Any reason to get higher end AVR for 5.1

[funnyprogrammer]

Hello All,

Are there any advantages in getting higher end AVRs for 5.1 ?
I currently have x1700h and using it for my 5.1 system. I don’t have any plans to add more speakers.

Recently I have tried REW with umik and realised that the Audyssey xt is not doing much, so is it better to upgrade to marantz cinema 50 which has Audyssey XT32, and later I can buy Dirac as well during Black Friday.

 

[dafreaking]

What is your room like? In my limited research and with a bit of experimentation i've realized that sadly the room plays too big a role

 

[funnyprogrammer]

What is your room like? In my limited research and with a bit of experimentation i've realized that sadly the room plays too big a role

Agree, after changing subwoofer placement based on REW I got good results. It’s small room 11*11.

 

[prateekatasniya]

Hello All,

Are there any advantages in getting higher end AVRs for 5.1 ?
I currently have x1700h and using it for my 5.1 system. I don’t have any plans to add more speakers.

Recently I have tried REW with umik and realised that the Audyssey xt is not doing much, so is it better to upgrade to marantz cinema 50 which has Audyssey XT32, and later I can buy Dirac as well during Black Friday.

DIRAC EQ is a really good reason to get a high end AVR.

 

[suku_patel_22]

I would say whether the expense is justified or not is completely up to you. Having never played with XT32 or Dirac, I'm not aure if you will gain anything.

However, with my Marantz and Wharfdale system, when I moved houses, the sound at the new place is so much better than my old house. The room, placement, angles, treatment play a huge role.

I went from a

• Old setup: 14*10, sofa on the 10 feet wall, viewing distance of 12 feet, bare walls on both sides
• New place: 10*17 feet living, sofa on the 17 feet wall, viewing distance of 8 feet, a 5*4 carpet and thick curtains on the windows

This had amazing results in improving my soundstage.

The L and R are close to a 25° angle now.

I would say, you will get much better results by investing that money in the interiors if your room.

 

[funnyprogrammer]

The room, placement, angles, treatment play a huge role

Yeah, completely agree on this. After tweaking with placements and adding carpet soundstage has improved a lot. That got me thinking what’s the point of higher end AVRs unless we are adding more speakers.

However I do read that Dirac is a significant upgrade to Audyssey XT.

 

[fLUX]

Hello All,

Are there any advantages in getting higher end AVRs for 5.1 ?
I currently have x1700h and using it for my 5.1 system. I don’t have any plans to add more speakers.

Recently I have tried REW with umik and realised that the Audyssey xt is not doing much, so is it better to upgrade to marantz cinema 50 which has Audyssey XT32, and later I can buy Dirac as well during Black Friday.

While the room is the most important thing , you can't change the room dimensioms. What becomes important is controlling or fixing the issues your room presents , this can be done with a combination of software & room treatment. Smaller rooms get loud real quick , so dampening via absorption ( via curtains/ absorbers etc) helps you achieve a higher spl. The importance of software comes into play when you have done whatever is possible physics & budget wise , that's what audyssey & Dirac do primarily. The Dirac is supposedly better than XT32/XT offered by Audyssey & will likely better identify & fix the room issues, distances etc & auto calibrate for each of your 5 speaker & subwoofer. Lot of people do manual fiddling with the settings and achieve this by themselves to an extent without using the Audyssey app.

There are additional benefits to a higher end AVR based on what I had read on their digital processing in addition to better calibration softwares. I noticed a fair upgrade when I moved from 2600 to 4500 with same number of channels in both. So I would say it's a worthwhile upgrade but justification of additional cost would be purely a personal view imo

 

[funnyprogrammer]

their digital processing in addition to better calibration softwares

Thank you for the inputs. I was not aware of this. Will read more about it.Most of the threads mentioned we can’t differentiate in sound quality.

 

[vishal_k]

+1 to carpet. Never thought sound absorption is so much important. For me manual setting is bit better bcoz not all movies are encoded in similar manner, sometimes I've to tweak rear channels for better effects.