HiFi Subjectivist ¦ Audio Forum ¦ NVA User Group

For Atmos, I've not been able to find any cheap pre-amps.
If I could I'd go for that, as I can't see the power amps being up to much in these receivers. The sort of power amps I'd be using would be the sort that would lead to another farcical conversation with Mr Hi-fi Dealer.

For my 5.0.2 system, I would, of course, be setting the front speakers to "Large" in the hope that the receiver / pre-amp would send ALL the bass to them. In the context of AV systems, my fronts most definetely would be Large.


DQ, I was getting close to saying "Goodbye" and walking out on him. And if he'd come out with less bullshit I may well have suggested if I could buy / borrow a 4200, 3300 and a sub from him on the understanding that I'd keep at least one receiver and return the rest for a full refund. Instead I'm thinking "I don't want to buy off them".

Daniel Quinn wrote:You have far more patience than me , I would have told him, he knew less about good sound quality than me and it aint my bleeding job !!! I am however an arse.

If the quality of the receiver is governed by processing power and it will split frequencies to individual drivers it is in effect a glorified active crossover.

I am struggling to see how an a20/p20 and a pair of cubbettes or doc modified will not sound better .

There's every chance that an A20 and Cubettes would have better basic sound quality than the built in power amplification of a top of the range receiver and KEF r100 type speakers.

However, the way I see it, is any audio system is just a tool for the job of getting the most out of the recording. In the case blu rays you're looking at 5.1 or 7.1 or dolby atmos sound-tracks for the latest films. At the moment, my 2.0 system isn't really the right tool for that job. And neither would an A20 and a pair of Cubettes be.


I'm not in a position to know how important the processing power of a receiver is to the sound quality - and in how important it is compared to speaker choice. It is something that I'd like to keep an open mind on...

Try not to think of an AV amp in the same way as your stereo amps. An AV setup is more like a jigsaw puzzle where integrating all of the parts (channels) holds a lot more importance than it does when you're only messing with stereo. Sounds daft, and of course you should aim for the best amplification you can afford, but forming a coherent 'picture' of the sound is a much larger part of the equation than it is with simple stereo. No, music won't sound as good through your AV amp, but you're not going to be using it to listen to music, you're going to be listening to speech in the main, plus ambience/foley, plus any sound effects thrown in over and above that. As I said in my first post in this thread "The problem most people have is treating an AV setup differently than their hifi setup."

I reject the entire relevancy of surround sound ,it is gimmick , why Is necessary to have extraneous sounds coming from your left ,from your right and from behind you .

Can you get 12 Angry Men or Goodfellows in 6.1 or whatever , can you bloody hellers like .

Hows about a nice set of 5.0 7.0 surround sound Cans........
Cause lifes to short to faf about......

https://techcrunch.com/2007/06/08/turtl ... eadphones/

The idea is, let's say you've got a scene with a helicopter flying overhead. With 3D surround it'll sound as if the helicopter is overhead. With 2.0 it'll sound as if the helicopter is front of you.

I know it doesn't help move the plot or storyline along any better, but for me and my family, for the amount of Hollywood films we watch at home, I think it's worth spending a few hundred quid to give it a go and try it out.

Pink Floyd must have had a Surround Sound PA setup cause they had what sounded like a giant Bumble Bee buzzing around the stadium.....

A decent hifi system will give you the sound of the helicopter . Also stereo can five that impression .

On house of cards and many movies I have seen if a vehicle is moving from left to right on the screen , the stereo soundstage will convincingly portray this movement .

5.1, 7.1 etc. takes things further than that though DQ. I remember my first stereo VHS (Maximum Overdrive, based on a Stephen King story) and marvelling at how the trucks seemed to be circling the living room, and until I heard a 'proper' 5.1 setup I was happy. Now I'm used to having characters open doors, for example, in the right place in the sound stage. If someone is 'behind me' in the film, that's where I hear them speak from. You can do a lot with stereo but for being placed within the film rather than outside looking in you can't beat a multi-track multi-speaker setup in my opinion. Yes there are gimmicks that take advantage of the setup, but a lot more goes into trying to make the experience more natural, or at least it does on the better recorded and mixed films. Generally speaking it's what you don't notice that makes 5.1 et al. sound good, rather than the odd firework from the director here and there.

jammy395 wrote:Pink Floyd must have had a Surround Sound PA setup cause they had what sounded like a giant Bumble Bee buzzing around the stadium.....

It was an 'azimuth coordinator'. They had Jimmy Young reading our his record of the day in the rafters at Sheffield on the Atom Heart Mother your.