gadgtfreek

Battle of Five Armies By far the best one of the 3, great AQ and PQ too. Freakin 45 minute battle!

They sound so good now I am afraid to mess with anything else LOL.

Yep, they are helping by not doing anything

Well, After finally getting a 64II to go with the 7II's, and getting them spaced and calibrated properly, this system sounds soooooo good. It is always nice to notice for yourself, but everyone that said the 7's are a good jump over the 82's were correct of course. The 64II has more rasp and bite than the 62II, and it makes an outstanding HT center. When the action is live and the volume is high, you never feel like these speakers are struggling to do anything, and the sound is clean.

I'd just let em idle. Bill is right, the less channels you use the more power the others get. I think the 7125 tested out around 180wpc in 2 channel, and 140wpc with all channels driven. It is a very good amp for the price, as are all Outlaws.

Taken 3 last night. Not near as good as the first two. Nice AQ and PQ though. American Sniper tonight. Great movie with very crisp PQ. The AQ was outstanding.

I think you will like the Sony, they are plenty fine for streaming, dvd and blu-ray. My setup is Hopper/Roku into 103D, 103D sends 1080p/60 out (for Dish it is taking in 1080i/60 and sending out 1080p/60) to AVR via HDMI, and then AVR sends video out to display. I cut all the video processing off in the preamp, so the display should get the unmolested 1080p/60 upconversion from the Oppo. The only real benefits here are: 1) I can hit info on the Oppo remote and see what color space and resolution are going in and coming out at all times, like a video processor 2) you potentially have the benefit of taking 720p/1080i to 1080p in the Oppo better than your display can, or you may not notice a difference. 3) darbee can be applied to the input I tried darbee, just not for me. On a poor signal with compression, it makes things worse. As far as blu-ray, I just don't think you need it. The reason I went with the 103D over the 103 is because of the issue with the Marvell I discussed in my post. It has some noise reduction that cannot be turned off.

Sub backs are 6" from the wall, not 6'. And yeah, 11.75" is OCD, I have no doubt there. You should see me when my wife asks me to hang a picture... Yes, the center is bottomed out at -12. At 0.0 db volume with a -30dbfs tone it reports 77db. So, at 0.0 I made all my other speakers 77db, and then use -2.0 as reference volume now, not 0.0. The XLR attenuators were just too clunky IMO, it is just as easy to level match to the offending speaker at reference volume, and then use a "new" reference volume. Gonna watch American Sniper in a minute.

we watched taken 3 last night (I wont get into how good the movie wasn't) but spreading these speakers out obviously allowed them to breathe. I had zero complaints, and the dialog was crisp, clear, and throaty. Neeson has a pretty deep voice, and with the center and subs so close, it sounded like it was all coming from the screen.

This is from an guy who has more video calibraation experience than audio (im still an audio newbie IMO), and I still buy 2-3 players a year to try out and replace older models. I also use them for streaming. I currently have an Oppo 103D, Sony 7200, Sony 1200, Panny 460 and will be getting a Sony 6500 when it is released. Its funny because I only have two tv's, but I usually hand em down to relatives. I have also owned a Oppo 93 and 103. Here are my simple and straightforward comments: Anyone that says all blu-rays players are created equal in terms of PQ playback is wrong. Now one might argue that the difference cannot be seen, or may not be seen, but a fact is a fact. Samsungs have undefeatable noise reduction and slight color errors, Panny has color errors in newer models since they swapped to Mediatek, Sony used to have color errors but they worked that out a few years ago (they use mediatek chips too, so does Oppo now). The color errors are a problem for me because I have a calibrated display, that I keep touched up. I am not paying all that money for a player to have NR or color errors, slight as they may be. I also test every player with spears and munsil, and you will find some of them clip fine chroma resolution on hose patterns. Currently the Sony's and Oppo do not. My $2000 Marantz did when I turned on its video processing, but I never liked an audio device doing video processing anyways. The Oppo 93 was a beast, the 103 had an issue where the Marvell was always on, and actually slightly softened the image, other than that it was a great player. The 103D solved that and has a razor sharp image IMO. My only knock on the Sony is I think the image is a little more soft, not much, and most wouldn't even care. As much as I loved my PS3, it's clarity of image did not compare to newer Panny's and the Oppo 103D. So here is the simple part: If you only want to watch blu-ray, and maybe stream Netflix and Amazon, a $100 Sony is an excellent choice (get the just released 5500). Now if you want a universal playback device that can be used as a video processor (I run my dish hopper thru the 103D and it converts everything to 1080p for my display), has reference playback of DVD and Blu-ray, and has Darbee processing, get the 103D. The Oppo can also take the MHL Roku stick in the front, and you get all those streaming services and the Netflix app on that stick will put out 1080p/24 thru the Oppo MHL port

Some more OCD stuff for anyone interested in speaker placement ideas: 7ii's are toed in, one corner is 21" from wall and the other is 16" Subs are 6" from the wall 64ii is 11.75" from wall Space in between edge of 7ii and edge of 64ii is 41.5" Like I said, this is sounding real good...

After getting everything moved around, here are XT32 my measurements: FR 10.3 feet FL 10.4 feet (about 10.5 feet apart from each other) Center 9.6 feet Sub 1 12.2 feet Sub 2 12.0 feet FR -7.5db Center -12db FL -8db Subs (after boost) -3.0db on both New reference volume is -2.0db because of center bottoming out. I found it to be 77db with 0.0 reference volume and a test tone, so I adjusted the other speakers up +2db to match. Subs were originally set to -10.0db, which is what I wanted. After boosting them 2.0db for the center, and then another 5.0db because I think it sounds better, I end up at -3.0db.

Scrappy, that is both running at the same time. The D&M models with dual sub eq allow you to run adjust the tone independent or in unison, I always adjust with both going. For a test tone, I use the spears and musil version 2 blu-ray. It has -30dbfs signals for up to 7 channels, and then a -40dbfs for the LFE. When playing those, you should get 75db's on your meter. I have been told not using the internal tones is more accurate since the internal tones bypass some processing.

I have a pretty nice SPL meter ($150), and I consistently find it always sets subs to 70db (thats with a -40dbfs signal) when they should be 75db. So I have been boosting them 5db. Ive read a lot of comments at AVS claiming the same, including some REW testing and some generic advice of boosting +5db by default. I had an Audyssey pro installer in my home 2 years ago and he actually went 7db over the initial cal, and said he find the same in most homes. Odd, but of course the audyssey folks will tell you that you are crazy I figure Ill sort this out once and for all when I get the certified Umik 1 mic and REW. We will see for sure then what Audyssey is setting the sub at. BTW, what I have been doing to level match my fronts to my center once XT32 is finished is, mark the MLP with tape and set the SPL meter there. I then adjust the fronts to output 75db when the center is, and the subs always send back 70. All I know is separating the fronts sounds great. There is a good separation, and when some deeper voices/center tones come thru, you can't tell they are droning thru the subs. I think with the subs being closer now helped hid that. I was watching Elementary a bit ago, and when Watson walked from off screen on the left to the center, stomping across a wood floor, it was like she walked from the left side of my room to the tv. Very cool.

Nice! The new VTF15 Mark 2 really up'd their game. I like the triangle ports, look cool.

Cool! I think I finally have all the new speakers placed properly. Probably Taken 3 tomorrow night and Sniper Sun night.

Another example, center sounds are also more segregated from right and left, doesn't sound like it they are tripping over each other. In a jail scene there was some loud discussion in the center, and some jail doors opening and shutting in the left. Could be easily distinguished, while nothing going on in front right.

Welp, spreading them out fixed it! Got XT32 run, level matched everything and watched some DVR's. Using CSI as an example for 5.1, the center sounds like it is coming from the screen. When the fronts are playing the same thing, they sound balanced, but when they aren't, you can tell where stuff is coming from. For example, at a police station, sirens were heard outside out of the front right while someone typing on a keyboard was clear as day out of the left. When in stereo, if I stand at the MLP, it actually sounds like the sound is coming from the screen, not the left and right fronts. Perfectly balanced.

Well, I have a plan there. I am going to order a certified Umik-1 mic from cross spectrum and get REW installed. Since I already have to do some level matching with XT32 bottoming my center channel out adjustment wise, I wanted a certified mic. So, once I get all that in, I can do some very accurate testing of XT32 results in the room. One experiment would be to see how performance is affected using the table vs my chair as the MLP. I also still think Audyssey sets subs too low, and this Umik will allow me to reliably test that

One thing I forgot to comment about is, Wed night I threw in Pacific Rim and cranked it. First loud usage since adding the center. It sounded good, but at times things seemed a little mashed up, or on top of each other. I am hoping airing out the fronts will separate it, if that is what I am hearing. Next real test will be American Sniper Sunday night.

hope you tried it in your actual seat this time instead of the table where no one sits. Not yet, I am trying to ensure my loving wife gets the same SQ as me I love the clean look of the front end, including the black audio AVR and the black subs. Visually that's exactly how I like my front end. I can't set mine up like yours because I have a wife to contend with so let's just be polite and say "some compromises need to be made." Those would be compromises by me, not her. Our deal is simple. She doesn't comment on, or mess (clean, move)) with any of that stuff. In return, I do not say anything about the crazy seasonal decorations than end up everywhere, including on my subs and towers. I can fully relate to WAF.

LOL. With those towers out on the wings now and the subs moved in it looks pretty cool. As soon as I moved those subs in and ran XT32 it dialed them back to -12, so they obviously picked up some gain and I had to turn them down and re-run. I just wish I could run them naked all the time, but this guy: And his sister are hellions

Decided to change the gear around and see how it sounds. Towers are 10.5 feet apart and 10.3 feet from MLP.

Thats pretty much how mine is. I sit on the right, right front is toed in and aimed at a spot 2 feet behind MLP mark. That basically means it is aiming at my left shoulder, give or take a few.

Wow, toed out. Never tried that one.