JBL System comments so far.. (1 Viewer)

[Richard_s]

My Paul Simo DVD one I know well is stunning. There is sounds in there I never heard before highs , mid and Bass.

Apollo 13 will be on cable so I will gine a listen in DPL II Movie mode that has some Bass scenes.

Tomorrow I will rent somethging to test with and also enjoy.

If the DTS and DD5.1 both sound good I would say this system surpasses my expectations it is quite good.

Question:

Is the N24AW going to sound the same as the N24 or did they have to do something that affects sound to get the weather resistance. Off white is much setter for my surrounds. If the same I will look on Ebay an see if I can pick up a pair at a reasonable price.

 

[Phil Iturralde]

The JBL, . . . speakers are so good that I'd recommend them for any stereo or home theater application, indoors or out. Its $250-a-pair price makes the JBL N24AW a special value.

... or basically, what you're hearing right now with the JBL N24s!
eBay is a great place to get them!
Phil

 

[Richard_s]

Just Finished Watching "Men in Black" I set the volume for 75db. DD5.1 Normal mode (system picks this automatically).
The system sounds like a real Theater (well close enough for me anyway). At times the peak SPL Hit 104db (near the end of the movie with the jet car in the tunnel scene). I repeated the scene and measured using C weighting and slow setting. General dialog and other normal volume measured 75db as it should. The Bass was quite envigorating and tight yes the room was shaking. Hard to beleive the volume on the PB12 is at 1/3. there was another scene where there was a ball bouncing all over the room and that how it sounded. It had the same tonal and volume characteristic as it moved around the room and I was not aware of any obvious transition from one speaker to another the transitions were real sounding and seamless. Dialog was crisp and clear even at lower volume settings and well centered on the "mouth" of the talker.
My music DVD's also sound great and the DSP modes all seem to perform quite well. Now all I need to do is rent "The Haunting in DTS" from what I have been told this should be a killer bass (LFE) for DTS so I will see if this sounds good. This will tell me if the Yamaha HTR-5550 has built in compensation on the LFE DTS channel (my guess is given how well Yamaha has dealt with other performance factors I would expect they eliminated the adjustment and put in a correction for the DTS LFE). I hope the DTS sounds great if it does then this receiver is just what I wanted. Actually the whole system is.
The other good news. Given the fact that I have a "U" shaped ranch with the bedrooms at the far end and the master bedroom is at the furthest end when I close off the family room the loudest section of the movie was hardly perceptable in the bedrooms. Now I know I can watch late at night no problem (unless the neighbors complain) but with all the windows closed (have central air) I doubt they can hear it.
Thanks All
Thanks All!!

 

[Richard_s]

Spent a few hours using the first few chapters of "Titan AE" in both DTS and DD5.1 to try to see if the Yamaha 5550 has built in LFE compensation between the DTS and DD5.1
First I tried to get the general dialog to read the same SPL (radio shack C weighting slow). I did this with the LFE adjustment set at Odb and -20db. For general Dialog I got the same SPL reading so I feel the LFE channel was not active in those scenes. What I found was that the DTS was around 5db to 6db higher.Seem reasonable for this DVD?
For my next testing I always set the DTS 6db lower than for the DD5.1
Now I ran the first two chapters. First I just listened and the DTS and the DD5.1 sounded very similar. I guess this is what really counts. It appeared that in the DTS mode the Dialog was somewhat crisper but could just be my imagination. I then ran the first two chapters again watching the SPL and they were close, maybe at the peak points of the LFE effects the DD5.1 was slightly higher by 2db. Again when I set the LFE to -20db the peak effects were attenuated in both DTS and DD5.1 and were still the 2db difference between them (approximation for sure).
The most critical test is does the movie sound good in both DTS and DD5.1. I would have to say the sound was very good and very similar between the two modes DTS and DD5.1. The bass was strong and tight throughout and the dialog clear for both the DTS and DD5.1. I would have to conclude that the bass management is decent in both modes and that the unit does compensate for the LFE dirfference between DTS and DD5.1. What do you think does the system seem to be compensated well?
Based on what I have stated do you feel that I tested the system in a reasonable manner just want to make sure. Would you recommend any other test. Tomorrow I will watch the entire movie in DTS and see if I am happy with the Yamaha so far it seems very good Without a doubt the JBL speakers N26's, N-center and the PB12 are outstanding values. The JBL's definitely exceeded my expectation.
Now I am sure this is a dumb question but given that the DTS and the DD5.1 sound so similar, which is what I think I should get, what is the advantage of one vs. the other?

 

[Phil Iturralde]

... DTS and the DD5.1 sound so similar, which is what I think I should get, what is the advantage of one vs. the other?

Great question!! There are endless threads pitting the DTS camps vs. DD camps if you do a search under the "HT Software" section.
I can tell you that since in many DVDs, if not most, where DTS is also available on the DVD, it does seem to be a little more detailed in the 5.1 presentation. You will have to listen to both and pick what sounds the best for you - but you're right, its very, very close! If my DVD has DTS, I'll choose that format to play it back unless it doesn't sound as good as the DD 5.1 counterpart - one example was IMAX "The Living Sea" where the DD 5.1 sounded better to me, and other HTF'ers in an older thread noticed the difference. But thats the only case I know at this time.
I can also tell you that ...
According to
DVD Entertainment Group
More than 14,000 titles now available!
---------------------
Dolby Digital 5.1 DVD's = 2,599
DTS 5.1 DVD's = 344
DTS still has a long way to go to offer a library of DVDs, but at least some of the newer ones being release gives you both sound formats like "Behind Enemy Lines", released last Tuesday.
Phil

 

[Richard_s]

Phil:

Since my older Yamaha had the two controls, for proper playback between DTS LFE and DD LFE, the recommended difference was +10 (for DTS LFE) above whatever the REF Calibrated DD LFE settng was.

It seemed to me the best I could tell was that the LFE for DTS and DD5.1 were within 2-3db of each other so looks like there is some reasonable internal compensation. Definitely no more than a 3db difference between the two modes.