The Official Salk Sound Owner's And Discussion Thread - Page 249

Mine is the PEQ3. The Quick Guide says "When using LFE IN phase control and crossover control have no function. The trade-off between using LFE IN and LINE IN (with the AVR/12 LPF switch position) is the perceived background noise level." So I guess if you're using LFE you let your AVR handle delay and crossover.
Edited by repete66211 - 6/27/12 at 8:51pm

Hmm, that's interesting. I wonder why he choose to add inputs like that and give up the high pass out. It sounds like the LFE ins do the same thing as the LFE setting on the extension switch.

From the website: PEQ3 amps do not have high pass filter RCA outputs. But it does have dedicated LFE inputs allowing for easy integration of a 2-ch-plus-HT system setup. PEQ amplifiers are available for those who still need high pass RCA outputs. When ordering there's this option: Change to A370PEQ with HPF outputs for those without bass management.

HI. You've gotten good speakers and a decent sub but your upgrade journey has only just begun! You've been given lots of good advice here irt improving your bass. 4500 cu ft calls for quite a bit of subwoofage for reference HT performance, but good musicality can be achieved with far less. Your idea of 2 good matching 12" subs seems reasonable IMO. As has been said, you're pretty much operating in the blind without a measuring system. And without the flexibility of placement of sub(s) speakers and MLP you are really challenged irt optimizing bass. Acoustic treatments might well help but are tricky, and have poor WAF. That leaves electronic EQ. I see you are already exploring processors such as the excellent Denon 4311 with its impressive AudysseyMultEQXT32 and SubEQHT. That would be a very good investment IME. An alternative is the less expensive Onkyo NR 818 w/o SubEQHT.

Here's some of my experience. My room is about 3300cuft, and is a vaulted-ceilinged fam rm with no formal acoustic treatments. The room itself is quite boomy. Bass traps are not practical. I had an old Polk PSW10 and with the luxury of flexible placement I found a decent spot by ear and felt the bass was pretty good, using Audyssey MultEQXT (Denon AVR4310) to equalize it.. But one day I turned off the speakers and just listened to the sub. I'm a bass player and I was simply shocked at how floppy and muffled it was. That set me off on a sub quest. Incidentally I got sidetracked into upgrading the speakers but that's another story.

Anyhow, I stumbled onto a deal on a Velo DD10 (also 10" but sealed, not ported and very powerful and accurate) with its built-in SMS measuring and equalization. I used that SMS to tweak the placement and initial EQ, then Audyssey smoothed the rest as best it could. That tightened up the bass quite a bit. Note it wasn't louder or fuller (in a boom box sense), but punchier and tighter with a full "round" sound. I listen to well-recorded music with distinct kick drum and bass guitar or upright bass to judge this. I then got a second DD10 and found that symmetrical opposite wall placement was quite a bit better than a single sub, improving the bass further. Again, more impactful, smoother, not louder per se. Upgrading the XT-equipped Denon 4310 (XT) to an XT32 equipped A100 (4311) made another significant difference, as XT32 does a much better job not only in the sub channel but with the bass above the xover and below the Schroeder Freq in the satellites. It also seems to leave the "good stuff" in the higher freq alone, far better than XT.

My latest upgrade was and adding Audyssey Pro kit for a more precise calibration/equalization.

Yes, and with an Audyssey-equipped processor as just mentioned above, Autosetup should provide easy-to-do proper bass management. In such a case, one follows the Audyssey setup guide: raise all crossovers to 80 and reset the Salks from Large to Small. You could then opt to use Audyssey Dynamic EQ to restore the bass, especially when listening at lower volumes. I think that might be just the ticket in your case.

Make sure you read the Audyssey FAQ/Guide on this forum. A proper Mic Stand is a good ~20 investment for this purpose. For music I recommend Audyssey-Flat as it doesn't roll off the higher frequencies.

The sub crapped out.
It started crackling a couple of nights ago. I'm corresponding with Jim to try to isolate the problem, but I think the driver failed. Hopefully we can figure it out and I can be up and running again soon. In the mean time I have the supercharged SongTowers running as large and the sub turned off. The silver lining is that they dig about as deep as my old Polk sub so things still sound great.

Bummer, I'm sure Jim will straighten it out for you. Did you also get the SC CC? If so, how are you liking it? I've got a set on order, should be ready soon.

That's not completely true. You can at least buy some artistic GIK panels. http://www.gikacoustics.com/gik_artpanel_acoustic_panels.html

^I have seen those. I say poor WAF because my wife saw them too and was not favorably impressed. I say they're tricky because doing proper treatments is not simple-either you get a Pro to come in or get proper measuring equipment and follow the steep learnin curve.

Well that explains the disappointing performance. Probably wasn't right from the getgo.

It's fantasic. Same woofer & tweeter as the Tower so they present quite a front array. I was straightening my AVR last night when a movie was playing. The center channel sounded so great I just sat in front of the TV for about 10 minutes admiring the sound it produced. I think you'll yours. Did you go with normal or front-ported? I opted for the latter myself. What's your veneer?

My center channel is being made in satin black, it's custom sized to fit on my mantle beneath my Pioneer Elite plasma. The L/R are being made in this spalted beeswing makore. Makore_Spalted_Beeswing_4282-04.jpg 77k .jpg file

Ah yes, I remember seeing you mention the custom center. Those twins are going to be gorgeous. I look forward to the pictures.

Hi Salk fans,

I am in the hunt for good floor stands. If I were in US, I would have bought the SS8 blind folded and relaxed henceforth, but I am in India and importing them would cost me almost twice.
So, I have few choices and I am expecting your advice regarding which floor stand I should choose. I have asked the same question in the Focal and Monitor audio forum and haven't got much feed back, so am expecting good feedbacks from you people.

My preferences are : Focal Electra 1028BE, Monitor Audio Pl200, Salk HT2Tl and KEF 203/2 (out of my budget. Expensive in my country).

I have only heard the Focal 1028 out of the above floorstands, and liked it a lot. The highs and mids were great but the low was not that strong (however that is not my concern, as I will import seaton submersive HP or JTR Captivator to handle the lowend freq.).

At first, I was strongly considering the Salk HT2TLs, but the Indian rupee has fallen considerably (from Rs.44 per $ to now Rs.55 to 58 per $), so importing this would cost me similar price to that of the focal and the monitor audio.

Out of these speakers, which one do you think is the best (though best is always subjective, I still wish to hear your comments).
Is the Raal, Seas excell combo in the HT2Tl that good?
We have Focal, Monitor Audio and KEF dealers in our locality, so buying them would be easy, but with the Salk, I have to handle the Customs hassle. So, which route should I take?

For electronics, I am considering the Emotiva xpa-5 and then upgrade to the xpa2 later or the xpr-5 (the xpr5 scares me with its 400W X 5) for Power amp. For prepro, I have no idea. is the yet to be released emotiva xmc-1 worth it? It's specs are very amazing on paper, however how it is gonna be translated on the realworld performance is anyones guess.

I only prefer the floorstands and not the Bookshes..
Expecting your valuable advice.

I am not sure how much help I can offer, as I have never gotten to hear the Salk HT2TL's, but., I have heard the Songtower's and actually own a pair. I really like the Salk line of speakers for 2 channel (music listening). I feel as so if they are a huge value for the money. For home theater, I prefer other speakers. To me, when it comes to home theater, speakers that measure flat are actually not my preference. How much would it cost you, total, to purchase a pair of the HT2TL's and have them imported?

I am gonna use these speakers for both stereo and ht purpose. I will be purchasing a matching center channel along with the floorstands irrespective of the brand I am gonna purchase.
And for the cost of the HT2TL, my approximate calculation is (4500 for speakers + 1350 to 1575 (import customs duty 30% to 35%) + 1000 or may be less(transportation charge, as these speakers are heavy) + 300 (full baffle or custom veneer (what is the purpose of buying a custom designable speaker in standard finish)) . Total = 4500 + 1400 + 1000 + 300 = $7200, which translates to Indian Rs.400000, which is the cost of the Focal 1028Be and Monitor Audio Pl200 in India.

Whats the deal with not using a mtm center channel i've read about? this i think means mid tweeter mid and the ht2 centers and the song centers are mtm right? I'm at a point where i happy with my 2 channel sound with my ht2-tls doubling for my home theater. I'm waiting for a new denon receiver that has audssey and also hdmi in. I'm stepping out of the ice age and ready to upgrade from dts and dd. i'm naturally looking to match the ht2-tls with ht2-c or possibly save a little money and get a song center. but when researching you do find some info on why its not a good idea. should i just ignore and expect that it'll sound awesome compared to my unmatched kef fill in center? which afaik its also a mtm.

@raylover79 all i can add is i bought my ht2-tls blindly after a week of research. i couldn't be happier. I'd have to say if you can get salks at the same price as the other options you'd be way happier with the salks. and the purpose of buying standard finish, in my opinion, is its timeless and classic. the likelihood of it matching current and future rooms or homes or personal style is a lot more likely with a "standard" finish. good luck with your decision.

my ht2-tl's + submersives* don't suck for "home theater"... my room is not large, the op does not say what his room size is... he also does not post his spl expectations...

@the op... as far as electronics go, you might want to start with a "good" avr... many of us have found the amplification in a "good avr" to be more than adequate...

* along with a ht2c and ht-1 on wall surrounds...

thanks for the link! thats a interesting read. seems like if I only use a center channel a few nights a week and if 95 percent of the time I'm sitting in the prime listening spot, and my gf is only 2 feet away, and 99% of the time we are the only ones in the room, a Salk center channel would be fine. right?

YES.....

I have no issues with my MTM HT2c.... same seating scenario...

They are fine as long as your not way off in left field....

If I understand your situation correctly: HT2-TLs and a KEF center with an AVR coming.

I would wait until you have the AVR and try both with phantom center and using the KEF and see where you are at. If lacking, you can of course get an HTC, but you could also consider asking Jim about making a "supercharged song center". That is, a song center with the drivers to match the Veracity line. Or at least a song center with the RAAL tweeter. That would match better than a standard dome song center.

I'm selling my Salk Songtowers with the dome tweeter. Beautiful Rosewood finish. I'm located in central NJ. PM me if interested.

I apologize if it's not ok to post this here.

I started a new thread in 2channel section, I will try here as well.

I just ordered my
Salk Songtowers with RAAL
Rythmic sub

Looking for an integrated amp now, separates are in only if they are in my budget $500.

new or used

phono not needed

inputs:
oppo bd player
computer

nice to have:
3.5mm jack in
usb

TIA.

You won't get far on $500. Separates are out. New AVRs might be out too, though Amazon has had some nice deals on Denons and Onkyos in the last few weeks now that new models are being released. The least I'd spend on a new AVR would be around $800 for the Anthem MRX-300, under the assumption that separate power would be added later. I'd scout A'gon for some used AVRs.

This is going to be 2.1 music setup no movies. aren't any of the nad, CA or rotel suitable for this job?

Oops, sorry. I thought that might be the case but the Oppo BD player threw me off.

Sorry for the confusion. I should have specified as "player like oppo", I am in the market for a player and looking for one like oppo so I thought it would be helpful. I am looking at playing FLACs, AudioCD, mp3 over DLNA.

I wonder why nobody cares to help me with their suggestions and advices.