Zen Traveler

Sorry to get your hopes up but I realized "Help with my RB-75's as a rear surround speaker," wouldn't get the same views

I just purchased some RB-75's to replace my RS-7's to use as rear surrounds(pics on page 20 of "show me your home theater" thread). After looking at the design of the KL-650-THX Klipsch speakers, I decided to put them on shelves and lay them horizontally with the horns toward the inside, the woofers on the outside closest to the side walls (Back wall is 7 1/2 ft long. Ceiling slants from 6 ft to 7 1/2 ft toward the back of my seating position). I have a RSW-15 directly under the left rear surround. Long story, short--I already put up the shelves and have the speakers on them. It sounds great, but not markedly better than my RS-7's except on some Concert videos that have good sound quality. My questions are these: 1) Does anyone see anything wrong with putting the RB-75's horizontally? 2) Would flipping them 180 degrees with horns in the corner be a better situation? 3) Would the vertical placement, which these speakers were designed, have an advantage over either of the other 2 options?

Don't get it!!! Just kidding. I bought a Denon 3910, mostly for music, and have a love/hate relationship with it. I love the 6 channel music sound on it and hate that I can't find more of that media. I bought the last DVD-A/SACD that I really "wanted" 2 months ago and nothing has come out since then. I then found myself buying obscure things to see if I would like them and at $16-$29 a pop it really hasn't been cost effective. The selection is not getting better.That being said, The media that I do like sounds INCREDIBLE! The picture quality on it through component is good, but not markedly better than my Yammi c-920 5 disk changer (I have an older model Mitsubishi). I got hooked on 6 channel music and decided to replace my Samsung 941 in the bedroom with the DVD 2910. Picture quality through the DVI to my samsung DLP is quite a bit better than the samsung 941 that I was using (in other words I didn't have to sit there for hours wondering if I could see a difference;-) Since you own the 5803 I think the DVD-3910 would be the way to go. For SACD's you will still have to have the 6 annalog cables (denon link does not pass these signals), but DVD-A will pass through denon link. The AVS forum as a long Thread on it here : http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=447795&perpage=20&pagenumber=1

Kathy good review but I don't understand why people are always saying that Rf-7's don't sound good with Denon receivers. I have found the direct opposite. The Rotel RB-1090 sounds like a killer machine at 200 WPC. I may go separates on the next upgrade cycle and will definitely look into this unit--but I love the sound that my Klipsch Reference and Legends have with my Denon Receivers. Another comment I have seen on this forum was that female voices don't sound as good on RF-7's and you mentioned it again ("without the proper ampage"). I took my Faith Hill & Jewel DVD's to several stores and played them on Martin Logans and some Def. tech speakers after I read similar comments on another thread--there is no way that they sound better on those speakers than on my Reference set up. If it actually sounds bad to so many people on this forum I guess people really do hear sound quite differently. I just wanted to put my 2 cents in for folks that like the sound of their Denons.

I don't know much about Marantz products, but I thought for it to be THX certified it had to decode Dolby Digital 5.1. To answer your question I think if you buy A DVD player that does the decoding then you can pass that information through the 6 analog cables. I didn't see on the link you provided that it actually decodes Dolby Digital and DTS, but for that price surely it must. I have a Denon DVD-2910 which is considerably cheaper than the one you are looking at and a Denon DVD-3910 that is slightly more expensive and I am pleased with both.

My first thoughts on reading the book were it was written by a person who worshiped Mr. Klipsch--It was a nice book to read, however I am waiting for the unauthorized biography;-) I noticed that in the "Hard Rock Cafe" rooms, where Ultimate Electronics has their Klipsch Theaters, it would have been advantageous (and still would be) to have a copy of "PWK The Life...The legend," instead of various coffee table books that were there merely for decoration. I mentioned to several sales people that this could serve as a duel role as to educate the sales staff and show the general public that the speakers they are considering have a genuine Americana genuis story. On a side note, after I read the book I decided to stop in at the PWK museum in Hope. It was like the book--I wished there would have been more, but I understand why they didn't. The museum is located in a small train station (converted box car?) next to the Clinton museum. It was the first museum I had ever been to where the door was locked and I had to ask the City manager for the key;-) Very quaint.

dr. bear: Thank you for the kind comments. I was warned that putting my RC-7 on top of the TV would be OK, but putting other components may make the top bend. As you can see by my pictures I didn't have anywhere else to put the hardware so I chanced it. It's been close to 3 years and the top is holding out fine.

Here are my RB-75 surround back speakers along with my RSW-15.

The view from here is looking down toward the back. The rear surround RS-7's have been replaced by RB-75's. The RS-7's are now sitting on top of the RF-3's which are raised 8 in. off the floor on stands.

Here is the front of our theater with RF-7's and an RSW-12 on stands 3 in. off the ground--RC-7 sits on top of the Mitsubishi.

It's amazing what all you have done with your Home Theaters over these 20 pages!!!Let me add my "Library Theater" to the list. This picture was taken looking in towards the back. The table raises up & inward so we can eat dinner while watching a movie.

Jack, That is a REAL nice set up you have there. I have my RF-7's where the front of the Left speaker makes a "corner" with a protruding fire place (not in use), and the Front Right with a Bookcase making a corner at the front of the speaker--Both in line with my TV. Our room dimensions seem to be similar however I have an A-frame main viewing area and low rear surround ceiling, on the 2nd floor. We sit approximately the same distance from our surround speakers. It looks like you are considerably more comfortable with your seating;-) I have a futon that is just comfortable enough to watch movies, but not fall asleep. I feel that the brews go down as smooth in both theaters.

sivadselim Thanks for the Y-splitter advice but aesthetically it must stay the way it is right now. What you say about "LFE+main" rings true in theory and I will continue to experiment, however running the LFE to both seems to work for me. I will post pics of my theater soon and it may explain a lot. I really have an obnoxious room and my set up is unique. I am running large speakers (4 towers/RC-7/2 RS-7&2 RB 75's) with my 2 subs. I sit close to all of the speakers, between 4 ft to 9 ft to every speaker. Setting all to LARGE gives me- more directional impact on action scenes. I also tried the difference between the LFE settings, and It seems that when "LFE +mains" is selected, gun shots and aircraft maneuvers are more directional, either coming out of the left or the right front sound field. I think it is because my RSW-12 is at a right angle (side wall) from my front, left speaker. I also think choosing "LFE + mains," rounds out the power of the RSW- 15 that sits directly behind me under my rears surround left. On my most bass intensive concert DVD, Genesis --"Live at Wembley," I thought my left front speaker was clipping! Long story short, selecting "Lfe only" remedied this situation. I think the redundant bass you were talking about, over--powered my Left front channel. Thanks for the help.

I have my RSW 12 connected from my receivers SW pre out to the subs input--then I have the RSW 12 preout sent to my RSW 15 line in. I have both sub+ mains selected and am thrilled with the results. I have tried various scenarios over the years and will continue to do so. I am also probably the only forum member not thrilled by Diana Krahl, so I understand my opinions are suspect. I really must go.

I don't understand what the Klipsch manual means if the "low pass control" has nothing to do with the "low pass crossover (knob ) in the manuelI will keep reading your above post along with the manuel until I understand. Everyone have a good weekend--I have to be away fom my Klipsch for a couple of days

toddvj, thanks for the reply. I am still trying to wrap my mind around what you are saying because I want to be informed;-) I have to gage what I think you are saying with what it says in my owners Manuel for the RSW-15: LOW PASS ENABLE/DISABLE--This switch routes the signal of the "line-in"jack in one of two ways......In the "Disable (LFE mode) position, the signal bypasses the "low Pass crossover." This allows the "line-in" jack to be used as an unfiltered LFE input. In this case, the "line-in" input jack should only be connected to the filtered LFE (.1) subwoofer channel output of your digital surround electronics as this input is not filtered by the "low pass" control.

Jacksonbart you have a PM

FRZNINVT or toddvj, I "want to know what the hell I am doing," and no doubt you guys do--If you can give me simple answers to these questions I would appreciate it. I will ask this another way from my above posts: If there is no LFE channel on Dolby Surround, and all speakers are set to Large, should there be any sound coming from my Subwoofer (mains + LFE selected on the Denon 4802R)regardless of the crossover? If there is (and it sounds good), what does that mean? I just tried an experiment with a Dolby surround (no .1) where I set the crossover on the Receiver at 60 Hz and it sounded good--I then set it to 120 Hz, and it was extremely boomy --with all my speakers set to Large. Am I understanding you to say that there should be no sound out of my sub, let alone the difference in crossover settings?

If I set the RSW's low pass to "Disabled (LFE mode)," then aren't I using the crossover setting on my Denon? Doesn't this make my "low pass control" setting on the RSW irrelevant? What I don't understand is that if I am correct on this assumption, and others who say that setting all Speakers to Large negates the crossover selection, what is being sent to the subwoofer on Dolby Surround (that doesn't have the 6th channel)?

If you set the speakers to LARGE, the Xover won't mean anything. I have mine set at Small, with the Crossover at 40. I run mine with a receiver, even if some elitists say that's impossible. I'm just running a measley Denon 4802. The sound is incredible. ---------------- I also have a 4802 ®and I highly recommend using it with Klipsch. I Just purchased RB 75's to use as rear surrounds in an obscene set up in such a small room I racked my brain trying to get around the Large/Small dilemma. I basically only buy 5.1 or better material. I had some RS -3's that I ran small, every thing else to large. They are no longer in the setup & I am now running everything to large. I by-pass the Subs x-over and use the denons (set @60 for music and Thx for movies)"lowpass disabled,LFE Mode" on the sub connected through the Lfe connection. It sounds GREAT! If I am running everything "Large" exactly what frequencies are being output to the Subwoofer? I understand that it is the ".1," but is that only determined by the person who mixed the sound for the dvd? Is it the 80 Hz that is the Thx standard? Even on Dolby Surround mixes (no ".1") that I cross at 60 Hz, Speakers set to "Large"my subwoofers Rock. How can that be if there isn't something happening in the crossover setting?

Between Concert videos and my Klipsch, the urge to go to live concerts has become nonexistent. I also am appreciating artist that I wouldn't have thought of during my Rock and Roll days. For some reason I like beautiful country singers singing to me as much as I liked feminine British guys wailing at me. Go figure. On that note, Faith Hill's "When the lights go down," is very nicely done, especially her duet with Carlos Santana. I also know why the new concert DVD by Shinia Twain is called "Up!";-) Both of these bring a tear to my eye and the sound is good. I remember reading somewhere that Female vocals don't sound as good on Klipsch reference speakers--I can't disagree more. rplace--Given your recent purchase, I think you would enjoy INXS's "Live Baby Live," if you are a fan of that group. Genesis "Live at Wembly stadium," is also good and will give your sub a workout. For fans of the sound quality of "Hell Freezes Over," I highly recommend Don Henley's "Live Inside Job."

I am a big U2 fan and enjoy all of their concerts and wish they would put previous concerts on DVD. "Rattle and Hum," was the first video I put on when I started this adventure known as Home Theater--Since that time disposable income has become nonexistent (i.e. HT & DVD fixes have become Mandatory Expense;-) BChild311: Yes, it does have a DTS track. It has been a while since I watched the video but as I remember it there were alot of crowd noise like you would experience at a concert. The Eagles,"HFO," has more clarity in sound and I guess that is why it seems to be a benchmark in Hi Fidelity concert video. U2 is my all time favorite band (as of today) but "Growing up Live" is one of the best concerts I own as far as Video/Audio is concerned. I guess if I had to explain the difference in the two, U2 is more like you are amongst the crowd enjoying the concert--Peter Gabriel is like being in a Skybox with tremendous sound around you instead of the crowd. The video quality of Pete's "Secret world live," isn't as good as "Growing up Live," but an excellent concert as well.

Several years ago when I started watching DVD concerts, I totally stopped listening to my CD's. Whenever I heard the term "DVD Audio" I thought that WAS what I was listening to. When I learned that actually you had to buy 6 analog cables (and special disks)I thought it was a gimmick by my Audio sales person to part with those expensive cables--It may have been, but since hooking those badboys up I haven't turned back and still don't play Redbook CD's. I have several DVD Audio and SACD titles. I guess I am lucky that I haven't heard any bad surround mixes as some on this forum have, but I agree that pickens are slim in retail stores. It doesn't help that BestBuy only sells one "Universal player," and they seem to have several "open box" items in every store. It makes me wonder if they are crap or folks don't know what they are buying and return them. Every chance I get I help educate the sales folks on how incredible these formats are and encourage them to tell their managers to get more titles. My power of persuasion must be fading:-( It also didn't help that when I went to the "high dollar" store and asked about upper end players they wanted to put me on a waiting list. There are several threads that have good titles--Three that I haven't seen mentioned but I like are: Electric Warrior by T-Rex, The Best of R.E.M., and Faith Hill does an excellent rendition of "Cry," (She definitely brings a tear to my eye, but I digress) on The DVD-A with the same name.