I used a SPL meter and all the speakers are producing 75 db with test pattern. The issue seems to be when playing back music which leads to me believe it has to do with which mode I have set on the receiver. If that is the case, any recommendatins by those who have a Denon receiver?
Experiment with your receiver and see what you like the best. Don’t assume any one setting is “best” for everything. Try out all the different simulated modes available and you might be surprised at how much better some things sound. Likewise don’t assume because you have 5 speakers and a subwoofer that plain old 2ch stereo won’t sound best for some things. I’ve found what sounds best to me is very source specific. I’ll mention some things I’ve found as a reference, however they are not absolutes.
For well mastered music, 2 or multi-channel especially studio recordings I usually find that “direct” mode sounds the best. For poorly mastered music, usually 2ch, or “live,” well mic‘d recordings I find something like PLIIx or z can sound the best.
For certain TV shows, Star Trek: The Next Generation is the best example I find that multi-channel stereo sounds great. Although, each speaker is playing the same information as their counterparts the facing of the drivers on the QS8s seem to prioritize ambient sound, like the drone of the ships engines coming from all around while the front speaker’s drivers facing directly at me seem to prioritize dialogue.
My point is that if you want to get the most out of your system experiment. You’ll never know what you might be missing if you don’t try things out. After all you paid for all those features might as well give them a shot if you have the time. If your Denon is anything like my Onkyo you should have a huge number of presets to use with various sources so that if you find something you really like you can set it up to automatically default to that setting for a particular source.
