Scott, sorry I left off calibration on my ‘tweaks’ but for the reason you listed, somehow I assumed you had.
It was the single most ‘effective’ adjustment I made in early days. You mentioned your center, switching to the new set of Vienna’s I just purchased. I bumped the center in calibration 1/2/3 clicks (sorry dB). after bringing all speakers level and I may have pulled the fronts back one. I have different impedance going on between my center and Fronts. (I’ll have to go learn more about impedance; it’s strange that the Maestro center I purchased is at 6 Ohms and the Beethoven at 4 Ohms, yet the Maestro center is listed as the match for the Beethoven’s http://www.sumikoaudio.net/Vienna.htm I guess this is where you deal with amplification. But I don’t feel the Outlaw amp is stressed pushing these speakers, the center adjustments are probably/possibly more the fact I have Floorstanders in a small room and the center has to be brought up to keep up. But even with the Def Tech’s I bumped off level (slightly) for the best blend around this room.

I meant that it would do what it says it will do, and meet it's specifications.

So far testing is going good. I have found that the "flatness" was done away with by increasing the treble to +2. I am not a fan of using bass and treble to change the sound (I left both at 0 on my Yamaha) but in this case, it did bring back the brightness I was looking for. Unfortunately it is across the board on all sources not source independent, even though the selection is available when configuring the input. Seems like it should have been independent of source. Anyway, sounds better. One question, I now have my back surrounds running but they are at a distance of 15 feet compared to my side surrounds at 9 feet. What should I set my speaker distance for the surrounds, a compromise of 12 or leave them at 9. Again, I am surprised you cannot change the back surrounds distance independent of the side surrounds.

By giving this a chance I am liking what I am hearing more and more.......if it wasn't for that hiss. My 4 year old son even told me my speakers were hissing. I would say that was an unbiased ear!

Scott

Ears like familiar sounds better than new sounds. You're probably getting used to the sound. It has a nice sound I think, except for the hiss.

[This message has been edited by Will (edited November 11, 2002).]

Ears like familiar sounds better than new sounds. You're probably getting used to the sound!

I think there’s only a very small amount of 'that' which goes on. I've fooled my minds ear a few times building something up in my head (too far) and when I go back to an actual source realizing I over/under emphasized. But if ‘getting use to the sound of a product’ had very much more than a negligible impact, I’d be surprised. Otherwise none of us could ever be capable of walking in a speaker demo room to upgrade our speakers to something that sounds vastly superior to the old speakers we are used to.

I do think with a pre-pro or receivers (with their varied array of functions and settings) that it takes time in each persons setup to overcome individual battles with room acoustics and the interactions of their different chain of components, - to get it where they like it. In other words, - optimization.

Still wondering how everyone has their rear surround speaker distance set when using a 7.1 arrangement?

It is not separately adjustable on the 950. Actually, it is not an important thing to worry about, compared to the fronts vs. the center.

Scott,
I just cut the middle between the distance measurments, say it was 8 & 11. Try 9 and 10. Move it back and forth by 1 foot till it sounds right. Works well for me.

I split the difference between them, probably a little closer to the surrounds than the surround back.

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gonk -- Saloon Links | Pre/Pro Comparison Chart | 950 Review

Thanks for the input everyone. I will split between 9 and 15, probably 11 or 12.

Thanks!