A lot to be said for good set up. [Archive] - Audio & Video Forums

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Mr Peabody
02-27-2010, 08:09 PM
A friend of mine has a Sony HTIB and has been wanting to upgrade but not much money. Some one posted a link here to Vann's who had some Jamo HT speaker packages on sale I shared with him. He ended up buying the 406 package for $249.00. I gave him an old Infinity sub. I took it over and brought my SPL meter to help him set everything up. The package consisted of two floor speakers, two rear and a center. A pretty nice set up for $249.00 which was supposed discounted from MSRP of $450.00. It was hard to tell right off how good the Jamo were because the Sony had built in crossovers that pulled the bass out. I guess it was set to optimize the small satelites and passive bass module that came with it originally.

The center was small enough to sit in front of his plasma without obstructing any view which put it about in line with the floorstanding speakers of the package. His wife didn't want the rears on the wall so the compromise was putting them on tables that sat at either end of the sofa. Although close not so bad since the tables brought the rears high enough to shoot over the sofa's side. I have his video going directly to HDTV, the Sony BDP audio is going to a coaxial input and satelite via optical, to the Sony receiver. His room was open at both ends. The sub was in a small corner beside one of the mains. I found turning the sub to fire parallel to the back wall to work best. Once the levels were all set we dropped in Transformers 2 to see how it all sounded. The subs crossover was all the way up to take it out of the way of the receiver's internal crossover and the volume was barely up. I have to say I was impressed with what I had done with this set up. The sub did not boom and you couldn't tell where it was by sound. The steering of effects was much better than I expected from this HTIB receiver. The Jamo did very well for what they were. I have to say I have heard more expensive systems that didn't sound as good as this set up. Other than maybe the Infinity sub this is all pretty much a budget system. And it sounded way better than I thought it would. The room is far from a perfect placement. I can only attribute the great performance to a good set up, consisting of these attributes:

1. Voice matched speakers
2. The speakers all being about the same height which is near ear level when sitting.
3. All speakers and sub having matched volume levels with a SPL meter.
4. No crossover overlap.
5. back to #3, keeping sub level matched. (Am I wrong for wishing I had took the volume knob off the sub home with me :) ) I have come to realize with my own system how important a quality sub is but it's more important to learn not to misuse a sub.

It was funny, I was sitting there in amazement at what this system was doing and my friend really didn't realize how good his system sounded. He was used to that little Sony bass module booming sound. He wants to get a HT receiver next. I just hope the receiver will sound this good when set up. I don't want to sound like it was all me, I just think I got lucky with everything having synergy and working with the points mentioned above. I think he was starting to come around after watching a bit of the movie and him realizing he was hearing effects he hadn't noticed before.

So what have we learned? You can optimize what ever you have with a proper set up and even Peabody isn't above getting his hands dirty with some budget gear upon occasion :)

poppachubby
02-28-2010, 04:50 AM
Nice write up Peabody, and welcome back.


You can optimize what ever you have with a proper set up and even Peabody isn't above getting his hands dirty with some budget gear upon occasion

This is so true. In my case, I simply have no funding for H/T. It's been a slow going process. Generally speaking, my H/T is the little brother of my 2 channel; it gets the hand me downs.

I'm now at a point where I'm quite happy with my H/T set up. Everything I have is optimally set up and as you mentioned, that's the key.

I think the biggest improvement I had, was the day I decided to upgrade all of my cabling. When it was all said and done, there was audible improvement. Moreover, the video was enhanced, even bringing my wife to comment.

It's a bit of a rock and a hard place. Once you get your gear working great, and have things improved, it certainly drives your curiousity about what else is available. I've heard $100 000+ H/T via my dealer's rooms. It's just like a theater, pretty awesome.

Your buddy is lucky to have you in his entourage, I'm sure that was the key to getting things going for him.

Mr Peabody
02-28-2010, 05:31 AM
Thanks Poppa C

kexodusc
02-28-2010, 06:51 AM
Nice write-up Mr. P. Proper calibration and intelligent use of what you have can go a long way. I don't know how many times I've had people complain about their stereos yet have completely ignored proper setup. Or people who spend a ton of money on brand names and then do everything they can to induce a toxic environment.

You can get a lot of mileage out of budget speakers with a subwoofer once the bass burden has been removed from the drivers.
You might have set the poor guy down a dark path where he'll spend a lot of money chasing that next incremental improvement.

Mr Peabody
02-28-2010, 07:03 AM
I'm leaning toward the Pioneer 819 for his next step. Any input or feedback there would be appreciated. I think he'd rather have an Onkyo 607 but he has a 819 budget. He is wanting a receiver for the updated features and HD audio since he has a BD player. The 819 is the cheapest I've found for a HT receiver that is "fully functional" with HDMI etc. I hate that Yamaha and Sony, maybe others put out cheap receivers where there's a HDMI input but it doesn't do what it is intended to do. Who in the world wants to pay the price of HDMI just to have video pass through? OK, I'm off the soapbox. Is JVC still putting out receivers? I haven't looked at any in some time. I'll have to check to see if they have anything comparible to the 819. I'd think it would be difficult to offer a fully functional receiver for less than $299.00 though.

kexodusc
02-28-2010, 07:11 AM
I'm leaning toward the Pioneer 819 for his next step. Any input or feedback there would be appreciated. I think he'd rather have an Onkyo 607 but he has a 819 budget. He is wanting a receiver for the updated features and HD audio since he has a BD player. The 819 is the cheapest I've found for a HT receiver that is "fully functional" with HDMI etc. I hate that Yamaha and Sony, maybe others put out cheap receivers where there's a HDMI input but it doesn't do what it is intended to do. Who in the world wants to pay the price of HDMI just to have video pass through? OK, I'm off the soapbox. Is JVC still putting out receivers? I haven't looked at any in some time. I'll have to check to see if they have anything comparible to the 819. I'd think it would be difficult to offer a fully functional receiver for less than $299.00 though.
Six of one, half a dozen of the other I think...there's been a lot of complaints about the 819 reducing picture quality through HDMI...not sure if they solved that in firmware update or not. Almost recommended one for a friend a few months ago, but found this problem a lot in consumer reviews and chickened out.
Too bad too...Pioneer has been hit and miss the last few years, you might give the Onkyo a second look? I doubt the power difference is material....then again, Onkyo's had their own share of bugs in recent models.

Come to think of it, I can't think of a company that hasn't had a few hiccups since HDMI came along. It's scary to see companies like Anthem, Integra, and Cary having issues. Hope HDMI has a long life because it's been much harder keeping up with bleeding edge tech in this generation of a/v than the jump to DVD was.

Worf101
03-01-2010, 05:24 AM
Good write up, good work. A very practical, real world situation, problem and solution. Given the current state of affairs I believe that many folks who tire of the HTIB will be going a similar route if and when the economy picks up.

Worf

thekid
03-01-2010, 01:25 PM
Mr.P thanks for "slumming" it a little with us common audio folks......... :D
In terms of a HT receiver I may be a bit biased but I think the Pioneer would be a good choice. I have an earlier version of it in the 815 which was a S&V editors choice winner a few years back. It has been pretty much in daily use for 4-5 years now and has never given a hint of trouble. Specific to your post regarding set-up the Pioneer MCACC set-up that the 819 has can be run with the included mic does a great job of calibrating the speakers based on room size and condition.

Good on you for lending your expertise and tweaking the system to reach its potential.

pixelthis
03-01-2010, 03:05 PM
Amazing how some ungodly junk can be improved with decent speakers.
Reminds me of my first rig.
Always go with speakers first.:1:

Mr Peabody
03-01-2010, 09:47 PM
I found Yamaha 465 at $299.00 has fully functioning HDMI and HD audio. They have a very cool feature called "HDMI Through". This allows you to watch a source without the receiver being on. I am leaning toward this receiver now for my friend's next move.

eisforelectronic
03-01-2010, 10:48 PM
I would also like to add that a system that gets regular usage will often sound better than a hardly used system.

pixelthis
03-02-2010, 11:28 AM
I would also like to add that a system that gets regular usage will often sound better than a hardly used system.

Thats because you get used to it.
Theres a process known as "breaking in" gear, running it for awhile until it starts sounding good, but some think its just the listener getting used to it
BTW that HTIB is woefully underpowered, I wouldnt play it too loud, might induce clipping,
and hurt your speakers.:1:

eisforelectronic
03-02-2010, 06:23 PM
I'm a firm believer in "break in"