SA-CD.net - Front pair & Surround pair, get all the same or different?

Post by yakman January 14, 2012 (21 of 25)
AmonRa said: If you want to hear all the low notes on orchestral classical music and organ, you certainly need a good subwoofer with small speakers. I even have a large sub with fairly large studio monitors, for the lowest octave. I'm just afraid the small room would just mess up whatever subwoofer in...

Post by AmonRa January 15, 2012 (22 of 25)

yakman said:

I'm just afraid the small room would just mess up whatever subwoofer in...

My room is about 19 m2 and 47 m3. Still I use large PCM IB2S monitors and the subwoofer is also a large 7071A from Genelec. There is no problems with low frequencies, the room is well damped, though, and the ceiling height varies from 2.8 to 2.3 meters, which helps.

It is possible (actually easy) to get good bass in a car, a small room behaves the same way at the lowest frequencies; the sound does not propagate as a wave (long waves do not fit in the room) but as a pressure fluctuation. Less power is needed for this and a smaller sub which goes truly low is enough. Certainly worth trying, might need some experimenting to get the best possible placement and balance.

Genelec subs have excellent bass management systems, you can connect all MCH channels to one sub and it filters and sums the lows for itself and passes the main signal to MCH amps and speakers.

Post by tailspn January 17, 2012 (23 of 25)
Newegg has a two day promotion on Martin Logan Motion 12 speakers for $300 each. $1,500 would purchase a very respectable, equal speaker, system for a ITU surround system.

Post by mercutio January 24, 2012 (24 of 25)

Fitzcarlo wrote: "The result is much lower cost and much easier placement."

So true about the cost/benefit. I've been tinkering with used items for quite a while, looking for good sound and value. But I'm now sold on multichannel processors.

Ultra low cost:

Pioneer dvd 610: $103, passes dsd via hdmi.

Yamaha 667: $319, processes dsd, etc., via 'pure-direct' or fine-sounding programs that are fun to play with. The dsd processing (most likely via pcm, but Yamaha is cagey about that) sounds better than any sacd player I've used. The 'pure-direct' cd sounds better than any cd player I've owned. I guess that's because the processor is coordinating input, output, and speaker levels in ways that I could never tweak on my own.

I didn't like the processor making the judgment that my front and center speakers were 'large,' so I reset them to 'small,' which results in greater involvement of the subwoofer. The speakers are all in the same family, different sizes, but the effect is fairly seamless, depending on the sound program (or, in the case of dsd pure-direct, the quality of the recording and its positioning of instruments.)

Nice feature about the Yamaha 667: multichannel pre-in and multichannel pre-out allow for continued tweaking, tinkering, and pursuit of an "ideal" sacd sound via new players and amps. . . even though I can't imagine right now getting a better sound from my system than I'm getting.

$422 for a system?

Post by Bradman January 25, 2012 (25 of 25)
I have a Yamaha 661 and also changed the YPAO setting of my speakers from Large to Small. Having DSD processing is nice, though I like Straight vs. Pure Direct for output because Straight still involves the subs. I use a Sony BD player for SACD and will pick up the Pio610 for DVD-A, soon.