mxy brings up good points.

Incognito...what cables are you using? for speakers? I had Acoustic research master series and they always sounded bright and harsh. The best investment I ever made for my theatre was Bettercables premium II speaker cable.

The sound is nowhere near as bright, and the bass definitely tightened up a bit

I use all Outlaw cables, wether it be for analog or digital. Toslink connections sounded way to bright in my setup, digital coax was again, an improvement.

Speaker placement. It is obviously different in everyroom. First off, I need to know what Def Tech models you have. They may not be bi-polar. Some people use the CLR models for mains and they aren't bipolar. If you Have the power towers or the the non power towers, such as the BP30's, 10's, 8', and 6B's, Pull them away from your back wall ASAP.

I know Definitive says 5" will do but I find with any speaker, the further away from the walls the better. Ofcourse you'll lose bass, but I'll take great overall sound then a annoying sound with a lot of bass.

Mine are 34" from the back wall, and 22" away from the side walls. I sit about 9 feet from my speaker and they are very slightly toed in towards my seating position. I have BP30's for mains. I am interested to hear what you have. If you have power towers, start off with the powered subs facing inward.

Try new cables, speaker and source, and try repositioning. The repositioning alone will do wonders to tame the brightness.

Get back to us and tell us what models you have. I have dealt with all models from Def Tech and will do my best to help.

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Play it LoUd!!

On one of these threads an Outlaw stated that most improvements can be made with changes in our rooms. Duh, pretty basic concept! Now I don't know about you, but it is easier said than done in my home. My wife has a lot to say about how the room is set up. So if you're in the same boat, then go ahead and spend your money on all the cables there are, after all they will all be hidden. But I still think you are better off spending your money on things that will change your room's acoustics. I hope this is coming out right, I just had surgery today and am feeling the anesthesia still, (you have no idea how many attempts it has taken me to type this - the brain is willing but the fingers are not cooperating).

Basic concepts are often the ones most taken for granted when searching for the Holy Grail of hardware to buy. I am sure the most dedicated audiophile catches themselves sometimes.
Best wishes on your recovery BTW. Anesthetics tend to 'hang around' awhile.

Spoonman,

Thanks for your reply (and the replies of everyone else). I will post my equipment when I get back home. Today is college football day, so I'm out and about.

I have some older DefTech stuff, but the fronts and surrounds are bi-polar. The BP series sounds correct. I will get you the exact numbers soon. Hopefully this evening. I look forward to hearing what you all have to say and any help that you can provide. I'm not disappointed with my Outlaw equipment at all. I would just like to make sure that I get it tuned optimally.

Thanks again!

DaleB, this is my second surgery in 5 years, I hate what anesthesia does to the brain, of course it is better that experiencing the pain as they are cutting into you and manipulating your organs. But anyways, thank you for your concern. I now have four weeks of recovery so you will start seeing my two cents all over these threads. Now back to the topic at hand. Incognito, now that you have had some time to get use to your new system, try something absurd with it. Like move your speakers ridiculously far apart, aimed at the side walls, different levels. Now listen to this awful set up. Begin to slowly reposition everything and listen to each move as you make it. You just might discover a different speaker location that makes all the difference, in fact you might just discover that it was just repositioning them a few inches from the original spot in any direction that opened them up. But you must start in this absurd position so that your ears detect improvements instead of your eyes. I had a pair of speakers once that I thought were just garbage inspite of all these great reviews. It wasn't until I just became so frustrated that I started moving them into the center of the room, a location that they could not be left in. Guess what? They sounded wonderful! So I had to figure out where I could actually place them and by just moving them in small increments I eventually found a location not far from the original but it made a world of difference. It's free, so give it a try.

Alejate speaks the truth. If room acoustics are the most important factor, and a speakers placement goes hand in hand with a rooms acoustics, and repositioning over and over is FREE, then you will more then likely find the sweet spot

People always say Def tech towers suck for critical music listening. I disagree! They are very picky as far as placement, but once you find "The" spot, it's audio heaven.

I experimented several hundred times it seems. Moving them away from the back wall in 2" increments wasn't fun. I originally had them at 8" from back wall. The rear mounted drivers were interacting in a negative way with the wall. They are now 34" from the back wall and WOW! I also moved them from 12" away from side walls to about 22".

I have them slightly tilted upwards, about 3/4 of an inch. And slightly toed in. These measurements more then likely will not work in your room, but it's a decent guideline to start off with.

Most people don't understand the theory of speaker placement, let alone have the energy to experiment with positions and acoustics.

Not only will you have found a better spot for your speakers, but you will have learned a valuable audio lesson that will stick with you forever

Good luck!

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Play it LoUd!!

Hey Spoon and fellow Outlawers....

Thanks again for all of the advice. I will certainly give the speaker placement a try. My room isn't very accoustic...so I know that is part of the problem. Here are the speakers I am using:

DefTech - BP6 (Mains), Procenter C2, BP1X (surrounds), and a ProSub 100 (actually need a bigger sub).

I only have a 5.1 system...but I hope that gives you all a better idea of things. I was using a Marantz SR-19 receiver (not the EX version). My equipment (prior to the Outlaw purchase) is about 5 years old, when I bought it...it could be dated more than that...even though they were still in the box when I spent the money.

Thanks again for all of your help! Please feel free to offer up any advice that you might have. I did look into that speaker wire. That is expensive stuff! I think they wanted $200 for 8 feet of it. I am using Outlaw Interconnects to go from the 950 to the 7100. I have Monster Cables running everything else. I am not sure what kind of speaker wire I have..I purchased it at a home theater store (off of a spool) the same time I got my speakers..so it is dated as well. I am using Digital Coax to connect the DVD to the 950 also. I have an toslink cable..but I haven't tried it yet.

Sorry I got so long winded. Thanks guys and gals!!

I set up my friends BP6's a few months ago. In his room that is 14 ft. wide and 18 feet deep, his speakers are about 16" from back wall, and about 4 feet from the side walls, putting about 5 to 6 feet between the towers themselves.

Just experiment and sooner or later you'll come across an area where your sound improves. Make sure they have the feet installed and tilted upwards atleast .5", A full Inch might be even better. Try toeing them in a bit but not too much.

Let your ears be the judge! Have fun

I wish I could help more. But trial and error is the best way to handle this situation.

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Play it LoUd!!