Set-up for HT and office....decisions, decisions

[ndurantz]

Hi All,

Ok. Here is my dilemma (I wish all of them were so fun to work through):

1) I just purchased HT speaker set from Orb, including the Super 8 sub. Sounds great. I originally had Mod 1s for L & R, Mod 2 for the center and my old Sony sats (pretty good sound for HTIB) for rears. Sounded good, although at times the center channel was a little overwhelming and the surrounds a little underwhelming. So, I swapped out the center to a Mod 1 and replaced the Sony's in back with Mod 1s. Sounded even better. So far so good.

2) We are finishing off the upstairs of our home and will be moving the office up there. I have a TON of music loaded on my Mac Mini, running to a Yamaha HTR-5930 receiver using optical cable with a speaker set-up of Klipsch iFi L & R, with a Yamaha YST-SW100. Really like the sound, even without subwoofer cross-over frequency controls (The receiver nor the sub lets me specify a cross-over freq).

I want to have a great home theater and a great little stereo listening area upstairs. My choices are:

1) Leave things as is and have an unused Mod 1
2) Use the last Mod 1 to upgrade the HT center channel to a Mod 2 since it does the bulk of the work for HT
3) Buy a second Mod 1 and replace the office set-up with Mod 1s for L & R, paired with a Mirage Omni 8 sub

So, those are my choices. I understand that this is personal preference when it comes down to it, so I guess I am just trying to decide if it is worth it to drop another $150 for an additional Mod 1. Either way, I have quality, unused speakers (Mods or the iFi's) sitting around which bothers me (not sure why - maybe I feel that I wasted my money?)

Look forward to opinions and thoughts. Thanks!

[Sonnie]

That truly is a matter of preference, but I would probably invest in another Mod 1 and put those to work... if only an additional $150.

[drdoan]

If you can sit almost directly in the center of the 2 main speakers and set your receiver for phantom center, you will get a good center effect. If you can't sit directly in the center, then go for another speaker to use as a center. Have fun, Dennis

[ndurantz]

Thanks! Here's what I ended up with:

Hello All,

In my opinion I have a mid-to-upper end system (within my budget, anyway) and am looking for some advice. Set-up is below:

Receiver/DAC: Nuforce Icon

Digital Source: Mac Mini 1.66 GHz Intel Core Duo through iTunes
CD Player: Oppo DV-980H
Analog: XM Radio

Speakers: Orb Mod 1 Stereo
Subwoofer: Mirage Omni 8, using subs x-over at 120 Hz

I am having some difficulty getting the bass to sound as clean as I would like. I know the Omni isn't the highest end sub you can buy, but it sure isn't bad and I feel that that sound should be tighter. I was wondering if upgrading to the bigger power supply for the Icon would help. Thoughts?

[ndurantz]

ndurantz wrote:

Thanks! Here's what I ended up with:

Hello All,

In my opinion I have a mid-to-upper end system (within my budget, anyway) and am looking for some advice. Set-up is below:

Receiver/DAC: Nuforce Icon

Digital Source: Mac Mini 1.66 GHz Intel Core Duo through iTunes
CD Player: Oppo DV-980H
Analog: XM Radio

Speakers: Orb Mod 1 Stereo
Subwoofer: Mirage Omni 8, using subs x-over at 120 Hz

I am having some difficulty getting the bass to sound as clean as I would like. I know the Omni isn't the highest end sub you can buy, but it sure isn't bad and I feel that that sound should be tighter. I was wondering if upgrading to the bigger power supply for the Icon would help. Thoughts?

I think some of it may have been coming from sympathetic vibrations from the wood shelf the sub was on. I placed some carpet under the sub and now it is significantly toned down, but maybe muffled? The Omni has a down-firing port, so I am sure the carpet is absorbing some sound. What do you guys think on a down-firing sub - carpet or no?

[JCD]

I think carpet makes sense. You may want to experiment and try other materials as well. It coule be that the carpet is helping it to decouple from the floor/shelf. I'd try using some sort of foam as well. That might help even more to decouple the sub which might help tighten up the bass.

[ndurantz]

JCD wrote:

I think carpet makes sense. You may want to experiment and try other materials as well. It coule be that the carpet is helping it to decouple from the floor/shelf. I'd try using some sort of foam as well. That might help even more to decouple the sub which might help tighten up the bass.

Not familiar with "decoupling." What is that?

[JCD]

decoupling is the process of stopping the transmission of vibrations from the speaker to the floor.

I found this fairly quickly on the internet that will explain the issue far more eloquently than I.

[ndurantz]

Thanks! I don't have a lot of space to play with as the sub is tucked away in the corner of a bookshelf, but I will definitely toy around with different materials. I appreciate the article link

[ndurantz]

Hi again all. Kind of a new issue, but with the same set-up, so I am keeping it on this thread. I have noticed that my Orb's "crackle" on some higher notes (example Feist's "Brandy Alexander"). I have noticed on various tracks from different artists, but they all seem to have fairly stripped-down instrumentation. Mind you that these are Apple Lossless tracks being output from my Mac Mini and into the NuForce Icon Amp. I haven't tested it against the CD to see if I get the same problem.

I am thinking it is coming from how I have the speaker terminals hooked up. The Icon uses Cat5 cables with RJ45 terminations to plug into the Icon. The other ends are terminated in banana plugs. I can't fit banana plugs in the Orbs, so I had to improvise and put a couple of Monster flex pins on the banana plugs. The fit was not very tight so I threaded the flex pins with some copper speaker wire and threaded that through the openings of the banana plugs to "snug" the connection. I am thinking the "crackling" is coming from this not being the optimal signal/current transfer from the Icon to the Orbs, but am not sure.

Any thoughts would be appreciated!