Norm Mowry

Here. Now you needn't squint. [:|]

From Klipsch' support FAQ, question #3: "IMG refers to a type of material used for speaker cones. It stands for Injection Molded Graphite."

No, thank you Russ, for your input - and thanks to everyone else who added to this discussion. Seriously, though, do you really think wires can make that much difference? As it is, I am using a Monster optical connection from my CD player to the receiver and Monster cables from the receiver to the mains, with a Monster RCA connection to the sub-woofer. I am beginning to wonder if I am just getting an unexpected reaction to having an "audiophile" setup - if it in fact warrants being called an audiphile setup - whereas I previously owned a Sony pre-completed bookshelf system in my apartment from when I first got married. The thing is, that system - which at the time was from an "elite" Sony line - played my CDs with a fairly equal sound quality. It had 20 or so preset EQ settings, and I would set it to the equalizer's "studio" setting for everything. Maybe now with this new system I am hearing the most minute detail of each recording, thereby experiencing dissatisfaction with the detectable nuances that are much more evident now having such a system? One peculiarity is that when I listen to CDs through my headphones - which are great headphones, but certainly not the most expensive you can get - and the receiver is set to "pure audio," the sound quality evens out across the variety of CDs I listen to at any given time. And the wires to the headphones are nowhere near the quality of the Monster cables running through the system's various connections. This lends credibility to tkdamerica's suggestion that a room treatment may be in order, or at the very least, I need to look at my system's layout in relation to the shape of the room. I respect your integrity and believe that you believe cables can make that much difference, but I find it hard to understand. Try to remember that I have so much to learn and I am still trying to learn what applies to me and what doesn't. I cannot believe the amount of information available online regarding audio systems. I last had an audiophile-caliber system in the 70's. In no way was there this much science available when a listener tried to tweak their system, and all one needed to contend with was the simplicity of a balance, bass, and treble knob and one "loudness" button that was usualy left on at all times. Kind regards, Norm Mowry

I would first set the system up for 8 Ohms and turn off "double bass." I would NOT run your mains (or any of your speakers) as Full Range and set the crossover to 80 Hz and possibly higher for your Center and surrounds. I then would consider the placement of your sub...If you can get it near a corner this will help output. I wouldn't touch the treble settings unless after some time you thought your system sounded bright and then you may wish to play with it. Fwiw, I understand your frustration and have been there myself....The Synergy HT you have is a good Home Theater system but if the settings above don't help, you may need to look at either room treatment or a different Speaker package, imo. Good Luck. I set the crossover to 80Hz which seems to yield the best overall results, and I keep coming back to it. I know the Synergy speakers aren't Klipsch's best, but they're the best speakers I've ever had and they are going to have to stay. I live in a democratic household, and getting my wife to agree to these was a great undertaking. I think you are right in that the room itself is the problem. Our great room has a vaulted ceiling (i.e., it's angled upwards to a peak from both ends) and complicating matters is that the room, which is rectangular, has the walls at the far ends full with doors, a fireplace, floor to ceiling windows and such. This leaves me having to set up the system sideways so that the speakers are firing at the walls that are closest, instead of firing down the length of the room. I believe I am hearing a lot of reverberation and scattered sound. Though I've listened to music very loud all my life, my hearing is still sensitive in that anything less than perfectly clear annoys me. Phil Spector's "Wall of Sound" (and its imitators) is absolutely hell for me to listen to. I have a couple recommendations for SACD discs for you, though. Ever listen to The Rolling Stones "Let It Bleed" and Eric Clapton's "461 Ocean Boulevard?" Both are masterpieces and I've lived for nearly 40 years with each and have still not tired of either of them.

What do you listen to? My guess is vinyl. A great format IF you have a great turntable and dial in the weight of your needle arm just right. The problem with vinyl is that the mids and bass are carved in the outer walls of the groove, with the highs at the bottom. Too much weight (and were talking milligrams) on your needle and you lop off the peaks at the bottom of the groove which make up the highs. It was well known when vinyl was king that nothing sounded as good as a new Lp, but then the highs would gradually wear away. What was considered then as the pinnacle of great sound from a stereo was clear, crisp highs. I am inclined to think TKD has an impeccable system and knows what he is doing, whereas I am a frustrated old man who wanted a simple stereo that kicked *** and got something that more closely resembles the cockpit of a 747.

Nope. You have the Audyssey equalizer setting, and one equalizer setting which you must configure yourself. You also have an equalizer "Off" setting. The Onkyo TX-SR706 has a lot of technology, but not much horse sense. [^o)]

I mean, how do you keep yourself sane when listening to CD's (or whatever format you listen to) and the mixing is so different between each recording? Newer CDs (e.g., Raphael Saadiq's "That's the Way I See It") have bass levels that are so pronounced that it actually knocked the kitchen clock off my wall (and the stereo is in the living room). Then I'll listen to say Earth, Wind & Fire's remastered "That's the Way of the World" and it sounds thin. Next, I'll put on Fleetwood Mac's remastered "Hits" album and everything sounds perfect. I've had my Onkyo TX-SR706 for two months and I am still re-configuring it with nearly each CD. I'm going from setting the mains at 4-ohms to 6-ohms and back again repeatedly. I am setting the crossover on the mains to "full range" then changing it to 80, then to 60 then to 40 then back to full range. I'm turning the treble down then back to 0, then turning double bass on and off. Finally I get fed up and shut the God damned thing off. I'm making myself nuts. You would think "Pure Audio" would fix all this and all it does is sound so thin I feel like I'm listening to a transistor radio. How'd you guys find a setup that works satisfactorily through the differing sound outputs of varying recordings? Is it even possible? I am trying to keep myself sane. For the love of God, help me.

My sincere apologies to you, James. I presumed that bi-wiring and bi-amping were different terms for the same schematic in speaker wiring. I didn't mean to invalidate your post and in hindsight, I realize I had inadvertently been rude towards you. Thank you for affording me the impetus to discover that a minor difference in terminology can indicate differing setups that are worlds apart. Kind regards, Norm Mowry

I am not sure what bi-wiring refers to, but I am familiar with bi-amping a speaker. I have a 7.1 Onkyo TX-SR706B receiver with 100 watts per channel. I have only two F-3s on my front side and a Synergy Sub-10. In accordance with Onkyo's manual, I wired the front channel speaker outputs to the woofer connectors on the speaker (the lower terminals) and then I take the unused amplification power from the surround back channels and wire them to the tweeters (the upper terminals). Then I set my receiver's speaker setup to indicate the fronts are bi-amped, and I easily noticed about a 5dB volume increase and pronounced clarity. That's my experience. Do I think it's a gimmick? Positively not.

I don't have anything but the two F3's up front and a subwoofer. Audessey looks for all speakers on its first pass. Subsequent passes will only check the speakers it has found. How's it sound? It sounds shallow since Audessey castrates the output from the subwoofer. I went back in after running Audessey and adjusted the levels and that seems to help most.

This seems to be the most likely scenario. I'm going to follow your lead as it seems to address my issue with Audessey. Great help you've been and I thank you for it.

.

As an aside, my Onkyo manual tells me to consult my speaker manual to find optimum crossovers for my speakers, but my Klipsch "manuals" are more like spec sheets and tell me nothing other than - basically - they can be set in many configurations.

I took the fronts, set them to 60Hz and the LPE/LPF to 80Hz and ran the Audessy EQ auto-setup again. It still turns down my fronts to -10Db and the sub (whose volume and gain is set half-way with zero-degree phasing) down to -14 Db. Why it turns my speakers levels down so much is beyond me. Norm

How stupid of me. I had a 506 that allowed me to set them to large or small and on the 506, they were set to large. I upgraded to the 706 and you are absolutely right: the front's were set to "Full Range" and the 706 doesn't seem to have a large/small setting. The last time I had a technically superior receiver was in the 70's, and all I needed to contend with was a balance knob, and bass and treble settings. Aside from that I had a turntable that I ran through two Marlboro guitar amplifiers that I still believe is the cause for some minor hearing loss today. Now everything is home theater, and I rarely watch TV, so there is a ton of settings that are useless to me. All I wanted was a ripping audio system with tweeters that didn't blow out. Oh God. I have so much I have so much to learn. I didn't realize that I'd need a remedial science class to set-up my stereo, though I guess that is what I would call a "happy complaint." Someone would do well to produce an audio system that has a shitload of power and three simple settings: bake, sizzle and fry. ) Kind regards, Norm Mowry P.s.: Many thanks for your gracious assistance.