wboffthelake Posted January 22, 2011 Share Posted January 22, 2011 I previously posted that my old amp, a Pioneer vsx-919ah-k, was not able to drive my new speakers. Well, I took the plunge and picked up an Elite SC-35. My first listening, right out of the box, was the last hour or so of the movie The Rock. With the stock THX settings, I immediately noticed a clearer and more powerful sound. With my favorite CDs I could immediately hear significantly increased clarity and individual instrument differentiation at all listening levels. In fact I even heard some subtle background instruments and vocals that I had never heard before, an amazing experience when it involves CDs I have listened to since the mid/late 80s. The sound is a bit bright, which may be a function of needing to be calibrated. I also noticed that the new amp sounds louder and more powerful than my old at the same volume level, say at -15dB. Also I don't have to turn the new amp up to feel a powerful presence to the audio, it just seems to be naturally powerful at all volumes. Although the bass when listening to HT is great, I'm still looking for more when listening to 2-channel, not sloppy or muddy, just power. I still can't figure out why the HT bass seems more powerful than when I listen to 2-ch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators Youthman Posted January 22, 2011 Moderators Share Posted January 22, 2011 Although the bass when listening to HT is great, I'm still looking for more when listening to 2-channel, not sloppy or muddy, just power. I still can't figure out why the HT bass seems more powerful than when I listen to 2-ch. My guess is due to the fact that movies have a dedicated LFE channel. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wboffthelake Posted January 22, 2011 Author Share Posted January 22, 2011 A couple other things: After listening at near reference for about 5 minutes, and -10dB or so for about half-an-hour, the receiver was only very slightly warm to touch. Also, the copper colored display matches the woofer cone color, and looks kind of cool. Regarding the bass, I think I need to experiment a bit more with sub placement. My listening setup is in a "great room", which combines the living room, kitchen, hallway and foyer areas, all with high ceilings. The entire house has about an 11.5 ft ceiling peak running down the middle of the house, where the ceiling slowly drops down to 9ft at the two longest outer walls. Altogether, the "great room" is close to 6000 cu. ft. My listening couch is near the middle of the room. When listening this evening, while standing in the foyer, which is directly opposite my speaker and sub, and on the other side of the house, about 25 ft away, the bass was much more pronounced. I once did the sub crawl and could not find any place that had noticeably stronger bass response, so I just have my sub next to my right front speaker. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kde Posted January 24, 2011 Share Posted January 24, 2011 What does "near reference" mean? A high volume? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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