jvanhambelgium

Hi, Nope, not me I guess. I'm running standard RF7-II"s , but paired to a set of 2 * SVS PB13 Ultra subwoofers and an Audyssey "Pro" calibration on top of this all. Can't say it sounds bad

It certainly can swing across the working frequency range of the speaker. Take for example my RF7 MK2's, the BLACK curve is the impedance .... you can see the lowest impedance is about 3.5 Ohm or so which is reach around 150Hz or so. At that frequency, the RF7-II gives your amplifier a good workout since it will the amp draw the highest current across its working freq-range.

I'm located quite close to your location "Temse" I guess. I'm from the Boom/Rumst surrounding. Mcinstosh ;-) Yeah ... break the bank ;-)

Still building ? I've read with interest you journey towards the La Scala II's. I'm a (very happy) RF7-II owner myself, pairing it with 2* SVS PBUltra13 to get that bottom end ;-) The La Scala II's do have a rather heavy price-tag associated with them, so I can image they sound great!

You will love the RF7-II's, but make sure you take care of proper placement. I throw many styles of music at them and they keep amazing me!

I experienced the same issue when attempting to update the firmware released in September last year, on my TX-NR5010. The HDMI board was replaced in April last year with the loss of audio issue I experienced. Everything was working fine until I attempted the firmware update which also got stuck on "VMPU Writing 99%...". I took it to my local repair centre. They could not load the firmware. They contacted Onkyo Japan, who in turn sent them software to force an update. That did not work. Speaking to Onkyo, they were told that one of the chips on the board is corrupt and the HDMI board needs replacement. If this cannot be rectified, I am sitting with a high end machine that is useless to me. I would appreciate any feedback. Yeah no worries. They will find some sort of solution. Actually, in total my Onkyo has been 2x in for repair. Last time I directly contact "Labo Diva" and he fixed this without any cost. He problably received a "go" from Onkyo to perform the repairs himself after receiving a new HDMI-board through Germany. The only annoying thing is you don't have a receiver for a couple of weeks each time. Basically, I do not update the Onkyo anymore ... and its it really unacceptable that such beast has this sort of quality problems!

Mine are pretty "free standing" to say : more then 1meter from any wall (I think 1.5meter from backwall, and 1.3m sidewalls or something) Toe-in is also pretty heavy : I've used to position them at 45° so my ears would be directly "on-axis" with the Tractrix, but lately I increased toe-in even more so the "cross" in front of me (slightly) On top of that Audyssey Pro (based on a XT32 Onkyo receiver) takes care of further room-correction/DSP and subwoofers integration. Running dual SVS PB13 Ultra's that plays always, even in 2-channel sources.

All these claims on "high efficient" "high sensitivty" ... should there not be information on the test-signal that is applied ? (sine, pink-noise etc) For example, my RF7-II's are "rated" about 98-100dB/W/meter. If I apply a sinewave of 3kHz at 1W (which would be handled exclusively by the tweeter+horn) I can image obtaining such decent SPL at 1W Howerver, if I apply a sinewave of 100Hz with 1W of energy, which is handled by the 10" woofers, I don't really think they are going to output 96dB at 1meter right ?

Going further on this, are there any RF7 owners that "tilt" their speaker slightly to the front ? From the ground up, the phase-plug of the driver is about 110cm from the ground. At my MLP, being 324cm away, I'm about 90cm from the ground. This means I'm not listening (vertically) on-axis. Now it has been a looooong time since school, but with some trigonometry-formulas on a right triangle this would mean : Opposite side = +- 20cm Hypotenuse side = +- 324cm 1 angle of 90° So sinus of this corner would be 20/324=0,061728395 To get the actual degrees we invert and this results in 3,539026459° degrees "off-axis" Soooo, this does not seem much and only becomes even less if you sit further away from the speakers. Anyway mounted the spikes on the back-feet of the RF7-II's so the "point" even more directly to your head ? I've mounted the spikes and in pure mode (no Audyssey since it is not valid anymore with this "tilt" it sure sounds sweet, but I did not yet do A/B comparisons)

What do you hope to gain ? Is it more visuals or better performance of some sort ? These 10" RF7-II babies sure look good ;-) Because in terms of driver-surface, 2*10"=about 157inch² and the current RC64-II has 4*6,5"=132inch² so not spectacular more. For me, the RC64-II is a very capable box...

Thanks. btw, that is a pretty loud measurement you are making there Chris... :D But that is good thing, it often reveals more then taking low-SPL measurements. I'm rather happy with the overall result looking at the various acoustic measures I've taken. Even the acoustics guy - who visits many listening rooms - said I should be really happy with the *BIG WIDE* stage that can be experienced on this attick.

I'm using a good old Radioshack analog dB-meter with LINE-OUT for REW. (with the calibration/correction file applied) The meter was "lying" on the back of the couche, horizontally facing the RF7's pointing to the center-channel just about where my head would be. This couch is located a certain distance from the backwall, about 26% of the lengte of the room (+- 170cm's) Except for a laptop (indeed with fan) there is nothing in the room that makes any noise like PJ,airco or anything. Room is a 640cm x 640cm with a sloped (pyramid) ceiling and quite some acoustic treatments. RT60 is low. An impression : Various aborsorbing elements. 4 (in the corners) specific performated-panel absorbing elements that I've calculated & build to deal with a certain (lower) range of frequencies 8 small panels (4 on each row) , 50mm thick, 10cm "floating" from the wall to deal with flutter between the parallel walls. Sure there are these cabinet-doors but nothing much can be done there without impacting visuals. The "floating" ceiling is "open" and filled with absorption materials too. Then the back of the room, begin the large thick curtain, behind the curtain there is a window-frame with a thick package or absorbers (rockwool based, about 10inch thick) Again 2 perforated panel absorbers at the back. ...all in all this leads to RT60 times like here below, measured by an acoustics-guys that I've invited for a cross-check compared to my own measurements. What I find strange is that is becomes visible on separate L or R channels measurement ONLY , but on a combined L+R there is no trace of this...and the decay is nice as it should be.

So I listened a bit in "pure" mode to both degrees of "toe-in" : "on-axis" listening and "off-axis" where the center of the compression driver "cross" about 2 feet in front of me. Both DO sound good actually, however I do feel that when listening "on-axis" the stereo-image is a bit more "upfront" (= closer to me) where otherwise it seems a bit "recessed" begin the speakers. I used REW to measure a few thing and something odd became visible that I cannot really explain. There seems some "ringing" around the 3kHz region when measuring a single speaker ... the combined response L+R is OK , no traces of this ringing...??! My measurement point really never moved or anything. See following measurement (waterfalls zoomed to the 1kHz - 5kHz region) L-channel , OFF-AXIS listening R-channel , OFF-AXIS listening L+R , OFF-AXIS listening L-channel , ON-AXIS listening R-channel , ON-AXIS listening L+R , ON-AXIS listening TO MY EARS , it seems I do prefer the "on axis" listening, but the sweetspot is narrow ;-) Now I always listen 2-channel by myself so that's not really an issue. Now I will perform my Audyssey PRO measurement sequence again on top of that.

So yes, I tried it like Chris suggested and gave it a listen. Since I could not directly re-calibrate with Audyssey, I ran my Onkyo in "Pure" (=2 channel STEREO without any DSP/correction) and played some music. My "toe-in" is now even more, and now the horn "points" more to the seats next to me, beams crossing in front of me about 2 feet or so. I have to say, it really sounds good actually....and the sweepspot does extend! I can move my head now easily 1-2 feet without a dramatic collaps of the phantom center image. Also the sound seems slightly less "direct" as I experience with certain recordings (eg. Eva Cassidy tracks - such a powerfull voice) Now my only concern is for the back-seats. Some time ago I contructed a little stage with an additional couch (2-seat) begin the main 3-seat couch, but now with the even more "toe-in" from the fronts I wonder what the effect will be during movies. For 2-channel, I briefly sat on the back couch and it was not THAT dramatic or anything. I'll leave the fronts like this and try to re-calibrate to include my 2 SVS subwoofers so I can re-evalute the whole overall system. Thanks anyway for all tips etc!

This is actually a problem for stereo, See Toole's book pgs, 151-154, for the discussion of why there is a "fundamental flaw in stereo". I really don't recommend placing the horn centerlines on-axis at your ears. It's best to be slightly in front or behind the crossing spot and/or off-center slightly asymmetric in a stereo/room layout. The K-402 horns are very good "acoustic antennas" that are extremely sensitive to angular alignment. They are very revealing of imaging, and I can attest to the fact that you'll hear a "hole" at 1.85 kHz if you put them on centerline with your head while playing stereo: it isn't subtle. In addition, listening on-axis to any round mouth horn is also a problem in that you'll get a big cancellation at some distance from the mouth. This effect is much less pronounced for rectangular horns of unequal height/width dimensions. Hi Chris, Thanks for this info! To be honoust, my whole system sound really, really wonderfull as long as I'm sitting on my narrow sweetspot. Moving even less then 1 foot left or right does "collapses" the imaging. Fact is I use dual SVS PB13 Ultra's and have everything Audyssey Pro calibrated so that's not too bad either ;-) I will give it a try to "toe" them in even further, so that the absolute "on-axis" from the 2 frontspeakers crosses in front of me (say 2 feet or something)