Home theater setup

[Mr Peabody]

That's true, not many larger retail outlets have the dedicated home theater rooms. Most things are hooked up through switchers and the like. Some of the smaller boutique places in town have pretty nice set ups.

[IBSTORMIN]

If you want to experience what I call the"sonic bubble", it can only be done with timbre matched speakers all around. This is also beneficial for multichannel music as well.

I've also found that this is very important. Even better than just timbre matched, all speakers being the EXACT SAME speaker makes a HUGE difference in making the whole experience real. When something moves, the sound of it does not change at all from speaker to speaker.

[isaaca]

A big thumbs up for HSU research subs!!

I got the STF-2 about two weeks ago and now it seems like the subwoofer is the best part of my system. This thing is packs a punch and is very accurate when handling the lower frequencies.

[Mr Peabody]

Yeah, typically hear good things about HSU and a great sub can make quite a difference in a HT set up.

[isaaca]

Also adding a sub automatically assigns small to the floorstanders, so that draws out most of the lower frequencies and some higher ones as well.

[Mr Peabody]

I wouldn't think the "small" setting would subtract from the highs. Which receiver do you have? Most I've seen still allow a choice of large or small with a sub.

[JoeE SP9]

Many people that have a surround receiver play two channel music in one of the synthesized surround modes. I don't know if this is because they like the sound or are too lazy to change modes. As for me, I have always been underwhelmed with any of the "fake" surround modes. The one exception is the Dynaquad system. When the rear speakers are not too loud it can make a very pleasant addition to the overall sound.on some recordings.

[Mr Peabody]

I tend to agree, way back when I bought my first processor, it was a Yamaha flagship, only Pro Logic in those days but a host of music DSP modes to play with, and that is basically what it was, just playing, I didn't care to do serious listening with any of them.

[IBSTORMIN]

As for me, I have always been underwhelmed with any of the "fake" surround modes.

I've always found the processors changing of the sound in fake modes introduces some noise. Subtle, but the music just doesn't sound as clean.