Hello everyone, another newbie / noob here. Also, goes DIY /Cheap in general.

[imagineer]

I'v e read all instructions in "introductions" thread.
Will try to follow, most.

Never had a real HiFi system by this forum's standards.
Had single zone, multiple rooms (14 or 18 if aangan is considered) setup since childhood.
Decks and DIY speakers/ DIY amps were normal.
Coming from village area, low budget mode!
Life diverged for last three or so decades.
Settled with HT in a box since last two decades.
Currently going for (spent for) auro setup.
Because, cheapest in auro 3d: x4200 wasn't available ,
Neither was 6500. I went for x4700.
I hope, I'm not breaking forums norms .
Thank you for guidance, the forum helped me a lot.

 

[imagineer]

Current Status:
Dispatch arrived at the dealer for few components couple of weeks ago. Wasn't very keen to get it delivered / installed immediately given other priorities.
Wiring done today for 5.1.6 setup.
Will get the system installed by tomorrow, if possible.
This is current plan:
Get 5.1.4 going on, as that's the maximum Denon x4700 can handle from the inbuilt amplification.
Top middles (L+R) / single VOG can be handled later.
I'm awaiting for replies from various vendors for two/five channel power amplifiers.

 

[imagineer]

Current Status:
Dispatch arrived at the dealer for few components couple of weeks ago. Wasn't very keen to get it delivered / installed immediately given other priorities.
Wiring done today for 5.1.6 setup.
Will get the system installed by tomorrow, if possible.
This is current plan:
Get 5.1.4 going on, as that's the maximum Denon x4700 can handle from the inbuilt amplification.
Top middles (L+R) / single VOG can be handled later.
I'm awaiting for replies from various vendors for two/five channel power amplifiers.

Setup done.
Played a few Atmos demos and auro 3d demos in respective audio modes.
Played Atmos demos in Auro 3D mode.
Played a few songs from different genres (some focused on vocals) in Auro 3D.
Can't describe the experience of Auro 3D in words! Simply spellbound!
And this is without the VOG!!!!
Played Atmos files in Atmos and auro mode back to back, to check if this is confirmation bias. Nope, Auro 3D is just exhilarating!!!
This experience within my small budget and a living room setup was much better than professionally done theater where I had auditioned multiple AVRs.
Note, speaker layout was as specified by Auro 3D. Even, Atmos sounded better in this layout than Atmos tops (could be bias, given there is a gap in listening between these two layouts).

 

[imagineer]

Setup done.
Played a few Atmos demos and auro 3d demos in respective audio modes.
Played Atmos demos in Auro 3D mode.
Played a few songs from different genres (some focused on vocals) in Auro 3D.
Can't describe the experience of Auro 3D in words! Simply spellbound!
And this is without the VOG!!!!
Played Atmos files in Atmos and auro mode back to back, to check if this is confirmation bias. Nope, Auro 3D is just exhilarating!!!
This experience within my small budget and a living room setup was much better than professionally done theater where I had auditioned multiple AVRs.
Note, speaker layout was as specified by Auro 3D. Even, Atmos sounded better in this layout than Atmos tops (could be bias, given there is a gap in listening between these two layouts).

The engineer who installed and configured this setup made 11th hour changes after my requests for corrections. Didn't re-calibrate it and left. I was busy as well, so let it go.
Tried the same songs and videos afterwards, didn't sound right. Did manual setup, found that settings like amp assignment and speaker placement were all over the place. Corrected alll.
I got wowed again!!!
Haven't been able to do Audyssey curve changes yet . Subwoofer is still quite a little off compared to my previous system.
In other news, discovered new stuff in the same songs / videos that I had never heard of!

 

[imagineer]

Haven't been able to do Audyssey curve changes yet . Subwoofer is still quite a little off compared to my previous system.

Woke up at dawn and calibrated using Audyssey. Did some curve edits and manual changes, specifically for subwoofer and 4 floor standers (crossover was correctly detected to 40Hz, changed it to 80).
Heights and centre required crossover changes as well. Now, subwoofer is sounding better. Haven't done subwoofer crawl and won't do it, given I can't change subwoofer placement in living room.
All this electronic phaser gun noise during calibration woke up everyone in house.
Started playing bhupali & bhaktigeet with smug face (insert Jeremy Clarkson smug face gif)

 

[SRI 420]

Nice name, welcome to the forum. Good to read about your project. Please Do share some pics.
Best wishes.

 

[imagineer]

Nice name, welcome to the forum. Good to read about your project. Please Do share some pics.
Best wishes.

Thank you! Will share the pics once, I get a good screen. As of now, I'm just using my desktop monitor, given my TV is laterally placed to this setup. Have an unresolved thread about that as well. .

Awaiting for good projector deals as my dealer said they will be around in December end. Once that's in place, the setup will be almost complete. On an honest note, setups never get completed / finished. Do they?

 

[efernand1]

I'v e read all instructions in "introductions" thread.
Will try to follow, most.

Never had a real HiFi system by this forum's standards.
Had single zone, multiple rooms (14 or 18 if aangan is considered) setup since childhood.
Decks and DIY speakers/ DIY amps were normal.
Coming from village area, low budget mode!
Life diverged for last three or so decades.
Settled with HT in a box since last two decades.
Currently going for (spent for) auro setup.
Because, cheapest in auro 3d: x4200 wasn't available ,
Neither was 6500. I went for x4700.
I hope, I'm not breaking forums norms .
Thank you for guidance, the forum helped me a lot.

Hi,


Welcome to HFV!


I am sure you will find yourself enriched with the vast experience and knowledge shared by our FMs (Forum Members) in various threads and topics. Do browse the threads which will have ready information for the queries / challenges you may have around Audio / Video equipment etc.


Happy Browsing and wishing you all the best!

 

[imagineer]

Current Status:
Dispatch arrived at the dealer for few components couple of weeks ago. Wasn't very keen to get it delivered / installed immediately given other priorities.
Wiring done today for 5.1.6 setup.
Will get the system installed by tomorrow, if possible.
This is current plan:
Get 5.1.4 going on, as that's the maximum Denon x4700 can handle from the inbuilt amplification.
Top middles (L+R) / single VOG can be handled later.
I'm awaiting for replies from various vendors for two/five channel power amplifiers.

Just putting it out here, post experience:
5.1.6 is NOT possible with Denon X4700H(my AVR). It's possible with 6700 though.
With 4700 this is possible though:
7.1.4
5.1.4 + VOG (making 5 height speakers)
So, I will end-up having AVR RCA pre out for VOG to split to two top middle speakers via AMP

 

[imagineer]

Had some spare time last week tried a few things:
Kodi (Matrix) / VLC / Mplayer on Ubuntu 20 as source. Plays Netflix / Prime Video and all other locally hosted content in all formats (DD, TrueHD, Atmos, DTS, Auro 3D ) etc.
Had struggled to get it working through single GPU pass through for windows 10 VM with KVM. Audio and video stutters / jitters were too noticable. So, fallback on kodi was obvious and is working perfectly well. ( Laptop: Latitude 16GB, i7 7600u, Intel 620 Graphics).
Didn't try 4K as my display is incapable of 4K.

Had a spare RPI4B 8GB, installed LineageOS (konstakang's TV build for RPI4.) + opengapps ATV stock. Didn't even get close on audio front nor the streaming apps side, so installed libreelec. Works like a charm, same as laptop. Again, no 4K requirement.

 

[imagineer]

Update:
So, as said earlier, all this setup was running without screen for quite some time ...
Without screen meaning: Headless setup for music / songs... Or Viewsonic gaming monitor for movies 18/21 inch(15+++ YO!!!)
My 11 YO kid always noticed the difference between that age old monitor vs comparably new 4TV. He kept saying that small monitor has real colours. His term: "Chhota package, bada dhamaka!"
Got 7100 installed today, asked kiddo for his "critical review". His review:
"It's same, just bigger."
I sheepishly sided away. Can't afford more than this.

 

[raghupb]

You have a proper art critic at home. Good luck
Cheers,
Raghu

 

[imagineer]

You have a proper art critic at home. Good luck
Cheers,
Raghu

BTW, got two amps coming in.
One has already arrived (tracaudio 100 WPC, heard it many times in person, henced triggered). And another is on the way. I jumped on Volt+D because of your review. That's the other. . TracAudio will do Front L/R duty and the Allo Volt+D will do the VOG (2 channels) as of now with Klipsch.

 

[raghupb]

I just experienced Volt+D as a fun experiment.
Its a good unit for small duties. Play with the gain settings.
I'm not into HT so don't know how they will fare.
Cheers,
Raghu

 

[imagineer]

I just experienced Volt+D as a fun experiment.
Its a good unit for small duties. Play with the gain settings.
I'm not into HT so don't know how they will fare.
Cheers,
Raghu

I understand. That's why Volt does VoG duty.

 

[imagineer]

Update:
So, as said earlier, all this setup was running without screen for quite some time ...
Without screen meaning: Headless setup for music / songs... Or Viewsonic gaming monitor for movies 18/21 inch(15+++ YO!!!)
My 11 YO kid always noticed the difference between that age old monitor vs comparably new 4TV. He kept saying that small monitor has real colours. His term: "Chhota package, bada dhamaka!"
Got 7100 installed today, asked kiddo for his "critical review". His review:
"It's same, just bigger."
I sheepishly sided away. Can't afford more than this.

BTW, got two amps coming in.
One has already arrived (tracaudio 100 WPC, heard it many times in person, henced triggered). And another is on the way. I jumped on Volt+D because of your review. That's the other. . TracAudio will do Front L/R duty and the Allo Volt+D will do the VOG (2 channels) as of now with Klipsch.

This is turning out to be my HT journal .
Here we go again:
Volt+D arrived, Klpisch cs-16c ii pair will arrive in next couple of days. Once they arrive, will use them to setup VOG channel with RCA splitter and Volt+D.
Configured TracAudio Amp for Front LR duty to power Front towers. Ran audyssey and done some manual changes. Haven't done the MultiEQ edit on new changes yet.

This TracAudio Amp can also be used independently as a stereo amplifier (Bluetooth, USB) . Man, gotta say it takes me back to the memory lane. The soundscape is entirely different league. Just, the other day was reading another thread by FMs in same forum about differences of likings, stagings, modes and upmixers.

Coz, it was learned FMs and better trained ears speaking, I avoided to chime in. I will go with my rant here, instead!
The options discussed were:
Stereo (no AVR): I personally like it a lot! This simple Amp took me to memory lane. Single purpose devices can do a lot better job than "Jack of all" ones.
Stereo (Direct /Pure direct in AVR): Doesn't sound as true. Probably, because of the volume levels, and the capability of speakers (once you crank it up, it starts doing the justice to the songs, also if you configure it right... it will be at par)
Stereo: Ahhh, the bass management comes in. Sounds good. Not good enough unless you crank it up, again.
DTS Neural & DD Surround:
DTS Neural sounded good to my ears. Fills the room. DD Surround is meh. Have to crank up volume for DTS, though.
Auro 3D:
This was the reason, I got auro capable AVR. But, honestly... It fills the room better than DTS and is more realistic. "Still have to crank up the volume". Makes one feel, that you are there in that concert/ opera etc
Multi-channel stereo:
I know, Yamaha has a different name for it, this is Denon/Marantz term. Nobody in that thread brought this up. Probably, it must be least known feature/mode. I liked it the most. Any zone, any place. No need to be on MLP! it sounds great for stereo music, nonetheless. Finally, stereo or more channels are for effects, right? We could have done with mono, otherwise.

 

[imagineer]

Journal update :
Pair of Klipsch CS-16ic ii arrived, got installed as overhead, middle speakers. They are powered by Volt+D and signal via subwoofer 2 of Denon X4700H.

The results are mind-blowing. I was already happy with the setup (5.1.4 aka Auro 9.1). Overhead effects were brilliant! Addition of VoG pair has allowed Auro to be at 10.1 and the panning and other effects have been, for lack of other words.... immersive!
With Auro 9.1, the panning from front to rear heights, although present... isn't as convincing. Understandably, though; Given the lack of top middles, only Front/rear height small bookshelves were simply incapable of providing that phantom image.

The same movie scenes, demos have literally been taken to new heights!!!

Now that, the subjective part is done, I'll conclude this post with:
1 Observations about new components
2 Setup summary.
3 Maybe, small rant.

1 Observations:
Klipsch CS-16ic ii:
I was disheartened to see 4 Ohm and 40 watt RMS sticker on the back of speakers. Online product manual "deceptively" says: "8 Ohm Compatible". The speaker sensitivity is pretty good (91db) and it's noticable. They are little more on the brighter side. You can't tilt the twitters. Had to shift installation position because of that. Wife Approval rating skydived.

Volt+D:
Came in good packaging, could power the Klipsch without any issues. Can't say more, as didn't use it for music. Plug and play. Even the mute button was set correctly. No thuds, no heat, no noise! It's as transparent as the the case it is in.

TracAudio:
As said earlier, the stereo IA is just love.
It's giving out the dreaded thud, though. Owner of TracAudio says, he will visit my place and resolve it. This is unexpected by his opinion (didn't see it happening in his setup, maybe mine is corner case).

2 Setup Summary:
Speaker layout: followed Auro 3D layout by spec, as if... it's Geeta! Front and rear heights on 30 degrees. 5.1 as usual. VoG on top.
AVR/AVC: Denon X4700h

3, don't go away now. This is supposed to be a small rant:

Couldn't find decent interconnects, locally. Had to go DIY for RCA splitter. Had to use old spare cables and connectors. End result? Awesome!
Tangent: Effects are about "immersion" , script / lyrics are about life.
Rant Over.

 

[imagineer]

Another update:
Preset 1 has Auro3D 10.1 (5.1.4+VOG), Preset 2 has 5.1.4 setup (Atmos +DTSX )

Yesterday, while fiddling around I streamed Mitchells vs Machines via RPI4 (Libreelec + Kodi Matrix) from Netflix.

Default audio being Auro 3D... Out of whim, I changed the mode to Auto and It started playing Atmos (Display and Info showed Dolby Atmos). I was expecting Atmos won't play in Auro 10.1 layout!

Went into speaker layouts and it showed that Auro 10.1 layout now supports Atmos and DTSX as well. I'm pretty sure VOG doesn't get engaged, but looks Denon's some update has cleverly allowed it to happen, which wasn't the case earlier.

Just putting it out here, if someone else has similar setup.

(Denon X4700H, Auro3D 10.1 layout)

 

[Love4sound]

Another update:
Preset 1 has Auro3D 10.1 (5.1.4+VOG), Preset 2 has 5.1.4 setup (Atmos +DTSX )

Yesterday, while fiddling around I streamed Mitchells vs Machines via RPI4 (Libreelec + Kodi Matrix) from Netflix.

Default audio being Auro 3D... Out of whim, I changed the mode to Auto and It started playing Atmos (Display and Info showed Dolby Atmos). I was expecting Atmos won't play in Auro 10.1 layout!

Went into speaker layouts and it showed that Auro 10.1 layout now supports Atmos and DTSX as well. I'm pretty sure VOG doesn't get engaged, but looks Denon's some update has cleverly allowed it to happen, which wasn't the case earlier.

Just putting it out here, if someone else has similar setup.

(Denon X4700H, Auro3D 10.1 layout)

There are certain layouts that supports both auro 3d and atmos. Rajith also uses similar layout I guess

 

[imagineer]

There are certain layouts that supports both auro 3d and atmos. Rajith also uses similar layout I guess

Yes, 5.1.4 aka Auro 9.1 layout supports all formats. When I got 10.1 setup done, it didn't support Atmos, DTSX as far as I recall. Looks, some later update has allowed it.