Purchasing floorstanders! *newbie alert*

[stonesy]

Hi people, I'm fairly new to audio scene but do enjoy both clarity and loudness - having an appreciation for a fairly good home audio setup.

Presently I've got a Mission M7C1 centre, M71 bookshelves, Celestion S8 sub, Technics SH-AC500D processor and a Harmon/Kardon AVI 250 amp.

I'm looking to get some floorstanders to replace the bookshelves, been into a local audio store and was quoted £299 for a pair of Mission M35i - I've had a look around and can't see them cheaper anywhere, which is good in some respect as I know i'm not being ripped off.

In terms of what I want, louder volumes and something to take some pressure off the centre - which at the moment takes all the kicking, with the left/rights playing fairly low when the processors in surround mode. Would these speakers be suitable? bare in mind there in a bedroom about 5 meters squared, and mainly being used to play audio/PC games/films through a computer using an optical cable.

Cheers for any input!

[Groundbeef]

Hi people, I'm fairly new to audio scene but do enjoy both clarity and loudness - having an appreciation for a fairly good home audio setup.

Presently I've got a Mission M7C1 centre, M71 bookshelves, Celestion S8 sub, Technics SH-AC500D processor and a Harmon/Kardon AVI 250 amp.

I'm looking to get some floorstanders to replace the bookshelves, been into a local audio store and was quoted £299 for a pair of Mission M35i - I've had a look around and can't see them cheaper anywhere, which is good in some respect as I know i'm not being ripped off.

In terms of what I want, louder volumes and something to take some pressure off the centre - which at the moment takes all the kicking, with the left/rights playing fairly low when the processors in surround mode. Would these speakers be suitable? bare in mind there in a bedroom about 5 meters squared, and mainly being used to play audio/PC games/films through a computer using an optical cable.

Cheers for any input!

I'm not sure how much a pound is worth, but that sounds good. Are you wanting the floor stands to take the load off the center? I don't think that is how it works. The center channel is mainly for voice, etc, and then the floor stands would take place for a subwoofer.

Frankly, I'm just a bit unsure.

The ONLY thing I know for sure is that your speakers MUST be EXACTLY 12' apart, or the whole system will be off.

BTW, I have some old Marantz floorstanders with 15" cones, that would fill your room up nicely. They tap out at 155 watts each, and that ought to wake the neighbors!

[bobsticks]

.The ONLY thing I know for sure is that your speakers MUST be EXACTLY 12' apart, or the whole system will be off.

LOL, somebody stop me before I subreference again.



Stonesy, I'm gonna throw this out there for you to play with. If you're playing games within a 5.1 format invariably the center will get the greatest wokout. Before spending money you owe it to yourself to tweak some settings, both on the soundcard and processor. Myself, I would check the processors to see if it has individual channel adjustments for each speaker. It might be that raising the levels, a little or a lot, could get you the desired effect. At least give it a shot before spendin' the hard earned...

Welcome to the forums btw.

[Mr Peabody]

That is correct in 5.1 or better the center will be the work horse. You could add a sub to the center channel. The best way would be to put the center setting to "large", go from your center pre outs with a Y adaptor running one side to the sub and the other into the power amp center input.

[stonesy]

I gathered the centre is for vocals, but mine will also play alot of the main tune with the left/rights only kicking in if I play any HD content i.e. blu-ray/hd dvds, or anything in DTS.

The only time I can hear them is in these instances (they are working I can hear them kicking) the best time I hear them is in stereo mode where the centre is off.

heres my setup (btw I already have a subfwoofer is a Celestion S8)

http://xs123.xs.to/xs123/08030/dscn0526179.jpg.xs.jpg (http://xs.to/xs.php?h=xs123&d=08030&f=dscn0526179.jpg)
http://xs123.xs.to/xs123/08030/dscn0527688.jpg.xs.jpg (http://xs.to/xs.php?h=xs123&d=08030&f=dscn0527688.jpg)
http://xs123.xs.to/xs123/08030/dscn0529265.jpg.xs.jpg (http://xs.to/xs.php?h=xs123&d=08030&f=dscn0529265.jpg)

Rear of amp / processor

The left/rights have a RCA into the technics, the sub and centre have only one cable coming from the processor is this right?

http://xs223.xs.to/xs223/08042/dscn0530691.jpg.xs.jpg (http://xs.to/xs.php?h=xs223&d=08042&f=dscn0530691.jpg)
http://xs123.xs.to/xs123/08042/dscn0532801.jpg.xs.jpg (http://xs.to/xs.php?h=xs123&d=08042&f=dscn0532801.jpg)

[audio amateur]

300 quid sounds about right. You should get the matching center speaker aswell.
If you don't want the center speaker to take on so much weight, set it to 'small' on your processor. And set your main speakers (the front floorstanders) to 'large'.

[stonesy]

Have done, that using the processor settings but still the centre speaker is primarily the main source of all my sound. You think theres anything I can change on my PC, would you advise a better soundcard perhaps an Audigy Xf-i music orientated one?

[Mr Peabody]

I noticed you mentioned you have your computer connected with an "optical" cable, so I assume this is a bitstream into your processor? If so, your computer sound card adjustments aren't doing anything, you would have to make speaker adjustments inside the processor's set up menu. It sounds like your speaker volume controls may need to be tweaked. Have you set the speaker levels using a test tone?

[stonesy]

no i haven't done that process, would you mind explaining so I could perhaps see if that helps at all.

Cheers for the help!

[topspeed]

You need to get an spl (sound pressure level) meter and run test tones through your rig to make sure all of your speakers are calibrated to the same level. AVIA or DVE both make excellent calibrations discs that can be readily found at a store or online.

Floorstanders will NOT take the load off your center. All they will do is offer the capability for full range sound from the same point source. As you already have a sub, I don't know how important this is, especially considering the compromised set-up of your rig.

Save your money and tweak your settings. Good sound can be had from what you've got.

Hope this helps.

[Mr Peabody]

Or, you could set it up by ear. Am I correct that the Technics is a surround processor? You said computer to Technics to amp. But whatever your controller is, the Technics or amp, use the remote to go inside your set up menu, look for something like "speaker level" and go into it. I can't give you step by step without knowing your gear. Your manual should have that. You should be able to select a speaker like "front/left" and as it is selected a pink noise test tone will come out. You should be able to arrow through each speaker and hear the tone come from that speaker. You want to use the volume up/down to get the speakers as even as possible. Do this while in your listening position. You should be able to get close without an SPL meter and test disc. The sub is more difficult, I found the test tone not reliable for that. When I set up by ear I like using the THX optimizer that can be found on many THX movies. Inside the optimizer found in the DVD menu go to audio. There is a test that sends a low frequency tone to the sub and over to the center and you adjust the sub's volume (inside the receiver's menu) of the sub until the tone sweep is seamless, or as seamless as possible.