A

aesposito

Enthusiast
Hi everyone,

I love my home theater sound system, but looking to upgrade my sound fidelity in a significant way. I was on the website accessories for less and was referred to purchase teh canton series speaker system. Is this a substantial upgrade over my current setup below?

Current Setup
Yamaha Ns 777
Yamahan Ns 333
Yamaha Ns c444
Polk 10 inch sub
Integra DTR 30.7

Proposed setup
1592607878947.png

 
S

shadyJ

Speaker of the House
Staff member
I doubt anyone has a reference point of comparison between those particular speaker sets. My guess is that the Canton stuff is a step up, but that is only a guess. You will really want to upgrade the sub as well. That Polk 10" is not on the level of that Canton stuff.
 
William Lemmerhirt

William Lemmerhirt

Audioholic Overlord
I’ll echo shady here. The cantons are likely better, but it’s hard to say how much, or in what ways. The biggest offender is the polk sub. Upgrading that would help your Yamahas sound even better than they do now. I would start there, while also making plans to buy the Cantons at some point. Or if you have the money, do it all now.
 
nbk13nw

nbk13nw

Full Audioholic
I was confused about the number of speakers to the types of speakers.

Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk
 
A

aesposito

Enthusiast
I’ll echo shady here. The cantons are likely better, but it’s hard to say how much, or in what ways. The biggest offender is the polk sub. Upgrading that would help your Yamahas sound even better than they do now. I would start there, while also making plans to buy the Cantons at some point. Or if you have the money, do it all now.
What type of sub? SVS?
 
lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
Yeah don't it was an erorr in the cart but just referencing the speaker series.
Looks odd :) What center particularly comes with that set of towers? Subs I'd look to the specialists like SVS, Hsu, Rythmik, Power Sound Audio, and perhaps Monolith subs from Monoprice, Outlaw's subs....and others depending how much you want to spend. Or just DIY.
 
William Lemmerhirt

William Lemmerhirt

Audioholic Overlord
What type of sub? SVS?
Yes. SVS makes excellent subwoofers. They have a couple models in the outlet at $699.99. Can also spend a lot more too.
Lovinthehd mentioned the other usual suspects as well. HSU is probably the value leader, but all of them make good subwoofers, and all of them better than any Polk.
How big is the space? I always recommend ported(unless it’s a special case), and depending on the air volume, we normally recommend two, to help smooth the FR across multiple seats. If you only have one seat to worry about(or don’t care about the others) one great sub is better than two mediocre ones. IMO.
 
A

aesposito

Enthusiast
Yes. SVS makes excellent subwoofers. They have a couple models in the outlet at $699.99. Can also spend a lot more too.
Lovinthehd mentioned the other usual suspects as well. HSU is probably the value leader, but all of them make good subwoofers, and all of them better than any Polk.
How big is the space? I always recommend ported(unless it’s a special case), and depending on the air volume, we normally recommend two, to help smooth the FR across multiple seats. If you only have one seat to worry about(or don’t care about the others) one great sub is better than two mediocre ones. IMO.
To everyone's point:

- I have an open floor living and dinning room so figure is 280sq feet
- Is my Polk really that subpar? I mean I tested it the bass rocks the house. Maybe I am missing something. The link below to exact model :
- The center speaker is:
Chrono SL 556.2
- Would sound quality make a difference if I connect the left and right towers in bi amping configuration?
 
A

aesposito

Enthusiast
To everyone's point:

- I have an open floor living and dining room so the figure is 280sq feet
- Is my Polk really that subpar? I mean I tested it the bass rocks the house. Maybe I am missing something. The link below to exact model :
- The center speaker is:
Chrono SL 556.2
- Would sound quality make a difference if I connect the left and right towers in bi amping configuration?
 
Pogre

Pogre

Audioholic Slumlord
I doubt anyone has a reference point of comparison between those particular speaker sets. My guess is that the Canton stuff is a step up, but that is only a guess. You will really want to upgrade the sub as well. That Polk 10" is not on the level of that Canton stuff.
That sub was the first thing that jumped out and bit me too.

To my knowledge yamaha is capable of making some pretty decent speakers, but I've been admiring the Canton speakers at AC4L for quite a while now and really like what I've read and seen of them. My guess is also that they'd be a step up too, but hard to say FOR SURE.

Back to the sub... I'd get that replaced ASAP, or even STASAP (sooner than as soon as possible :p).
 
Pogre

Pogre

Audioholic Slumlord
To everyone's point:

- I have an open floor living and dining room so the figure is 280sq feet
- Is my Polk really that subpar? I mean I tested it the bass rocks the house. Maybe I am missing something. The link below to exact model :
- The center speaker is:
Chrono SL 556.2
- Would sound quality make a difference if I connect the left and right towers in bi amping configuration?
Yes, it really is that sub par, especially with a big open area. Your sub is underpowered as well as low quality. Like Bill said, Hsu is probably the value leader for subs but the PB/PC2000s at SVS (scroll down a little) are priced pretty nice. I would probably nudge you toward a pair of those at minimum with a preference for a pair of HSU VTF-3 MK5s. Price in the HSU link is for 2 of them.
 
lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
To everyone's point:

- I have an open floor living and dinning room so figure is 280sq feet
- Is my Polk really that subpar? I mean I tested it the bass rocks the house. Maybe I am missing something. The link below to exact model :
- The center speaker is:
Chrono SL 556.2
- Would sound quality make a difference if I connect the left and right towers in bi amping configuration?
Yeah your sub is indeed on the lower end. It's more about room volume than square footage, try this article https://www.audioholics.com/loudspeaker-design/subwoofer-room-size Before buying a whole set of speakers I'd at least upgrade the sub first, but that's me....you could well be satisfied with the performance of what sub you've got, but I think you could do much better there. Not sure what you mean by significant increase in fidelity....you do have gear of reasonably hi fidelity but the sub to me is the weakest of what you have.

Passive bi-amping IMO is a waste of wire and it wouldn't make the speakers better than they are. Here's an article on that https://www.audioholics.com/frequent-questions/the-difference-between-biamping-vs-biwiring
 
William Lemmerhirt

William Lemmerhirt

Audioholic Overlord
Sorry, but yeah. The sub is just not good. To be clear, nobody’s taking shots here.(not that you thought that) It’s just that we’ve been around. Lot of gear for a long time. So when we’re saying that, it comes from experiencing entry level subs in person. If you like it, no reason to upgrade. But you did ask...so...as opposed to spending your money randomly, that is a place that we all prioritize, and thus we recommend accordingly.
And I’d skip the buy-wiring too.
 
A

aesposito

Enthusiast
Yes, it really is that sub par, especially with a big open area. Your sub is underpowered as well as low quality. Like Bill said, Hsu is probably the value leader for subs but the PB/PC2000s at SVS (scroll down a little) are priced pretty nice. I would probably nudge you toward a pair of those at minimum with a preference for a pair of HSU VTF-3 MK5s. Price in the HSU link is for 2 of them.
When you say pair. Where would placement be for 2 subs in my room? I have never done a 2 sub setup. Is it worth it?
 
Pogre

Pogre

Audioholic Slumlord
When you say pair. Where would placement be for 2 subs in my room? I have never done a 2 sub setup. Is it worth it?
Placement is up to your room. Sometimes it can be tricky striking a balance between performance and practicality but there are some things you can do. A lot of us have used the sub crawl to find good 1st and 2nd (or 3rd) spots for subs.



 
A

aesposito

Enthusiast
Everyone thank you for your inputs! I am going to up my sub game to SVS sb16 ultra and take it from there. Last question below:

Upgrading my receiver (have about 1500 to spend) what should I get? Should I even upgrade?

Current receiver
Integra DTR 30.7
 
lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
Why the sealed sub particularly?

Do you need a different avr? Is there some feature you want particularly?
 
A

aesposito

Enthusiast
Why the sealed sub particularly?

Do you need a different avr? Is there some feature you want particularly?
I'm a newbie to this sub game. Read great reviews on this sub. Should I consider an alternative with comparable performance to SVS sb16? Also for AVR, I have a pioneer elite; which I loved the app and the EQ capabilities. This receiver doesn't have any of those robust features but want to make sure the hardware is on par with what Integra offers.
 
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