Hi all
Now that I have finally ready every page in this thread, I feel I am ready to contribute!
First, a bit about me. I fell in love with home cinema about 10 years ago while in my 20's. Working as an IT engineer for a media company who master DVDs, I got a call from a sound engineer who was having a problem with his computer. As I entered the studio, the engineer was busy working on the effects for one of the Disney animations, at full volume. The quality of the sound coming from those Genelec speakers stopped me in my tracks! My jaw just dropped open, I couldn't move. The effect of the sparkle and twinkle from the wizards magic wand was so precise, so delicate, so sublime, I have been chasing that quality ever since.
A couple of months later I had maxed out my credit cards and bought some Bowers and Wilkins 700s. I still have them. They were the best speakers out of all of the ones I auditioned at the time by far. Obviously they didn't compare to the sound of a professional studio, but over the years I have been trying everything I can to get them close.
Originally I bought a Denon 3805 amp which I used the auto calibration from. It wasn't great. More recently I upgraded that to a Yamaha 3010. The YPAO on that was also massively disappointing. Very vague. No more than 1 or 2 dB adjustment and always with a small Q. Problem is, I never knew where to start with manual equalisation.
Then I discovered Room Equalisation Wizard (REW). What a difference! At first I was only using it with a Radio Shack SPL meter and calibration file. That was good enough for a while, but buying a proper calibrated microphone (Umik) finally made them sing. I was always a bit apprehensive about using too much EQ, (pure must be better, right?), but when I saw the level of the extent of the EQ adjustments required to get a flat response I was amazed. 20db cuts in some of the low frequencies were recommended by REW. That really stopped the boominess.
To compare the difference before and after REW I used a signal generator to create a sine wave of each frequency of the parametric EQ in my amp. I played them like an album, from 40hz to 16khz. With YPAO EQ enabled there were HUGE jumps in volume. After I switched to manual all tracks sounded pretty much the same. (admittedly after DAYS of learning and tweaking REW).
I also added some crude room treatment. Basically a shower rail between the top of my rear speakers. On it I have a hung some old, thick jumpers, and over that a plain rug to disguise it. Not great, but stops the higher frequencies bouncing of the rear wall well enough to tighten up vocals.
I am pretty happy with my setup. At least I was until recently when I added an SVS SB2000. That has inflamed my upgraditus! The speaker are 10 years old now. It must be time for some new ones...
I arranged an audition of the 800 diamond series at my local dealer. Demo'd both the 805s and 804s driven by both a £2000 receiver and £10,000 power amp. We watched a couple of movies and also listened to some of my favorite files on flac. How disappointing! The 804 did sound better then the 805's in the mid and low end but I have to say neither of them blew me away. Switching to the bigger amp made no difference at all.
I had considered maybe the shop hadn't set the kit up correctly, but we tried different sources; blu ray and media player, and also different amps. Don't get me wrong, they sounded good. But not much that better than mine. The top end didn't have the same sparkle as my setup, despite the diamond tweeters. Mid range was more detailed, but not by much.
I really wanted to be as amazed by them as I was that first day I walked into the sound studio. They SHOULD be a lot better, right?
I am wondering if it simply because my home system is now calibrated to well, a default setup without any equalisation just won't compare. Problem is, I REALLY want some new toys to play with! I just can't justify paying £7,000 for speakers that *might* not be much better.
I guess after all that, I am asking if anyone has experience of a similar upgrade!
Or could recommend other speakers