Intergrated amp

holt

Recently, I got a wild hair up my you know what and replaced my HT setup:
Old - Onkyo tx-sr605 receiver with Onkyo sks-ht240 6.1 surround speaker package.

Same - PS3 "fat" with 500 gig hd to replace the 40 gig it came with and Samsung ln52a650 TV gray scale calibrated with spyder tv3 and hcfr software.

New - 7.1 configuration with Polk Monitor 70 fronts, CS2 center, PSW505 sub, monitor 30s side and back surrounds; all powered by a Pioneer svx-9130txh-k receiver.

First, let me say, I am very happy with this receiver and speaker combo. For HT, I absolutely do not feel I need any external amps for my room size and the power of this receiver. I use the PCM Pure Direct mode and for my room size (20x20) it is exactly to my taste - It is, hands down, wonderful!

Now, music is better, but I want to get rid of the "brightness" (I think that's what it would be called - kind of harsh highs. This is new to me, so I'm experimenting with the jargon). I guess I want to "warm" up my music listening without spending over $450 (I really spent way more than I thought I would spend already to improve the sound).

After reading a bit, I thought maybe an intergrated amp for the 2 fronts would accomplish this. I've read reveiws on the Onkyo A-9555 and I'm ready to pull the plug on a refurbished one from Accessories4Less for around 4 bills using a Amazon gift card.

Question: Running this in direct mode through my receiver's preouts, will this "warm" up the sound to the 70s - reduce the harsh "brightness" of the sound? This is all so much trying to learn how to talk like a wine taster (I'm not going to get into "colors")...... And no, there is no place locally to go listen to anything. It would seem that living in the capital city of Florida with 2 universities that there would be some prospect of demoing good equipment, but not here. Craigslist is a quagmire of car amps being sold out of pickup trucks and Sony cheap 5.1 surround systems being sold at laughable prices. My friends avoid this whole issue by just listening to the radio. I want to warm up the music, and then be done with it. Will this work?

Hawkeye

I'd do a search on room treatments before I bought more electronic gear.

Gordon

holt

thanks hawkeye, haven't thought of that.

holt

Thank you both for some great advice that doesn't involve running out and buying extra equipment right off the bat!

xcarpi79 - you are absolutely right. This is a whole new listening experience for me and for the first time I am able to get picky about what I'm hearing because I'm hearing so much more. I swear, I lost interest in listening to music because it all sounded so muddled, on less it was a garage band that had a muddled sound to begin with. I put on some Pogues yesterday and was immediately getting drawn into my Celtic roots... And this morning, I put on the Beatles White Album mixed in with some Rubber Soul and now I'm rediscovering the Beatles after all these years - incredible!

Hawkeye

Good luck with that sentence of yours: "Warm up the music, and be done with it"

There several ways of taming the highs. Wires, room treatments, furnishings, speaker placement to mention a few. I personally don't believe rushing out and buying more gear is a solution. Your room is a component of your sound system and if you can't or won't address it up front, you'll end up on the swapping gear merri-go-round. There is nothing wrong with that approach, but it seems like you don't wish to go through that.

Very hard or reflective walls, ceiling and floors will over emphasize the highs and produce a somewhat harsh presentation. An overly dampened room will suck the life out the music. Finding a balance is key and is not that difficult to do. Don't give up on gear before you have exhausted all other avenues first.

Gordon

holt

I have all the Beatles albums loaded on the Pioneer PD-F1009 CD player and they're currently are playing through the VSX-1018AH

lol, yeah, I remember the first time I ever heard the White Album, I went over to my buddy's house in junior high and he demoed his new Sears stereo (this plastic suitcase looking box with a fold out turntable and two small fixed speakers on each side) by putting on the White Album and cranking up that thing to max volume (10 on the little plastic knob next to the "balance" knob) - talk about distortion - he just sat there with this big grin on his face as he mistook the pained expression I wore as the look of total awestruck! Its kind of funny in a sad way that its taken me all these years to start really listening to that music again in a way slightly closer to what the group intended. When I went to visit friends in London in 2004, I went to Abbey Road Studio and had my friend take a picture of me walking across that same crosswalk the Beatles used for their Abbey Road album cover, but it wasn't until this audio upgrade that I have bothered to really start listening again.

F1nut

Holt, a couple of things...

You don't want to drive an integrated amp (only one R) from your AVR's preouts, so forget that idea.

Speakers designed primarily for HT use tend to be bright/harsh when used for music.

AVR's are not known for their musical sound qualities.

Having a set up that does HT and 2 channel music well is hard to do, but not impossible. Using a PS3 for a music source is not helping matters and since it all starts there, I would suggest finding a more refined source or perhaps a top notch DAC.

holt

Right now, I have the old CDs.... and only a few to boot. The White Album, Rubber Soul, Sgt. Peppers, and Beatles for Sale (I've moved around and lost what I use to have). I have some serious collecting catching up to do and maybe that is where my money is best spent. Every time I go back and listen to my new setup, the more I enjoy listing to it. I take that as a good sign. You sound like you have a seriously good collection.

holt

Thanks, F1nut, will start looking. Wow, I'm sure glad I read your post before getting tempted on the Onkyo again - that would have been a nice mistake. And from now on, only one R in integrated. I had also toyed with that thought that moving beyond the PS3 as the catch all was were to go beyond playing blue rays. Time to start researching....

holt

I will be looking at 2 ch amps after tax time (no integrated - or "intergrated"). In the mean time, I took F1 nut's advice and snagged a Marantz CD5003, used, on Amazon, which I used a gift coupon towards so it didn't break the bank. I think my room acoustics are basically fine and the only thing bothering me is maybe some speaker limitations and playing CDs through a PS3. This purchase will hopefully correct some of that....
I went to Goodwill tonight to see if anything good was on the shelves after Christmas; didn't see anything appealing until I got to the CD section. There, I found a box set of 17 CDs of classical music, arranged in numeric order by themes in a case, all in perfect condition. The series is titled, In a Classical Mood. Not a bad purchase for $15 for the whole thing. I love classical music and this purchase alone spurred me towards making some corrections to my source equipment.

holt

Okay, brief update: I managed to find a Sherwood Newcastle A-965, 7 channel amp within 5 miles of where I live that I will inspect tonight. I talked to the owner who is very knowledgeable, with years of experience in owning different amps, and this one was only replaced by his current Theta Digital Intrepid. This guy was even kind enough to offer to come over with his SPL and help me balance my setup right (I'm sure that is contingent on buying his amp). I plan to bi-amp my fronts if and when I get it (suppose to be 9/10 condition). This, along with the used Marantz CD5003 in shipment via FedEx, should improve my sound quality in music. I may never get to the point some of you are at with equipment, but I don't think I want to. When you start talking about hiring electricians, searching for rare and exotic tubes, and running through amps like so many marriages that have gone sour.... Man, it is like seeing so many faustian bargins going on and you can just hear "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" playing in the background!

Approximately 2 months ago I thought an amp was something that you needed for an electric guitar and that my Onkyo SKS-HT240 speakers were adequate. I thought my Onkyo 605 was a great receiver (still do, but now I have one with more bells and whistles). What started as first a thought on upgrading my center channel because dialogue in movies kind of sucked has turned into a monster - new speakers, new receiver, new amp, new cd player.... All partly because music all of a sudden became important again once I upgraded the speakers. HT to me is relatively easier to do than getting together a musical system. And talk about amps.... Some of the heated discussions I've read that have gone on around here (emotiva vs adcom vs .....) can literally make your head hurt! Other than that, this has been a tremendously helpful and friendly place for a noobie. One thing I noticed is that people here who have more than earned the right to be considered elite professionals in any sense of the word can and will answer questions as naive or "stupid" as they may sound without resorting to overly condescending put downs. That kind of demonstrated patience is rare on a lot of forums these days.