In earlier posts (posted as neophite) I discussed my pending Kenwood VR-6070, I asked various questions about ProMedia speakers and rear surround speaker hook-up.
I decided I would look for more feedback on the the room I am dealing with...
If you follow this link, you can see the challenges I am dealing with.
Any and all comments, suggestions, and/or feedback is welcome.
Jeffrey
Posted on
Charlie, that room has so many windows, it must be tough to watch the TV in the daylight?
Anyhow, per your question, go ahead and try the set up you are thinking about to test it out. I am curious to see how the klipsh's work and blend with the polks. Those windows will also prevent you from playing it too loud because you will get a lot of reverb. But I suspect you don't crank it that loud, so it is not important.
I would avoid that room like the plague because of all the hard surfaces and too many uncovered windows. But you were asking for suggestions, and if it was all I had to work with, I would be doing a similar setup to what your outlining. Good luck.
Yes, daytime watching can be challenging at times, but I don't watch a lot during daytime.
And as far as avoiding the room like a plague, lol, there's nothing I can do cause I own the house.
I'll provide feedback on the "blending" of the Klipsch speakers with the Polk, but before I would spend any money on new "side surround" speakers, I wanted to see what 6.1 with side speakers does for the room vs the existing 5.1 set up.
Thanks for taking the time to wade thru all the pictures and comments at the link.
First off, HOLY SH^T...that is a beautiful space!! Actually very similar to a space an architect-friend designed for himself in Lancaster county, PA.
Secondly, that is gonna be a mutha to fill-up and to aim through to get a really nice field. I thought I had a difficult space, shweew! Some observations:
1. As I can see in the photo where you super-imposed the rear speakers on stands...you're planning on going this way for the rears (stands). That's probably a good idea.
The other thought I had was to aim the speakers "up" to get a nice engrossing rear soundfield as opposed to at you, given the distance of the couch from the TV and mains. If the rears are *much* closer than the mains, you get a disjointed effect.
BUT, seeing that your ceiling catherdrals-up, the first reflection may travel too far away from you if the speakers are aimed up...so that may not work either. (wait a sec, just looked at the ceiling again and the sound waves would reflect back at you...so may be worth a try)
2. Ah, (took another second to check the pictures again), I see that you do have some space behind your couch. If you're itching to try 6.1 (I tried it and went back to 5.1, wasn't THAT cool), I might stick a speaker behind the couch on a low stand and aim IT up. Alternatively I would try a wall-mount behind and above the couch and aim it down at you.
3. The mains and center don't seem to present any problems as the altar (as my wife calls it) is fairly canonical.
4. Have you purchased speakers yet or are you just considering the ProMedia and Polks?
5. In demo'ing speakers for my space, I found that many had different abilities to fill my room (loft, 20x45, 10 ft ceilings). The Polks worked (rti38) but I returned them as I didn't dig the sound; Castle Richmonds sounded luscious (the mids) but didn't have the energy to fill the room; Boston microSystem, well it's better to not talk about them on a family website; finally I chose M&K K-7's and they are a VERY energetic speaker. So the moral of my soapbox is to try different speakers in your space.
6. Don't know if I would blend the Polks with the Klipsch's. The polks are a pretty laid-back speaker, many with silk-domed tweeters, whereas the Klipsch, as I'm sure you know is a horn tweeter and they are quite forward indeed. To add salt to the wound, your space is a hootenanny of cubic feet, likely enough to hear the sonic disparity of the two different voiced drivers.
Alas, you have a gorgeous space and you should undertake the challenge of placement and brands as that, a challenge, and not a burden.
If you ever pine for a Boston loft, I'd be happy to house trade for a few months!
Perhaps I was not clear, but I already own and have used in a DD 5.1 configuration for the last 5+ years the Polk SDA 2 front towers, the in-wall Polk AB-805 rear speakers, Infinity CC-3 center channel, and a Polk powered sub (PSW250).
I am now upgrading (well at least in technology if not sound) from a Pioneer Elite VSX-07TX THX receiver (only DD 5.1, 5 years old) to the Kenwood VR-6070. I couldn't pass on the $70 or less upgrade (selling old receiver on Ebay right now) where I could add DD EX and DTS ES plus have THX (ok, only select) and the other stuff.
I am very much $ constrained right now (high tech telecom disaster affected individual -- hate the "victim" phrase so I won't use it), as such I'm reusing all my existing speakers for now.
That having said, I would like to "try" 6.1 to see if I like it vs 5.1. I have two unused Klipsch ProMedia speakers. I hooked them up to the B side of the existing Pioneer for a 20 minute test and I was actually pretty amazed at how well they worked when used with my sub playing DVDs. Sure, my other Polk speakers are better, but the 2.1 sound stage was good enough to say I want to use the Klipsch speakers as my "side surround" speakers for my 6.1 test.
The real problem is there is no real good permanent mounting position for side speakers. My wife hates the idea of more speakers, even though I will put them up and take them down, but is being nice in appeasing me while I try this out.
I could have typed a million words trying to explain "where do put the speakers when there's no place to put them", thus the pictures.
If I like the 6.1 sound field, I will definately get different speakers for the side surrounds down the road. And who knows, if I ever get rid of the front towers with something smaller, I may well win extra points with the wife that she will complain less about the "extra" side speakers.
And I'll keep the Boston loft trade in mind lol (though did I mention that I live in the beautiful San Diego area -- it's tough you know, only 75 degrees and sunny today).
Ya, sorry for the space-head, I just saw the beginning of your site again and saw all the inventory that you alrady own!
With all that gear, hell, give it a whirl. Basically, that's EXACTLY what I did when I got my HK AVR525 7.1 receiver. I dragged out the old Boston satellites and put them as the SB L/R speakers. I dragged them out for movies, and then tucked them under the couch when not in use. At the end of the day I thought it was a pain in the a$$ for an effect that was more like the old pro-log matrixing...just not enough titles out yet with 6.1 encoded dicretely.
AS for the constrained thing...I now, tech hit us all, either in the workplace or the stock portfolio.
San Diego?...please have a fish taco for me and go rollerblading. Here in Boston it's nasty out and we're all couped up weathering this snow/rain thing today. And the temps just jumped about single digits for the first time in weeks!
Ya, sorry for the space-head, I just saw the beginning of your site again and saw all the inventory that you alrady own!
With all that gear, hell, give it a whirl. Basically, that's EXACTLY what I did when I got my HK AVR525 7.1 receiver. I dragged out the old Boston satellites and put them as the SB L/R speakers. I dragged them out for movies, and then tucked them under the couch when not in use. At the end of the day I thought it was a pain in the a$$ for an effect that was more like the old pro-log matrixing...just not enough titles out yet with 6.1 encoded dicretely.
AS for the constrained thing...I now, tech hit us all, either in the workplace or the stock portfolio.
San Diego?...please have a fish taco for me and go rollerblading. Here in Boston it's nasty out and we're all couped up weathering this snow/rain thing today. And the temps just jumped above single digits for the first time in weeks!
Sorry for the double-post and the typoes...just not myself today!
-h1p
Jeffrey
Posted on
h1pst3r, the 6070 has a surround back remix, so the back channels is created from the sl and sr channels, it works pretty good on 5.1 sources. I actually have 7 channels running since I have a 7 channel AMP and the 6070 has 7.1 outputs. My system is maxed out with 200Wts per channel.
Charlie, I live in San Diego as well, matter of fact, I just had a fish burrito from Fins. Today was a nice day :-).
Right, I think what you are saying with "it creates the back channels" is that those signals are "matrixed" or derived from other channels and not discrete channel feeds.
I also have true 7.1 speaker outputs on my HK AVR525 but found the lack of true encoded 7.1 soundtracks to be a drag since the backs were always matrixed a la Pro Logic. It just sounds like ambient noise to me. I also tried DTS discrete 6.1 sound tracks and think compared to a well set-up and aimed 5.1 system it really didn't offer a much more engrossing soundfield.
Oh, and one more word about 75 degree sunny days and fish tacos and my house in Boston is on the market and I'm selling my Tom Brady jersey for a Ladanian Tomlinson jersey!