Paducah Home Theater

Four subs spread around the room like either in the corners or wall midpoints has long been proven to be superior in terms of smoothing room modes out across multiple seats. It's a little more complicated than just adding a splitter and hoping for the best though. You really need a decent DSP so you can add some PEQ's and set the proper delays.

Don't mix upfiring and downfiring, super bad mojo. Do four of either one or the other type.

Typically an impedance spike means you found "Fs", the free-air resonance of a woofer. Once it's in a box it's actually called something else but short version is that this is the natural frequency where it moves the most so no that shouldn't mean that the output should drop, it's actually moving more than usual. All motors are also generators so when you hit this frequency basically the motor is going to generate back-EMF and raise the impedance. The opposite is true when you hit the tuning frequency of a ported box, the backpressure from the port keeps the cones very still and impedance is very low, even though this is where a ported speaker would have the most output.

Most people get the rp-500c to go with the bookshelves just since it's small and cheap which fits the bookshelf theme. Any of them will work though, several people have gotten the RP-504C, that's going to get you the best midbass.

What's not spelled out is that unfortunately these official specs don't account for the pain you can experience when you have a single horn firing directly into your ear from 2' away as you sit on the outside seat. If you're living in a large bachelor pad then it doesn't matter nearly as much. Otherwise the person on the outside seat can be very uncomfortable. People like to use things like the RP-502S and elevate them a little in order to avoid this situation. It can be a big deal, there's no way I could voluntarily bring myself to experience that kind of torture every night, I don't care how cool the effects are for the middle seat, it's just absolutely not pleasant at all when you have a horn firing into one of your ears from a short distance away. We have used matching towers in large rooms, for example I put seven RP-8000F's in a room that was 50' wide, I've put RF-7II's in as surrounds in similarly large rooms. Now, you do that same thing in a 15' wide room that has 10' worth of seats then you sit somebody on that outside seat, and that's a recipe for an uncomfortable experience.

That's why Dolby recommends such things for Atmos. The elevated situation is left over from old 5.1 mixes where the surrounds are mostly for ambiance and any sense of height was dependent on the surrounds being mounted higher. New mixes have very strong surround content plus the ceiling speakers are what provides the sense of height. When a gunshot or voice or guitar comes from the rear left then pans around the room, yeah the ideal situation is pretty much the same height, with a direct radiating monopole, not elevated bipole / dipole / wide dispersion speaker. Anything else is just a compromise to appease people.

That's the max allowed but also very normal. Like I said in the first response, that wasn't what they allowed at first but a bunch of people threw a fit and they changed it. The tops being 5' high on an RF-7III system is more in line with what most people do, if anything a lot of people go a little higher. You have to be at 59" just to clear a typical theater seat with a typical surround. Octane Continental is 44" high, RP-502S is 14" high. The tops being 59" is only 1" higher than the seats and most people like to clear the seats.

Not sure where you're getting that. It says H1 x 1.25. Basically if your mains are 4' high then the surrounds should be no more than 5'. They like to keep them pretty close to the same height so there's some actual separation, which you wouldn't get whatsoever if you did this. The way you're explaining it would basically mean your surrounds could be over 8 feet high, which isn't the recommendation on any Atmos specs that I'm aware of.

In an Atmos system it is actually most correct to have the surrounds the same height as your mains, with the surrounds being direct radiating monopoles. When Atmos first came out, Dolby was adamant about this. This is what gives you the most separation. Of course a bunch of people complained because they didn't want to redo their existing rooms. Dolby eventually reneged and updated their specs to basically say that elevated bipole type of surrounds like in the old 5.1 systems are acceptable. They probably didn't like it but that's what the market wanted. To be honest most people elevate their speakers a little and use the RP-502S on the sides, which I'm technically supposed to not call a bipole due to the wide dispersion technology, but it's the same idea. It is more comfortable, it's less in the way, and it fires over your seats and other people in the room better. In an Atmos system though just realize that technically speaking, Dolby ideally wants you to do it the other way, especially in a new installation.

for stereo I'd get the 600m if possible just to get as much help as possible on the bass. The 500M's are no slouch though. Those are super popular for rear surrounds, they are the same height as the rp-502s and match really nicely with 502 on the side and 500m behind you.

Just as a side note since people are talking about SVS, basically the gain is pretty weak on them compared to Klipsch, which is no bueno sometimes because people like to use tube amps, and the subwoofer output is often a glorified splitter, meaning the output is pretty weak with no way to turn it up. In other words, sometimes the SVS gain can be maxed out and you're left with wanting more if you are a bass head by any stretch of the imagination. If this sounds like what you are trying to do, I would highly recommend either an active DSP like Xilica or MiniDSP where you can turn up the levels, or at least a preamp that lets you get more output such as the Halo P6. At the minimum plan on using both inputs of the subwoofer, using a splitter if you have to, which gives it a boost, but even then it's just sometimes not enough.

For the people who haven't seen this elsewhere... new showroom going up here in Paducah. On display and working will be every Heritage speaker, Jubilee, RF-7III, KI-396-SMA-II, and Reference Premier, with Cyrus, Parasound, Xilica, EAT, Crown, Cary, Marantz, Bluesound, and other electronics. They are pretty spread out and in various rooms, not just a line of them like most old school stores. Been moving stuff as hard as I can for two weeks straight, this mess takes time especially since it's mostly just me doing it with help from Steven and my family. It's 4,000 square feet, former art gallery designed by artist Paul Lorenz who is featured in New York's Rockefeller Center, that's who made the big paintings and is why that one space has a bunch of splatter on the wall, that was overspray from making his art. This is basically going to be what I call a hi-fi hotel, the upstairs is being set up as a VRBO, you'll be able to rent it out and listen as long as you want, then crash for the night. Anyway, I'm proud of it. Nothing is perfect and I realize I'm partial but this should still be one of the best Heritage showrooms out there when I get done with it.

502S is very popular especially on the sides, they're very comfortable as compared to a single horn firing directly into your ear from 2' away. Technically with the original 7.1 specs, a direct radiating monopole such as the 600M is more correct for the actual rears. the 500M actually visually matches better in terms of height so those are actually most popular for the rears. Actually to be honest Dolby wants you to have monopole speakers all the way around in an Atmos system, in other words don't use 502S, but, like I said, they're more comfortable and Dolby updated the specs to allow these. At first Dolby was basically like absolutely not to speakers like the RP-502S in an Atmos system.

it works but if you're only going to have one I'd try to get a ported one, especially since you said it was going in a large room. This is my latest setup like this, two SB16's and AL5's. I wouldn't just use one sealed myself.

Look at the tops on these, just ridiculously pretty. Beasley picked out a good pair for me, I think he did a good job at least. Ordered these to use in a video but yeah I'm not shipping these anywhere, ordered some other black ones to use, doubt I'll ever see another pair like this again.

yeah

The CDT-5800-C-II is the most popular model, largely because they can be tilted / aimed, both the woofer and tweeter. The PRO-180-RPC is actually a better speaker but it can't be tilted so people are more skeptical, they love the tilt functionality. The bounce method actually works but with a few caveats. First of all, 2 speakers doesn't do much to be honest, you really need 4. That doesn't stop people from wanting to do it with 2. Also the add on modules like RP-500SA lets you have a direct line of sight to the drivers so of course sometimes they are localizeable. I prefer the RP-8060FA's if you must use upfiring speakers, at least those are inset and encapsulated with foam like Triad modules.

Last year I was in a hurry and hooked my new AK6's up wrong at first. No I don't know how to read manuals, this is Kentucky after all, we don't have libraries and whatnot.

Just showing off. Only pair in existence supposedly. Serial numbers are actually 3 and 4 so it makes me wonder what's up with 1 and 2 but nobody has any idea what's going on it seems so IDK. I heard over a year ago that they decided against making these a normal thing due to the very large grills on the cornwall not lending itself well to the lambswool material but these are nice. There are the early problems where the magnets weren't flush so there's a few bumps but the actual material stretched nicely.

LOL, I'm not hard to find. I actually put that tag line on every eBay ad I put up.

I wouldn't even think twice about taking CW4 over older K-horns, not something I would ponder at all, Cornwalls every day and twice on Sunday.

Call me a few days ahead of time, we're in the middle of moving and a massive renovation project. 270-556-8427. If there is any gear anybody wants to hear at the gathering, just buy it while you're here and swing back through on the way home and I'll refund it if it's in perfect condition.

The good ones don't have a joules rating on it at all because they aren't made in such a way that revolves around an MOV that costs $1.80. Look at series-mode ones like SurgeX, Brick Wall, Zero Surge, Furman Elite.

rc-64iii is about the only choice for a new speaker if you can't do three identical ones. it's almost like we need a Heritage center channel...