What equipment makes the most difference?

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  • jmierzur
    jmierzur Posts: 489
    edited April 2002
    pensacola,

    If you can, try rotating your listening environment 45 degrees so your system is not against a wall and backs into a corner. This will allow you to have a 'longer' and 'wider' listening room and put reflected sound to the correct channel. This will also improve the imaging within the room. If in doubt, try drawing the primary sound reflections on a piece of paper to see what I mean.
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  • rlw
    rlw Posts: 231
    edited April 2002
    Originally posted by RuSsMaN
    Lets elaborate here, perhaps I just have not come across a SUBSTANTIALLY bad room...

    Are we talking a 5x5 cell? Made of glass? A huge, noisy air vent?

    What about any common room, can't be fixed with some curtains, or area rug, or maybe some top secret nasa space tiles, or eggcrate (as us simple folks call it).....

    What 'bad' rooms have you all come across, and what made them so very very naughty?

    Cheers,
    Russ

    Current listening room: 12'x23'xslanted ceiling ranging from 7' in one corner to 9' in another corner. Hard plaster [not wallboard] walls; oak parquet floor.

    I finally achieved enjoyable results with 12 ASC TubeTraps, 8 ASC SoundPlanks, 50 Sheets of Sonex/Auralex foam, an 8x10 area rug, and curtains.

    It was really amazing: when I started putting Sonex on the ceiling, the upper-mids and highs actually started becoming more pronounced, which is something I would not have expected.


    The front 1/3 of the room is on a slab; the back 2/3 is over a basement. One long wall is an outside [foundation] wall. Were we staying in the house, my next step would be to add jacks in the basement to beef up the floor support, which would tighten up the bass a bit.


    Granted, I'm running the SRT's in this room, I'm sure if I switched to a monitor it would be easier, but what fun would that be?
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  • jmierzur
    jmierzur Posts: 489
    edited April 2002
    Person A likes Klipsch speakers, person B likes Bose, while person C likes Polk. Ask these individuals which are lousy speakers. Who is right?

    Person D paid $100 for speakers producing all the required audio characteristics, person E paid $1,000, while person E paid $10,000. Ask any of these individuals who wasted money on their purchase. Who would be right?

    Combine the two above examples and throw in some real world variables, then ask the same questions. Again, whose opinion on which speaker is lousy is correct?

    I compared:

    Dynaudio, Totem Acoustic, Joseph Audio, Mordant Short, Polk Audio, Definitive Technology, Kef, Mirage, Paradigm, Epos, JBL, Tannoy, B&W…

    speakers for my last purchase. I did decide on Polk as these produced the characteristics that I am comfortable paying money for. Are these others lousy?

    Everyone perceives and remembers differently. Everyone has a different perspective on what would be the ideal product. If not, there would only be one choice, for everything.

    Final thought, as I perceive it is time to move on.

    What single factor has the most impact on your listening pleasure?


    Best of luck in the future.
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  • mantis
    mantis Posts: 17,200
    edited April 2002
    To answer the question, what equipment makes the most difference?I will say NONE OF THE ABOVE.
    WHY YOU ASK???????????
    The system is only as good as it's worst componet.You can't mate good speaker's with a bad sounding amp,bad speaker's with a good amp,good amp, good speaker's, bad wire.Good speaker's, good amp,good wire,bad power.Good power, good speaker's,good,wire, good amp.Bad room.
    Do you follow me on this???
    To really answer the question ..........mating.Thats the key.Room,speaker's,wire,amp,power,source.If they don't all work together, then you will never hear what your system can really do.
    There's ton's of testing involved.Asking question's in here in a great place to start.Getting opinion's on gear that work's right with your speaker's is a great place to start.
    Try not to get so invloved in spec's.there nice to a point, but at the end of the day it has to sound good.
    Dan
    Dan
    My personal quest is to save to world of bad audio, one thread at a time.
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  • Aaron
    Aaron Posts: 1,853
    edited April 2002
    I give up.

    Aaron
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  • pensacola
    pensacola Posts: 269
    edited April 2002
    >>...try rotating your listening environment 45 degrees so your system is not against a wall...

    I would do that, but I'm too lazy to rearrange. I'm also dealing with about a 13' square room, so I'm real limited as to what I can do furniture-wise.
    Thanks though.

    Give War A Chance
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  • joe logston
    joe logston Posts: 882
    edited April 2002
    i said it , up above , it the weakest link, that makes it sound bad
    . rt-7 mains
    rt-20p surounds
    cs-400i front center
    cs-350 ls rear center
    2 energy take 5, efects
    2- psw-650 , subs
    1- 15" audiosource sub

    lets all go to the next ces.
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  • mantis
    mantis Posts: 17,200
    edited April 2002
    Aaron,
    how long will that last you giving up???
    Dan
    My personal quest is to save to world of bad audio, one thread at a time.
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  • Aaron
    Aaron Posts: 1,853
    edited April 2002
    I just meant I'm giving up on the thread. I'm certainly not giving up on the quest for new and better equipment! That's a life-long journey, I think (or at least until my hearing starts to go). :D

    Aaron
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  • mantis
    mantis Posts: 17,200
    edited April 2002
    If you stay away from Klipsch, your hearing will last a long time.
    Dan
    My personal quest is to save to world of bad audio, one thread at a time.
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  • gidrah
    gidrah Posts: 3,049
    edited April 2002
    You guys are downright silly.

    All things mid-grade: ie. no Audiovox whizzers, no 5x5 glass cell, no major hearing imparements,no 100 awg wire, no A.C. next to your flexi-rack(jab), and no spare million dollars to spend.

    I'm surprised (sad) that nobody added speaker positioning. THE ABSOLUTE END-ALL.

    1. Speakers. This is the final link between you and the music. The correct stand/feet for any given model. It also is the most variable.
    2. Amps. If it can supply the current and has no sound of it's own, Bingo. I've never heard a live acoustic band that I would say sounded "tubey" or warm.
    3. Pre-amps. If it has no sound of it's own, why bother with one that's more "colored or flavored".
    4. Connectors. You've gotta tie it all together to it's fullest potential.

    I'll skip on the rest of the food chain. Law of diminishing returns. But I think you can notice a bigger difference between a midgrade-high improvement on analog sources than you can digital.

    Personally, if you're happy with your speaker and amps I'd look into a parametric and a good EQ. They're not called EQUALIZERS for nothing.
    Make it Funky! :)
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  • mantis
    mantis Posts: 17,200
    edited April 2002
    After you build your system,spend countless hours trying out the right wire,cables to sound right, then you can start tweaking placement.Placement happen's after everything else is just right!!
    Dan
    My personal quest is to save to world of bad audio, one thread at a time.
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  • gidrah
    gidrah Posts: 3,049
    edited April 2002
    I'll go for the free improvements first. But then again I'm frugal.

    Why invest money in improvements knowing that there's possibly a big improvement to be had that's also free. Besides, once it's right, it's right. No need to improve.
    Make it Funky! :)
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  • madmax
    madmax Posts: 12,434
    edited April 2002
    Gidrah,
    You may be missing the point. ITS NEVER RIGHT! Once you can close your eyes and listen to a well recorded disc of a person singing or a band and you can truely say to yourself "I cannot tell if the band or singer is in my room or if I'm listening to a recording" THEN it is right. That takes a lot more than just a decent sounding system. To make it worse, once you can do this with one recording you are only part of the way because until it's right this one recording may be the only one that sounds real. Try it sometime and you'll see how far away the from reality the system really is.
    madmax
    Vinyl, the final frontier...

    Avantgarde horns, 300b tubes, thats the kinda crap I want... :D
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  • joe logston
    joe logston Posts: 882
    edited April 2002
    i aways said that setup is one of the most important ways to get good sound all though my post, its almost as important as the hardware. but you got the have the hardware frist.
    . rt-7 mains
    rt-20p surounds
    cs-400i front center
    cs-350 ls rear center
    2 energy take 5, efects
    2- psw-650 , subs
    1- 15" audiosource sub

    lets all go to the next ces.
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  • joe logston
    joe logston Posts: 882
    edited April 2002
    on the recordings you have, you can set up for one and wend you go to play another you almost have to reset it all up again, because the recordings are set up different at the recording stuoidos so ea. recording is going to be a little differant from each other , because differant placements of mikes and the stuoidos sound rooms sizes, and the live recordings setups, so there is no perfect way, you just have to play with the setup each time "all recordings are differant from each other." some day the receivers will have a computer inviroment control for this problem, i cant whait for one, it will make it so much better.
    . rt-7 mains
    rt-20p surounds
    cs-400i front center
    cs-350 ls rear center
    2 energy take 5, efects
    2- psw-650 , subs
    1- 15" audiosource sub

    lets all go to the next ces.
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  • mantis
    mantis Posts: 17,200
    edited April 2002
    o yeah?????
    once you set up your complete system,love the **** out of ,everything's just right,you think to yourself...."THERE'S NO WAY I CAN MAKE IT ANY BETTER"....then it hit's you.....upgrade fever..you feel sick to your stomach, you breakout into a cold sweat, the new and improved line's are out, they are bigger,badder, bolder, they can take you where no other system has taken you before............You count your pennies(and nickel's) putting them all together to take the new journey........A'm I making any scence?...does everybody else go threw this or am I just in need of good theropy?????

    GEAR THE FINAL FRONTEER.
    THESE ARE THE VOYAGE'S OF SOME SICK PEOPLE
    OUR CONTUNUEING MISSION
    TO SEEK OUT NEW SOFTWARE AND NEW PRODUCT'S
    TO BOLDY GO WHERE YOUR NO SYSTEM HAS GONE BEFORE!!

    I NEED HELP!!!!!
    Dan
    My personal quest is to save to world of bad audio, one thread at a time.
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