2. home-theater
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Recommendations for improving visceral impact?

Hi!  I recently upgraded the majority of components in my system, and am happy with how it's going. I'm very happy with the detail, musicality, and separation of instruments. However, I think it's still lacking in visceral impact and also (particularly in two-channel listening) spatial imaging (both left/right and depth).

Our primary use is home theater - so improving impact is more important to me than improving imaging. 

Here's my setup - would love any recommendations for ways to improve... 

  • Left & Right: B&W 803S
  • Center: B&W Nautilus HTM1
  • Rears: B&W 301
  • Sub: Monoprice 10" Monolith
  • Preamp: Marantz AV8802A (with upgraded fuse)
  • Amp: Rotel RMB-1585
  • Amp/Preamp Interconnects: Bluejeans RCA

The room is approximately 18' deep by 20' wide. I've added GIK acoustic panels around the room, as much as possible based on room layout and aesthetics. 

Unfortunately the couch is against the wall, which I'm guessing isn't helping... but there's no other option for placement. I've also tinkered with speaker placement as much as possible; the B&W's like to be quite far apart, and I'm maxed out on width at this point.

I'm using the Audyssey room correction -- it's necessary since the front left speaker is a few inches from the left side wall and a corner, and is incredibly boomy without it.

I'd prefer not to change out any components at this point, so my thinking is that the interconnects between the Marantz and the Rotel, and perhaps from changing power cords and/or adding a power conditioner, could be the way to improve here.

Thoughts or suggestions? Thanks!  

awilder
awilder OP
41 posts
 
Well that's quite interesting, @mzkmxcv!

It looks like the Audyssey app doesn't work with the AV8802A though. :(

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/audyssey-multeq-editor-app/id1210584625?mt=8

(Anyone know otherwise?)

mzkmxcv
777 posts
 
@awilder

Yours has the older version, which has Audyssey Pro; which was basically a more advanced version of the $20 app, but costs $200 for the Pro kit :( and I don’t even know if you can still buy it.

My Denon also is too old for Audyssey’s app, but I have a measurement mic so I manually adjusted the built-in 8 or 10 band EQ for each speaker instead, as I disliked that dip.
awilder OP
41 posts
 
Maybe I'll just tinker with the EQ manually, too... Looks like I might be able to "curve copy" to use the Audyssey EQ results as a starting point?

I also emailed Marantz to see if they had any suggestions on further apps/adjustments.  Thanks!
awilder OP
41 posts
 
Heard back from Marantz. Nice that they replied quickly, but otherwise no luck.

"Unfortunately, no. The 8802A didn't have the proper hardware to support that App. As far as any other Audyssey Apps for older models, I don't know of any.

"There may be some 3rd party Apps to calibrate for room correction, but it wouldn't work in conjunction with the Audyssey software built into the AV."
mzkmxcv
777 posts
 
Yeah, curve copy, boost 2kHz by 3dB (or to taste), boost 500Hz by like 2dB, boost 250Hz by like 3dB, boost 125Hz by like 4dB, boost 63Hz by like 7dB.
Treble is also a little off, drop 4kHz down by like -3dB, 8kHz is sorta where it should be, 16kHz should be boosted by like 3dB.

Harman’s target curve is for like a young-ish male, older people or people with more music exposure may want slightly different results:
https://youtu.be/ySQV5OR71e4?t=1m43s
Here are their latest findings (to my knowledge) on average preferred levels across different people categories.
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