Do i need to upgrade my home theater

Dr.vinayaka

Active Member
Joined
Nov 24, 2017
Messages
225
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Location
Shimoga, Karnataka
Good morning
my system config:
Room dimension-17'6'' X 12'00'' with wooden flooring
System config:
One Pair Wharfedale Diamond 230 Floorstanding Speakers
One Piece Wharfedale 220 Centre Channel Speakers
Two Pair Wharfedale 10.DFS rear/Surround Speakers
Wharfedale D-10 Subwoofer
One pair of warfaedale 10. DFS as height speakers
Pioneer-VSX- LX-302 Av Receiver

i am not happy with the sound effects both in movie and music.

I tried suggestions by fellow members.

almost 3 months over done autotuning 10-12 times. manual distance measurement but no improvement.

i have reset the receiver 5-6 times .

please give me frank opinion :

1) do my choice regarding receiver ,speakers and subwoofer is correct

2) what i need to replace or change - all speakers/ floor standers/subwoofer/surround speaker/ Av receiver
3) please suggest best speakers available in india for the same

thank you. troubling you all. please help me

with regards

vinayaka
 
i am not happy with the sound effects both in movie and music.

What feel are you missing?..

please give me frank opinion :

1) do my choice regarding receiver ,speakers and subwoofer is correct

2) what i need to replace or change - all speakers/ floor standers/subwoofer/surround speaker/ Av receiver
3) please suggest best speakers available in india for the same

Don't think you will need change in any of the components you own now..

You will need to give more inputs on what movie (or) music preset you used on AVR & not happy with, your usual volume level on your AVR when u play movies / music?..

Room dimension-17'6'' X 12'00'' with wooden flooring

One of the reasons, i think is coz of your subwoofer placement.. May be you should try putting it in middle of room length & width (slightly in front of your listening position)..
 
I think speaker placement is perhaps the most important criteria that sometimes get ignored. Can you post a picture of your setup? Rooms with lots of reflections can really degrade the experience, regardless what equipment is deployed.
 
There is nothing wrong in your selection of components. You have a capable AVR and good set of speakers. It would be a matter of placing and setting them correct. Using any familiar movie bluray will help to identify what is missing. Also check if any expert FM from your locality can have a look at the setup.
 
Speaker placement and room treatment have maximum effect on sound.
Was this setup done by the dealer or yourself?
Please give a room layout and pics for better understanding. Use some photo sharing site like postimg or imgur.
 
I use similar components in a similar sized room. The AVR is the same, the fronts are 220s, center is the same. I don't think equipment is the problem. Please share some details of the room. Maybe some minor treatment could help.
 
Elango sir
  • I am missing clarity and crispness in music
  • In movie I am missing boldness of voice and bass even though I have increased 1 decibel more in audio channel in cross over settings and adjusted the distance according to manual calculation of distance leaving centre and subwoofer untouched ( distance)
  • If I increase the volume bass increases without increase in clarity
 
Movie input- blue ray disc-5.1/Amazon firstick/ Tatasky HD
Music- Carnatic music CD/ Gaana/ Raaga/ m tunes HD in Tatasky
In Tatasky - have selected- Dolby digital plus
Amazon- Dolby digital plus
I have broad band connection dedicated to home theatre- 8-10mbps speed
 
Why there is so much differences in auto tuning and actual speaker distance is there any problem in the receiver or mike I bought just 3 months back from hifi mart
 
I only setup the home theatre as it is far away from either bangalore or Bombay. I searched online then I got to know hifi mart. I saw customer feed back. Talked to mr Anil. He told me to give my budget and home theatre area we discussed over weeks and ultimately bought this setup. Wiring- dac- 14, components- profigold - hdmi/optic cable/ subwoofer cable.
I measured the distance as advised by mr. Anil taking care of placement. Floor standers cannot be placed in front along with centre since no space as it is occupied by the main furniture console and door comes on the way. With the help of electrician I have finished the wiring. I have used banana plugs for both receiver and speakers . I have done biwiring and not bi amping for floor standers and centre speakers .
 
Observations of an amateur enthusiast:

1. Room looks to be too empty. No furniture, wooden floor, no carpet etc. You might not get good sound.
2. Front speakers too much into the room. Could be good for two channel listening but for movies, your front sound stage could be a problem.

What I would do ..

Move the front speakers into the TV wall.
Put in some furniture / carpet or do room treatment
Run your receivers room optimizer MCACC Auto Room Tuning software
Fine tune the settings.

With a receiver, there are lots of ways to tame bass, improve mid-range and generally the sound of your music and movies.

Post your crossover settings, your sub settings and your distance settings. Forum members might be able to help.
 
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Hi
Your setup is just above the low budget and towards mid range setup i would say.

i would suggest the Centre speaker( Bass reflex speakers )IMO should not be placed inside cabinet ( Entertainment rack) may be it might lead muddy in clarity .Try to keep in top of the cabinet where you placed your AVR( Entertainment rack).Move the AVR to different place and see.... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bass_reflex
btw where is the port in your center speaker.
i feel your surround speakers are not in the ear level may be few ppl feel it is good when it is placed on your ear level you can bring them a little bit and make some changes to see whether you are linking it or not.
Subwoofer placement there is no rule to position it.it should not be near to the corner or near to the wall keep it as 3 ft away from walls and mainly your taste is the main thing to decide.
All the best
 
Uploading photos

Wow, your room is empty. You definitely need to fill it up with either rugs on the floor and wall or go for minimum room treatment. This is needed in your room, atleast on the first reflection points.

Lets first start with a 5.0 setup. Swap your receiver and Center speaker positions. Keep the Center right at the edge of the shelf. Disconnect the height speakers and switch off your Sub. Push the towers towards the TV wall such that the left door just about clears the left speaker. Your towers should ideally be equidistant from the TV. Run your Auto setup. Leave your towers as large, set all the remaining speakers to Small and set them to 100Hz crossover. See how it sounds. Do not touch the distances set by the autosetup, only adjust the Crossover. Listen to it for a day, watch a movie which has tracks with only Vocals as well as tracks with a lot of instruments. Bass at this point, not so important. Run the Auto setup as many times as you wish while adjusting the speaker positions. Once happy, turn on the Sub and run Auto Setup again. Place a thick rug under the Sub (irrespective of whether the bass port it under or not). With the Sub, make sure all your speakers are set to Small. Towers crossed at 80-90Hz and rest of the speakers at 100-110Hz. You can increase the Level of center channel by 2db or so to bring the vocals level above other channels. Watch a movie, see how it sounds. At this point Life of Pi bluray is my reference. The Ship stuck in the storm chapter is excellent to test your speakers and the Sub. Try different Sub positions via the Sub Crawl method. Run Auto Setup as many times as you make changes. The Sub level after auto setup should be -3 to +3 level. So few iterations would be needed to get the Volume control on the Sub right for Auto Setup to get its Level right. Try with its bass port Plugged as well as without. You will learn something new with each run, I can assure your of that and that is when this hobby becomes Fun.

Hope I have not confused you. You have very good components. Do not lose faith in them. The issue is with setting them up well and providing them with a happy environment.

MaSh
 
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As other members have said the room is too empty.
1. Keep those tower speakers near the front wall but about 1-2 feet away from the front wall. The tower speakers should be ideally 6-7 feet apart from each other.
2. Use a thick and fairly large rug right in front of the tower speakers.
3. You could move the sub to the centre of the room's length along any one wall but a bit away (1-2 feet) from the wall.
4. Centre channel in place of avr.
5. Maybe you could benefit from a set of speaker spikes under your subwoofer. Like the ones from Dayton Audio on diyaudiocart.com.
6. Try using thick curtains for your room. Like really thick ones.
Then again tinker with the settings.
Try these before you even think of changing your equipment.
 
Waiting for all of your feedback


Hi

As stated by the others. you have decent components....AVR would not be my choice as only the higher models and LX series of Pioneer perform well...if I could, I would replace it with a Marantz NR series which is slim and very capable to drive floor standing speakers...

Look at Google images for ideal placement of speakers....you will get some ideas....use those placements for a week and see if any difference...Dealers have special treated rooms and hence it sounds great....for us...our furniture is the treated ware in our homes and so it sounds good...

Auto calibration helps in adjustments....you still would need to do manual adjustments for levels and tones....not sure if this Pioneer model has an adjustable EQ like all Marantz AVRs...it helps bigtime...

Put a carpet if possible or some door rugs at least for the floor standing speakers...which would help....same for the sub.....

Ensure whatever content you are playing is of good quality.....even the HDMI cables matter.....
 
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