Help regarding Auditioning Speakers.

Srinivas29

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Hi,

I would like to know what are the parameters you need to consider when you audition speakers. Basically I am asking how do you audition speakers.

It can happen that in a showroom you are taken to a demo room which has been corrected/constructed specifically for a HT experience. When you listen something there how are we going to guarantee that we will have same experience at home.

I did read people mentioning that we need to take our own CDs/DVDs/Blue rays for auditioning. Also i read people telling that it would be great if we could take our receivers for the auditioning(Though I am not sure how practical that is).

Please bear with me I am new to HT world. I have recently bought a Yahama Rx V863. Now I need to buy speakers. I am also planning on a LCD Tv. Till now all i had was BPL 29inch TV outputting Audio to a SONY hifi Music system. This is a big jump.

I do 80% Movies/ 20 % Music.

Music mainly Rock/Pop/Jazz/Bollywood/Instrumental.
 
Hi,

Let us know your room size (width and length) and your budget. it helps in making right suggestions for you and Your yammy AVR.

cheers.
 
The room size is 12 X 25. I am planning to do a piece by piece configuration.
First I am planning to go for a pair of FS speakers and increase it to a 7.1 system by 4 months. My entire budget for the speakers would be around 80000 to 1lakh.
 
Do a search on the forum and pick up some tips. For someone willing to spend upto 1 lac, you may want to be look around at as many options ...and there's tons on the various threads on this forum.



Hi,

I would like to know what are the parameters you need to consider when you audition speakers. Basically I am asking how do you audition speakers.

It can happen that in a showroom you are taken to a demo room which has been corrected/constructed specifically for a HT experience. When you listen something there how are we going to guarantee that we will have same experience at home.

I did read people mentioning that we need to take our own CDs/DVDs/Blue rays for auditioning. Also i read people telling that it would be great if we could take our receivers for the auditioning(Though I am not sure how practical that is).

Please bear with me I am new to HT world. I have recently bought a Yahama Rx V863. Now I need to buy speakers. I am also planning on a LCD Tv. Till now all i had was BPL 29inch TV outputting Audio to a SONY hifi Music system. This is a big jump.

I do 80% Movies/ 20 % Music.

Music mainly Rock/Pop/Jazz/Bollywood/Instrumental.
 
I would like to know what are the parameters you need to consider when you audition speakers. Basically I am asking how do you audition speakers.

This is a little difficult to explain. As Marsilians has said, one of the best ways is to read all the reviews on this forum and see what others have done. Let us see if we can set some simple ground rules:

1. One of the best places to get experience on what a good system should sound like (though at times noisy) is a cinema theatre. Go watch the same movie a few times. The second time onwards (after you have finished gawking at the actresses :), and getting your adrenalin pumped) is to close your eyes and see if you can relate the sound to a scene you remember from the movie. Listen to the sound coming from various speakers. See whether you can clearly understand the dialogues. See if you identify surround sound with movement between the speakers. Do you hear someone replying to the hero from behind your head? Do you hear a mobile phone ringing in the movie, and do you check your own phone to see if it yours that is ringing? Do you hear a car revving and wonder which idiot is driving so near the hall?

2. Secondly, it is important that the movie you use for auditioning is something you know very well. You must have seen the movie a number of times and must know what the next scene and dialogue is. Pick a couple of movies that have good sound. There are some threads where a list of such movies have been given. Buy original copies of these movies, watch it a few times, and pay attention to the sound. One good way of doing this if you don't have a good system, is to watch the whole movie on a laptop and use headphones. You will be able to clearly demarcate subtle sound effects and, of course, hear the dialogues very clearly. Remember, here the picture is not important. The sound is.

3. Most demonstrators will pump up the volume so that you will find it hard to differentiate between good sound and noise. And most demonstrators have a few stock scenes that they always use. These scenes are usually very noisy. You must insist on a couple of things.

3.1 You must be the only viewer in the demo room. Fix an appoint for at least a hour.
3.2 You must watch only movies you are familiar with
3.3 You must keep the volume low. The amplifier/speakers combination must rise to the occasion when dynamic sounds are played. You must not be forced to reduce the volume. This is a clear sign that the system is not able to handle dynamic sound and quite scenes without a large difference in amplitude.

4. Always listen to a few music CDs along with movies. A good system should sound good on both.

It can happen that in a showroom you are taken to a demo room which has been corrected/constructed specifically for a HT experience. When you listen something there how are we going to guarantee that we will have same experience at home.

There is no way to do this unless you duplicate the demo room's acoustics in your own house. Only way to solve this is to ask the dealer to loan you the speaker set for a few days and audition it in your own room. Most dealers will not agree to this.

I did read people mentioning that we need to take our own CDs/DVDs/Blue rays for auditioning. Also i read people telling that it would be great if we could take our receivers for the auditioning(Though I am not sure how practical that is).

Carrying your own DVD/CDs is essential as I have explained above. Of course carrying your receiver is impractical. In the demo room, try to use an AVR from the same company. For example, a 663 will have a sound signature very similar to a 863.

Please bear with me I am new to HT world.

We all are. There are no experts in this field as it is very subjective. Your Aishwarya Rai may be my Soorpanakha and the other way around.

Cheers
 
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