I can't seem to ever get help on other a/v forums, hopefully you guys will help (1 Viewer)

[London Lawson]

I picked up some paradigm ADP 370's and have them setup as my rear speakers in my 5.1 setup, along with Paradigm Montior 3's as the front speakers, a Paradigm CC370 as a center and a Paradigm PW2200 as my sub. I was told that I should have these 370's as the fronts and the Monitor 3's as rears, but I thought these were specifically for rear setups. And I must not have these setup right as there don't have much of an effect at all. They are all powered by a Yamaha HTR5890. Are these supposed to be hooked up to the rear speaker outputs or the surround outputs?

 

[Seth=L]

The ADP's are specifically designed to be used as surround speakers. I don't know why anyone would suggest using them as fronts and moving the Monitor 3's to the back.

If you had 7.1 it would be logical to recomend moving the Monitor 3's to the very rear and use the the ADP's as side surrounds wall mounted to the side and above the listening position, which is what they were designed for. This scenerio would only be practical if you upgrade your front speakers to say larger a Monitor series speaker. At present it sounds like you should keep the Monitor 3's in front and the ADP's side mounted to the listening position.

Hope this helps.

 

[London Lawson]

I'm wondering if I should sell these and get some rear speakers for my 5.1 like I orginally intended.

 

[Charlie Campisi]

I think you may be confusing terms. Now that 6.1 and 7.1 have come along 'rear' refers to the 6th and 7th channel that go behind the seating position. In a 5.1 setup like yours, there is no 'rear.' Instead, the 4th and 5th channels are called the L/R surround channels. Or sometimes the 'side surround' channels to distinguish them from the 'rear surrounds' in a 7.1. I'm not familiar with the ADPs, but Seth has said they are designed for surrounds, so in that regard they should be perfect for your 5.1 configuration.

Regarding whether they add much -- there could be several things at work. First, people are usually surprised how little sound goes through the surround channels. They are mostly used for effects. There should not be constant sound coming out of them. Second, have you enabled the rear channels and do you have a digital connection from your source components to your receiver so that you are getting discrete 5.1 audio in Dolby Digital or DTS? This usually involves turning DD and DTS to 'on' in your dvd player and setting the audio in the dvd player to 'bitstream' and not 'pcm.' Your receiver probably has a audio setting for 'auto.' Then, you should also enable DD in your sat receiver/cable box if you get HD that way. Third, have you calibrated your system? Using a calibration dvd like Avia or Digital Video Essentials and a sound meter will ensure that the sound levels from your speakers are 'matched' so that the sound coming from all the discrete channels is at the right level.

 

[Seth=L]

Sorry I guess I didn't explain that well enough, I just can type all day. I type very slowly, it sucks.

Deffinitely keep the ADP's and the Monitor 3's.

 

[London Lawson]

I am using an optical cable for sound from my dvd and Dish reciever. I have not calibrated.

 

[xAbre1200]

Ditch your speakers and buy these instead
http://www.sounddistributors.com/buynow.asp?prid=1054

 

[Seth=L]

No offense, but, I wouldn't go to BIC for quality speakers. They may be a cheap, but they are cheaply made, bright speakers. They use cheap drivers and cheap configurations. They aren't even as good as Klipsch's cheapest speakers, and I don't like those either. If he already has good speaker then why would he downgrade to BIC, come on. The Paradigm Monitor series is in a completely different league than BIC.

And I might add, why are you suggesting speakers when you have no knowledge about them?

 

[xAbre1200]

The acoustec speakers were recomended to me by a profesional...... that is why I recomended them.

 

[Seth=L]

Gotta listen to them first. If a profesional recomended that I get a Bose acoustimas system I would tell him, or her, to take it up the tailpipe. And profesionals will suggest Bose to customers, I have seen them do it.

 

[Arthur S]

Seth

I can't really agree with you. The BIC H-100 is very well regarded @ $240-$280, and was designed by Dr. Hsu. At the $800 price point, the BIC package is a very good deal.

The other speakers in the BIC package may not be as good as the Premier Acoustics package (including subwoofer), which for $200 more come in genuine cherry. Parker Clack, co-owner of the HTF owns the Premier Acoustics package and likes it.

 

[Seth=L]

You would compare it to Monitor series?

I have listened to the BIC speakers, the ones with horns that look like Klipsch in a store here in Fort Wayne, I thought they were OK, but I don't think they sound as good as Paradigm Monitor series.

 

[Arthur S]

Paradigm speaker that I have seen test reports on have a hump in the low-mid bass. Many people like that sound. I prefer a crisp sound, but without sibilance. Rather than the BIC, I would recommend to anyone to go with the Premier Acoustics package, that for $200 more give you genuine cherry veneer.

Don keele, long time speaker reviewer and speaker designer for JBL, used B&W 801 Matrix 3's as his reference for years, and it was only until he tested the Snell Type B, with flat response to below 30Hz did he realize that he had been attracted to the full bass and gotten used to it. The BIC speakers I have seen tested have a flatter response than the Paradigm.

To each his own.

 

[xAbre1200]

How come the acoustech speaker is bad? I was about to buy it but now im not sure what to do now. My budget is about 799.99 on speakers + sub. the acuoustech looked like the best deal for me...... ani ideas?

 

[xAbre1200]

Ummm ok, I did some research on the Acoustech speakers and I came across this website.

quote: "...I give the Acoustech speaker line my highest recommendation.

- Calvin Harding, Jr.

http://www.audaud.com/audaud/MAR04/component/comp1.html

Obviously, they perform much better than you think

 

[SethH]

The Acoustech speakers are good speakers. I think it would be silly for anyone to make a blanket statement comparing the Acoustech speakers to these Paradigms.

But remember that the original poster already owns the Paradigm speakers. IMO it is pretty bad advice to ask someone to ditch speakers they like for different speakers. Also, I don't believe he ever asked about different brands of speakers.

And yes, the H100 is a great little sub for the price (I have owned one for about 6 months). My understanding is that this was designed, in part, by Dr. Hsu which explains why it is such a good sub.

Also, xAbre1200, just because something gets a few good reviews doesn't mean it's really that good. As I'm sure Arthur would point out (reference to a recent back-and-forth Arthur and I had in the display forum ) these reviews usually have some sort of bias. The particular review you link to, IIRC, states that the BIC's actually out-perform the Klipsch reference series . . . which is overstating things IMO.

Those speakers are good, and at your budget they are probably a great purchase . . . if you like the way they sound. But considering the re-sale value of most speakers it just doesn't make much sense to recommend that others drop what they have and buy the speakers you think are better.

 

[gene c]

Getting back to the original question, as others have pointed out, your "rear" speakers should be hooked up to the "surround" connection on the back panel not "surround-back" which would be used with an additional set of speakers for a 7.1 system. If this is your first foray into surround sound, you may be somewhat disappointed in the amount of info that's sent to the surrounds from the source material. The 5890 has Yamaha's YAPO self-calibrating system. While it may or may not be as good as some of the other calibration discs, it will get you close enough. It will also let you know if your speakers are hooked up right. If you still feel something is wrong, put in a stereo disc and select "5 channel stereo". This setting puts out an almost equal signal to the surrounds as it does to the fronts. If it doesn't then there is still something wrong. Hope this helped.

 

[Phil_O]

London,

I have Monitor 5's and a CC370 up front, and ADP 150's in the rear on my 5.1 system. I know the ADP 150's are old, bought them new in '98! The ADP 150's, like the 370's, are a dipolar design meaning the drivers are wired out of phase. They are designed to create a diffuse rear sound and for that reason they would definitely not make for an accurate front channel of any kind. The sound is difficult to localize so they make good surround effects, but for the front channels strong localization is good. I don't think anyone makes dipolar front speakers.

Oh and whoever told you to use the 370's up front probably has a full Bose setup they're very proud of....

 

[Phil_O]

Here's an article from Stereo Review Magazine from a while back on dipolar surrounds for ya. Just so you know more about them.

http://www.paradigm.com/Website/News...rConfusion.pdf

 

[Martino]

"I am using an optical cable for sound from my dvd and Dish reciever. I have not calibrated."

You first need to calibrate your sound system (can search for other links here on how to do that), before you can tell that the speakers are working well for you.
As stated in an earlier post, the surround channels usually don't have too much information in them anyway, but it depends on the movie. If you don't calibrate them, they can be set way to low compared to the rest of your system - so what little information they do contain won't be herd anyway. After you perform the calibration on all the channels and the sub, you will get a better idea if you are happy with your speaker setup.