[keroo1099]

Originally Posted by navin

Thirdly YOUR ROOM's acoustics and reverberation field play a bigger part in the sound you are listening to that almost all of the electronics and loudspeakers you have put together.

Hallelujah to all your points, but the one quoted above is the REAL deal that most people ignore.

Some free advice that will cost you nothing but time. This is mainly for 2-channel audio but should also work for surround sound.

1. The most basic one is speakers placement. Speakers usually need 'air' around them to sound the best. If you have the space, try moving the speakers away from walls in small increments. With a little trial and error you will find a spot where it sounds the best. It may not be the most practical position, but you will know the true potential of your system. You can then compromise and find a spot that is acceptable, and go on to further experiment with 'toeing' the speaker, which is angling it in or away from you to further improve the sound. Tilting your speakers to tweak the sound also works, tilt it back if its too bright.

Sound is subjective, but with the above procedure you can essentially tune the balance of the speaker to some extent to get a sound you could be happier with.

2. If you are listening to music, and like most of us have a TV between your main speakers put a blanket/heavy sheet over the screen. The sound should clear up, and imaging should improve.

3. If you have a couple of spare pillows, try placing them behind your speakers (works better if speakers are in the corner). The bass/lower mid quality should improve. If it works you can later get dedicated bass traps or go the DIY route which I did.


Cheers.

[sj_koova]

Originally Posted by reignofchaos

Give it a low power - 10W clean Class A solid state integrated or tube amp and watch it sing. You are not even scratching the surface here.

Using a receiver with a high sensitivity klipsch is sacrilege. I once heard an RF3 II with a musical fidelity A1-x and it was very good and amazingly dynamic.

I couldn't agree more. I wished to start with a receiver because it serves multiple purpose. I am sure I will outgrow this and want to move to a pure audiophile stereo for music.

BTW, is anyone going for WHAT HI-FI 2016 show at Ritz Carlton? I have registered on site and one of the dealer I visited past week is ready to extend invitation from his end as well.

I am almost decided on the projector as well. Getting a very good deal on Sony VPL HW40ES. It is a 2014 model and the new series has come, so 40ES is selling cheap. The new series has nothing compelling to invest extra.

[reignofchaos]

Originally Posted by sj_koova

I couldn't agree more. I wished to start with a receiver because it serves multiple purpose. I am sure I will outgrow this and want to move to a pure audiophile stereo for music.

BTW, is anyone going for WHAT HI-FI 2016 show at Ritz Carlton? I have registered on site and one of the dealer I visited past week is ready to extend invitation from his end as well.

I am almost decided on the projector as well. Getting a very good deal on Sony VPL HW40ES. It is a 2014 model and the new series has come, so 40ES is selling cheap. The new series has nothing compelling to invest extra.

Yea I might head there sometime tomorrow. When are you planning to go?

[sj_koova]

Originally Posted by reignofchaos

Yea I might head there sometime tomorrow. When are you planning to go?

Most likely tomorrow afternoon. I will PM my number, if you are around at 2PM or later, please give me a ring.

[keroo1099]

Originally Posted by sj_koova

BTW, is anyone going for WHAT HI-FI 2016 show at Ritz Carlton? I have registered on site and one of the dealer I visited past week is ready to extend invitation from his end as well.

Just back from a quick visit and I must say it has a very respectable spread of manufacturers . It's spread between the 2nd and 6th floors of the Ritz where typical rooms have been converted into display/demo rooms.

One of the better organized shows I have been to and for me the surprise was the Q Acoustics room. Great sound for an affordable price compared to the rest.

Some of the other brands that I can remember ; Klipsch, KEF, Dali, Jamo, Tannoy, Denon, Marantz, Zu, Focal, Sonodyne and in really high end stuff Accuphase and Devialet.

Cheers.

[reignofchaos]

Went in the morning today when there was not much crowd and let me say it was worth it for a few exhibits. The standouts for me were the following:

Invention Audio Room: The best room overall IMHO. Invention audio is a made in Hyderabad brand that build end to end systems.
- The speakers on display were a large TL floor-stander with a pair of 10W Class-A monos, their own dac and power conditioner.
- The system though very large disappeared completely - sound-stage had depth and width.
- It sounded almost tonally pure, incredibly dynamic and produced deep, room filling bass without much overhang.
- I found minor issues with the mid range purity but others may not find it much of an issue.
- There was also a bit of hiss and the background was not completely black probably because an ordinary desktop was repurposed to play music.
- Overall a stellar system that unfortunately might not have a lot of Wife Acceptance factor. I wish they improved their looks and fit/finish.

Nexus Audio Room: This room is where I spent a lot of time as the hosts were really very warm.
- They had a small Graham Audio (BBC Monitor) bookshelf on their own lossy stands, an AVM DAC/CD Player and a 70W Octave PP Tube amp.
- This speaker while lacking the realism, raw resolution and the bass impact of the previous system felt purer in terms of tone.
- It sang really well for its size and there was some good work done on placement and tweaking of the system.
- This speaker worked really well with acoustic music and really shone when I played some Jennifer Warnes and Eva Cassidy.
- This probably would be a very easy system to live with long term and considering the cost was a spectacular deal.

Absolute Sound Room: Fantastic active system
- Kii Audio actives powered by a mac book and a bel canto dac - this system was really nice sounding.
- It was extremely resolving and was also setup very very well.
- Though I preferred the Graham over this one, to be honest its neck and neck and maybe in certain constrained rooms this would work better as it can be DSP tuned to the room.
- For me the sound was not as pure as the Graham and for less money, I would pick up the Graham+Octave combo.

Couple of others I visited:
Bass/Treble Room - Zu Audio Omen + Rogue Audio PP Amp + Arye QB9 + Macbook + Thorens TD309 (not connected)
- The sound was a bit fatiguing to me. Though the hosts were really welcoming and were glad to play what I requested, the sound was not up my alley
- The placement when I entered was just so wrong. I unfortunately didn't enjoy the sound.

MBL Room - Terrible sound. Less said the better.

[GTO]

Guys,

Thanks a ton for the advice. I discovered stuff I wouldn't even have considered otherwise. Went this evening to ProFX for an audition. Absolutely loved Polk speakers. This isn't a brand that I would've looked at if it weren't for the recommendations here.

I liked the 330s & 440s both, but since the price difference was barely a couple of grand, what the heck - I picked up the Polk 440. Simply fantastic sound. As suggested by all of you, I played my own music on AUX & Bluetooth.

List price was 42,500. I got them for 36k and some change. In true Team-BHP spirit, the budget I originally had for the entire system is out the window .

How come speakers in the store are so much cheaper than online? I see the same pair on Amazon for 42k.

Can't wait to hook up these bad boys up to a good amplifier.

But yes, I still need a subwoofer. Though the bass from the speakers is good, I'm a 'thump thump' guy.

[navin]

Originally Posted by GTO

I picked up the Polk 440. I got them for 36k and some change. In true Team-BHP spirit, the budget I originally had for the entire system is out the window .

How come speakers in the store are so much cheaper than online? I see the same pair on Amazon for 42k.

Can't wait to hook up these bad boys up to a good amplifier.

But yes, I still need a subwoofer. Though the bass from the speakers is good, I'm a 'thump thump' guy.

Rush, to add a subwoofer to this setup you will need a stereo amp (see post 2611 on this thread) with a pre out (or an AVR). AVRs are not designed for music as much as Stereo amps are. What do I mean by that? Well think of this this way...lets assume you have a stereo amp that costs 25K and an AVR that also costs 25K.

The AVR has a bunch of processing, D-A conversion, HDMI inputs, etc that all this has to fit in the budget. A stereo amp has none of this, the manufacturer can focus on the power supply and amplification solely.

Take for example my own stereo amp (Yamaha S2000) and my own AVR (Onkyo 3010). Both weigh about 25kgs. Both cost about the same (retail). Where do you think all that money and weight goes?

So the stereo amp's (or AVR's) preout will feed the subwoofer a signal. In the case of the AVR you can program the AVR to send only the very low frequencies to the subwoofer. Most AVRs allow you to choose the LPF and HPF. In the case of the stereo amp your front speakers (in this case the Polk 440) will run full-range.

However since the Polks can easily handle some bass this will not be a problem. Your subwoofer has a LPF filter in it anyway and will reproduce only the very low frequencies.

In either case you will have to budget about 50K at the minimum for a stereo amp/AVR and active subwoofer.

[earthian]

@GTO

How come speakers in the store are so much cheaper than online? I see the same pair on Amazon for 42k.

On line shopping portals are price sensitive for regular, high volume, competitive, low to medium priced goods. Once they attract us with these, we tend to assume that all products sold by them would be price competitive; which it wouldn't. I buy most of my photography and audio equipments through dealers who normally quote a lower price than on line portals. To cite an example, the benchmark for photography, video and audio goods is B&H, New York and dealers in Mumbai actually quote lower or at best equal than the prices listed by B&H. This has been my experience at least for photography goods, not commonly available at your friendly store.

[sj_koova]

I bought my Sony VPL HW40ES projector from a home theater store in Bangalore this week. They are authorized distributor / re-seller of Sony and have given me bill and warranty. This model was 177000+ with online retailers and I bought it at 137000 from shop.

My learning from hunting for HiFi equipment in the past month is, for anything related to Home Theater, you should always walk into the exclusive stores (as many as you can) and bargain hard.

And do your homework in advance so that the sales guy does not take you for a ride with technical stuff, model numbers and why one particular brand is the best in the world etc..

Also my confidence on online retailers are fading after I had to return the last three goods purchased from Amazon. The only retailer I trust now is Flipkart though they are usually pricey compared to others.

[vinit.merchant]

Originally Posted by GTO

I picked up the Polk 440. Simply fantastic sound. As suggested by all of you, I played my own music on AUX & Bluetooth.

I guess for the price, you only bought the speakers.
How would you play via Bluetooth? To play any sort of music, are the amplifiers compulsory?

Sorry but I am quite naive in this.

[deathwalkr]

Might be getting a good deal on the Philips B5. The reviews seem to rave on about it. Any of you guys using it?

[sj_koova]

Originally Posted by deathwalkr

Might be getting a good deal on the Philips B5. The reviews seem to rave on about it. Any of you guys using it?

I have Philips Fidelio HTL9100. B5 is a successor of this model.

I am very happy with HTL9100. It can certainly enhance the TV viewing experience. It goes very well with the TV and adds elegance to your living room media unit.

You have to detach the side speakers to get the real 4.1 effect. Otherwise it works as a 2.1 system. With other premium soundbars like bose, you get the real 5.1 experience from the bar directly. This is one thing you may want to keep in mind.

It does pretty well with music too. Detachable speakers a great convenience as you can place it wherever you like so that the the music sounds to your taste and fills the room.

This is definitely not comparable to a dedicated 5.1 system. Sub is adequate for TV viewing, but not for a blue ray movie.

One another problem I noticed when attached to TV is, the side speakers sound louder when the input is not 5.1. So for SD channels, you will have to disable the surround sound feature every time or attach the side speakers back to main unit.

I can say more goods things about this unit than complaints.

Hope this helps.

[deathwalkr]

That definitely helps Thing is if the deal works out i might get it for a sub 20k price. So at that price it's a no brainer i guess.

[sj_koova]

Originally Posted by deathwalkr

That definitely helps Thing is if the deal works out i might get it for a sub 20k price. So at that price it's a no brainer i guess.

It is a steal at that price. I paid around 30k more than a year back.
Go for it if your requirement is to enhance TV viewing and casual music listening.