joobz

I ran the eq in the primary listening position. Our room doesn't allow for the perfect "single couch in front of tv" arrangement. We have a love seat, couch, and chair in a u config arround a coffee table(I'll try and post a picture in the "show us your theater" thread). My primary seat is the love seat that's perpendicular to the tv wall. I've done checks at three different points and each had a pretty high bass response. I'll check into the other RTAs you've mentioned. How much does it cost for the equipment to do a time resolved frequency response? Do you need to play pulses of pink noise? I'm just thinking of the time resolved flourescence experiments that are used to check distances between chemical species,and that is really expensive.

Based upon suggestions from an earlier thread (the Yamaha YAIPO thingy), I went ahead and checked out the freq response in my room using an RTA setup. I used my laptop, got a shareware copy of realRTA and used the mic from my yamaha receiver. The RTA only had a 1 octave resolution(shareware version), but I noted that the synergy F-2 speakers I have have a distinctly elevated bass response when using pink noise. Now my question is, is this an issue with the pink noise or the speaker. I mean, white noise (all things being equal) has a subdued bass. As such, did klipsch intentionally elevate the bass response so the speakers would have a "Pink noise" feel with white noise? I will say this, I balanced the left and right channel independantly (against the recommendations of many), and found that the sound stage really opened up. I wasn't sure if this was a placebo kinda effect or real. But Stereo effects became so dramatic that my wife commented on how it sounded.

SoundBroker, Thanks for the info, I'm learning a ton.. however, as always, more answers=more questions is the sound screen used to just Hide the speakers, or does it have some actual sound diffusing function? And you are right, my center is on top of the tv, but not angled down toward the listening area. Also, unfortunately, my room is a little to rectangular, so the arc isn't very pronounced.

Thanks for the info. I'm investing in a new center real soon to match the mains (F-2s) I'm gonna get the synergy c-3. this should help out the mid dropoff problem i have. I'm using my xbox as the dvd player and it doesn't have any audio adjustments for the center. I really think part of my problem is the way movies are mixed. You need to crank up the sound for audible dialog, which then leaves you crying when an explosion hits. Not that I'm against loud noises, but it isn't nessessary to use the FULL RANGE of DVD sound ALL THE TIME. it's like they only know Pianississimo and Fortississimo.

Thanks everyone for the help! Dr. Who, what you say makes complete sense to me. Which raises the next question. is it even worth trying the rat shack method? How much is an RTA SPL meter? i've looked and seen prices from $500-5000. Is there any source for a sub $100 version (new or used)? Is it possible to rent them, and from where (anywhere in the philly area?) I've really got the itch to start getting into this. the yamaha I got can eq each speaker seperately, and i'm dieing to level it out. thanks again!

Sorry for the intrusion, but I'm interested in the balancing game here. However, I have some questions as well. How does Pink Noise help you with calibration with a spl meter? from what I read, the radioshack variety doesn't isolate out the individual frequencies, it just gives overall sound level. This would mean you would need to play a test tone for each frequency. Also, the meter has a sensitivity of +/-2db. Does this mean thay you wouldn't make any adjustments unless it was outside this 2db level?

I do that to. ACtually, It drives my wife nuts. I can't be happy with the audio. It really bugs her when I jump between DD to 2 stereo to DTS back to DD to EX, to THX... ALl of the pauses in sound gets really irritating. Then I'll fuss with the levels, turn nighttime on off... For people who can't be happy with "ok", home audio is nightmare. I guess that's why I love it.

I've had problems with leveling audio and dolby digital and DTS. I don't know if this is a problem with me, my receiver, my center speaker, poorly done movies, or what. Most movies I've seen have very quite center channel dialog, but then music and action sequences are insanely loud. Even with nighttime on. Is this a common problem? Does a nice quality center fix this, or is it still going to be a problem?

I wish I was joking =) My best friend is an editor for a newspaper. He loves to point out grammar errors, everywhere. After enough corrected emails, you start to pay more attention to it.

The typo was F-2's instead of F-2s. Generally not supposed to use an apostrophe when you just want a plural.

I too Didn't like the Auto-eq settings the Yahmaha did. It just didn't sound right. ALso, I thought the leveling was way off as well. I just got a pair of F-2s, and my center is still the whimpy center that came with the kenwood home-theater in the box. Well, it set the center channel at -6db. When I put in the first dvd, I couldn't hear the dialog at all, until I realized what happened. Auto-eq is cool to see in action, but in practice, it doesn't seem to work. After all, microphones can color sound just as bad as speakers can. You probably need to get a top notch mic to get rid of the problem.

thanks for the advice. The synergy line is quite nicely priced for the sound, and I don't mind the extra cost of the c-3. Oh, and by the way, I apologize for the stupid typo in the thead title.

I recently purchased a pair of F-2s for my home stero. (Slowly replacing the junky speakers from a kenwood theater in a box system) I got these because I thought the F-1s sounded to bright and the F-3s seemed to be kinda muddy in thier mid and bass range. Truthfully, I love the way the F-2s reproduce mid range. Voices seem extremely natural to me, and I have bass extention that I never did before. Only problem I'm having is speaker placement (perhaps a question for another thread). Anyway, I would like to get the c-3 center channels, since they have the same 6.5" woofers that the F-2 has. But klipsch seems to recommend the C-2s for them. I'll listen before I buy, but does anyone have any comments on which speaker will best recreate center sound. I would like my center channel to be able to stand on its own with the two floor standing models. Especially in the mid range. But I don't want any severe coloring differences from them as well (the C-2 uses the same 5" horn on the F-2 vs the 6" horn on the c-3) Any comments or advice is greatly appreciated. ps: I'm using a yamaha HTR-5890 receiver