Which topic confuses you the most?

[gene]

Please let us know which topics you have the hardest time digesting and would like us to cover more thoroughly.

 

[Francious70]

Cables, because it's all over my head.

Paul

 

[sgtbyls]

Please let us know which topics you have the hardest time digesting and would like us to cover more thoroughly.

Im a newbie and i dont understand all the discussion about crossover points and all the other things that go along with adjusting the sound coming out of the speakers. Thats one of the sole reasons im gonna buy the yamaha 5790 with its YPAO.

[Edit: Fixed quote - HawKe]

 

[diggerdave]

cables and they're connections, too many choices. close second and third is hardware (also too many choices) and configuration and set-up hmm again too many choices.
On the other hand I appreciate having these types of decisions over say, where's my next meal ...

 

[markw]

I don't see "women" on this list.

 

[diggerdave]

actually it was there. I took it out just before I hit send, not having been single for the last 6 years...

 

[plhart]

At this point in the survey...

I see that 54 Audioholics have responded and 31%, the largest category of most confusing topics, goes to room acoustics. So, since I'm writing a lot of the room acoustics articles, my question all Audioholics is twofold:

1) Why are 31 Audioholics on line (at this time, 1/2/05 @ 5:10PST) reading about receiver questions and only 3 reading about room acoustics?

2) Are the acoustics articles we now have available too difficult to understand? To difficult to implement? Perceived to be too expensive to implement? Not possible to implement? We'd really like to know!

Oh, and a last one. Should we perhaps double post articles such as the Audyssey piece in both the receiver and room acoustics sections?

 

[toquemon]

I see that 54 Audioholics have responded and 31%, the largest category of most confusing topics, goes to room acoustics. So, since I'm writing a lot of the room acoustics articles, my question all Audioholics is twofold:

1) Why are 31 Audioholics on line (at this time, 1/2/05 @ 5:10PST) reading about receiver questions and only 3 reading about room acoustics?

2) Are the acoustics articles we now have available too difficult to understand? To difficult to implement? Perceived to be too expensive to implement? Not possible to implement? We'd really like to know!

Oh, and a last one. Should we perhaps double post articles such as the Audyssey piece in both the receiver and room acoustics sections?

I think my listening room has all the problems described in the articles (very lively, standing waves, modes, etc) i put some bookshelves (with books) behind mi head and some paintings on the sides to act as diffusors but i found very difficult to implement the bass traps due to my ignorance in some words of English and because i found some instructions hard to follow.

 

[plhart]

If you read my Audyssey report carefully you'll see that even the developer of THX agrees with you. Taming bass is really difficult. You don't have to resort to bass traps though. Way too expensive and cumbersome to achieve what can be mediocre results.

My recommendation since joining Audioholics has been to use subwoofers which have a minimum of single-band 1/12 octave parametric equalization on-board. These subs include the Infinities with the RABOS systems, the new big subs from JL Audio and some from Velodyne. My personal system uses a (now discontinued) Infinity Intermezzo 1.2 ($1500) and the new Infinity Beta CSW-10 ($1000) which will become my reference subwoofer.

In lieu of subs with the single-band paraametric EQ built in we've tested, on a preliminary basis, the S.O.S. automatic system ($299.95) available at www.speakercity.com. It works great and automatically.

Others have touted the Behringer EQ made for pro use but Gene recently had a real ground problem with the Behringer which he'd installed in his uncle's system and I've yet to try out my Behringer 2496. I can tell that just from a preliminary reading of the manual that came with the Behringer it appears that the de-esser circuit which others on this site say they use specs a fixed width of attenuation at 1/60th octave which it way too narrow to work very well in most aplications.

 

[hopjohn]

I see that 54 Audioholics have responded and 31%, the largest category of most confusing topics, goes to room acoustics. So, since I'm writing a lot of the room acoustics articles, my question all Audioholics is twofold:

1) Why are 31 Audioholics on line (at this time, 1/2/05 @ 5:10PST) reading about receiver questions and only 3 reading about room acoustics?

Acoustics discussion just isnt a sexy topic, pure and simple.

Ex. Look dear, at the new TV I got us!!!

Ex. Look dear, at the new bass traps I got us!!!

See what I mean?

 

[DECIBEL_KING]

Ohms ...

8,6,4 OHM speakers and receivers usually only handle 6 and 8 but its bad to use the 6 OHM option. Why cant a reciever just say its compatible with any OHM setting and automatically do it. As far as I know it does not matter what the receiver is set to because the speakers will draw the ohms that they need to run anyways.

 

[heroesunplugged]

Room Acoustics

Room acoustics is certainly the most dynamic because there are simply so many different materials involved, deminsional differences/variations, and variables for equpiment and furniture placement. It's also very time consuming, physically exhausting, and mentally challenging.

Most of us have to compromise when making choices with the above factors and usually try to make the most of the space available while still trying to achieve good sound quality. I think that this is why we replace our equipment. It's easier to go out and buy another receiver or new set of speakers than it is to figure out how we can rearrange everything in order to achieve sound nirvana.

If you have a wife and children you also have to consider them. You may also have to consider your life-style and friends. It's not just about furnishings, equipment, room deminsions and money. It's also about realtionships. It's about how the sound equipment affects others too. Most of us have two objectives that we are trying to achieve and both are untangable - good sound and good, sound relationships. How can you make it all work in harmony together so that you can achieve your goals.

For those of you with spouses (hopefully just one), who will want to rearrange the furniture? It's not usually one of us. It is usually the wife that will want to rearrange everything a hundred and one different ways before settling on something (or deciding to go with what you originally had). And then you also have to consider where your equipment will wind up and make the best of it. This is probably one of the main reasons YPAO, MCACC, EZ set, and most of the major av receiver manufacturers have been able to sell us on auto setup. These seem to work great for the most part (except for the lowest octaves) and most of us can live with what they can achieve with our room layout with little or no effort on our part. A few clicks and a few minutes later everything is setup for us.

It's also more effort than most of us are willing to put into tweaking our systems. It's easier for us to put in a few more hours at work and throw a $1000 at a new piece of equipment than it is to redesign a room. It could be a lot less expensive too. It comes down to time, money, effort and the actual overall improvement.

If we could know in advance that setting up a room would achieve result A and setting it up another would achieve B then we could arrange everything as ideally as possible. Most of us will choose to balance comfort with a sound quality from our system we can live with.

 

[Buckeyefan 1]

Room acoustics. I'm always adjusting my subwoofer based on the source. Tired of turning it up for tv, and down for dvd's. It needs the "Magnavox Smart Sound" leveling.

 

[shokhead]

You need a sub with a remote for the volume.

 

[saurabh]

Room Acoustics and loud speaker placement since both are related and also effect the overall sound quality that I might hear.

 

[benolium]

8,6,4 OHM speakers and receivers usually only handle 6 and 8 but its bad to use the 6 OHM option. Why cant a reciever just say its compatible with any OHM setting and automatically do it. As far as I know it does not matter what the receiver is set to because the speakers will draw the ohms that they need to run anyways.

Ohlm levels. The more the better, the less the better? I have know clue at this point. All I know is that I bought the best receiver I could afford. Hopefully it will figure it out for me. Wait....what happens when I hook up speakers of different ohlm levels, this is a bad thing for some reason. The receiver "works less" with lower ohlm levels???? still know clue. Someone help and clear this up. By the way, I just ordered tha BIC system. Should I let the Yamaha receiver figure it out through YPAO?

 

[philh]

Room acoustics is probably the most difficult to control. There was a significant difference between my old house and the new one. Mostly same equipment, but I recognize this house has almost impossible configuration to have "theater level" sound. Hard to beat wet plaster over drywall, with perfectly positioned side speakers, hard wood floor with thick padding and really thick carpeting for acoustics. New house, one wall is nearly all glass, opposite wall is mostly open to the kitchen, corner fireplace, low density carpeting. I've tried to compensate some with equipment, but have neither time, resources, or knowlidge to fix this room, if it's even possible.

 

[Rip Van Woofer]

New house, one wall is nearly all glass, opposite wall is mostly open to the kitchen, corner fireplace, low density carpeting. I've tried to compensate some with equipment, but have neither time, resources, or knowlidge to fix this room, if it's even possible.

Headphones!

These newer open-plan houses are definitely not audio-friendly. And glass is evil. Drapes or vertical blinds are an obvious partial fix there.

But probably the only real answer, if you have a basement, is to build a room there. That's what I'm planning on.

Or, if you have two bedrooms you're not using (or can kick the kids out!), you could knock out the wall between them! Unlikely, I know...

 

[majorloser]

I can always use help with proper room setup for acoustics!

 

[K-man]

What confuses me the most?????

I wonder where to attach the other end of the ground wire off the back of my power amp??? no kidding...ha ha ha