Just ordered XPA-5

[creimes]

Here is thread on how to add images

emotivalounge.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=newbie&action=display&thread=23359

[buggs1a]

Thanks. I'm talking about posting an image from my iPod touch.

[buggs1a]

Man I really would like to get an in home trial with the Martin Logan ESL. But don't know how.

[buggs1a]

I might try the Arcam AVR360 one last time just to cover all options for now. I'm nervouse though.

[buggs1a]

I'm not. I quit.

[buggs1a]

Well no ones around so ill take off. Thanks for everything. Bye.

[hemster]

[AudioHTIT]

Maybe he wanted a comment about his Arcam? In the XPA thread? Dunno ...

[buggs1a]

I'm not sure. Lol. I did not try the Arcam. I quit means I'm not going to buy anything anymore. At least till I upgrade my speakers.

[buggs1a]

I have photos of my room in the XPA-5 thread at avs.


I was thinking of these brands.
Legacy Audio
PSB
Paradigm
McIntosh
SVS new ultra floor standing
Integra DTR 50.4 for Audysse XT32
Not sure what other speaker brands.

[buggs1a]

Ok I guess we're done here now.

[Deleted]

Buggs, you need to chill out, dude. Your speakers are about as poorly setup as they could be and you want to blame very good equipment for your dismal sound. Man up and take some responsibility, son, for the sh!tty sound. Get your speakers off the doggone shelf and out into the room a bit. Then take that great gear you bought and re-assess the sound quality...

-RW-

[goldenear2]

bmoney, love your medical term....feellikeakidonchristmaseveitis...that's a keeper.

[garbulky]

buggs which thread? please link

[garbulky]

Ok I found it buggs. It was hard to figure out which system as apparently another user psoted your systems pic.
Anyway your speaker setup is hard to figure out as there appear to be four speakers in the front field. So I don't know which one are your two front speakers. Are you running all four as front speakers?
Anyway, to the point the speakers aren't setup well and as I've mentioned small differences can make a big change.
First pull the speakers several feet into the room away from the back wall.
Then pull the outside speaker several feet away from the side wall.
Take out cofee tables and the side couch that's in the way of the sound. This is important. All these muddy up the soundstage.

The other things that can muddy the soundstage is anything between the speakers and slightly behind which include the tv, stereo stands. It's okay to have them but that's why you have to pull the speakers into the room away from the walls (and tv).
You have the speakers at a good distance from each other (the front inner ones) which is good.
The center channel is not going to sound great in a shelf. Do away with that and figure an alternative.
Then turn the subwoofers off. And audyssey and room correction off. Then calibrate by sound. Make sure you experiement a lot with toe-in. Toe in can make your speakers sound unfocused or collapse the soundstage but make it too focused So you have to get it just right. You may also have to sit farther back to compensate for the distance you pull the speakers into the room. If you sit too close you once again can have looser definition. So experiment with your couch. Remember everytime you move the couch you have to adjust the toe in slightly.

Finally when you got the front two speakers positioned right by ear. Only then turn on the outside speakers (if you must). I would reccomend just using two speakers for the fronts until you figure out proper room positiong. Moving on, then figure out where to put the subwoofer. You may have to try different parts of the room. When you get that down then try with the second subwoofer. Talk to other people for easier methods on placing and calibrating subwoofers as I don't know too much about that.
If your subwoofers are not placed well it will also cause problems with sound stage.
Finally after manually positioning the speakers by ear and the subwoofers, only then should you run the audyssey to correct for the room. Otherwise without doing all this, simply throwing audyssey at this will give you less than stellar results.
I'm willing to bet a good portion of your issues come from
1. Incorrect speaker calibration and settings on your reciever. Dynamic volume settings.
2. Speaker position and room setup (couch in the way, toe in, distance from walls, four speakers, subwoofer placement).
Both these things cost nothing to fix. Just lots of time. But that's upto you. After that you have to look at room treatments etc but those cost money.
Remember spending money on more expensive options like buying speakers or amps will not correct these fundamental problems.
Hope this helps. Good luck

[buggs1a]

You must see the wrong pics. I don't have 4 speakers in front. I know which one yer talking about. I don't have a couch. And for the one who is rude please stop. You don't know how my system sounds. And it's pretty good not crap.

My uncle just died a couple hrs ago.

[garbulky]

Sorry to hear about your uncle.
Ok I saw the room



Well it took me some time to figure out that the center channel is the one placed on the right of the tv.
This setup isn't good. It's going to take some effort to change it and it really depends on if you want to bother with it or not.
The main issues are
1. There is stuff between you and the speakers. That needs to be removed.
2. The speakers need to be pulled much further away from the walls and for that you will need to figure out how to have stands for them.
3. The speakers are too high. They need to be at ear level.
4. The center channel need to be in the center of the tv and also in the center of the left and right speakers.
After doing that, read what I mentioned about toe-in in my previous post.
What are your speakers by the way?

[buggs1a]

Thanks. I doubt the shelf on left is making any difference in sound. The center, I know but no shelf. Bookshelfs are made to go on a shelf next to walls. I'm not sure what to use. I don't mind higher then ear level. However this is a good idea to try. I'd actually much prefer mounted on the walls. They are M&K lcr750 thx mk2 in front. M&K surr55t tripole surround.

I watch tv from my bed so I'm not sure about the front being away from the wall. That just doesn't make sense to me in my room since I do t think I have the room. I'm not saying bad. Just saying it doesn't make sense.

But I can do anything I want so I'm totally open.

[garbulky]

Hey buggs. I read what you said carefully. I disagree with all your reasons why not to do the suggestions I offered and stand by what I mentioned. I really think they will improve the sound.
It really depends on how much effort you want to spend changing your setup. I could go into detail why your reasoning is incorrect but there may be little point in my doing so. Maybe somebody else can explain.

It depends on what level of audio fidelity you are satisfied with. I want to get the most out of my system and the advice I've given you I've implemented myself. It took lots of effort, TIME, and experimentation. For me the end result is worth it. You may not have the patience to bother with doing all that. Fair enough.
If you are skeptical maybe you can ask the others posters here whether they think my suggestions will help.
Good luck with your audio journey

[creimes]

This is the first time I've had a "better" space to work with for my setup, as you can see I have my fronts about 15 inches from the wall, the towers also came with port bungs to plug the rear ports if speakers had to be placed close to wall

Do your bookshelfs have a rear port, if so try cutting a piece of foam to plug them.

If you would like to wall mount your speakers which still isn't the optimal choice but like you said your room has constraints I have a pair of wall mounts that will hold up to 11.5kg that you can have for free as I will never use them.