Post by doug917 on May 10, 2008 12:51:44 GMT -5
For years, I have believed that bigger is better when it comes to speakers and producing lower frequencies.I have for some time had a desire to replace my current 6.5" speakers with 8" towers thinking things would sound better for movies. After my trip to Tennessee to hear Emotiva's new offerings in the speaker department, my beliefs were shaken and weakened. I could not believe the sound the small 5.25" speakers produced and this was in a room with 2-3 times the cubic volume of my HT room.
Being that the 6.5" Emotiva speakers are a ways off yet, I decided to go ahead and give the 5.25" ERM-1/ERD-1 speakers a testing in my own environment. I figured I could see if they would do the job in my room or if I would indeed need the 6.5" units I liked a bit more when listening to them at Dan's house.I have been using Def Tech 5.25" BP2X speakers for surround duty for some time, so I wasn't concerned that a 5.25" speaker would struggle with the back end of the room. My concerns were upfront where the majority of the soundtrack is presented.
I received the 7-speaker package at my work address Thursday. I got them home that night and starting unpacking things. The speakers came in 3 boxes: 1 box with the 3 ERM-1s and 2 boxes with a pair of ERD-1s each. Packaging was absolutely first class. The speakers are double boxed, placed in structural foam, and each in a nice cloth bag. When you take the speaker out of the cloth bag the grilles are placed over the drivers/tweeters with the pegs pointing outward away from the speakers so if things slide around, you won't damage the speaker. I would advise people to grab the speaker by the side (ERM-1) or by the corners (ERD-1) to prevent the grills from sliding at all so you can maintaining a good grip on the speaker.
I started by mounting the surrounds/rears. I was a bit hesitant at first mounting them (kind of permanent) but knew I would be keeping these or buying the 6.5" models which would have an even larger footprint and would cover anything these would do to the walls. The mounts are very close to the actual footprint of the speaker (there is about half an inch of overlap of the actual speaker on all sides) which made placement a breeze. I also liked the fact that the keyholes in the mount are near the sides of the mount making it easy to see the screws on the back of the ERD-1s line up and that the holes were on the mount and not in the speaker. My Def Tech BP2X speakers had a keyhole in the back of the speaker so you could hang the speaker but it was in the middle of the speaker so you could not see where the screw in the wall would mate up and this resulted in scratching the back of the speakers up near the keyhole area. This was a total non-issue with the ERD-1 speakers; the mount is the best I have ever used.
After applying the foam strips to the mounts, I did have to barely tighten a few of the screws in the back of a couple of the ERD-1s to eliminate rattling and get a good solid mount. The ERD-1s come with a warning sheet cautioning you about tightening these screws too tight. The screws I had to tighten turned very easily with a hand screwdriver (I would not use a powered screwdriver to do this) about 1.5 times; then, when I started feeling any resistance I stopped tightening in lieu of the warning. I had to rerun new wires to the rears as after some preliminary testing I wanted to move them further apart than my Def Tech rears were spaced. The surrounds close enough in position to my old units, they did not require any rewwiring. 12 AWG wire was tight, but did fit and was held down firmly in place by the threaded nuts. I configured the right surround to be a right dipole, the left surround to be a left dipole, and the rears to run as bipolar.
I currently had the front of my room set up with Klipsch reference towers and a rather large Klipsch center channel speaker. I do not own speaker stands. I have read many times about people using cinder blocks as speaker stands. Being that I could get these immediately, they are not supposed to color the sound, and the fact that I'm cheap I decided to give this a whirl. It worked very well. Using two blocks stacked upright the L/R tweeters were right at ear level. For the center, I stacked three blocks sideways and this came in just under my screen.
After setting all the blocks in place, I wired the speakers up. I have 14 AWG bare wire in front. The 14 AWG wire compressed enough that the jumper between the high and low frequency terminals remained good and tight (I recall someone mentioning they had issues with this when using 12 AWG wire, and I would agree banana plugs should probably be used for anything larger than 14 AWG). I did not toe the ERM-1s inward towards my listening postion as I used to do quite noticably with the Klipsch speakers. I turned the boundary compensation off and changed the treble setting to the 0dB position. By this time, it was about 11:40 and I had to be to work nice and early Friday, so I called it a night.
Friday night, I was able to set crossovers, distances, and calibrate channel levels using the DMR's internal test tones. I noticed when calibrating the speakers, the whitenoise from any one was very close in tone to all the other channels. My old rig sounded pretty different from speaker to speaker in this regard. I was ready for some of what I was about to hear due to listening to the speakers once before in a different environment; however, I had no idea there would be this much difference.
I started with the SD version of "The Matrix" in the HD player and as soon as the menu came up I knew I was in for a real aural treat. I quickly skipped to chapter 31 - The lobby scene. It was a totally new experience. I heard things I had not heard before and the clarity of the lobby scene was astounding. This is a very complex scene with constant action from every direction and this was by far the best it has ever came across in my HT room. It was almost as if each bullet was detectable as far as the position it originated from and its impact. When Neo and Trinity walk into the elevator I used to hear the cable swaying, but now I heard cable noises I had never picked up on before. On the rooftop when Neo dodges the bullets (well almost dodges) the circular panning of the firing of the gun and the bullets' slowed projection was more accurately placed than I have ever heard. I continued on through the helicopter scene and was impressed with what sounded to me like a complete remix of the soundtrack with more detail, beter separation, and incredible panning.
Next, I popped in Episode II and went to the arena scene and watched through the showdown between Yoda and Count Dooku. This again was a totally new experience thanks to the Emotiva speakers. The biggest changes I noticed throughout these few chapters was during the battle with the droids in the arena, the battle on the planet's surface, and when Obi Wan Kenobi and Anakin were in the transport pursuing Dooku. The arena and planet surface battle scenes were much more fluid and the sounds coming from every direction simply tracked the action much better than I have ever heard. When Kenobi is yelling at Anakin for wanting to go back for Padme, this used to get a bit harsh with my old speakers, but came through with authority without being harsh this time around. I was also very impressed as every spoken word was clearly produced by the center channel even when there was a ton of action coming from every other channel.
I listened to a couple songs via the optical connection of the Toshiba HD-A3 to test out how 2-channel music soundsed. It sounded very good. The Nora Jones I listened to had excellent separation and detail and her voice sounded wonderful. Instruments were easily separated and the soundstage was a little wider than what I am used to...a trait I noticed with movies as well probably due to the great off-axis response from the ERM-1s. I listened to some Queensryche as well and was impress with the job the speakers did with it as well. Geoff Tate's voice came through very well and I noticed the sounds in the background came through stronger and were easier to hear. I have heard these before, but didn't seem to have to focus as much to hear them. I am normally not too fond of listening to 2-channel with the assistance of a sub, but it was an necessity in this case due to the cutoff of the lower end with the Emotiva speakers. Surprisingly it did not sound bad to me and did sound better than using my Klipsch towers alone with the DMR-1/MPS-1. I think it could sound excellent if I mated it to a better sub or even spent more time tweaking my current Outlaw LFM-1 sub with the SMS-1.
I was not expecting this much of a difference and should be kicking myself for not trying better speakers a long time ago. I have read it on the forums I frequent all the time "Speakers will make the biggest difference in sound over a processor or amp." I though the Klispch reference speakers and Def Tech bipolars were great speakers. In the past I had tried a complete Def Tech setup, but did not like the front soundstage compared to the Klipsch speakers. I also tried the complete Klipsch setup, but the rear soundfield collapsed when compared to what the Def Techs produced. The Emotiva speakers simply sound great in both the front and back of the room and at every point between. I recall the Audioholics review comparing the Emotiva speakers to the Altantic Technology set one of the reviewers had...so maybe I have just never heard a true high-quality speaker before and this is why I was blown away by the Emotiva 7-speaker package.
Between implementing these speakers and acoustically treating my room, this may be the biggest difference I have heard in sound quality. I used to think I had great speakers and have been chasing processors and amps for the last several years to improve sound quality. I have improved sound quality with different amps and processors, but the changes to the sound quality were nowhere near as dramatic as the difference these speakers made. Everything got better. The harsh highs of the horn based Klipsch speakers were gone. Clarity, detail, and separation were all greatly improved. Smoothness of side-to-side, front-to-back, and circular pans are better and much more fluid. I also found I could increase the sub's output without muddying things up with this setup which created another problem; my projector is vibrating now when there is a good thump. Another nice benefit not related to sound is the fact that my room looks more spacious and not nearly as cluttered.
I can highly recommend these speakers to anyone. I really wanted the 6.5" models to hurry up and get here before hearing these in my own environment, but I have decided the 5.25" models are more than enough for my room and sound absolutely incredible. These speakers have clearly taken my setup to a level I would not of thought possible. I can't believe I actually want smaller speakers! I have always thought my HT room sounded better than any other person's room I had heard (I think we all feel this way at times - and I don't get out much) until I heard the ERM-1/ERD-1 speakers and the DRS-1 sub package in Dan's room. I once again feel my room sounds better than any other I have heard (sub withstanding - when do I get my DRS-1 I preordered? ;D)...I heard a level of separation and clarity in my room that was beyond what I had heard earlier in Dan's room (I just wish my projector looked as good). This could be due to the many acoustic panels I treated my room with, the fact I spent more time carefully setting things up (measuring distances from the walls to the edges of the speakers, etc.), the fact that we were listening to the Integra 9.8 for our sessions then, or just simply being more accustomed to the room surrounding me. Or, maybe it's just that feeling many of us carry of having the best system on the block so to speak. Anyhow, it's a good feeling to have once again.
Being that the 6.5" Emotiva speakers are a ways off yet, I decided to go ahead and give the 5.25" ERM-1/ERD-1 speakers a testing in my own environment. I figured I could see if they would do the job in my room or if I would indeed need the 6.5" units I liked a bit more when listening to them at Dan's house.I have been using Def Tech 5.25" BP2X speakers for surround duty for some time, so I wasn't concerned that a 5.25" speaker would struggle with the back end of the room. My concerns were upfront where the majority of the soundtrack is presented.
I received the 7-speaker package at my work address Thursday. I got them home that night and starting unpacking things. The speakers came in 3 boxes: 1 box with the 3 ERM-1s and 2 boxes with a pair of ERD-1s each. Packaging was absolutely first class. The speakers are double boxed, placed in structural foam, and each in a nice cloth bag. When you take the speaker out of the cloth bag the grilles are placed over the drivers/tweeters with the pegs pointing outward away from the speakers so if things slide around, you won't damage the speaker. I would advise people to grab the speaker by the side (ERM-1) or by the corners (ERD-1) to prevent the grills from sliding at all so you can maintaining a good grip on the speaker.
I started by mounting the surrounds/rears. I was a bit hesitant at first mounting them (kind of permanent) but knew I would be keeping these or buying the 6.5" models which would have an even larger footprint and would cover anything these would do to the walls. The mounts are very close to the actual footprint of the speaker (there is about half an inch of overlap of the actual speaker on all sides) which made placement a breeze. I also liked the fact that the keyholes in the mount are near the sides of the mount making it easy to see the screws on the back of the ERD-1s line up and that the holes were on the mount and not in the speaker. My Def Tech BP2X speakers had a keyhole in the back of the speaker so you could hang the speaker but it was in the middle of the speaker so you could not see where the screw in the wall would mate up and this resulted in scratching the back of the speakers up near the keyhole area. This was a total non-issue with the ERD-1 speakers; the mount is the best I have ever used.
After applying the foam strips to the mounts, I did have to barely tighten a few of the screws in the back of a couple of the ERD-1s to eliminate rattling and get a good solid mount. The ERD-1s come with a warning sheet cautioning you about tightening these screws too tight. The screws I had to tighten turned very easily with a hand screwdriver (I would not use a powered screwdriver to do this) about 1.5 times; then, when I started feeling any resistance I stopped tightening in lieu of the warning. I had to rerun new wires to the rears as after some preliminary testing I wanted to move them further apart than my Def Tech rears were spaced. The surrounds close enough in position to my old units, they did not require any rewwiring. 12 AWG wire was tight, but did fit and was held down firmly in place by the threaded nuts. I configured the right surround to be a right dipole, the left surround to be a left dipole, and the rears to run as bipolar.
I currently had the front of my room set up with Klipsch reference towers and a rather large Klipsch center channel speaker. I do not own speaker stands. I have read many times about people using cinder blocks as speaker stands. Being that I could get these immediately, they are not supposed to color the sound, and the fact that I'm cheap I decided to give this a whirl. It worked very well. Using two blocks stacked upright the L/R tweeters were right at ear level. For the center, I stacked three blocks sideways and this came in just under my screen.
After setting all the blocks in place, I wired the speakers up. I have 14 AWG bare wire in front. The 14 AWG wire compressed enough that the jumper between the high and low frequency terminals remained good and tight (I recall someone mentioning they had issues with this when using 12 AWG wire, and I would agree banana plugs should probably be used for anything larger than 14 AWG). I did not toe the ERM-1s inward towards my listening postion as I used to do quite noticably with the Klipsch speakers. I turned the boundary compensation off and changed the treble setting to the 0dB position. By this time, it was about 11:40 and I had to be to work nice and early Friday, so I called it a night.
Friday night, I was able to set crossovers, distances, and calibrate channel levels using the DMR's internal test tones. I noticed when calibrating the speakers, the whitenoise from any one was very close in tone to all the other channels. My old rig sounded pretty different from speaker to speaker in this regard. I was ready for some of what I was about to hear due to listening to the speakers once before in a different environment; however, I had no idea there would be this much difference.
I started with the SD version of "The Matrix" in the HD player and as soon as the menu came up I knew I was in for a real aural treat. I quickly skipped to chapter 31 - The lobby scene. It was a totally new experience. I heard things I had not heard before and the clarity of the lobby scene was astounding. This is a very complex scene with constant action from every direction and this was by far the best it has ever came across in my HT room. It was almost as if each bullet was detectable as far as the position it originated from and its impact. When Neo and Trinity walk into the elevator I used to hear the cable swaying, but now I heard cable noises I had never picked up on before. On the rooftop when Neo dodges the bullets (well almost dodges) the circular panning of the firing of the gun and the bullets' slowed projection was more accurately placed than I have ever heard. I continued on through the helicopter scene and was impressed with what sounded to me like a complete remix of the soundtrack with more detail, beter separation, and incredible panning.
Next, I popped in Episode II and went to the arena scene and watched through the showdown between Yoda and Count Dooku. This again was a totally new experience thanks to the Emotiva speakers. The biggest changes I noticed throughout these few chapters was during the battle with the droids in the arena, the battle on the planet's surface, and when Obi Wan Kenobi and Anakin were in the transport pursuing Dooku. The arena and planet surface battle scenes were much more fluid and the sounds coming from every direction simply tracked the action much better than I have ever heard. When Kenobi is yelling at Anakin for wanting to go back for Padme, this used to get a bit harsh with my old speakers, but came through with authority without being harsh this time around. I was also very impressed as every spoken word was clearly produced by the center channel even when there was a ton of action coming from every other channel.
I listened to a couple songs via the optical connection of the Toshiba HD-A3 to test out how 2-channel music soundsed. It sounded very good. The Nora Jones I listened to had excellent separation and detail and her voice sounded wonderful. Instruments were easily separated and the soundstage was a little wider than what I am used to...a trait I noticed with movies as well probably due to the great off-axis response from the ERM-1s. I listened to some Queensryche as well and was impress with the job the speakers did with it as well. Geoff Tate's voice came through very well and I noticed the sounds in the background came through stronger and were easier to hear. I have heard these before, but didn't seem to have to focus as much to hear them. I am normally not too fond of listening to 2-channel with the assistance of a sub, but it was an necessity in this case due to the cutoff of the lower end with the Emotiva speakers. Surprisingly it did not sound bad to me and did sound better than using my Klipsch towers alone with the DMR-1/MPS-1. I think it could sound excellent if I mated it to a better sub or even spent more time tweaking my current Outlaw LFM-1 sub with the SMS-1.
I was not expecting this much of a difference and should be kicking myself for not trying better speakers a long time ago. I have read it on the forums I frequent all the time "Speakers will make the biggest difference in sound over a processor or amp." I though the Klispch reference speakers and Def Tech bipolars were great speakers. In the past I had tried a complete Def Tech setup, but did not like the front soundstage compared to the Klipsch speakers. I also tried the complete Klipsch setup, but the rear soundfield collapsed when compared to what the Def Techs produced. The Emotiva speakers simply sound great in both the front and back of the room and at every point between. I recall the Audioholics review comparing the Emotiva speakers to the Altantic Technology set one of the reviewers had...so maybe I have just never heard a true high-quality speaker before and this is why I was blown away by the Emotiva 7-speaker package.
Between implementing these speakers and acoustically treating my room, this may be the biggest difference I have heard in sound quality. I used to think I had great speakers and have been chasing processors and amps for the last several years to improve sound quality. I have improved sound quality with different amps and processors, but the changes to the sound quality were nowhere near as dramatic as the difference these speakers made. Everything got better. The harsh highs of the horn based Klipsch speakers were gone. Clarity, detail, and separation were all greatly improved. Smoothness of side-to-side, front-to-back, and circular pans are better and much more fluid. I also found I could increase the sub's output without muddying things up with this setup which created another problem; my projector is vibrating now when there is a good thump. Another nice benefit not related to sound is the fact that my room looks more spacious and not nearly as cluttered.
I can highly recommend these speakers to anyone. I really wanted the 6.5" models to hurry up and get here before hearing these in my own environment, but I have decided the 5.25" models are more than enough for my room and sound absolutely incredible. These speakers have clearly taken my setup to a level I would not of thought possible. I can't believe I actually want smaller speakers! I have always thought my HT room sounded better than any other person's room I had heard (I think we all feel this way at times - and I don't get out much) until I heard the ERM-1/ERD-1 speakers and the DRS-1 sub package in Dan's room. I once again feel my room sounds better than any other I have heard (sub withstanding - when do I get my DRS-1 I preordered? ;D)...I heard a level of separation and clarity in my room that was beyond what I had heard earlier in Dan's room (I just wish my projector looked as good). This could be due to the many acoustic panels I treated my room with, the fact I spent more time carefully setting things up (measuring distances from the walls to the edges of the speakers, etc.), the fact that we were listening to the Integra 9.8 for our sessions then, or just simply being more accustomed to the room surrounding me. Or, maybe it's just that feeling many of us carry of having the best system on the block so to speak. Anyhow, it's a good feeling to have once again.
....Thanks
