Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater What should I upgrade?

Hi everyone,

I am mulling over several options with respect to my theater/media room.(17 feet wide, 21 feet long, 8 feet high) I currently have an all Polk RTi 7 speaker setup (RTi 8, RTi 6 and RTi4) with a Mirage Omni 12 sub. This is all powered with an HK AVR 435. I like the sound of my gear but was surprised at how much I was missing when I heard a demo of Spiderman 2 (among other DVDs I used from my personal collection)at a local HiFi store. The system was powered by seperates (Pre/Pro and AMP)and included speakers that I was told were comprable to my Polks.

My questions is this....should I upgrade the electronics in my system or the speakers? I was shocked at just how much detail and clarity I was missing from my gear. I went home from the store and popped in the same scenes I listened to there. I was so disappointed at what I heard (or didn't hear). It was like a whole layer of sound was missing!!!!

My budget is such that I can only do one or the other ($3000-$3500).

My research has led me to the following options:

Axiom Epic 80 500 Factory Outlet ($3500)
-OR-
Outlaw 990/7700 combo w LMF Plus Sub
($3498)

I know this is a very subjective question and kind of open ended but I want to do something different than what I have. Any thoughts or feedback would be great!

Are there any Polk to Axiom converters out there who can chime in too??

You must upgrade all of it. It is scientifically proven to be impossible to just upgrade parts of your A/V system.

Speakers make the biggest difference overall, and there's nothing wrong at all with an H/K AVR.

I'd do the speakers now, prepro/amp later.

If you could stretch your budget by $500, you could also pick up an Emotiva LPA-1 amp and use your H/K as a prepro (if it has pre-outs). That might give you more oomph to your system.

Another tip, play with the placement and calibration of your system. Someone here gave me that advice a while back and it's absolutely true. Make sure you're using an SPL meter to get those Polk's calibrated correctly. It can make a world of difference and won't cost a dime (well, except for the $30 SPL meter, if you don't have one already).

Ditto what Peter said.

Also, consider room treatments and adjusting speaker placement. It's probably the room more than the equipment.

Most important - Is your current system calibrated with an spl meter?

Other - Was the dealer system running "hot"? Have you run you system "hot" to see if it sounds better?

Have you checked for audition sites near you?

We can spend your money for you as well as anybody. An Epic80-500 system with a new amp using your 435 as a prepro sounds wonderful.

I have not used a rat shack meter but have used the auto calibration feature in the HK. From there I adjusted slightly to my taste. I have also experimented with placement and ended up with the L and R mains about 1 foot from the front wall and about 9 feet apart. The center channel is on top of my 53 inch Sony CRT TV. I also tweaked the placement of my sub and found a good home for it next to my right front speaker with the driver pointing into the center of the room.

I'm not 100% sure what you mean by hot. If that means loud, then yes I have listened to my system loud. The system at the Hifi store was running moderate to loud. I had them audition several different brands including Rotel, Sunfire and the massive Denon 5910 receiver.

Aside from the SPL meter adjustments, I think I have things calibrated pretty good. I'm wondering if upgrading the DVD player would help too??? I have a two year old Sony player that probably doesn't hold a candle to an Oppo or Denon player.

I appreciate the comments and suggestions. Please keep them coming!


Chris

You'll hear a much bigger difference in changing speakers than electronics!

My AVR doesn't have any of the fancy-pants auto calibration stuff, so I'm stuck in the stone-age and have to use an SPL meter. That said, I have read of others complaining that the auto calibration routines sometimes don't work very well. YMMV.

My opinion, FWIW, is that before I spent $3,000 on new equipment, I'd spend $30 on the radio shack SPL meter and double check the calibration. If the calibration is spot-on, and you feel the SPL meter unnecessary you can always return it.

Actually, I use my SPL meter for all sorts of fun things, like making sure I'm not overdoing it on the volume level, or testing how loud my motorcycle is, or seeing how loud my buddies can burp...

An SPL meter is not from the stone age (at least in my opinion). My auto calibration inaccurately sets the LFE level at least with my Yamaha YPAO. This is a very important aspect of any movie.

I would recommend an SPL over the internal processing and mic any day of the week. Its very cheap and it sets the speakers to a perfect level.

Speakers make a much bigger difference than the electronics. Room acoustics however are even more important than speakers. Was the demo in a separate A/V room and if so, was this room better treated than yours? If so, perhaps what made the difference was the room and not the speakers.