Sound System Recommendations for the X

scrubsr1 said:
The kef Q200c is the matching center speaker but it's unnecessary. Use a SINGLE q100 for your center... one nice perk with these bookshelves is that they use a concentric driver which allows you to lay the speaker on its side(if needed) without negatively impacting the sound. Bottom line, using the same speaker for your mains is the ideal configuration/soundstage.

Keep in mind that if you're going with an atmos setup in the 5.1.4 configuration you'll need to to bump your receiver up to the x4300 which isn't cheap.
https://www.accessories4less.com/ma...5-watts-networking-a/v-receiver-w/heos/1.html

At the same time you're gaining Audyssey MultEQ XT32, the finest room and speaker calibration software available at any price point.
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So you need a 9.2 receiver for Atmos ceiling speakers? I was under the impression that any Atmos receiver would be capable of handling ceiling speakers.

Also when I play PUBG I unplug from the 65” Oled and use a monitor and headset. Would a receiver allow me to output to both a monitor and TV or will I still have to unplug my Xbox and plug directly to the monitor like I do now?
 
I don't mean to highjack the thread but a couple quick questions and didn't want to make a new thread.

I just upgraded my old Vizio Sound bar to a Onkyo Receiver, 2 Polk Tower Speakers and a Polk Center Speaker, I might ad 2 surround speakers down the road but honestly this set up sounds pretty good. I already had an older Sony Subwoofer which in my opinion sounds good.

I have this connected with an optical cable, it sounds good with movies but Xbox Games and TV sound just ok, I guess shooting games sound good but I was not impressed with Madden. Anything I am doing wrong or any settings I can look into changing or is this normal? I have a Samsung curved TV and I went in the sound settings and didn't see anything I could change there. I have the receiver on Dolby Digital other then when listening to music I go stereo which sounds great. Xbox I changed to Bitstream?

I do have the HDMI audio for my TV but its HDMI#4 and I have a game system hooked up there plus when I tried it to see if I would hear a difference there was no sound? I guess I am confused with how that works, what am I doing wrong and should I look into this or is the Optical Cable fine?

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/onkyo-...heater-receiver-black/5754933.p?skuId=5754933
 
Blandina said:
There's even more problems with Coaxial speakers, like KEF, Problem is the tweeter is not moving but the waveguide that loads it is moving, causing the shape of the waveguide to be modulated all the time. This cause some amplitude modulation distortion.

( google 'problems with coaxial speakers' this discussion goes many years back, there's lots of test been done proving the probs, and still there's ppl loving coax speakers.. Same with traditionelle speaker designs, they aren't perfect either.
All speakers have some issues. The question comes down to which compromises are acceptable to you as the listener.

KEF and all other manufactors are oc praising their speakers, that doesn't matter, let your own ears be the judge.
Don't be afraid of buying old second hand speakers, a lot of 20+ years speakers are still extremely good sounding, eg Dynaudio, Jamo, Bang and Olufsen (B&O), Dali, Scan Speak etc etc.
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I was simply addressing the orientation of the speaker and it's affect on the sound field, not the quality of your speaker or any other speakers.

OneBadMutha said:
So you need a 9.2 receiver for Atmos ceiling speakers? I was under the impression that any Atmos receiver would be capable of handling ceiling speakers.
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It's the number of atmos speakers you intend to use. You mentioned purchasing FOUR svs speakers ceiling speakers so I wanted to give you a heads up... the x2300w only supports TWO atmos channels. Keep in mind I'm just throwing out suggestions, you don't have to go with Denon or any of the other brands I've mentioned.

Also when I play PUBG I unplug from the 65” Oled and use a monitor and headset. Would a receiver allow me to output to both a monitor and TV or will I still have to unplug my Xbox and plug directly to the monitor like I do now?
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Both Denon receivers I linked have dual hdmi outputs so you should be good to go, nothing to unplug! Where is the monitor located in relation to your tv?


CHROMExSKULL said:
I don't mean to highjack the thread but a couple quick questions and didn't want to make a new thread.

I just upgraded my old Vizio Sound bar to a Onkyo Receiver, 2 Polk Tower Speakers and a Polk Center Speaker, I might ad 2 surround speakers down the road but honestly this set up sounds pretty good. I already had an older Sony Subwoofer which in my opinion sounds good.

I have this connected with an optical cable, it sounds good with movies but Xbox Games and TV sound just ok, I guess shooting games sound good but I was not impressed with Madden. Anything I am doing wrong or any settings I can look into changing or is this normal? I have a Samsung curved TV and I went in the sound settings and didn't see anything I could change there. I have the receiver on Dolby Digital other then when listening to music I go stereo which sounds great. Xbox I changed to Bitstream?

I do have the HDMI audio for my TV but its HDMI#4 and I have a game system hooked up there plus when I tried it to see if I would hear a difference there was no sound? I guess I am confused with how that works, what am I doing wrong and should I look into this or is the Optical Cable fine?

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/onkyo-...heater-receiver-black/5754933.p?skuId=5754933
Click to expand...

I'm struggling to follow, why are you using an optical cable? All of your sources(consoles, cable box, etc) should be connected to the Onkyo's hdmi inputs with a single hdmi output to your television.
 
scrubsr1 said:
It's the number of atmos speakers you intend to use. You mentioned purchasing FOUR svs speakers ceiling speakers so I wanted to give you a heads up... the x2300w only supports TWO atmos channels. Keep in mind I'm just throwing out suggestions, you don't have to go with Denon or any of the other brands I've mentioned.



Both Denon receivers I linked have dual hdmi outputs so you should be good to go, nothing to unplug! Where is the monitor located in relation to your tv?
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Thanks for the info. I just assumed that Atmos meant it had 4 Atmos outputs. So now I know to look out for that.

My monitor isn’t in my living room full time for asthetic purposes. When I want to play Halo or PUBG, I wheel in my mobile workstation and set it to the side of the entertainment center. Biggest pain is unplugging the HDMI from the Xbox and plugging in the one I bring for the monitor because of how snug it is in the entertainment cubby. Hard to explain but would be nice to have a loose hdmi that’s ready to be plugged into the monitor.

That or I need to buy another X and keep it in a different room with the monitor.
 
Just ordered another pair of the SVS Elevation speakers to replace the Klipsch atmos modules, can’t wait, going to ceiling mount these in front of the main listening position.
 
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Could use a nice sound system myself i suppose but just recently bought a decent headset. I always used the stock headset that came with the console, 360 and X1. Big difference when you can actually hear what's going on around you.
 
I'm struggling to follow, why are you using an optical cable? All of your sources(consoles, cable box, etc) should be connected to the Onkyo's hdmi inputs with a single hdmi output to your television.[/QUOTE]

Last night I figured out why the HDMI arc was not working and I got rid of the optical cable, I could be wrong because it sounded good before but I’m thinking it sounds even better now. My receiver is 5.2 so I added a second subwoofer.

I still have everything (cable, Xbox one X, Nintendo Switch) plugged into the tv and then just the HDMI arc running from the receiver to the tv, should I plug everything into the receiver instead or is this fine?

Lastly I changed the tv sound setting to DTS Neo 2.5 however the Xbox won’t let me change to 5.1 uncompressed? Since everything is plugged into the tv and my receiver stays on the tv setting unless I am using Bluetooth then do the settings on the Xbox or anything else even matter? I just want to be sure I am getting the best possible sound since I invested descent money.
 
last night I figured out why the HDMI arc was not working and I got rid of the optical cable, I could be wrong because it sounded good before but I’m thinking it sounds even better now. My receiver is 5.2 so I added a second subwoofer.

I still have everything (cable, Xbox one X, Nintendo Switch) plugged into the tv and then just the HDMI arc running from the receiver to the tv, should I plug everything into the receiver instead or is this fine?

Lastly I changed the tv sound setting to DTS Neo 2.5 however the Xbox won’t let me change to 5.1 uncompressed? Since everything is plugged into the tv and my receiver stays on the tv setting unless I am using Bluetooth then do the settings on the Xbox or anything else even matter? I just want to be sure I am getting the best possible sound since I invested descent money.
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Make sure all your sources have been set to output 5.1 and Bitstream if possible. Disconnect them all from the tv and plug them into your receiver's hdmi inputs. Run a single hdmi output cable to your television. Once that's done, be sure to run the AccuEQ room calibration software using the included mic. It will measure individual speaker distances from your seating area, set speaker levels, and frequency crossover points. Now when playing Xbox for example, the receiver's display should indicate Dolby/dts 5.1(if set to Bitstream) or pcm 5.1(if set to uncompressed). Hope this helps...
 
scrubsr1 said:
Make sure all your sources have been set to output 5.1 and Bitstream if possible. Disconnect them all from the tv and plug them into your receiver's hdmi inputs. Run a single hdmi output cable to your television. Once that's done, be sure to run the AccuEQ room calibration software using the included mic. It will measure individual speaker distances from your seating area, set speaker levels, and frequency crossover points. Now when playing Xbox for example, the receiver's display should indicate Dolby/dts 5.1(if set to Bitstream) or pcm 5.1(if set to uncompressed). Hope this helps...
Click to expand...

Thank you, I changed everything to the receiver this morning and now the Xbox defaulted to 7.1 uncompressed which I was not able to select before so I think that is all set. My receiver is 5.1 so should I change it to that or does it not matter? Also I do have it on Bitstream on the Xbox but that is only showing under the Optical Sound setting?

I changed the Nintendo Switch to Surround, that's the only option I saw for that.

Comcast TV is showing the dolby digital symbol when that is on but I didn't see anything else. I do have the Samsung TV set to DTS Neo 2.5 and I set the Comcast cable box to dolby digital.

*edited....I was not happy at all last night with the sound compared to the way I had it before so I almost switched everything back. I am glad I didn't, after running the microphone calibration set up it still sounded bad, words were way to low from the center speaker and commercials were super loud and there was absolutely ZERO bass coming from my 2 subs. After messing around thank god I found the manual settings for each speaker because the calibration set up turned my subwoofers to -16? Why the hell would it do this? I had to turn them up and tweak the center speaker setting up and now I am happy. Still going to mess around with it I am sure but definitely starting to figure this out. Now time to decide on setting the speakers to LARGE or SMALL, most things I read say Small, with 80hz and let the subs handle most of the bass.
 
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CHROMExSKULL said:
Thank you, I changed everything to the receiver this morning and now the Xbox defaulted to 7.1 uncompressed which I was not able to select before so I think that is all set. My receiver is 5.1 so should I change it to that or does it not matter? Also I do have it on Bitstream on the Xbox but that is only showing under the Optical Sound setting?

I changed the Nintendo Switch to Surround, that's the only option I saw for that.

Comcast TV is showing the dolby digital symbol when that is on but I didn't see anything else. I do have the Samsung TV set to DTS Neo 2.5 and I set the Comcast cable box to dolby digital.

*edited....I was not happy at all last night with the sound compared to the way I had it before so I almost switched everything back. I am glad I didn't, after running the microphone calibration set up it still sounded bad, words were way to low from the center speaker and commercials were super loud and there was absolutely ZERO bass coming from my 2 subs. After messing around thank god I found the manual settings for each speaker because the calibration set up turned my subwoofers to -16? Why the hell would it do this? I had to turn them up and tweak the center speaker setting up and now I am happy. Still going to mess around with it I am sure but definitely starting to figure this out. Now time to decide on setting the speakers to LARGE or SMALL, most things I read say Small, with 80hz and let the subs handle most of the bass.
Click to expand...

Sorry, we're in the process of moving and I haven't been on since you posted. When doing the calibration did you have the mic positioned at your seating location, ear level? To be frank, I've never used that specific calibration software. I've set up plenty of receivers equipped with Audyssey, YPAO, and MCACC.

You must have the gain turned way up on your subs for it to set the level to -16...they should be at the 12:00 position when running calibration. Be sure to set your speakers to small and the crossover at 100.
If it still sounds bad, by all means adjust speaker levels to your liking.

Get rid of that optical cable and disable hdmi ARC, audio settings on your tv are irrelevant. If your only option under hdmi is uncompressed choose that, and set your Xbox to output 5.1 since that's your current speaker configuration.
 
CHROMExSKULL said:
Thank you, I changed everything to the receiver this morning and now the Xbox defaulted to 7.1 uncompressed which I was not able to select before so I think that is all set. My receiver is 5.1 so should I change it to that or does it not matter? Also I do have it on Bitstream on the Xbox but that is only showing under the Optical Sound setting?

I changed the Nintendo Switch to Surround, that's the only option I saw for that.

Comcast TV is showing the dolby digital symbol when that is on but I didn't see anything else. I do have the Samsung TV set to DTS Neo 2.5 and I set the Comcast cable box to dolby digital.

*edited....I was not happy at all last night with the sound compared to the way I had it before so I almost switched everything back. I am glad I didn't, after running the microphone calibration set up it still sounded bad, words were way to low from the center speaker and commercials were super loud and there was absolutely ZERO bass coming from my 2 subs. After messing around thank god I found the manual settings for each speaker because the calibration set up turned my subwoofers to -16? Why the hell would it do this? I had to turn them up and tweak the center speaker setting up and now I am happy. Still going to mess around with it I am sure but definitely starting to figure this out. Now time to decide on setting the speakers to LARGE or SMALL, most things I read say Small, with 80hz and let the subs handle most of the bass.
Click to expand...

Small and 80hz is where I set mine as well. And the same on my Denon, it set my subwoofers too low. You can manually increase your centers volume.
 
Thanks for the help guys, I think I am close to having it how I want it and I’m starting to understand this better. I actually might ditch my old Sony sub tomorrow and add another Polk sub so they match. My Sony sub is smaller, doesn’t sound bad but the Polk is noticeably better. I’m kind of anal and want them to match anyways... at some point I might add 2 back speakers I just don’t want to deal with the wires and not sure I feel like spending extra money on the wireless adapter and not sure if it would effect the sound.... thanks again
 
The pricing to go to true 9 channels, 4 overhead speakers got a little out of hand. Might have to scale it back because I can't justify a 3K system for my little room. Jumping to a 9 channel receiver breaks the bank. For a compromise, I still want real rear speakers but may fake the upwards Atmos stuff or just get one set of ceiling speakers (and therefore cut the cost by 1K since I'll only need 7 channels on the receiver. Maybe will stick with the original 5.1 recommendation unless there's a good compromise for some Atmos effect. Won't go over 2K just out of principal.
 
Rollins said:
http://www.em.avsforum.com/jrssmjnnjbpwkhjzwtjqvwfjpzwtktqmnrknfdnbfmtbj_zmfpmrwlfp.html?a=http://www.avsforum.com/best-ces-2018-audio/


AVS Best of CES 2018 Audio
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Remember this is only avsforum's best of.. There's many other Best of CES 2018 Audio lists out there.. Eg whathifi
https://www.whathifi.com/news/stars-ces-2018-best-audio-products-ces

And plz notice their best of speaker is the re-release of JBL L100 .. A 47 year old speaker model.. It was great then and its great now.
Only 5000 USD
 
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So I’ve learned a few things in my research. There is no best way to go. What appeals to eyes and ears can be quite individual. I’ve found that the settings I prefer on my Oled differ from what Rtings suggests. I’m finding that you have to hear speakers before purchasing and can’t rely on reviews. After some testing, I found that a really good 5.1 is more impactful than a lesser quality full Atmos setup. As cool as Atmos is, it’s secondary to having great clarity and powerful sound.

I heard some Martin Logan motion 4’s that we’re super clear. Paired with the Klipsch base and nice Denon receiver, think I found my system. Blows my budget but oh well.
 
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Decided to stay with 5.1 for now because of room size and because it’s my living room...not movie room/man cave. So who here is good at speaker placement? I’ve looked at all the drawings but don’t think I’m going to be able to do the ideal setup. For rear speakers in my 5.1, I don’t want to put them on stands because the room isn’t that big. My sofa is nearly pinned up against the wall. Would you put the rear speakers high and wide against the back wall pointing down?
 
OneBadMutha said:
My sofa is nearly pinned up against the wall. Would you put the rear speakers high and wide against the back wall pointing down?
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High on the sidewall is better imho... Pointing them a bit down works fine
5870651_f520.jpg
 
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