HiFi Subjectivist ¦ Audio Forum ¦ NVA User Group

Lindsayt wrote:I have no intention of going out of my way to hear a bog standard 5.1 system.

That's a shame, you might be pleasantly surprised at how good they can sound. Of course, you might be pissed off you wasted the time instead.
I suppose I'm a bit conservative (VERY small 'c') about technology in some ways. I bought a phone to make phone calls and a camera to take pictures with; that sort of thing; where people mutter "Luddite" behind your back. DVDs and Blu-rays all seem to have 5.1 as their lowest common denominator/default setting so I assembled a 5.1 setup. It suits the room size and sounds bloody good to me. Horses for courses I suppose. I'm not trying to sell you on the idea of having 5.1 yourself, I just think it would be a shame if you didn't at least hear a decent home 5.1 setup (not with £7.400 worth of speakers of course) for no other reason than to definitely rule it out if if that's what happens.

I have a 5.0.2 system with some good and some average speakers. I'm struggling to see how my home cinematic experience would be enhanced by changing to a 5.1 system with average to poor speakers?

Although I suppose it depends what you call "a decent 5.1 system".
At dealers and on the AVforums, what they call a decent 5.1 system I'd call a pile of not-for-me.

What you might call a decent 5.1 system might be something along the lines of 5 x Altec Vott's plus a 4 x 18" powered subwoofer system.

Point taken Lindsay, but you've got a 5.0.2.system with great speakers that your children say wasn't worth the effort of upgrading to, whereas stepping up from a 2.0 to a multi-speaker system should make a big (positive) difference in presentation. I'm just trying to work out why that hasn't happened for you. That's why I suggested hearing a 5.1 system, it being the most basic of multi-speaker setups, and then comparing the sound to what you have now. It might give you an idea of how to progress, if you still want to.

We dined in the home cinema room yesterday. I hooked my £15 Denon C630 CD player up to the Marantz 6010 and my EV Sentries.

It sounded better and less NAD 3020 like than playing CD's on my Denon Blu Ray player through the same system.
Compared to the Creek CAS4040, the Marantz sounded Class D'ish - especially for the first 30 to 60 minutes.
And compared to my Korneff clone with NVA P50SA, both the Creek and Marantz lack a bit of midrange transparency / detail resolution.


Overall, for a sub £1000 system, the C630, 6010, Sentries sounded pleasantly attention grabbing with no really badly obvious sonic flaws.

Dining in your own 'Cinema Room' - How the other half lives.
I am assuming you're now only in stereo mode rather than 5.0.

For CD's and most TV broadcasts it's 2.0. For some blu rays it's 5.0.2. For others it's 5.0.

My house and audio equipment were all affordable for anyone on an average UK wage.

I never doubted that Lindsay.

Where on Earth do people get the notion that the 3 front speakers have to be matched for best sound quality?

https://www.avforums.com/threads/which- ... y.2161249/

In terms of impedance and efficiency, you can't get much more mismatched than Linn Isobariks and EV Sentry III's.
And yet when I'm watching blu-rays I never sit there thinking "something sounds mismatched" or "something's wrong" or I'm missing in clarity or dynamics. I just sit there and watch the film.
Would it be possible to get a better sounding AV system than mine? I'm sure it would. But there's nothing about the sound that brings attention to the fact that my main fronts and my centre speakers are not "matched" at all.


Maybe it's one of these marketing things, where the manufacturers and the dealers want you to buy "matched" systems?
Maybe it's the overall quality of the Brik's and Sentries - compared to most shitty little ported slimlines sold for AV systems - that shines and compensates for any lack of matching?

Lindsayt wrote: ↑Tue May 08, 2018 6:30 pm Where on Earth do people get the notion that the 3 front speakers have to be matched for best sound quality?

https://www.avforums.com/threads/which- ... y.2161249/

In terms of impedance and efficiency, you can't get much more mismatched than Linn Isobariks and EV Sentry III's.
And yet when I'm watching blu-rays I never sit there thinking "something sounds mismatched" or "something's wrong" or I'm missing in clarity or dynamics. I just sit there and watch the film.
Would it be possible to get a better sounding AV system than mine? I'm sure it would. But there's nothing about the sound that brings attention to the fact that my main fronts and my centre speakers are not "matched" at all.


Maybe it's one of these marketing things, where the manufacturers and the dealers want you to buy "matched" systems?
Maybe it's the overall quality of the Brik's and Sentries - compared to most shitty little ported slimlines sold for AV systems - that shines and compensates for any lack of matching?

Yes marketing most have all matched pairs to get that great panning when you watch a hyped Holywood blockbuster to make the film better than its dreary plot and buying a centre speaker that is rectangular and doesnt match the 2 fronts anyway.

I've been inspired by Owston last week-end ( http://www.audio-talk.co.uk/phpBB3/view ... &start=165 )
Been thinking about assembling my own sub-woofers.
The idea being to find some high sound quality, huge woofers and to put them in a DIY'd box. With the possibility to add some EV midrange drivers and horns and maybe some Bozak B199's (or similar) to turn it into a main speaker project.

Anyway, the big stumbling block at the moment is finding the right woofers.
Hartley 18" or 24" drivers looked interesting but you see them come up for sale on ebay once per year or so - and not always cheap. I emailed Hartley and got a reply that they're not making them now, but that if they restart production they will contact me.

I was thinking of large sealed cabinets. 15 to 20 cu ft. I'm not into ported bass. A smaller acoustic suspension cabinet might do if I can't find a suitable woofer.

The Stereo Integrity HS24 MkII looks OK, but at $2550 plus shipping and import duties for a pair is pricier than I'd be happy with.

I did also think of an old EV or JBL 18". But they seem to be more designed for ported?

Can anyone make suggestions for drivers I should look at? I prefer used, but new at the right price would be OK. I want them big. 24" would be good. Might have to go with 21" or possibly 1 or 2 x 18" per channel. Suitable for infinite baffle.