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Post by Oden on May 6, 2014 21:03:25 GMT -5
Already have the umc 200 and upa 500 in shopping cart. I planned to purchase the hybrid 15 5.1 system from hsu but curious if others have this setup and how they like it. And/or what you more tech savvy folks think if this as a speaker/sub selection? I want to make sure they would fit well together since I dont plan to upgrade for at least a few years.
I'm sold on the sub but on the fence about surrounds. Don't know enough about specs or options to confirm I've made the right choice.
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Post by frenchyfranky on May 7, 2014 0:48:10 GMT -5
emotivalounge.proboards.com/thread/35281/hsu-speaker-kit-upa-500Hi Oden, See this link above for a similar thread a few months ago. This last winter I help a friend to choose, build and install and setup a complete HT with UMC-200, UPA-700 plus a HSU hybrid 3 at 1659$ in rosenut finish, including the very good VTF-3 MK4 Subwoofer I think and I can tell you that it is a very good match for the UMC-UPA combo, this system sound so wonderful, it is very hard to beleive that's the price of the complete system is Under 3000$. I can only recommend it.  
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Post by pop on May 7, 2014 8:31:47 GMT -5
I'm sure Monkumonku would be happy to shed some light on the HSU speakers. He has them paired with a Sherbourn pt-7030/XPA-5 and is loving life.
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Post by monkumonku on May 7, 2014 9:14:57 GMT -5
I just bought 5 of the HB-1 Mk2 speakers and to my taste, they are very, very good. They have a smooth, balanced sound and can play quite loud without distorting. Although they have horn tweeters you would never know it by listening to them. There's no harsh character at all. I would say the reviews posted on their site give you an accurate portrayal of the capabilities of these speakers. And as for the sub - I've heard that and it can knock your house down.  That's an excellent product as well. Dr. Hsu knows what he is doing.  |
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Post by frenchyfranky on May 7, 2014 10:12:19 GMT -5
I just bought 5 of the HB-1 Mk2 speakers and to my taste, they are very, very good. They have a smooth, balanced sound and can play quite loud without distorting. Although they have horn tweeters you would never know it by listening to them. There's no harsh character at all. I would say the reviews posted on their site give you an accurate portrayal of the capabilities of these speakers. And as for the sub - I've heard that and it can knock your house down. That's an excellent product as well. Dr. Hsu knows what he is doing. I'm with you for the sound description of the HB-1 Mk2, I was completely astonished when I heard for the first time these HSU speakers kit and I was very surprised to heard how loud and smooth at high volume, they can play without compression and distortion. |
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Post by Oden on May 7, 2014 19:18:06 GMT -5
Thank you all very much for the great information! The responses have pretty much solidified my decision. A final question for those with larger rooms. The HT will be set up in a 19 x 16 living room with vaulted ceilings and is open to a 12 x 16 kitchen/dining room combo.
I have no worries about the performance of the sub in this environment but what about the rest? Do you all feel this will be enough?
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Post by jcisbig on May 7, 2014 19:35:38 GMT -5
A little off topic, but does HSU charge sales tax for non CA residents?
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Post by frenchyfranky on May 7, 2014 21:29:56 GMT -5
Thank you all very much for the great information! The responses have pretty much solidified my decision. A final question for those with larger rooms. The HT will be set up in a 19 x 16 living room with vaulted ceilings and is open to a 12 x 16 kitchen/dining room combo. I have no worries about the performance of the sub in this environment but what about the rest? Do you all feel this will be enough? Absolutely no problem, I'm sure that you'll be very satisfied, this kit can play loud enought for keeping a power reserve. |
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Post by garbulky on May 7, 2014 22:07:04 GMT -5
Thank you all very much for the great information! The responses have pretty much solidified my decision. A final question for those with larger rooms. The HT will be set up in a 19 x 16 living room with vaulted ceilings and is open to a 12 x 16 kitchen/dining room combo. I have no worries about the performance of the sub in this environment but what about the rest? Do you all feel this will be enough? For that size I would go with two subs and bigger main speakers - but that's just my opinion. |
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Post by sme on May 8, 2014 3:24:06 GMT -5
I own Hsu speakers all around with HC-1s on my front stage, HB-1s for surrounds, 1 VTF-3 MK4 and 1 VTF-15H for deep bass, and 2 MBMs for mid bass, with the speakers driven by an XPA-5. While I'm a long way from perfection, I like my sound much more than even the high end commercial theaters. If you get them set up right, their imaging is extraordinary good. I visited the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest and listened to a lot of very expensive speakers, and very few were even in the same league as far as off-axis imaging is concerned. I like to share my sound with other listeners, so it matters a lot to me that they sound good outside the sweet spot. The speakers and subs deliver astonishing dynamics overall, particularly with respect to transients. They are rather honest about the quality of source material. I actually bought an XPA-5 in part because I thought my Denon AVR was clipping when playing the movie "Thor". In hindsight, all the clipping was in the soundtrack. Of course, now that I have the XPA-5, I have no qualms about *really cranking* it on the good and dynamic movie sound tracks. Gun shots and thunder at reference volume are truly stunning, and not because they sound loud. It's the fact that they sound so realistic and that they make you jump out of your seat! Unless you like to listen very loud, the HB-1/HC-1 combo in the packages should be plenty for you. I do suggest upgrading to the VTF-15H sub with an eye toward adding a second later. I started with the VTF3-MK4, and got the 15H shortly afterwards. It's not that the VTF3-MK4 wasn't good enough, but I enjoyed it so much that I knew I needed to have more.  If you opt to get HC-1s for all three fronts like I did, you will gain up to 6 dB of additional headroom, but I would then recommend you buy at least an XPA amp to drive them. The HC-1s are higher impedance and need more volts behind them to make them sing their best. |
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Post by Oden on May 8, 2014 7:23:10 GMT -5
Sme thank you for the thorough response. That is the kind of information I'm looking for. I'm getting the Hybrid 15 package that already includes the VTF 15H so I appreciate your input on that. Thanks again for the rest of the help to all. The decision has been made and I'm excited to get some orders placed.
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Post by frenchyfranky on May 8, 2014 10:44:37 GMT -5
I own Hsu speakers all around with HC-1s on my front stage, HB-1s for surrounds, 1 VTF-3 MK4 and 1 VTF-15H for deep bass, and 2 MBMs for mid bass, with the speakers driven by an XPA-5. While I'm a long way from perfection, I like my sound much more than even the high end commercial theaters. If you get them set up right, their imaging is extraordinary good. I visited the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest and listened to a lot of very expensive speakers, and very few were even in the same league as far as off-axis imaging is concerned. I like to share my sound with other listeners, so it matters a lot to me that they sound good outside the sweet spot. The speakers and subs deliver astonishing dynamics overall, particularly with respect to transients. They are rather honest about the quality of source material. I actually bought an XPA-5 in part because I thought my Denon AVR was clipping when playing the movie "Thor". In hindsight, all the clipping was in the soundtrack. Of course, now that I have the XPA-5, I have no qualms about *really cranking* it on the good and dynamic movie sound tracks. Gun shots and thunder at reference volume are truly stunning, and not because they sound loud. It's the fact that they sound so realistic and that they make you jump out of your seat! Unless you like to listen very loud, the HB-1/HC-1 combo in the packages should be plenty for you. I do suggest upgrading to the VTF-15H sub with an eye toward adding a second later. I started with the VTF3-MK4, and got the 15H shortly afterwards. It's not that the VTF3-MK4 wasn't good enough, but I enjoyed it so much that I knew I needed to have more. If you opt to get HC-1s for all three fronts like I did, you will gain up to 6 dB of additional headroom, but I would then recommend you buy at least an XPA amp to drive them. The HC-1s are higher impedance and need more volts behind them to make them sing their best. Just for my personnal info, Did you notice and improvement in SQ, transient, control and dynamics with your XPA-5 over your Denon AVR amp? |
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Post by sme on May 10, 2014 3:49:35 GMT -5
Just for my personnal info, Did you notice and improvement in SQ, transient, control and dynamics with your XPA-5 over your Denon AVR amp? Yes, but the changes were mostly subtle. At lower levels, the upper bass and lower midrange sounded like it had a bit more presence, for lack of a better way of putting it. The changes became less subtle at the highest output levels. This mattered the most with multichannel material with strong upper bass. Even then, I rarely heard problems with the AVR when playing most stuff at between -7.5 and -10 dB relative to theatrical reference. This level is plenty for most Blu-ray releases, which are typically remixed at a lower level anyway. Sadly, I heard and still do hear more clipping and distortion in Blu-ray movie mixes than I ever did from my AVR. With the most dynamic film soundtracks that (presumably) weren't remixed or were remixed at or near theatrical reference level, the XPA-5 does make a significant difference. That said, of all my recent upgrades, the XPA-5 gave the smallest improvement. Adding a pair of Hsu MBMs to my two "true subs" made a much bigger difference in the day to day enjoyment of my system. Before getting MBMs, I never knew how much transient bass detail I was missing, both in sound effects and music. Of course, their performance depends on placement, and they require more effort to integrate. So YMMV. None of this is meant to be a knock on Emotiva. The Hsu speakers are engineered to perform very well on cheap consumer electronic equipment. They are 92 dB/2.83V sensitive. The woofers don't go below 5-6 ohms and are 8 ohm for most of their range. They employ a fair bit of damping, so amplifier damping isn't that important. The tweeters are ridiculously efficient, having both high sensitivity and high impedance, well above 8 ohm. The HC-1s have two woofers in series, which gives them 12-16 ohm impedance. They will benefit from the extra volts provided by a bigger amp. That's why I suggest an XPA-5 (or maybe even an XPR-5) if one uses HC-1s for front left and right, so as to not leave anything on the table. |
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Post by frenchyfranky on May 10, 2014 11:48:28 GMT -5
Just for my personnal info, Did you notice and improvement in SQ, transient, control and dynamics with your XPA-5 over your Denon AVR amp? Yes, but the changes were mostly subtle. At lower levels, the upper bass and lower midrange sounded like it had a bit more presence, for lack of a better way of putting it. The changes became less subtle at the highest output levels. This mattered the most with multichannel material with strong upper bass. Even then, I rarely heard problems with the AVR when playing most stuff at between -7.5 and -10 dB relative to theatrical reference. This level is plenty for most Blu-ray releases, which are typically remixed at a lower level anyway. Sadly, I heard and still do hear more clipping and distortion in Blu-ray movie mixes than I ever did from my AVR. With the most dynamic film soundtracks that (presumably) weren't remixed or were remixed at or near theatrical reference level, the XPA-5 does make a significant difference. That said, of all my recent upgrades, the XPA-5 gave the smallest improvement. Adding a pair of Hsu MBMs to my two "true subs" made a much bigger difference in the day to day enjoyment of my system. Before getting MBMs, I never knew how much transient bass detail I was missing, both in sound effects and music. Of course, their performance depends on placement, and they require more effort to integrate. So YMMV. None of this is meant to be a knock on Emotiva. The Hsu speakers are engineered to perform very well on cheap consumer electronic equipment. They are 92 dB/2.83V sensitive. The woofers don't go below 5-6 ohms and are 8 ohm for most of their range. They employ a fair bit of damping, so amplifier damping isn't that important. The tweeters are ridiculously efficient, having both high sensitivity and high impedance, well above 8 ohm. The HC-1s have two woofers in series, which gives them 12-16 ohm impedance. They will benefit from the extra volts provided by a bigger amp. That's why I suggest an XPA-5 (or maybe even an XPR-5) if one uses HC-1s for front left and right, so as to not leave anything on the table. Thanks sme, it's good and I'm glad to see that some people can hear some difference and subtilities in SQ between AVR and power amp, even with very efficient speaker kit as HSU. |
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Post by calypte on May 17, 2014 10:22:00 GMT -5
I'll offer a contrary opinion about Hsu loudspeakers. I have a Hsu VTF-3 Mk 4 subwoofer, which I like very much. But I have twice listened to the Hsu 5.1 system at Hsu's headquarters in Anaheim, and I was very disappointed. During my second visit to Hsu (it's a story for another time as to why I went back), I specifically asked to listen to the Hsu speakers, because I was trying to square the reviews with what I had heard during my first visit. To me, they are very rolled off at the high end, and the mid-bass is bloated. Any mid-bass content in music is boomy. FWIW, my wife liked them. Hsu's audition room is a shoebox-shaped room about 13x18 ft (IIRC), and it should be nearly ideal in size and shape.
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That's an excellent product as well. Dr. Hsu knows what he is doing. 
If you opt to get HC-1s for all three fronts like I did, you will gain up to 6 dB of additional headroom, but I would then recommend you buy at least an XPA amp to drive them. The HC-1s are higher impedance and need more volts behind them to make them sing their best.