subwoofer for onkyo805 with ascend speakers

Regarding compromised center position. The even height is one thing. However, there are concerns that are more even more grave.

In-cabinet positioning is asking for all kinds of reflective issues and comb filtering. This equals warbled audio. Or the opposite of "tight".

Low enough to the ground and you are now dealing with midbass reflections, which also makes for unclear dialogue. I know I've already hit this point before.

Honestly, I'd just wait on the Audyssey until all speakers are installed, and all positions are finalized. Because, you'll just have to keep re-doing it otherwise.

Question regarding the wall mounted TV.

What is uglier:

- One single speaker?

- an AV cabinet housing a bunch of electronics with a speaker inside of it?


you can do the first with an RF remote ($73). up to you to decide where to put the vertical rack. i know i know, whatever, whatever. just for future reference.

john;

looking forward to messing w/ speaker positioning.
just ordered 4 stands for surrounds.
moved center forward of media shelf by ~3" -- might help a little.
i'm starting to think that running wire down outside walls
could be less straightforward than i assumed. don't want to hit any
cross-bracing/piping/electrical. one of my wires will be 73' long --
from what i've seen, this length should be okay, right?

john

i'm on the verge of getting a hsu VTF-2 MK 3
sub...

john

or the vtf-1. my room's 3600sf, but we sit and listen to
one half of that room. given that, the smaller one might work better.
i'm just keeping in mind that it has to provide low-end oomph to
the smallish htm200se's to the side and in back.

j

interesting -- i found the same article last week when googling
about wire. yes, mine's all monoprice 14g.

yes, i agree w/ you about sub -- thanks for pounding it into my head again. i'm going to wait on sub until i get surrounds sorted out.
by that time, i'll either get the hsu (bigger one), or have a chance to check out ascend if it's available with specs.

john

john;

this thread is slowing, and i'm only making small alterations to
my selection process. i'll be deciding on stands vs. wall mount
speakers, and sub-woofer.

in case this thread drifts into the murky depths of audio & video
forum, i want to thank you for all the great advice you've given me.
it really helped me to ramp-up my knowledge quickly, and to make some good choices.

it's great to have folks like you available to offer opinions that
are not rooted in the financial interest of a given brand.

cheers,

john

Thanks for the thanks.

I would love to hear some review, or thoughts, particularly on the speakers. Just pretty curious. Not quite as good as you were hoping? Nothing to compare it to? Too bright? Not loud enough? Just curious.

Yeah, this thread will one day fall into the murky depths, as do most. But, you can and should chime in random threads time to time.

j

john;

turns out i do have more questions:
we looked at the stands for surrounds last night, and decided to take
the owner of ascend's advice -- put them high on the wall (almost to ceiling) and position them horizontally. this works aesthetically for us.

we were under the assumption that side surrounds had to be at ear level or 2-3 feet above in order to get good surroundage. putting the surrounds near the ceiling, and angled down at our listening position,
would put the speakers at about 8.5' above floor. what are your thoughts?

john

we're still exploring the speaker/receiver setup.
overall, very impressed w/ speakers and receiver.
we just watched our first ht 5.1 surround movie on sunday, titanic.
very impressive. we don't have rear surrounds hooked up yet, but everything we've watched/heard to this point has been non-surround or 5.1.

got some sacd's, and they sound great too. i did some closer looking at sound settings in my ps3, and for cd's, it only allows pcm, albeit 5.1. on bd however, i have an option for bitstream of audio.

still messing w/ all the listening modes on onkyo. don't really have a solid opinion yet, but some of the setting that seemed like a marketing gimmick (e.g. orchestra) actually seem to add something.

i can't wait to get a sub! i'm thinking of selling one of my watches on ebay so i can get the hsu vt3 mk3. otherwise, i'll get the vt2 mk3.

john

if you go that high, please angle them as best you can. it might be a worthy compromise for you. I'm pretty sure that's not what I would do, however, but as you can tell I am a nut.

Thanks for the mini review.

j

john;

well, i took your advice on subs.
i got the best i could justify from a cost perspective --
a hsu vtf3 mk3. i'm really excited about this. the reason
may seem a little comical.

i had a great harman/kardon receiver for almost 20 years. discrete components, great sound, albeit stereo. a few years ago i bought a playstation2, and enjoyed the driving game gran turisimo 3.
i went out and got a logitech steering wheel and pedals for it -- had
a great time racing on the best tracks in the world.

what came along w/ the steering wheel was a free subwoofer. it was basically a joke -- about 6" square, plastic, one power button on top.
really just a throw-away. well, i decided to hook it up one day just
for grins -- and i couldn't believe what it did to the sound of my
stereo. it totally transformed it, and make it sound three+ times better than without it.

so i guess the bottom line is that your suggestion makes really good sense to me. it will be interesting to see what a sub like this does to the sound of my current setup.

john

I'm glad you followed my advice. As aforementioned, this is the only place where I encouraged you to spend more, and not less, as far as I remember.

You've said from the get-go HT is of primary importance.

Some people believe that a rule of thumb should be that the sub(s) should be worth as much as the front three speakers, which you have roughly accomplished.

Outside of possible complaints or fear from wife about how large it might be, I confidently predict you will love the thing, and one day in the future, sitting there with a big azz grin on your face, you will think to yourself, "Man, am I glad jostenmeat talked me into this one". I'd bet money on it.

I can't remember the last time someone complained about having bought too much sub. Maybe once ever. I can't tell you how often I've seen people end upgrading this piece. Nearly daily.

-jostenmeat

p.s. if it does seem too large when it arrives, just know that it could've been a lot worse. Its extremely difficult to confer the idea of how great the size differences are between subs. Yours is 21.5 x 17 x 25, mine is 19.625 x 16.50 in. x 19.25 in. At least you get a 7 yr warranty.

but in case you forgot, don't add the "Turbo". It does nothing for you really with this model, but uglifies it, and costs money. The Turbo was originally designed for the HO line, and its really only with those models that the price might be worth it.

I can't believe I know all this crap.

thanks john.

i have already conditioned better half to the size. it will be hidden
behind big white chair near front/right, hidden to left of couch,
or not hidden as an end table. this one side-fires as well -- i won't have to get a rug for it.

i love fiddling w/ this stuff, so messing w/ crossover, etc. will be a blast. this weekend i think i'll run wires in anticipation of crown molding.

i'm still mildly concerned about how high on wall the l/r surrounds will be. i think it will probably affect my ability to locate sounds
in a natural way. one page said i could aim them at ceiling or floor or back wall. i'll try to move them down a foot from 9' ceiling and play w/ positioning. this was part of compromise w/ wife.

john

I recommend 80hz for all of your speakers. You might pull off 60hz, if you never ever crank it, and you might want 100hz if you crank it to high hell. 80hz should be fine.

Yeah, lots of folks like to mount high. I am telling you that ear level is ideal. Do you need to? Probably not. After all, if she ain't happy . . . ain't nobody happy. Just angle them as best you can.

john;

i'm going to start a new thread about the sub
that arrived yesterday!

i've got it hooked up, but i've got a ton of questions -- some relative to how the onkyo interacts w/ it.

hoping for your wisdom on this.

john