ht setup

vwfred69

My living room is 13.5'x19.5' and the tv and mains are on the long wall. When I watch movies the sound isn't full. I currently have monitor 60s,cs2,r300,and a b&w asw1000 powered by a marantz nr1501 with speakers set to small and 60hz.
Should my speakers be adequate for the room size,,underpowered, or both?

deronb1

Seems like a fine setup. Does your marantz let you raise the input signals from items connected to it? If so, set the input levels to max. Also, try raising the xover to 80hz. Good luck!

Erik Tracy

The 60's should be up to the task, but the Marantz may not have enough 'oomph' (its only rated at 50W/ch, right?).

My guess is that your Marantz is running out of juice.

Unfortunately, from the pics I've seen of the back of the Marantz, there are no pre-outs which would allow you to hook up an external amp for more power.

vwfred69

it's rated at a true 50x7 by my understanding, and yes no pre outs. a friend has an ?lan 10 channel amp for sale but I know nothing about it or what I would need to go with it. I also have a onkyo ht-r540 but I don't think it is any better.

danz1906

vwfred69 wrote: »

My living room is 13.5'x19.5' and the tv and mains are on the long wall. When I watch movies the sound isn't full. I currently have monitor 60s,cs2,r300,and a b&w asw1000 powered by a marantz nr1501 with speakers set to small and 60hz.
Should my speakers be adequate for the room size,,underpowered, or both?

Being on the long wall, your speakers may be spread out too far. Also try 80hz crossover.

tonyb

Couple things, for the room size, I would say your on the lite side with those speaks. Also that receiver is an entry level receiver at 50 watts per channel, most likely 35 watts in 5 channel mode but still should power those speaks to normal volumes. I would check all your settings in the receiver first. Make sure your crossover setting is in the neighborhood of 70-80 and make sure if you have another crossover on the sub that it is turned all the way up so your not using both. Set the speaker levels to 0 and adjust from there. More than likely the subwoofer level will need a boost to around+3 or higher. You may like the speakers better set to large too so give that a try.

Also, what are you using to play movies ? How is it connected ? What listening modes are you using ? What cables ? Are the jumpers on the back of the speakers in place ? Using banana plugs or bare wire connections ? If bare wire, make sure none of the plastic coating is caught inside any of the binding posts on the receiver or speakers.

vwfred69

speakers aren't spaced equally either because of a door, but I ran audyssey and it originally set fronts to 130hz I think. http://m64.photobucket.com/albumview/albums/vwfred69/d56ed02b.jpg.html?src=www&action=view&current=d56ed02b.jpg&evt=user_media_share http://m64.photobucket.com/albumview/albums/vwfred69/04615fd3.jpg.html?src=www&action=view&current=04615fd3.jpg&evt=user_media_share

vwfred69

It is hooked up with hdmi to my sony blu-ray,att vip2250dvr,Xbox,laptop
16awg I think monster xp speaker wire with nakamichi bananas at the speakers using the jumpers
I leave the receiver set to auto which is usually PCM or plii

dudeinaroom

tonyb wrote: »

...... Also that receiver is an entry level receiver at 50 watts per channel, most likely 35 watts in 5 channel mode .......

I haven't read the specs. but I'd expect that to make 50 to each ch. Think Harmon Kardon build quality. Marantnz still makes nice stuff.

tonyb

vwfred69 wrote: »

speakers aren't spaced equally either because of a door, but I ran audyssey and it originally set fronts to 130hz I think. http://m64.photobucket.com/albumview/albums/vwfred69/d56ed02b.jpg.html?src=www&action=view&current=d56ed02b.jpg&evt=user_media_share http://m64.photobucket.com/albumview/albums/vwfred69/04615fd3.jpg.html?src=www&action=view&current=04615fd3.jpg&evt=user_media_share

Some suggestions judging by those pics, move that left one out of the corner and bring forward so that it's at least even with the face of the tv and maybe a foot away from that side wall. The one on the right is too far away, bring that closer to the tv about an equal distance as the other one and forward just as much. Lower that cross over to around 80 to start and see where that gets you. You can always go up ot down but 130 seems too high. Because of the way you have the speakers positioned, the auto calibration is going to do some funky things with the settings. Maybe the short wall would be a better option too.

Geoff4rfc

Is there any reason your set up can't be centered on the wall instead of having to the side of the window?

vwfred69

It's actually a sliding door and it's only about six inches away now. I have move all speakers to 60 but it still seems lacking in the mid bass. I have plenty of low end the sub can be overpowering on movies. I had to turn down the dts lfe.
I'll try moving the right channel in a little.

tonyb

Try playing a cd in 2 channel only and see if the mid bass improves. Also did you setup the inputs on the receiver ?

vwfred69

not really. I don't think it has much input setup

vwfred69

Set them to full in stereo with some Korn and it was more like what I want. Definatly could use more power it never clipped that I could tell but seemed to cut bass. had to stop playing wife got mad...

Lietuvis91

You have to make the best use of the power your avr makes, so setting higher crossover frequencies might be the best way to go, especially since you have a capable sub. I have never liked my monitors or lsi series speakers below 120hz for HT use, anyway. Lower crossover gives you more noise but not any more clear sound. Music is different, but for movies 120hz seems to be the spot. You do have to turn the sub up a little to match. Try 100 or 120 and let your ears be the judge on what sounds best, but I think you should be able to make it work pretty well.