Rockets FInely Tuned!! (1 Viewer)

Rockets Fine Tuned…
I had posted a review awhile back when I first received the rockets.
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/show...threadid=153526
What an awesome set of speakers. The honeymoon phase has only gotten better! Last weekend we were fortunate enough to have Mark Schifter and Russ Tarvin come out to the house to help us fine-tune them. It is simply amazing what a few placement modifications can make to the sound. While the highs were crisp and the imaging was great – there was a bit of convergence in the way we had set the mains up in the room. Mark spent hours with his test disks and placed them approximately 7-8 feet apart in the front of the room. Not quite satisfied that he was hearing what he wanted to…then had us put them on (temporary stands of telephone books!) about 5 inches higher. OMG, what a difference. The room is very difficult as I have stated before – 12 ft ceilings, trav floors etc. This placement simply changed the entire sound. Imaging became perfect with an incredibly large soundstage. The room was filled and in no way did you even realize that there was an 18-foot room behind you that could have been absorbing the sound.
Vocals and instrumentation were imaged perfectly and sound tracks that were clearly stereo imaged throughout the room as if it were surround recorded. The true appreciation of the VIFA tweeter came into being with this new placement. Mark was gracious and was wonderfully patient in fine-tuning the mains to what I have to call perfection at this time. I had previously posted that I thought the mid-range not quite as deep as one would expect. Between break-in and placement, I can comfortably state that the mid-range is full, deep and enveloping. Russ and children now wanted to hear some reference level sound out of the theater and dipoles. We put in the infamous Pod Racer scene and cranked the system up to reference. The new placement of the mains, combination of the dipoles being dialed in correctly and the center running a few db’s hot rivaled any theater experience. In the opinion of those listening (although somewhat biased, I’m sure :0) phenomenal sound!
I cannot thank Mark enough for taking the time out of what is an extremely busy schedule to visit with us. What a testimony to the customer service and products of AV123. All of the folks that we have dealt with there; Sean, Steve and Mark have gone beyond any type of customer relationships I have experienced in the past. I not only recommend these speakers (as earlier reviewed had put them up against M & K’s Paradigms etc), I also highly recommend AV123. It was a pleasure meeting Russ and those fortunate enough to have auditioned or plan to audition either the DIVA’s or Rockets with him will be very lucky.
Thanks to those on the forum that assisted us in getting the information needed to end up with this incredible AV system. We are now planning to move, (after remodeling the family room, installing wire etc!!) and plan on building a “true” home theater from scratch in the now planned basement. I think I blame this forum on this new ADDICTIVE hobby!!!
Thanks again to all…
Therese Fontaine
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Equipment:
Denon 5803, Pan RP91, SONYXBR40, Sonance 1250, HTS5600, RS750, RSC200, RSS300

Therese,
Now I know why Russ and Mark didn't have time to come by and visit me Mark said he would come by though in October when he returns, and maybe he'll find the time to help me fine tune my Diva's. I'm glad to hear you have a system you are very happy with and good luck putting together a dedicated room when you move into your new house. Maybe if things pick up for my wife at work I'll convince her it's time to try the Rockets
Mike

Therese,

Thanks for posting your thoughts on the Rockets. Are you running your center channel a few DBs hot due to some room-related acoustic issues?

Hi Mike,
Sorry you missed Mark!Guess I will have to take the blame. He and Russ were pretty incredible. I thought the Rockets sounded great - what I didn't knwo until they got done was how EXTRAORDINARY they could sound. Never heard the Diva's so can't compare those...but am surethat you would love the rockets!!
Therese

Hi Scott - Yes we have to run the center due to a placement issue. We ended building a box for it above the tv (40 in SONY WEGA). Had no choice and between the box (not a good idea, though we have it baffled) and placing the center about 2 feet over the TV, the seating positions required it to run 2.5 db's hotter than the mains. In this arrangement it is perfect and correctly dialed in. We had originally placed th center below the TV and closer to ear level, but when we ended up finishing the construction of the media area, couldnot accomodate that placement.By the way - before construction and below the monitor - did not need to run it hot.


Hope that answers your question.

Thanks
Therese

Thanks Therese, that makes perfect sense. I figured there had to be a room-related reason for doing so, but I was also wondering if perhaps it was related in some way to the nature of the center channel speaker. I see from your explanation that this is not the case.

It's great that you were able to dial in a setting that makes it all "sing." Thanks again and good luck with your setup!

That's a great story! Perhaps it'll give others new insights or a desire to take a fresh look at how they've placed their speakers to get a little more out of them.