What should I try to optimize SQ given the components I have?

[aceinc1]

My main HT system has lots of good components (IMO) and I would like to try things to optimize my listening, 2 channel & HT.

My electronics are;

Marantz AV-7704
2- Emotiva XPA-1 Gen 1 for L&R
1- Emotiva XPA-3 Gen1 for center and rear surround
1- Emotiva XPA-2 Gen 1 for surrounds
1- Sherbourn 5-5100A for height 4 channels

Speakers

L&R - Magnepan 2.7QR
Center - Home designed & built high efficiency
Surround - Magnepan .7
Rear - Magnepan MMG (pair)
Height - 4 - Dayton 8" ceiling mounted speakers
Subs - 2 - GR Research dual 12" W style OB, 1 - Rythmik Audio 15" Sealed, 2 - 10" Dayton Titanics in sealed enclosures driven by a Crown Amp.

The room is 26' x 15'6" x 9'. There are two openings both 80" high, one ~48" on one short wall, the other ~30" on a long wall. A large fire place protrudes into the room on one of the long walls and there is a bay window on a short wall. The (unscaled) image below shows the rear speakers (S5-S6) and two of the subs (s7-s8) towards the center of the rear wall. They are currently in the corners. The mains (s1-s2) are pulled into the room ~46" The OB subs are just to the outside of the mains. All windows have cloth cellular blinds. The floor is wood over concrete. There is a 8'x10' area rug under the coffee table and a 5'x7' area rug behind the sofa table. The walls are plaster (not sheet rock).

One area of concern I have is the subs on the back wall are run wirelessly using a Rocketfish wireless transceiver. I am not sure the Marantz has the ability to set a delay long enough to make up for the wireless insertion delay as well as the distance to the listening position. I am considering inserting a 50' RCA cable and remove the wireless. Thoughts?

I have the mains & OB subs connected in parallel to the XPA-1s and running them as L & R as far as the Sound processor is concerned. I have considered running the OB subs separately directly from the sound processor. I haven't done this because I was unsure how to connect them as well as the belief that treating them as one unit set as large would be better. My confusion about how to connect them is whether I should make them "sub 2" in a 7.2.4 system or parallel them on sub 1. Thoughts.

My room looks more or less like this;



A tour of the room before I added the Maggie .7s can be seen here;

 

[lovinthehd]

Where do you feel the setup lacks? Hard to know from where we sit. Seems like a system you should be able to enjoy now...maybe just buy more content to enjoy if you've got some money burning in your pocket.

Agree about going wired over rocketfish stuff for that distance....

 

[aceinc1]

Where do you feel the setup lacks? Hard to know from where we sit. Seems like a system you should be able to enjoy now...maybe just buy more content to enjoy if you've got some money burning in your pocket.

Agree about going wired over rocketfish stuff for that distance....

My focus is on the bass at the moment. To go wired to the rear subs would mean I would need ~50 RCA cable. Would that be an issue?

Although my son who is a non professional musician (aerospace engineer during the day) suggests the midrange isn't as clear as it should be.

 

[lovinthehd]

Well the mismatched subs did occur to me as potentially being an issue altogether, but I'd hardwire subs at that distance (and one of mine I run a bit over 40 ft of wire to from its amp). The midrange would be more a speaker issue....no Maggie experience but perhaps they're more about your preference than his? Is the system to please you or your son?

 

[TLS Guy]

My main HT system has lots of good components (IMO) and I would like to try things to optimize my listening, 2 channel & HT.

My electronics are;

Marantz AV-7704
2- Emotiva XPA-1 Gen 1 for L&R
1- Emotiva XPA-3 Gen1 for center and rear surround
1- Emotiva XPA-2 Gen 1 for surrounds
1- Sherbourn 5-5100A for height 4 channels

Speakers

L&R - Magnepan 2.7QR
Center - Home designed & built high efficiency
Surround - Magnepan .7
Rear - Magnepan MMG (pair)
Height - 4 - Dayton 8" ceiling mounted speakers
Subs - 2 - GR Research dual 12" W style OB, 1 - Rythmik Audio 15" Sealed, 2 - 10" Dayton Titanics in sealed enclosures driven by a Crown Amp.

The room is 26' x 15'6" x 9'. There are two openings both 80" high, one ~48" on one short wall, the other ~30" on a long wall. A large fire place protrudes into the room on one of the long walls and there is a bay window on a short wall. The (unscaled) image below shows the rear speakers (S5-S6) and two of the subs (s7-s8) towards the center of the rear wall. They are currently in the corners. The mains (s1-s2) are pulled into the room ~46" The OB subs are just to the outside of the mains. All windows have cloth cellular blinds. The floor is wood over concrete. There is a 8'x10' area rug under the coffee table and a 5'x7' area rug behind the sofa table. The walls are plaster (not sheet rock).

One area of concern I have is the subs on the back wall are run wirelessly using a Rocketfish wireless transceiver. I am not sure the Marantz has the ability to set a delay long enough to make up for the wireless insertion delay as well as the distance to the listening position. I am considering inserting a 50' RCA cable and remove the wireless. Thoughts?

I have the mains & OB subs connected in parallel to the XPA-1s and running them as L & R as far as the Sound processor is concerned. I have considered running the OB subs separately directly from the sound processor. I haven't done this because I was unsure how to connect them as well as the belief that treating them as one unit set as large would be better. My confusion about how to connect them is whether I should make them "sub 2" in a 7.2.4 system or parallel them on sub 1. Thoughts.

My room looks more or less like this;

View attachment 53472

A tour of the room before I added the Maggie .7s can be seen here;

Where did you get the design for that center channel from? That design makes no sense from what I can see of it. It looks to be awash with problems.

 

[aceinc1]

Where did you get the design for that center channel from? That design makes no sense from what I can see of it. It looks to be awash with problems.

It may look odd, but it actually sounds quite good. As far as the design, it came from a bit too much peperoni pizza and a bad dream.

My concept was a short "line array" of tweeters with the "mids" focusing the sound. The crossover could probably use a little (lot) work, but overall the dialog is quite understandable.

 

[ryanosaur]

That just made me dizzy.

 

[TLS Guy]

It may look odd, but it actually sounds quite good. As far as the design, it came from a bit too much peperoni pizza and a bad dream.

My concept was a short "line array" of tweeters with the "mids" focusing the sound. The crossover could probably use a little (lot) work, but overall the dialog is quite understandable.

As I suspected a back of the neck job! Have you measured it? If not you should. I suspect that is the first unit for the ax.

 

[aceinc1]

As I suspected a back of the neck job! Have you measured it? If not you should. I suspect that is the first unit for the ax.

I haven't directly measured it since I was "designing" the crossover, but when I look at the Audyssey plots it seems pretty smooth, no worse than any of the other speakers above ~60hz.

 

[lovinthehd]

I wonder how you'd feel with a better "matched" design of transducers/implementation across the board....I'm thinking I've not heard of quite the wide variation you've got going there! Hey, if the center works....

 

[TLS Guy]

It may look odd, but it actually sounds quite good. As far as the design, it came from a bit too much peperoni pizza and a bad dream.

My concept was a short "line array" of tweeters with the "mids" focusing the sound. The crossover could probably use a little (lot) work, but overall the dialog is quite understandable.

The problem is just have too many issues. The room is asymmetric, with the door where it is. This is coupled with having very difficult to place speakers. Those di-poles are far too close to the wall behind, and the corners. Those speakers have to have a lot of space around them, back front and sides. You can't really match those Maggies with a monopole center. Those Maggies really need to be in a dedicated two channel audio system. They can sound very good, but getting the best out of them requires a lot of work.

By far the biggest upgrade you could make, would be to find another room for your HT. What I am looking at is a lost cause between the room and speaker selection.

 

[aceinc1]

The problem is just have too many issues. The room is asymmetric, with the door where it is. This is coupled with having very difficult to place speakers. Those di-poles are far too close to the wall behind, and the corners. Those speakers have to have a lot of space around them, back front and sides. You can't really match those Maggies with a monopole center. Those Maggies really need to be in a dedicated two channel audio system. They can sound very good, but getting the best out of them requires a lot of work.

By far the biggest upgrade you could make, would be to find another room for your HT. What I am looking at is a lost cause between the room and speaker selection.

Well, I have been trying to convince my wife to allow me to build a dedicated HT for about 30 years, but that hasn't happened yet. I did get a 3 car garage & 3 car carport to replace my 2 car garage (converted to a one bedroom apartment) my father used, and now my mother-in-law is using for their twilight years.

I understand the weakness of my room, but you gotta live with some compromises.

At present I do use the Maggie 2.7s for a lot of 2 channel listening. I have a den with a Murphy bed only 11' x 15' which I am using for testing. It currently has a 2-2 channel mainly analog systems with Kef 103/4s and tweaked Klipsch Cornwall IIIs, the former driven by an Adcom 555 II the latter by VTA M-125 mono blocks (KT120 valves). Unfortunately that room is too small and moderately uncomfortable.

But for the main HT system, I am looking maximize bass SQ for both 2 channel and HT applications. I was playing with REWs room simulator. They don't have any way to specify dipole/OB speakers/subs. Additionally with the wireless insertion delay, the fireplace, bay window and openings I question its accuracy & validity.