FXi5's on 5.1 surround, sound issue?

boughy

I have a nice upper end (ES) Sony SACD, DVD, all in one Receiver and have Polk FXi5's for my rear surround speakers and Polk RTi8's and CSi5 for rest of my surround. I was expecting to be blown away by the quality of all the speakers and I am except for the rears. Since it is set up in surround I am not sure if I am over analyzing the sound that comes out of them. I know it will not have full sound like the fronts but the levels it puts out don't sound right at all and kind of sound muffled and like they only pick up certain levels.

They sound like this on SACD, DVD, MP3 and other formats so I don't think it is my set up. Are the rears only supposed to pick up particular sounds or is there a chance I have bad speakers? I checked the wiring and it looks fine to me. I have never had a gerat surround set up so clarification on this is need bad. Is this how it is supposed to be? Just a faint helper speaker with certain tones.

PolkThug

Are you running them bipole or dipole? Are they to the side of the listening position or behind? Did you use an SPL meter to calibrate the levels of all channels and sub?

Regards

boughy

I am setting them to the side and I have the proper setting on the speaker. Offhand I forget which one that is. I have not used an SPL meter and dont even know what it is. It is just that the sound quality is that bad. Let's say i got the positioning and setting correct. What could be the issue? Here. Thanks for the quick reply.

PolkThug

I'll assume dipole mode if they are to the sides, that's how mine are. Sounds like you need to do a little homework on system calibration. Most AVR's can play a test tone in Setup, and you use an SPL meter to measure how loud the tone is for each channel, then use your level adjustments on the AVR to make all the channels equal.

Double check your polarity (+ goes to +, - goes to -) on the speaker wires.

Also, are you using some kind of DSP on the Sony? (ie jazz, rock, hall, etc)

boughy

I am not using a jazz, hall , or odd feature just the "normal surround" set specfically for their music (rather than movie) option. I have done the test tone and now that I recall the level does sound fine. It puts out a decent volume I just think it sounds muffled and only chooses to pick up certain tones in songs which makes it seem like a muffled shaky sound. Should the rear be a crystal clear sound just like fronts? Or is it more of a selective sound enhancer.

Example: If I disconected all other speakers but let my rears set uop as they are. The music would sound like garbage (not the band) and some sounds would be left out. Is that right for rear surrounds?

PolkThug

It depends on the source data, then the processing in the Sony. Does the Sony have an "All Channel Stereo" mode? Maybe this is the sound you are looking for.

BIZILL

do like polkthug said and use 5 channel stereo or all channel stereo and switch your fxi's to bipole for music and back to dipole for ht.