My 54tx is finally here. (1 Viewer)

[DerrikW]

Well she came today. After I got it all hooked up I threw in some cd's. Talk about power, this thing makes my 811 seem like a bose wave radio. I always used to listen to music on my 811 with the loudness on, otherwise it was just dull. This definately has more dynamics. Comparing the two right off the bat was no comparison, it beats the 811 in every which way like you wouldn't believe. For some reason though it didn't seem like it hit that low, then I realised the speaks were set to small, after I switched them to large, holy schnikes. With them set to small, it sounded like my 811 did set to large with the loudness on. I tried 7 channel stereo, and even with all channels driven, the mains went a lot louder and and had a hell of a lot more power than with the 811 running just 2 channel.

I ran mcacc, and apparently I had a nasty hump of about 6 or so db. at about 63 hz, it quickly took care of that. It also set my sub at 11 feet, which it is in fact only about 6 feet from the listening position, I thought that was kinda odd. But after listening, it made a huge difference, the mains transition to the sub much better, and it doesn't sound bloated anymore, surprised the hell out of me.

After flipping through a few dvd's, I noticed the surrounds all seem so seemless now compared to before. MCACC made a large improvement.

I do have a couple questions though.

1. I am running monitor 7's front, cc-370 center, and mini monitors all the way around, do you think I should it to 8 ohms, or 6 ohms?

I ran it at 8 ohms the whole time and even at extreme levels it never made a glitch.

Also the dialog norm. When ever it receives a digital signal like when first starting up a movie, it says dialog norm. +4. Is there any way to change that? Or is that part of the mcacc?


All in all. Very happy with it so far. Tonight I'm gonna mess around with mcacc pro, and see what that does.

 

[Chuck_W]

Congrats on the new receiver Derrik. What swayed you to the Elite over the Yamaha??

 

[DerrikW]

I went and demoed both of them, and to my ears I like the sound of the elite better. The yamaha was nice dont get me wrong, but I thought the elite sounded better for movies. I didn't really listen to music during the demo, since I don't listen to a whole lot of music in the house, that's what my car is for.


They both had all the features I could ever want. Feature wise wasn't really that big of a deal, since they both had everything I need.

I also thought the pio had more power. While listening to full 7.1 at or above reference levels the yamaha seemed to run out of steam during some of the loud action scenes. The pio took it all in stride, even when I turned it up a couple notches past reference levels it really didnt' phase it. This was an awfully big room, I was really surprised either of them got that loud. The elite just had a little bit more to it. In most households though the yammie would have more than enough, since this was an awfully big room and it still did pretty well.

On top of that I got a pretty good deal on it.

 

[Chuck_W]

Thanks for the info Derrik - where did you demo these two?

 

[ChadLB]

Derrick,
I have to agree with you as I had the Pioneer 811s and now have the 54tx and what an improvement.
Never paid attention to the dialog thing but in the manual it looks like it mentions something about it looks at the average level of the sound and normalizes it to make it "Uniform playback level" and this is only done with a Dolby Digital signal.

Enjoy the new toy.

chad

 

[DerrikW]

Ultimate electronics in st. cloud. The people that work don't have a fucking clue what they are doing so I did all the setup and demoing myself. The guy that I was crazy. Used a variety of speakers, infinity, KEF, def tech. and some klipsch's.

 

[Chuck_W]

That makes sense. I've been to several Ultimates but have never been able to get a decent demo comparing receivers.

 

[ChadLB]

Well what kind of store is this...sorry none in my area. Don't take this the wrong way it sounds like a Best Buy with just Higher end equipment.......

 

[Chuck_W]

They do carry better stuff. The sales staff is on commission but they will deal on price. I've come across one or two guys that know their stuff but many don't seem to have much more training than BB staff.

 

[Chuck_W]

Derrik - where did you get your Paradigms?

 

[DerrikW]

BestBuy. No just kidding. Got them from sound image in willmar mn. If you know where that's at? All they carry is monitors and below. I've hinted more than once that they should start carrying studios but it never works. All he ever says is, I've been thinking about it. That was over a year ago.

Chuck, where abouts you from?

 

[Chuck_W]

Yeah I've heard of Willmar - west of Litchfield. Just wondering....don't see Paradigm's around very often. You like the monitors?

 

[DerrikW]

Love em. I didn't know how good they could sound until I gave them a little power. They always sounded kinda anemic on my 811. They sound like whole different speaker on my 54.

If you are looking for studios you are gonna have to run to alexandria, I think there might be a studio dealer in the TC area somewhere.

I've been thinking about replacing the 7's with a set of 60's and moving the 7 side surround duties. I don't know how well that will work though since the tweeters will be lower than I like em. I suppose I could buy a decent set of stands and move em up a foot or so.

 

[Chuck_W]

I was interested in Paradigms a while back but gave up since they are so hard to find. Those 60's look nice but they aren't cheap!

Anyway, glad you're happy with the Elite.

(I'm currently living down south in Worthington by the way)

 

[DerrikW]

Chad,

Yeah, it's kinda sad really. They are kinda like a bestbuy but with higher end equip. The sad part is, in one room they have krell and sunfire pre/pros and amplifiers, running some martin logans and some kef's that cost around $4000 a piece, but the guy that's in there helping you really doesn't know a whole lot more about that kinda stuff than a bestbuy employee.

You'd kinda think that if you are selling that kind of equipment they would at least have some employees that have a little more knowledge about it then your average chain store employee.

Like chuck said, there are a few of em that know their stuff, but the majority of em have about as much training as a bb employee, maybe a little more, but not much. Out of all of the ultimates I've been to I've only met one employee that I couldn't stump. Surprised the hell out of me, I asked him some questions just to see if he had any clue what was going on, ended up bs with him for about a half hour. I have gone into my local UE and everytime I ask them a question they have no idea wtf I'm talking about.

 

[ChadLB]

So sad.....but I suppose some of these people are just working to pay the bills and don't know much about audio.
I have learned so much in the past couple of years some times I think I know too much but yet there is so much more to learn.
Alot of it helps me realize what I want out of the piece of equipment.

I went into a store in Milwaukee Wisconsin probably similiar to Ulitmate...they carried alot of Denon, Klipsch, B&K and some other things. The guy I was talking to was almost clueless when I asked him questions about the B&K Ref 50 - Questions I already knew the answers about - just to see what they knew.
I also did this at American TV and the guy was clueless. I asked him if there was any faults with the HK receivers. They knew nothing of the Audio Drop out problem.
Let's see in the last year I tested a HK230, Yamaha HTR 5760, Outlaw 950, Pioneer Elite 43tx, Denon 985s at home.
I own a 54tx which is a beast and I am selling as chuck knows due to upgrade. I will be using a Denon 2805 for a while until I get my seperates.

Derrick if you know anyone looking for a Pioneer for a great price with a transferrable warranty let me know.

 

[Chuck_W]

If any of you 54tx owners happen to have a tape measure handy, could you measure the depth of the 'footprint' - from the front of the front feet to the rear of the back feet? My rack is open in the back so I don't care if it hangs out but I'm just curious if the thing would even fit on the shelf...