newbie, anticipating new system, your thoughts (1 Viewer)

[Mike Shellito]

I'm new at all this, getting some new equipement due to arrive in the next couple days. I'm getting anxious to see how it sounds. In the meantime, I'd like to hear from some of you experts with your high-end systems to fill me in on what to expect.

Receiver: Yamaha HTR 5860 (this is new)
DVD: JVC XV-SA600BK
Front Spkrs: Def Tech DR7
Center Spkr: Yamaha NS C55
Surround Sprs: Yamaha NSE55
Sub: SVS PB10-ISD (this is new)
TV: too embarassed to say - that's the next upgrade!!!

I know the center and surround speakers are nowhere near the quality of my 2 front mains, but they were a present from my wife 2 years ago (my old receiver was pro logic, never got much surround from it), so went with what I think is a good sub. Thoughts?

Thanks -

Mike

 

[Cees Alons]

Mike,

Welcome to the forum.

EXCELLENT choice to add the sub first - and such a good one too!

Don't forget to set the other speakers to "small" in your receiver. The lowest bass (they can't handle) will be sent to your sub then. This way you really won't have to retire those surrounds any time soon.
Although the same is true for the center speaker, your next replacement could be: buying the same speaker (or similar) as your other main speakers. This will enhance the "evenness" of your front sound stage.

But for the moment, I'd say: don't worry, your going in for a treat when your gear arrives.


Cees

 

[DavidSGT]

Hiya Mike,

After the Tv, change the ctr and you are good to go. The surr can come much later in my opinion.
Then just kick back and enjoy.

Regards.
David SGT

 

[Mike Shellito]

A question about crossover settings:

My receiver is here, the sub should be here next week. I did some searching on the internet, my fronts are rated from 22 hz to 28 khz (knew they got low, didn't think that low - Def Tech DR7 w/tuned port). My cheapo center is 70 hz to 30khz, and the cheapo surrounds are 80 hz to 30 khz.

The Sub is rated at 20 hz to 100 hz. I plan on setting the crossover to 90, as that's right between the high rating on the sub and the low rating on the surrounds. I've seen the standard is 80. Not sure on "crossover slopes" or any of that, so thought I'd throw this out there for feedback, if anyone could provide some. Thought 90 was good to prevent potential sharp cuts in the bass, even though I imagine most bass sounds are from the fronts and LFE, not the surrounds.

Thanks.

P.S. - got the receiver and surround set up last night, without the sub, and it already sounds much better than my old pro-logic - can't wait for the sub to get here. I want to rent a good movie to check it out, but at the same time, I want to wait until the sub arrives so I can really enjoy it.

 

[John S]

Teh surrounds are full raneg channels these days. There can be significant bass there if the engineer deems it should be. Like a rolling explosion will tend to have lots of bass going to the surrounds.

Just keep the speakers on small and let the sub handle the really low stuff, you'll be great.

 

[LanceJ]

If it's O.K., I've got sort of an off-topic question for owners of Yamaha & other receivers that have this feature:

Why is there a choice in the set up menu for "sub" or "sub + both" (I think this is how it is usually indicated on the display)? The first option seems to work as you think it would, where the LFE channel from a 5.1 dvd or the bass that is extracted from a stereo source, is sent to the sub for reproduction. The other choice does what I just described but for 5.1 sources-when the fronts are set to large(??)-it also seems to be extracting a bass signal from the front mains and also sending that to the subwoofer.

Why would this be desired?

Thanks.

 

[Mike Shellito]

Everything's set up. Well, holy smokes - didn't expect that good of a sound. I'm still a novice, only used the YPAO for calibration, then a little tweaking on the left rear, re-configured the crossover to 90, and set the fronts to small, and watched a movie. I was very very impressed. I'll have to get a calibration disc and SPL meter soon. It seems that with every little step it keeps sounding better, so I'll do a little more tweaking with the calibration, then I'll be ready to go.

(Boy, that SVS is a big sub, but I'm quite happy with it! )