Definitive Technology Mythos Series Thread - Page 108

2. Maybe true (I havent tried). Audyssey makes the setting, no matter what you setup before. After Audyssey is done you can make changes. LFE+Main does send to both if the mains are large, and only subs if mains are set to small.

Brad

I'm preparing to buy a 7.1 setup setup of the new bipolar series, I'm just a little uncertain about what to choose for the mains. I would certainly prefer the 8080 mainly due to the bigger midrange drivers and the possibility of being able to go sans sub. I'm just not so sure these can put out enough clean low bass to make me happy. Does anyone have a -3dB measurement of the 8080 bass response? I just wish I had the option to get the towers without the subs then I could add a svs pc-ultra. Can't afford both! How much midrange do you think I would be sacrificing going with smaller towers so that I can get a badass sub? Someone help figure out how to spend my money!

Sorry wrong thread!

Check your pm
spike1073

I am looking for a quality pair of Mythos ST speakers. I have a virtually brand new Panasonic AE4000U (89 hours) I am willing to trade for it. I will also throw in a bit of cash.

PM me if you're interested.

Josh

HI, I need a help upgrading my mythos 5 mains.
currently have a vsx-01 powering M5 for main, a procenter 1000 and 2 promonitor 1000s for rear. And for sub, I have svs pc 12plus.
the center and rears seem to be fine for now with bigger driver, but the M5's 3.5 driver seems to be on a little light side.
I was about to replace the mains with M1s, but considering my 20 by 20 living room with 16 ceiling, a single pc12 plus needs some help down low as well, so I am willing to stretch my budget to a couple of STSs.
Would STS's 4.5" midrange driver sound noticeably inferior to M1's 5.25" in mid range? If not, would STS's full bandwidth blends well with pc12plus?
I would appriciate any advice, thanks.

What would be an acceptable center channel speaker for the Mythos ST towers other than the Mythos Ten? The room is medium size at 12'x20'.

Mythos nine? Mythos eight?


Thanks,

Josh

Josh

The center speaker is one of the most important speaker in your system for movies and multi-5.1 music. The Ten is the best match for the ST's. I think you might be disappointed with the 8 or 9 as a center.

Maybe someone here can comment who as tried the 8 or 9 with the ST's.

Brad

where do you have your subwoofer? is it set up?

I've been looking at getting either the STs or STSs for a while now. After a couple comparisons in store I think I'll have to go with the STs because the bass on the STSs was lacking. It's hard to tell what it will sound like in my house since the Ultimate Electronics store had an open space that doesn't give a good feel for performance in a smaller space. I'm still wondering if the STs would be lacking in base for HT applications. Any input?

I've also been looking for a good deal on these but haven't found much besides MSRP. Are there any reputable dealers that have sales on these?

PS: My room is 20'x22' with 9' ceilings and is open to other areas.

I have a pair of Definitive Technology Mythos ST for sale on ebay but i don't think i am going to sell it anytime soon. These speakers are amazing when i run it via Yamaha RX-Z7 receiver.

I have the 9 with the STS's. Very disappointed in the center channel; too muddy. Thinking of replacing it.

I can offer opinions on a few of your questions. I have the STS's and dual PB13-Ultra's. They blend very well together if you take a little time and effort to integrate the volumes, phase, crossover, etc.

Also, the midrange in the STS's, at least IMHO, was better than the M1's when I compared them against each other in a retail environment.

A very valid concern. That is a good sized room. Because of the room size, no question, I would go with the ST over the STS for your application IF your budget permits. Some variables are room shape, if you corner load your speakers, etc. I have the ST's in a similarly sized room (25 x 18 with 9' ceilings) and find they are fine for music but, in my opinion, they also need a separate sub for home theater applications to get that nice bottom end- especially for a large room. I personally have 2 supercube references with my setup so I am very happy with the result. Bottom line, you may want to try the ST's alone and take a listen. You won't find many speakers that can do more for the money. If you are not satisfied, save your cash and buy a good quality sub ( or 2 or 3 or 4) that will blend nicely with your ST's.

By the way- most dealers will discount them 15-25%. It never hurts to ask!

Also, you may want to check out the new Golden Ear line - the new Sandy Gross (founder of DT) speaker line. Just google them. They look like they may be comparable to the ST/STS. I would love to hear a side/side comparison! It appears their mid-rangers may be a tad small, but with a nice ribbon tweeter and a slightly different (maybe better) built in sub.

good to hear STS doesn't lack any mid range compared to M1.
what crossover setting do you use for STS? I am assuming it is ideal to set crossover to around 40 for STS and let sub handle below, but my reciever only allows one crossover setting for all speakers. I understand STS could be set to large, but is there any distortion in lower frequencies if I do so? Thanks.

My AVR allows for different XO's for the various speaker locations (mains/center/surround, etc) and different settings for 2 ch and multichannel playback. That said for multichannel (BD/DVD, etc) I have the STS's crossed over at 40 hz. For music I run them large but have bass set to Mains+Sub with the sub's coming in at 80 hz and down. I can overdrive the STS's is they are set to large on bass heavy movies with deep bass content but on the music I listen to I haven't heard any problems. Hence the settings.

Okay, so Def Tech says "8 ohm compatible" for the 9s and "4-8 ohm compatible" for the GemXLs. I haven't seen impedance curves in any reviews. So when it comes time to hooking these speakers up to my AVR (Denon AVR4311CI), I have to choose a nominal setting for the lowest impedance speaker: "4 ohm" or "6 ohm" or "8 ohm".

I guess I'll set it to 4 ohm? I think this will lower the rail voltage in the amp (for safety, I guess, for lower impedance loads). I bet I won't be able to hear much difference either way and Audyssey XT32 will take care of level balancing. So not to make too much of this setting... but does anyone have a thought or experience to share with the actual nominal impedance of these speakers? Thanks!

I would just leave everything on 8 ohm and not think too much of it.

Anyone get the 8060HD center speaker yet? Two different DefTech reps advised to get the 8060 over the Mythos 9 as a center channel for my 2 front STS speakers. Specs look about the same (to me anyway) but the 8060 is $100 cheaper then the 9? Am I missing something?

Make sure you listen with your ears and compare the two for yourself. You are the one that needs to be satisfied.

I am using an eight for the center (moved up from a three) and was somewhat disappointed until today. What you drive the center channel speaker with makes a world of difference. I was driving my eight with a Parasound HCA-806 with 2 of the channels bridged to output 180 RMS. I just moved the center from the Parasound Amp to a Carver M 1.0t mkII ( http://carvermk2.com/m10tmkII/m10tmkII.htm ) and bridged it. What a difference!!! You may find the same results by matching whatever center you decide on with the power output of your amp or receiver. It is always better to over power then to under power your speakers. The extra headroom will make your speakers sing. They will let you know when you are reaching their limit. On the other hand with under powering them you may not hear the distortion the speakers experience when the amp runs out of headroom until it is too late and end up with a blown speaker. Normal listening it doesn't matter, but we all get a little crazy and wild and crank the systems up just to see what they can do. That's when you get into the danger zone.

I currently have Mythos One's up front, Mythos 8 Center, and Gems for side and rear surrounds, with a Supercube Reference. Getting ready to replace the One's with STS Towers.

Thanks Maddmaster. I was just curious about the $100 price difference. All things being equal, and the 8060 having a built in sub, one would think the 8060 as being higher in price.

Check out the 4311 thread - there was a big discussion on this topic. My takeaway was to leave everything at 8 ohm unless you specifically have speakers that are otherwise. I have a new 4311 myself (so awesome - love it so far) and left everything set to 8. A word on xt32...I definitely agree that it is better than the audyssey of before but I DEFINITELY advise dialing everything in with a SPL meter. My deftechs really opened up once i adjusted everything with an spl after audyssey. I'm not saying it's bad, but I just felt something was missing after audyssey. It really balanced my subs well, but it all needed some minor level tweaking after that really helped. I went from satisfied to giddy happy. If you don't have an spl meter you can pick one up from radio shack for $50 or so. Very worth it as it really helps make our speakers shine.

If anyone is interested, heres the response I received from a DefTech rep.

"Thanks for your recent email to Definitive Technology. The CS8060HD is a better sounding center speaker than the Mythos Nine. The Mythos Nine costs more than the CS8060HD due to its aluminum cabinet. The aluminum cabinet used in the Mythos Nine is quite expensive to manufacture. If the aluminum cabinet and thin design of the Mythos Nine isn't needed, the CS8060HD is a better value."

Haven't been here in a while but see more posts about people disappointed in the Nine... good to know that I'm not alone. This almost sounds like Definitive almost considers it an overpriced lemon...

I'll have to check out the 8060 to see how it would look in my room...

I have a whole system LCR built around Nines and it sounds fantastic. No mud here. I'm using a Pioneer SC-25 to drive it. Using Gem XL's for surround and two SCII's to balance the sound. Overall it's a very satisfying setup.

I am doing a lot of reading here as I want to make the right decisions when I do finally upgrade my speakers. I like the Mythos line--and I also see the logic of the 8060 being a better value. But wouldn't that primarily be the case if your other DT speakers were in the powered-speaker line? For a system built around other speakers from the Mythos line, wouldn't a Mythos center be the best option?

Yeah, that's what I thought, too. I thought you could mix and match within the Mythos series but to use a CLR Speaker from the BP series?!?

I know some people have done BP/BPX for the rears...

It would be interesting to have that bigger sub in a center channel.

I have the ST's in front with a mythos 10 center and bpx's for the surrounds. They blend very, very well. IMHO I would use the same driver/tweeter combination across the front as that is where most panning back and forth occurs in movies and you want that to be seamless. Mixing the bp line in back is not as noticeable and sounds great.

If you have the opportunity, I would do a center channel side by side comparison with mythos L/R speakers to see how they blend TO YOUR EARS. Another consideration, even though the new BP line does use BDSS drivers, they are different than the mythos line bdss drivers. I can't say that I have heard the new BP line, but I have seen the towers and was not impressed with their build quality when compared to the last generation. I did think the center was nice though.

In the end, do what sounds best to your ears. The new BP center may offer the built-in sub, but when the mythos center is crossed properly with a good quality sub/subs, it is quite satisfying.

Now if we are talking about value, I would go out and grab some bp 7000's or 7002's with a clr 3000. Now that's a good value. I think the new bp line are mythos want-a-be's. (don't mean to offend anyone out there).

Yosh, I think you hit it right on. If you look at the Mythos line and the old Tower line generation, the new 80XX's series is a slight combination of the two lines. For me they missed the mark with the new line. It's going to be tough because I like the sound quality but I am changing my Mythos One's out for the STS towers in the next few weeks. I was going to by a 2nd supercube but will go the STS route instead.

Thanks Maddmaster. Yeah, I was checking out the new bp towers at a BB the other day and can you say "Holy tip over batman!" Even with the little plastic feet they felt quite tipsy. I think a nice base is in order.
You will love the STS towers! Are the one's moving to surround duty?

Alma 321 - another consideration.... If you are concerned about the 9 (which is a fine speaker), please try out the ten which has the same bdss drivers as the mythos st/sts line. The slightly larger 5 1/4 drivers may sound a tad more open to you. Again, this keeps the same generation drivers and tweeters the same across the front.

Upgrading is so much fun. I recently upgraded myself. I had the ST L/R, Ten center, mythos 4 surrounds, and a SC reference. We just moved and my room is now much bigger (about 25' by 18') so I decided to get BPX's for the surrounds and moved the mythos 4's to the back. I also added a second SC Reference. I now have a sub flanking each sidewall - they were very easy to blend using a spl meter. Then, after I spend all that cash, my Integra receiver decided that the surround left channel would crap out. I sent it in (barely under warranty still) to Integra and they couldn't find the problem. Sooooo, I sprung for the new Denon 4311ci. I run the ST's full range and use the subs for LFE (actually have it set to lfe+main for movies). I am crossing the 10 and bpx's at 80 and the fours at around 120.

The end result of having 2 SC References, adding the BPX's and the new 4311 - PURE BLISS