I had my first 'WOW' moment last night... (1 Viewer)

[Eric_E]

Well, after almost a year of research, demos and calculations, I finally purchased, installed and calibrated all the components of my system about a week ago. Here's what I've got:

Receiver: Harman/Kardon AVR-520
Front: Paradigm Monitor 7
Center: Paradigm CC-370
Surround: Paradigm Titans
Subwoofer: Paradigm PDR-12 v.3 (got a really good deal on this).

After all was said and done, I was honestly feeling a little bit disappointed. I listened to a couple of CDs and DVDs, and it certainly wasn't that the system sounded bad, but for some reason it just didn't seem to live up to all my expectations. I listened with a critical ear and even started to second-guess some of my choices. I started to think that maybe the journey was more fun than the destination.

Then I put in "The Matrix" and listened to the helicopter crash into the building. My jaw hit the floor as my chest imploded. It was then that I knew my money and time had been well-spent.

If anyone remembers, I posted something about Paradigm's revised PDR series a while ago. I was concerned about whether version 3 would be any good. Well, in my experience, it is. Paradigm's website still has the numbers for version 2 of the PDR-12 - I don't know why they haven't changed it yet, but v3's 150-watt RMS seems like an improvement to me.

After a little bit more tweaking I found my enjoyment of the system increased tenfold. Thanks so much to everyone here who helped me with all my questions - I feel like I got the most for my money and the greatest sound out of my system's potential.

Eric

 

[Ron_L]

Also,


only a week you've had the system? Give it time to break in. It sounds pretty good out of the box but give it a month.

 

[Eric_E]

Ron: Thanks for the tip, I keep forgetting about speaker break-in. Would you recommend I play something repeatedly for a day or so to speed up the process, or do you think this would put extra wear and tear on my receiver and/or DVD player?

Also, should I be worried about pushing the speakers too hard before they're properly broken in?

 

[Greg_R]

Paradigm already breaks in their speakers to ensure proper operation. Go ahead and crank it up...

 

[JakeMcM]

don't worry about break in, don't play anything all day, just listen as usual. Crank it up as loud as you feel comfortable as long as it doesn't sound strained and all that.

 

[Michael R Price]

I don't think there is any such thing as wear and tear on any component as long as you don't damage anything, so feel free to use them normally or play continuously, loud or soft, whatever you feel like. To sound best your speakers' woofers might need to be exercised a bit... that held true for my tower speakers, which sounded terrible at first and got better in a few weeks, but didn't sound entirely correct until I ran some low bass through them for awhile.

 

[RISUG]

ERIC WRTOE:
Then I put in "The Matrix" and listened to the helicopter crash into the building. My jaw hit the floor as my chest imploded. It was then that I knew my money and time had been well-spent.*



Yup, nothing quite like that scene to make you feel good about your system, yourself, and humanity in general.When I
first got my AR1's (powered towers, with each tower housing a 15inch 500watt RMS 18Hz capable Bob Carver Sunfire sealed enclosed subwoofer)I demoed the Matrix, and
when that scene was done...boy let me tell ya', I pressed
pause and just sat there for literally 15 minutes with what
I would imagine to be the silliest grin you'd ever see to be on my face. Mind you the the subwoofer volume for each
tower was set to -3, and yet the impact from the explosion
wrote the alphabet on my intestinal trac.

 

[Brett DiMichele]

Eric,

Sounds to me like "You got da bug"

As much as I love impressing myself (That sounds sort of
naughty doesn't it?) I much prefer when I have the friends
over who aren't really into this stuff and don't even know
how good it gets..

Then you load the favorite Reference material (Matrix, The
5Th Element, U571, SW ATOC, LOTR etc.) and after the movie
they just look at you with thier jaws hanging open and then
when they can finally speak they say things like....

"My god.. The Movie Theaters are not like this!"

Then you sit back and grin and LIFE IS GOOD!

 

[BrianGR]

Then I put in "The Matrix" and listened to the helicopter crash into the building. My jaw hit the floor as my chest imploded. It was then that I knew my money and time had been well-spent.

FUN HEH!! ENJOY YOUR SETUP
If you haven't already seen U-571....It's worth checking the DTS track that seems to be done quite well.
The depth-charge scenes will pop the drywall screws in the sheet rock.
And make sure your wearing a seat belt.