New Speakers, First Report
So after missing UPS twice, I decided to pick up the speakers at the distribution facility. Imagine my surprise when I saw 4 huge boxes, one medium sized box (center speaker) and compared it to the size of my 2-door accord hatchback. I spent about 45 minutes in the parking lot, removing the speakers from each box and somehow getting them all in the car and backseat. That's probably the most impressive thing about the pickup/installation experience.
After lugging them all up a flight of stairs (the white cloth sack they come in makes them very slippery to carry, believe me), I finally unraveled them. First take: they're beautfiul! And they smell good too! Bigger than I had expected; the center channel is huge! I had to reinforce the shelf above my tv to support the 45 pound beast of a speaker.
First impression on listening: amazingly crystal clear sound that you really appreciate all the more with acoustic music. The speakers are amazing, and put any bose acoustimass system to shame. Doing the Yamaha YPAO auto setup, the first thing that stood out was that the receiver set the crossover frequency to 40 hz. That's when you know you have good speakers and a cruddy sub! By comparison, it had set the crossover frequency to 110 Hz with my bose speakers.
Question: The YPAO detects my center channel wiring as reversed, but I double checked, and its wired correctly; what's that all about?
I can't wait to get the new MFW sub. That'll blow my mind, I expect.
Other things I learned: 12-guage wiring behaves really well, just bend it and it stays in place.
Next Question: My digital cable audio cuts out for about a half-second every 1-2 minutes, for no appreciable reason. Another box does the same. Is this possibly a problem with my optical (toslink? I think) cable? I haven't tried switching cables because of the hassle involved.
Last impression: Having the same speaker for fronts and rears really smooths things out, and leaves me breathless. I think 7-channel audio sounds better than 2 sometimes.
And the HT is...you got it, amazing.
That's it for now. Thanks to everyone for the recommendation, I'm thoroughly pleased. Sorry, no time for pictures at the moment.
