CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

[perisoft]

So, my buddy and I watched it last week or so with about 800 watts of subwoofers and everything else CRANKED, and it was just mind blowing... but now I'm convinced that the movie is a f*cking masterpiece, because I was trying (unsuccesfully...) to get LimitedSharpenFaster working, and used the middle of the flick to test, and was compelled to crank up the system and watch for a few minutes. I was tired as hell before, and now I feel like I could skateboard down the side of the hoover dam. I swear to god, 5 minutes of that movie with good audio is like a line of cocaine as long as your arm.

If you haven't seen it yet, for God's sake do it. Turn everything up to eleven and DO IT. If you haven't got a good sound system and you're close to Ithaca, NY, PM me, come over, and we'll watch it. Seriously. It's unbelievable. Wow. Hot damn. Woot.

THIS is why I have a home theater - not for IRE calibrations, grayscale tracking, $100/foot speaker cable... I have it so I can fire up a movie, have sound that shakes pictures off the walls, and feel like I'm saving the f*cking world. This is why I do it!#$2

[JustGreg]

[draganm]

[papalek]

I can tell you that on a 120" wide screen with 1850 watts of earth shaking 7.1 surround sound it is totally wicked (thats a term from the north east).

[JustGreg]

Personally I just don't understand monoblocks. I mean, One amp per speaker...How do you control overall volume...do you do a line of something as long as your arm and in a blur of arm length line induced speed turn the dials as fast as you can? Ignorance can be bliss at times.
BTW..I have an Onkyo receiver. It could be....better. Sound is muddy and the center channel even near max is horrid. I'm deaf as a sponge as it is. I need all the help I can get and decibles ain't the answer.
I need to get my ass to Best Buy and ask about Open Items hidden under the counters again I guess. (Hence the craptastic sounding receiver I have now)
Greg

[papalek]

The Pioneer receiver that I use has MCACC. It adjust all channels so that they have even output. It also adjusts the timming delays based on how far the speakers are from the listening position.

[perisoft]

I've mentioned it in another post somewhere, but I've got a frankenaudio system. But I'm using one amp for the fronts, one amp for the center, one amp for the rears, and three for the subs. Actually, the sub signal is also sent to the front channels, because the Cerwin Vega front speakers have a ludicrous amount of low end and it seemed a shame to waste it.

I it's got about 200 RMS per channel into the fronts at 4ohms, about 150 into the center (which is actually three speakers split across an EQ unit per performance) and 100 per channel into the rear, 300 into two of the subs at 4ohms, and 100 into another sub. The speakers are 12/4/twt for the fronts, 8/4/twt for the rears, and (hold on to your hats) Woofer Midrange Tweeter Midrange Tweeter Midrange Tweeter Midrange Woofer for the center. Yyyeeaaa, biatch! This is what happens when your budget is $0... But hey, nothing like adding WMTMTMTMW to the whole 'WTW, MTM, WWT' or whatever debate. All I care about is that the talking comes from the middle!

So, I'm sure it's totally out of whack in terms of levels and EQ because I haven't tried hard to set that up in the temporary space, but one thing it provides in spades is relatively distortion free power. And bass. Lots, and lots, and lots, and lots of BASS. MMmmm. Bass.

[JustGreg]

1850 watts! Holy sh*t. What did you do...wire your wifes blow dryer into it? Dayum....your system is on Viagra, and mine is, well, a nurse flicking your dick so she can get the catheter in. (Don't ask).

If I can stray from the topic that I've blatantly hijacked, What makes a good center channel. Is it the drivers and tweeter or the crossover? I know drivers come in a zillion different flavors and so do tweeters..but to bring them to life isn't the crossover the heart? Is it possible to take So-So (thats the name of the Chinese guy that made mine) drivers and tweeter and make it better with a more better (jeeez...I'm 10 again) crossover?

EDIT: And just how do you control all those amps at the same time? I'm not getting that. Do they all go through an equalizer?

Greg

[perisoft]

[perisoft]

Didn't see your question until now. I'm running an HTPC so the matrix in AACfilter lets me adjust levels to each speaker individually. What nobody's done yet that I'm aware of is per-channel parametric EQ, which would let me get it far closer to where it needs to be. So I could adjust bass and treble on the amps (ha! ha! ha!) but basically I have to hope that everything is playing nice.

When it comes down to it, making the rears all perfect is hardly a huge priority, as they pretty much play muffled music, reverb, rainfall, and things going 'whoosh'. None of this requires particularly accurate reproduction (see previous haughty post). And I have 10-band EQ on the center channel, which is the MOST important to get right IMO as if you screw up the dialog it will sound like crap - if you don't have any high end in the center EVERYTHING sounds muffled. The Cerwin Vegas for the fronts are not half bad speakers, certainly more than adequate for this use IMO, and they're being driven by the best amp I've got (A technics receiver from 2002 or so. I might get a real power amplifier to replace it some time because it's not even close to utilizing the speakers, but it's fine for now).

I could, theoretically, alter the EQ on all channels at the output stage, alter the EQ on the center to compensate for that, and thereby flatten the response of the Cerwins. But that doesn't seem to be an issue. At the moment it's pointless because the physical room setup is so awful.

I do have to say that despite knowing objectively before I traded my boomy Altec Lansing 10"s for the Cerwins (yeah... it rocks) that the Cerwins would be better, I didn't know how MUCH better. So, in theory, replacing the Cerwins with some uberspeakers could create the same level of improvement. But I doubt it - to my ears, which are not 'trained' but which have spent thousands of hours with synths and digital audio processing making and listening to music, there is a small or negative quality difference between the R/L fronts in my system and your general Stadium Cinemas 25.

The weakest point right now is clearly the center channel, it's an atrocious kludge. Finding another Cerwin VS120 for the center channel and driving it with a higher quality amp would probably be the biggest upgrade I could do right now.

[WanMan]

I still have not seen this movie.

[perisoft]

[papalek]

[JustGreg]

Very informative. Thanks guys. We should get Kal to snip the audio part of this thread out and move it. I think it's a great primer for those of us who are still trying to achieve the best pq possible, and not bringing the audio up in matching degrees. Very cool info.

Greg

[oliverg]

Not all receivers are created equal

I have a Sony STRDA9000ES - pure digital, 9.1 - 200wpc - drives my Martin Logans right up to their upper limit with no audible distortion. They used to be 6k but they can be had for as little as 2k now - an absolute bargain!

[perisoft]

[papalek]

I can not say that mine are now "perfect" but I can say that the whole front stage is extremely smooth. When sound goes from one side to the other,it moves across the center channel and everything has the same tone. I have no "holes" in the sound stage as it travels across the room.

Getting 5 matching 10 band equalizers was easy,EBAY. EQs go pretty cheap. I paid between $20 and $30 each for mine about 5 years ago.

[perisoft]

[erikjohn]

[JustGreg]