speaker connections so the speakers are now associated with the other receiver from your previous trial. I'll bet on differences between the speakers far, far outweighing any differences between receivers, DAC's, circuitry, etc!
 
C

chitownduck78

Audiophyte
I didn't think about outputting the same source to both receivers imultaneously. I will definitely try your suggestion out. Thanks for clarifying.
 
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