New Marantz 6007.....already thinking what'd next.

friggy

So I picked up my Marantz 6007 and set it up yesterday...it sounds good but I think I was spoiled in the Best Buy store. When I listened to it it was hooked up to some B&W s, not sure which model but they sounded extremely good. So now I have a few questions. My set up sounds good but the wife said where's the bass? It was definately lacking. My system is Polk RTi 10 up front, RTi 6 for surround, Polk center, and a Jenson 100 watt sub. I know the sub sucks and it needs replacing, will be getting an amp also whether I need it or not but also would like to maybe add some wide towers. Should I start with the sub and amp or go with the speakers 1st? Also what speakers would go well with my RTi10's, should I stick with Polk or or maybe upgrade? I do intend to add the extra fronts but not sure when, would I be better off to buy a 3 channel sub for now or just go with a 5 channel for future use? If you have any product reccomendations I would appreciate them also.
Thanks for any help, Ken.

Clipdat

Have you looked into Velodyne subs?

tonyb

I would think the 10's could put out just as much bass as that sub. Try taking the sub out of the mix for now, set the 10's to large and subwoofer to none. Make sure the channel levels are set to 0.

mantis

Please disconnect that sub , it's hurting more then adding. Your very next purchase is a very nice sub. Need suggestions? List your entire system , room size and distance from Tv to seating location , what you listen to , what you watch the most , what kind of movies you like , etc. Budget would be nice but lets figure out the right sub first.

friggy

Thanks everyone. I actually havn't looked at any subs yet. For the room....it's 16x16 with the ceiling heightslanting from 8' to 12'. One side has a pony wall so it is basically open to the other room next to it. From tv to seating area is 13'. Watch action flicks mostly. The budget at this point is about $1500. The local Frys ad today showed some RTi12's for $750, not sure if that is each or not, also includes a sub, I'm sure it's not agreat sub. So are the RTi 12's much better than my RTi10's? I would then use the 10's as front wide. Not sure if these would be much different.
Thanks Ken

cfrizz

Start looking for a sub first, the DSW series from Polk is terrific. Then get a 5 channel amp of at least 200wpc @ 8ohms amplifier, sit back and enjoy.

Welcome to Club Polk Ken!

Erik Tracy

So, what is the rest of your system now?

And, was the bass 'missing' all the time or just now with the new Marantz.

Could be lots of things that are not right and you are just now noticing cuz of the new Marantz.

mdaudioguy

Agree with the others here... If you have your speakers crossed over at 80hz, that sub might never be able to fill in adequately below that level. Try running at least the mains at full range.

Seriously, though, does Jensen even make a home audio sub?? I mean, I guess they do, but... You really need to budget more for a sub with that system. Trust us, it will make all the difference in the world. Like others have said, give out some more info - room size, layout, etc... and you'll get some solid recommendations.

If it were me, I'd be starting here: http://www.hsuresearch.com/... and this is without ever even hearing one. Search around though - they know subwoofers and their reputation is very good. At least do some research on their site.

friggy

The bass only seemed to work when I turned it up all the way. It's there it just seems like all or nothing. I'm using a 5.1 se up....Polk RTi10's up front, polk center that can't remember which model (at work right now), Polk RTi6's as back surrounds, and the sub is the Jensen JS 1000.

Erik Tracy

What are you driving the speakers with? Which AVR? How did you set it up? Did you run auto-calibration? What are the settings?

How are the speakers positioned in your room? Did you check that you have the speakers wired correctly in-phase? Maybe the position of the sub is competing against the main speakers.....etc, et al.

I'd exhaust all possible current variables before assuming you need new equipment.

Loud & Clear

If the budget is tight, you could look at getting two of the PSW 505s. Newegg frequently has them for under $200 apiece. Two of those do a pretty nice job in a home theater. You also might let the Marantz setup your audio settings for you if you have doubts as to whether or not you did it correctly.

gce

Is it lacking in bass with movies or music? If music try Source Direct for full range for your 10's. If it's lacking with moves then you do need a better sub. Also give the Marantz some time to break in, it will sound better with a little break in.

friggy

I'm using a Marantz 6007. The room is set up with the towers L&R of the tv with the inside of the left speaker, the center is above the tv and the back surrouns are on stands L&R of listening area. I actually ran Audyessey 2x, the 1st time it set all the speakers to large, I ran it again and it set every thing to large except the center which was small and 60Hz. I reset all of them to small and 80Hz. I can't remember the levels but do remember the sub level was -9.5db. I had the sub level set at half, the low pass filter off, and the phase set to 0 as was suggested by Audyssey. What role does the phase setting play?

Erik Tracy

First check to see if the speakers are wired in-phase, although Audyssey should report a problem for you - check to see that L=L and R=R for both speakers from your AVR.

I would then turn your sub off, and go back into the Marantz setting and set the Fronts=Large, Sub=No.

Then do some listening tests with some music that has good clean bass - I would do this to establish a 'base' line (bad pun intended) for your system.

Then you can start to bring the sub back in. Maybe where you have it positioned relative to your mains is causing it to compete/interfere with your mains.

You should also try moving your front speakers and sub around to see how that affects the bass strength. Moving your speakers closer to the wall will increase the bass level (although at the sacrifice of some clarity).

Is your listening position in the middle of the room or up against the back wall? Depending on where your listening position is, you also may have a room 'node' where the bass waves are canceling each other out.

Just tossing out ideas to try.....

tonyb

friggy wrote: »

I'm using a Marantz 6007. The room is set up with the towers L&R of the tv with the inside of the left speaker, the center is above the tv and the back surrouns are on stands L&R of listening area. I actually ran Audyessey 2x, the 1st time it set all the speakers to large, I ran it again and it set every thing to large except the center which was small and 60Hz. I reset all of them to small and 80Hz. I can't remember the levels but do remember the sub level was -9.5db. I had the sub level set at half, the low pass filter off, and the phase set to 0 as was suggested by Audyssey. What role does the phase setting play?

Because your present sub is your weak link, if you want more bass you should have an option to set the fronts to large and still use the subwoofer. I would turn down the crossover to the area inbetween 50-60 or not use that sub at all at which point the crossover to the fronts would be mute if set to large. Also, if your using the crossover in the receiver, turn the one on the back of the sub all the way up to it's highest value to avoid double filtering. The subs speaker level should be around +3 give or take, -9 is way too low.

friggy

My listening position is back wall. Listening to music is where the bass is not very good. While watching movies the bass isn't so bad it just seems to be all or a little. As mentioned the sub is a weak point so I think I will start there. I was trying to decide where to start with some morevtowers or sub and amp. But I believe I'll start with the sub. So here's another question.....my receiver supports 2 subs should I go with 2 at 200 watts or 1 larger? My budget is approx. $1500 but I was hoping to get an amp within that budget also. I looked at the hsu subs and they look like a pretty good option, someone mentioned Veladyne and I'm headed there next. As always your recommendations and suggestions are greatly appreciated!
Thank you all for your help.

tonyb

Part of the problem is in your settings, you need to do some work in that dept. first. One quality sub should be more than enough, buy used and get an amp too. SVS should also be on your list.

B Run

With a $1500 budget you can get a nice HSU or SVS and still have cash left over for a nice used Parasound amp. The AVR can run the surrounds/center just fine. Giving the 10's proper power and adding a nice sub will give you more bass than you'll ever need.

friggy

Got my eye on a few subs....the svs pb12 nsd and the hsu vtf-3mk4. They are both about the same price and sounds like either would be more than enough for my set up. Any others I should look at?

Now for some amp questions. The amps power is discrete meaning the channel will put out said amps no matter what the other channels are doing is this correct? I also assuming that if I buy a 5 channel amp I could just use 2 or 3 channels and have the others available for future upgrades. So my speakers are capable handling 300 watts for the fronts, and 200 watts for the center.... if I had an amp that delivered 400 wpc would I be okay as long as I didn't turn itvup to where it exceeds the speakers capabilities?

friggy

It was suggested to check out the NHT B-12D subs also as they are supposed to be good. Whats even better is their showroom is only about 20 miles away from me so I can actually hear them in person. So are these comparable to the SVS PB12-NSD or the HSU VTF-3MK4 I won't be able to hear the latter in personn. They are all in the same price range.
Thanks Ken

Upstatemax

I'm now a huge fan of velodyne. I prefer a sealed sub since I listen to a lot of music on my system and my new spl 1000 has been amazing. I gave it it's first real test this week in HT with Lord of The Rings Fellowship on BR. It was a blast to listen to this little box rattle my whole room (15x24) and the volume knob is only half way up...

There are louder subs out there, but this thing is very dynamic, takes up almost no room and even my wife likes it!

I picked it up direct from Velodyne for $500 with a full 2yr warranty.

blehmbo

Look into Rythmik subwoofers as well as the others mentioned above. Rythmik has a reputation for having subwoofers that produce well controlled articulate bass.

Another option that hasn't been mentioned is Power Sound Audio. The company apparently was started by a SVS co-founder and another former SVS engineer. Their XS15 is $750 shipped in the US with a 5% discount if you get two.

erniejade

epik also has some good subs for the $.

friggy

Well I ordered my sub today went with the HSU VTF-3MK4. Looking forward to setting it up and then of course probably more questions. Thanks for all the input and suggestions. Now I have to turn my full attention to amps!!!

Thanks again, Ken.

ZLTFUL

Excellent sub choice. You will definitely not be disappointed.

I am in the same boat as you now. Have a great AVR (with pre-amp outs), great speakers and sub and good source units. Now I just need to decide on amps. Good luck in your next step.

John K.

Ken, the main problem with your present equipment, as other replies pointed out, was clearly the sub. That's now been solved with the excellent VTF-3MK4 you've ordered. The next step, however, certainly wouldn't appear to be adding another amplifier. There are no published lab reports on the 6007 yet, but the 6006 has the essentially identical amp and as shown here the maximum power available is more than sufficient for all safe(to your hearing)listening levels with your RTi10 setup.

As to the speakers, if you want to use front wides, the RTi6s can be moved there and specifically designed wide dispersion surround speakers, such as the F/XiA4s or A6s would do a better job as your side surrounds(since you're up against the back wall, back surrounds in a 7.1 setup wouldn't be really helpful).

friggy

I've heard conflicting opinions on whether an amp would be beneficial or not, while I definately appreciate everyones opinion I figure I'll go ahead with an amp as I don't think it will hurt anything. I have run the front wides or front height speakers by the wife and she doesn't get it.....why do you need that? I answer like I always do....I don't need it I want it!

Upstatemax

I had my Parasound hooked up to my RTi A7's for a while and I found it helped to really open them up. Better bass response at all volume levels with a more "refined" top end.

Congrats on the new sub!

friggy

Thanks Upsatemax, that's what I'm hoping for, a little more bass response and hopefully clarity. I'm probably going to get some new speakers also sometime next year but want to see what these RTi10's are capable of. Waiting on the sub now it should arrive anytime now!