Hello all,
I am currently having issues with how my system sounds, I feel the mains do not integrate well with the surround & height speakers.
The best way I can describe it is that the mains sound really loud but the surround/height channels do not.
I double checked all the levels with the SPL meter in REW & a Dolby Atmos demo disk that has test tones just to be sure.
I read that when all the speakers are working together you get this "bubble" effect where you feel immersed in the sound field.
I don't get that effect at all as the mains stick out like a sore thumb & the surrounds seem really quiet.
I also find bass lacking, when I upgraded to the two PB16's I was expecting some decent chest slam but even after using target curves in Dirac that boost bass it has never had that "tactile" response I have been looking for.
That's when I researched into how to best place my subs & learned REW a little.
After three days & over 300 measurements of every place & orientation I could achieve with my subs at each seating position I used the trace arithmetic feature in REW to sum the responses to find the best location for my subs that gave me the best responses over my four seats.
Still not happy with the seat to seat consistency I was recommended M.S.O & with lots of help I managed to get fantastic responses at my four seating positions.
I thought after all this I would be very happy with how the system sounded in regard to bass but it still sounds thin/weak.
I then started to look into sub to main integration as I read its important to get impactful bass & a cohesive soundstage.
After running Dirac I did a sweep of the centre & subs with a 80Hz crossover with REW at my listening position & got this response.
Not happy with the null at around 78Hz I took sweeps of just the subs & the centre channel no crossover applied to see what I am working with.
Looking at the centre channel response it seems to me the null at 68Hz is dragging summed response with the subs & centre are combined? Also the null around 136Hz is not helping.
I did try the sub distance tweak just in case it worked but the more I increase the delay it just seems to move the null around.
I also tried the same with a 100Hz crossover but I got the same results.
Bumping the crossover up to 120Hz gave the best response but this is far from ideal due to how high the crossover is set. Also the response is still not great.
I thought the poor centre channel response could be from floor bounce so I placed an acoustic panel on the floor in front of the centre channel to see what effect it had.
Whilst it helped a little it did not resolve this issue entirely & Its not really practical to have an acoustic panel on the floor.
So I am starting to think I have made mistakes with my room, before decoration & soundproofing the floor I decided to set the system up to see how things performed so if things were not as it like I can change then easily. I am glad I did now.
Here is how my room looks now, its very rough but it works as a dry run for testing.
Please ignore the panels stacked up against the wall on the floor, they are normally not there, the diffusor plates over the panels are temporary also as they were incorrectly manufactured.
My apologies for the long post I probably should have not covered as much as I have but I hope all the information helps.
Any feedback or advice is greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Adam