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Old 16th January 2012, 01:37   #1501
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I am on the look out for a good pair of rear speakers for my setup. For the front I have a powerful stereo music system, which I use extensively for music listening also.

Please advice on rear speakers. what kind of speakers should I be looking at? I would prefer them to be self amplified if possible.

Mash

Last edited by mashmash : 16th January 2012 at 01:39.
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Old 16th January 2012, 12:11   #1502
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re: The Home Theater thread

An update regarding my setup. Finally got it delivered and installed on the Jan 14th.
The setup consists of Onkyo TX-NR609
A/V Receivers : TX-NR609 | ONKYO Asia and Oceania Website
and Energy Speakers (Part of Klipsch)
CF-50 5.1 Home Theater System - Overview

The other parts of my HT setup are:
Sony LCD 40BX400
Philips BDP-3000 Blu-ray player
Tata Sky + HD DVR
Iomega Screenplay Director 1TB


I have also retained my earlier subwoofer from my old Cervin Vega system and have installed both the subwoofers to make a 5.2 system. The front CF-50 Speakers are also bi-amped with the spare channels from the Amp.

I also calibrated the whole setup with Audissey and then did some manual calibration and the end result is - AMAZING!
It now gives an excellent movie experience - was watching Matrix on this new setup and you could feel and experience each and every bullet passing (more thanks to the 2 subs now connected). Vocals are also very clear and perfect. The speakers have a little bit of harshness associated with new speakers before break in, and should disappear as they gradually run in (100 Hrs). The sensitivity of the fronts is 96Db, so the Onkyo amp is able to generate good sound levels, even at low volumes (50-60%).

Overall, very pleased with the outcome and the setup.
One comment from my neighbour : "It seems like a Dinosaur is visiting your house!" when I was setting up my system and trying it out .

The only shortcoming in my HT setup now is the size of the LCD! I have a 40 Inch Sony and as the viewing distance is 15 ft now (new room), it begs for at least a 60 Inch one! It definitely has got the sound to match it. Anyway, that will be another story hopefully to follow eventually (budgets permitting!)

Regards,
Behemoth

Last edited by Behemoth : 16th January 2012 at 12:20.
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Old 16th January 2012, 22:00   #1503
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re: The Home Theater thread

Guys, need some help deciding. I checked out within my budget
1.) Wharfedale 9.x and 10.x series for a 5.1 Setup
2.) Crystal Acoustix
3.) Jamo S426 and S606 (I think)

I am getting the Wharfedale at a very attractive price for a demo unit. Am getting a pair of 9.2 Bookshelf, a pair of 9.1 Bookshelf and a Center 9.CS for ~ 33K. Floor standers are about 45K. Please advise, if I can use the bookshelves as surrounds. Is this a g

Anyone have any experience with Crystal Acoustics? On the Crystal Acoustics, I am getting a deal for a pair of Floor Standers for 32K as these are the vendor's last pair. Good deal? These are not the THX certified ones, but the previous model, but stil are T2s.

I also had a look at Phase Velocity towers at 83K...tempted, but trying to remain in control...

thanks for any advice/input!

Congrats Behemoth on your new purchase!
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Old 17th January 2012, 11:03   #1504
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re: The Home Theater thread

Quote:
Originally Posted by diyguy View Post
Guys, need some help deciding. I checked out within my budget
1.) Wharfedale 9.x and 10.x series for a 5.1 Setup
2.) Crystal Acoustix
3.) Jamo S426 and S606 (I think)

I am getting the Wharfedale at a very attractive price for a demo unit. Am getting a pair of 9.2 Bookshelf, a pair of 9.1 Bookshelf and a Center 9.CS for ~ 33K. Floor standers are about 45K. Please advise, if I can use the bookshelves as surrounds. Is this a g

Anyone have any experience with Crystal Acoustics? On the Crystal Acoustics, I am getting a deal for a pair of Floor Standers for 32K as these are the vendor's last pair. Good deal? These are not the THX certified ones, but the previous model, but stil are T2s.

I also had a look at Phase Velocity towers at 83K...tempted, but trying to remain in control...

thanks for any advice/input!

Congrats Behemoth on your new purchase!
Thanks DIYGuy!
From your list, I had got the chance to Audition the Wharfedale and the Jamos.
The combinations which I auditioned were Wharfedale 10.x with Denon 1912 and Jamo C605 with Marantz 5005.
The Wharfedales were good for music, but sounded a little distant and less clear on the vocals. I suspect that it had more to do with the Amp than the speakers.
The Jamos sounded very good to me and had clear natural sound with the Marantz and it seemed like a well paired combination.
Out of these two options, my choice would have been the Jamos. I had heard the S400 series also and they were also good, but the concert series C605 were quite better (though also more expensive, at around 58K per pair).
After going through maybe 20 hours of auditions on 10 different days and in more than 6 different showrooms, I realized that the combination of the amp and speakers is vital and you should try to hear them paired together as you intend to buy them. So first buy a good Amp, and then select good speakers which match with your Amp (you will need to lug your Amp around and test with different speakers ). This is probably the best way to get sound which matches your liking.
In my experience, when I was auditioning my speakers, the sound from the same Energy speakers was very different from the Denon 1912 and the Onkyo 609. The Denon being a more musical amp and the Onkyo being a Movie focued amp. Since my requirement was 95% for Movies, I went with the Onkyo.
On using bookshelves as surrounds, it can be done, but they have a very narrow dispersion (angle of sound) hence your sweet spot in the room will be smaller and you will need very direct placement of the speakers. Bipoles / Dipoles are better for surround sound dispersion.

Happy hunting for your setup!

Regards,
Behemoth
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Old 17th January 2012, 12:46   #1505
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re: The Home Theater thread

Quote:
Originally Posted by diyguy View Post
Guys, need some help deciding. I checked out within my budget
1.) Wharfedale 9.x and 10.x series for a 5.1 Setup
2.) Crystal Acoustix
3.) Jamo S426 and S606 (I think)

I am getting the Wharfedale at a very attractive price for a demo unit. Am getting a pair of 9.2 Bookshelf, a pair of 9.1 Bookshelf and a Center 9.CS for ~ 33K. Floor standers are about 45K. Please advise, if I can use the bookshelves as surrounds. Is this a g

thanks for any advice/input!
The Wharfedales are best paired with Yamaha amps. As Behemoth mentioned, if using bookshelves for the rear surrounds, placement is very important for the right sound experience.
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Old 17th January 2012, 13:20   #1506
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re: The Home Theater thread

Thanks Behemoth and smsrini for your suggestions. I think I will go with the Wharfedale shelves for now and buy the Dispersion Surrounds later. I can move one pair to Zone 2 at a later point as my Yamaha RX-A810 supports this.
I will carry my Receiver to do the auditions... thanks for that tip Behemoth.

Also anyone has experience with the Obsidian or Vargus series? They seem to be the commercial equivalent of the Wharfedales and are very attractively priced at 36K and ~42K respectively.
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Old 17th January 2012, 20:07   #1507
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re: The Home Theater thread

Quote:
Originally Posted by diyguy View Post
Thanks Behemoth and smsrini for your suggestions. I think I will go with the Wharfedale shelves for now and buy the Dispersion Surrounds later. I can move one pair to Zone 2 at a later point as my Yamaha RX-A810 supports this.
I will carry my Receiver to do the auditions... thanks for that tip Behemoth.

Also anyone has experience with the Obsidian or Vargus series? They seem to be the commercial equivalent of the Wharfedales and are very attractively priced at 36K and ~42K respectively.
I am using the Wharfedale Obsidian 600 with Denon AVR 1611. As of now only the towers and center channel are connected due to space constraints. The bass is tight and precise, midtones and treble is good. Also the soundstage reproduction is excellent.
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Old 18th January 2012, 09:55   #1508
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re: The Home Theater thread

Quote:
Originally Posted by UKR View Post
I am using the Wharfedale Obsidian 600 with Denon AVR 1611. As of now only the towers and center channel are connected due to space constraints. The bass is tight and precise, midtones and treble is good. Also the soundstage reproduction is excellent.
Thank you UKR. Has it been a recent buy? I read some korean, spanish and one UK review, they are a bit critical of this model. The indian review was glowing though...
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Old 18th January 2012, 10:11   #1509
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re: The Home Theater thread

Hi Guys,

There are good home theatre setup tips which are shared by Dolby on the link below and in a completely neutral approach. This will help a lot of people when selecting and the setting up their home theatre setups.
Setting Up a Home Theater

Parallel to this (or higher) is the THX standards and you can find a guide from them on the link: Consumer « Home Entertainment « Home Theater « THX.com

These two are used for the surround sound in 90% of movies so their recommendations on the setup should be good for generating surround sound as intended by the movie makers.

For music, you can also find good information on the Dolby website.

Also adding another link which explains speaker technologies and how they spread sound !
http://forum.blu-ray.com/speakers/66...rs-part-i.html


Regards,
Behemoth

Last edited by Behemoth : 18th January 2012 at 10:30.
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Old 18th January 2012, 21:48   #1510
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re: The Home Theater thread

Quote:
Originally Posted by diyguy View Post
Thank you UKR. Has it been a recent buy? I read some korean, spanish and one UK review, they are a bit critical of this model. The indian review was glowing though...
It was bought around 3 months back from HiFiMart itself. Strangely I am yet to find a good objective review of these speakers. Would you mind sharing the review links you found, would like to read the critical ones. This was a Russian website which I found recently that had some measurement data.

ΠžΠ±Π·ΠΎΡ€ ΠΊΠΎΠΌΠΏΠ»Π΅ΠΊΡ‚Π° акустики Wharfedale Obsidian 600 HCP | HIFI-REVIEWS.RU - ΠΎΠ±Π·ΠΎΡ€Ρ‹ HI-FI ΠΈ HI-END Π°ΡƒΠ΄ΠΈΠΎ Ρ‚Π΅Ρ…Π½ΠΈΠΊΠΈ
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Old 18th January 2012, 23:15   #1511
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re: The Home Theater thread

Quote:
Originally Posted by UKR View Post
It was bought around 3 months back from HiFiMart itself. Strangely I am yet to find a good objective review of these speakers. Would you mind sharing the review links you found, would like to read the critical ones. This was a Russian website which I found recently that had some measurement data.

ΠžΠ±Π·ΠΎΡ€ ΠΊΠΎΠΌΠΏΠ»Π΅ΠΊΡ‚Π° акустики Wharfedale Obsidian 600 HCP | HIFI-REVIEWS.RU - ΠΎΠ±Π·ΠΎΡ€Ρ‹ HI-FI ΠΈ HI-END Π°ΡƒΠ΄ΠΈΠΎ Ρ‚Π΅Ρ…Π½ΠΈΠΊΠΈ

Here are the ones I read (some sound good now ). I cant seem to find a British review I read a few days back which had some poor reference to the center channel and also the separation of the cones in the towers.

Korean

Polish

Russian

Russian
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Old 19th January 2012, 00:50   #1512
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re: The Home Theater thread

Quote:
Originally Posted by diyguy View Post
Here are the ones I read (some sound good now ). I cant seem to find a British review I read a few days back which had some poor reference to the center channel and also the separation of the cones in the towers.

Korean

Polish

Russian

Russian
The first Russian seems to be critical, the rest seem to have an overall positive opinion. It is still odd to see that there is a total lack of reviews in standard review sites especially when considering that it is a Wharfe. Gives a feel they were specifically designed for third world markets, not that it is anything negative though.

Anyway the reason why I chose Obsidian was I wanted something that could handle movies and music well and wanted to avoid a sub woofer if at all possible. This one has a frequency response curve starting at 30 Hz which is subwoofer territory. Of course there are many who would advice against going for a single system for music and movies but I was not aiming that high and would have been happy with something that could manage both decently. I must say that this is managing both movies and music really well. Another positive is the design, fit and finish.
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Old 19th January 2012, 01:15   #1513
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Quote:
Originally Posted by UKR

The first Russian seems to be critical, the rest seem to have an overall positive opinion. It is still odd to see that there is a total lack of reviews in standard review sites especially when considering that it is a Wharfe. Gives a feel they were specifically designed for third world markets, not that it is anything negative though.

Anyway the reason why I chose Obsidian was I wanted something that could handle movies and music well and wanted to avoid a sub woofer if at all possible. This one has a frequency response curve starting at 30 Hz which is subwoofer territory. Of course there are many who would advice against going for a single system for music and movies but I was not aiming that high and would have been happy with something that could manage both decently. I must say that this is managing both movies and music really well. Another positive is the design, fit and finish.
I spoke to two dealers and both were of the opinion that these were not audiophile enough, maybe their margins are low on them..
These are being positioned as mass market items by Wharfedale themselves, which is why I am researching it some more...
Also in most other countries this is being sold as a 5.1 which helps it rake in better reviews, while here it is a 5.0.
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Old 22nd January 2012, 22:25   #1514
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re: The Home Theater thread

Guys, i finally picked up my speakers. This is my configuration for now.
Receiver - Yamaha RX-A810
FS - Yamaha NS-F700
Center - Yamaha NS-C700
Sub - Yamaha NS-SW700

Couldnt afford the Bookshelves for Surrounds and Rear for now. I have a pair of Sony 3-Way Bookshelf speakers, Japanese made. I will probably hook them up for surrounds or maybe Zone 2.
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Old 23rd January 2012, 09:38   #1515
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re: The Home Theater thread

Quote:
Originally Posted by diyguy View Post
Guys, i finally picked up my speakers. This is my configuration for now.
Receiver - Yamaha RX-A810
FS - Yamaha NS-F700
Center - Yamaha NS-C700
Sub - Yamaha NS-SW700

Couldnt afford the Bookshelves for Surrounds and Rear for now. I have a pair of Sony 3-Way Bookshelf speakers, Japanese made. I will probably hook them up for surrounds or maybe Zone 2.
Congrats DIYGuy!

That's a great combination and you won't have to worry about Speaker-Amp matching at all with this setup as they are already 'Made for each other'.
Enjoy your setup and do share your feedback!

One query for all Onkyo 609 owners:

What are the settings that you find best for your receiver:
I used Audyssey initially, but found that it turned down everything quite low. I increased Db levels to :
Front Right : +1
Front left : +1
Center: +3
Surround Right: +2
Surround left: +2
Sub : -5 ( I have two subs connected. The Audyssey infact calibrated to -15 Db!, which I upped to -5Db)!

Crossover frequencies which I am using:
Fronts: 60 Hz (even though my fronts are capable of 39Hz, and Audyssey had calibrated at 40 Hz)
Center : 60 Hz (Audyssey : 40 Hz)
Surround : 80 Hz (Audyssey : 40 Hz)
LPF of LFE: 120 Hz

I have some queries:
What are the ideal recommended crossovers for a movie experience (specially for the Onkyo 609) ? Any recommendations and advice are welcome.

(Room size is 13x22 ft, viewing distance is 13.5 ft)

Regards,
Behemoth

Last edited by Behemoth : 23rd January 2012 at 09:41.
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