Ears. The final bottleneck.

RusH

RusH

RusH

Associate
Joined
16 Dec 2008
Posts
5
Hello again :]

In my previous pre-christmas thread, i mentioned i might be getting a set of Messo 2's or Mezzon 6's for Christmas, depending on how much my girlfriend loved me.
In return, i would be buying 'us' an amp to go with them. Specifically the Harmon Kardon AVR255, which was recommended by my dad as he owns a HK himself.

The following is what actually transpired:

Apparently, she only loved me enough to get the Mezzo 2's, not the 6's.
If your reading this Rachel, that is the female equivilent of giving birth to a ginger kid.
Sure it's lovly, and your very greatful... but deep down you know your disappointed, and that makes you feel like a terrible person.

For the record, i am ginger. :cool:

Secondly, i decided not to get Rachel an amp, because it was pretty obvious that that was a present to me, via her. Present laundering one might say.
I ended up getting her a macbook. :/

My dad got me an amp instead - but unfortunatly he'd bought the AVR255 before i could suggest the Yamaha DSP-AX863SE, which was recommended here.

Also, her perents got me a Mezzo 5. :]

So right now, i have a pair of 2's, a 5, and an AVR255.

My problem now is this - asking my dad to return the AVR255 for a DSP-AX863SE, in a way that won't hurt his feelings.

Why would it hurt his feelings?

Well, he owns a Harmon Kardon AVR4xxx and loves it, so when he'd heard about the 255's having great reviews (apparently after a lot of research) getting it was a no-brainer.

However, the HK AVR255 seems to be more suited for doing things to the video as well as the audio, where the DSP-AX863SE seems tuned for audio, and can process video to a respectable level.

Thing is, i don't really care about video - it's the audio i'm interested in :(

So, back to the question of asking him to swap it over without hurting his feelings:

I am not a hi-fi guru, and truth is, if i heard two systems one after another i probibly couldn't tell you which was better.
I could tell you which was louder.. which looked nicer.. which had a bass-y-er sub... but not what was clinically 'better'.

And i need to produce hard facts why, for me, the Yamaha is better. That's the only way i can do this without making him feel bad.

Looking at the technical specifications of each, it's a bit like looking at a magic eye puzzle.
I just stare.. and stare... and wait for something to pop out.
And just when i think i'm making sense of it, i blink and it's just a list of random figures again.

Here is the technical specifications of the Yamaha

And here is the technical specifications of the Harmon Kardon

So, erm, if you guys don't mind, does anyone know how one becomes an audiophile?

Here are a few questions which are bugging me at present:

  1. Biwiring. Is it worth it?

  2. The Yamaha has more power per channel than the HK (105W vs 85W if i've read the specs correctly)
    I'm not a big fan of loud music, but does power do anything to the quality of the music?

  3. My speakers are apparently rated at 100W.
    The Yamaha is 105W.
    Will that destroy my speakers?

  4. I only have a left and right speaker, and a center speaker. Is this stupid? If so, what should i do?
    I am upgrading from a set of Cambridge Soundworks speakers/amp which i bought like.. 7 years ago. They look a lot like this but i'm not sure if it is this exact model:

    Link

    Could i continue to use the rear left/right and sub with my mezzos and new amp?
    You guys probibly concider it an unholy act of defiance, but truth is it'll be a few months before i have enough cash to get more mezzo's, and i don't really want to pay £100 for different speakers if they're only temporary and look as out of place as the existing Cambridge ones do.

  5. Penultimate question - i hear a lot of people get these amps and the first thing they do is run the auto setup.
    9/10 people seem to say after they did this, they found it horrible, and only after tweaking each speaker individually did they find the right sound.
    I have no idea how i'm going to know if it's bad or not - what should i look for? What the hell is brightness? How did you learn what good noise is, and what bad noise is? :confused:

  6. Final question - How can i make a donation to this site, because i've found myself coming back here time and time again for advice, and it's always sound. No pun intended.
I'm serious, thank you guys. Really appreciate it :]

~ John
 
I ******* love your posts mate, always make me chuckle.

I've seen people with just the front 3 speakers, that's not a problem at all. Sure its not the same as having rears and a sub as well, but it does create a wider soundstage for you. And being that your facing forwards when watching, not backwards, the fronts are the most important part of the system.

I'd let the auto setup device go do its thing first of all then tweak it like you said. I let mine set itself up and it got the volumes and things pretty close but had set the bass too high on my crappy rear speakers so they were all muffled and distorted, that needed sorting. The rears were also a little quiet for me in the fact that i couldn't hear them at all. So i turned the volume slightly up for both of them. Adjusted the overall sound going to the sub and it was pretty much spot on.

I'd say just set them up so the speakers sound nice to you. Some people like them bassy, others not.... just sit down and fiddle with all the settings till you have them how you think they sound nice. All settings can be altered or reset so don't be worried about messing them up.
 
RusH said:
[*]Final question - How can i make a donation to this site, because i've found myself coming back here time and time again for advice, and it's always sound. No pun intended.
[/LIST]
I'm serious, thank you guys. Really appreciate it :]

~ John
Click to expand...

Buy something from the OcUK website :)
 
RusH said:
  1. Biwiring. Is it worth it?

  2. The Yamaha has more power per channel than the HK (105W vs 85W if i've read the specs correctly)
    I'm not a big fan of loud music, but does power do anything to the quality of the music?

  3. My speakers are apparently rated at 100W.
    The Yamaha is 105W.
    Will that destroy my speakers?

  4. I only have a left and right speaker, and a center speaker. Is this stupid? If so, what should i do?
    I am upgrading from a set of Cambridge Soundworks speakers/amp which i bought like.. 7 years ago. They look a lot like this but i'm not sure if it is this exact model:

    Link

    Could i continue to use the rear left/right and sub with my mezzos and new amp?
    You guys probibly concider it an unholy act of defiance, but truth is it'll be a few months before i have enough cash to get more mezzo's, and i don't really want to pay £100 for different speakers if they're only temporary and look as out of place as the existing Cambridge ones do.

  5. Penultimate question - i hear a lot of people get these amps and the first thing they do is run the auto setup.
    9/10 people seem to say after they did this, they found it horrible, and only after tweaking each speaker individually did they find the right sound.
    I have no idea how i'm going to know if it's bad or not - what should i look for? What the hell is brightness? How did you learn what good noise is, and what bad noise is? :confused:

  6. Final question - How can i make a donation to this site, because i've found myself coming back here time and time again for advice, and it's always sound. No pun intended.
I'm serious, thank you guys. Really appreciate it :]

~ John
Click to expand...

Entertaining post :)

I'll add my 2p...

1. Power output - For home cinema it can be quite important and it usually makes a biggest impact on dynamics. The problem is even with modern day power ratings it's still not consistent. An 85w amp may well be just as good as a 105w amp in terms of power, it's difficult to say without looking at some tested figures. I believe Home Cinema Choice used to produce such results but i don't know if they've tested these amps. As for the actual sound - well personally i'm not a big believer in amps making a big difference (there are various posts about this in other threads and i don't want this to turn into out and out war again!) but I'd be quite surprised if the difference in sound was that profound if they are both decent enough.

2. Nope, you'll be fine.

3. I really wouldn't bother, i'd just save up and upgrade later when you can afford a matching pair of rears and a decent sub

4. I'm not sure how good auto-setup is on these amps but i believe it varys from each manufacturer. The setup on my Onkyo 875 was incredibly good - I have pretty poor room acoustics so it made quite a profound difference and switching between the two it sounded like i was listening in a completely different room (it was Audessey though). When i set up a Yamaha 1800 recently i didn't use the autosetup and went manual because i wasn't happy with the results i got. I'd say the main factor is whether it is using a parametric EQ - if not, you can just measure the speakers for the delay timings and use a decibel meter. If it is, check whether you can switch the EQ on/off and listen to some music switching between the two (try doing it blind if possible) and that should be a reasonable enough test! at the end of the day, go with what you prefer!

5. Buy some more bits for your PC i guess! :)
 
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