Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Technical Questions advice on receivers

Some camps will also argue that 'modern' digital source components, all sound the same as long as you are not fiddling with any sound altering settings which is normally done at the receiver anyways. In a digital setup, all the player is doing is reading digital ones and zeros and transmitting those ones and zeros to the next device, the receiver which then then does the actual decoding. If it's sending the wrong binary data, it's broken, not better or worse.

The sometimes argued certainty of that statement aside, I think you should consider trying an upgraded CD player just so that you can ditch the analogue cables and modernize to a digital signal all the way to the receiver. However, you say you like the current sound so, your call.

The best bang for your buck is in speakers but you already have outstanding speakers with the M60s. The previous advice to add a good subwoofer is indeed going to make a big difference for you. It would be a great place to invest any extra cash.

However, if you really have the electronics bug (as we all often do,) I'd definitely consider upgrading the CD player to a DVD or even a Bluray player. They can finally be bought for almost as little as a midrange priced DVD player now.

If you go BluRay, you will might also consider an upgraded receiver, simply for HDMI inputs to get the benefit of the new HD Audio formats.

If you need to buy in stages, I'd go Subwoofer, then buy a BluRay player and you can still do Dolby 5.1 and DTS etc with your current receivers optical inputs. Then add surrounds to fill the room then finally a HDMI receiver for eventually playing with the new HD formats.

For the ULTIMATE audio experience, you owe it to yourself to buy the "Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds - Live at Radio City Hall" Bluray (or DVD minimum) and play it through your new player via to the M60s. It will be a religious experience in audio unlike anything you could imagine via your current CDs and setup.

The spirit of the dead horse won't allow me to comment on the power issue, but having owned several Sony AVRs, I recommend you try Denon, Marantz, Pioneer upper-end, HK upper-end, etc. I find Sony juices up the bells and whistles and uses an MP3 player's amp section. Just try it, see what you think.

Also, DMB blu-ray is special to say the least. But I was shocked to see that once I had my speaker positions tweaked, the stereo CD version sounded 99.999% as good as the blu-ray in DD. I level matched with SPL and switched back and forth, and was shocked by the similarity. That stopped my hunger for the new HD audio formats as they are incrementally better than DD, while DD is supposed to be a leap from CD.

Still shocked by that.

I hear ya. I myself have only the DVD version of that concert and am completely awed by it's sound. As I often comment, I can't imagine the BR formats being much better, except by a nuance, for this particular material. That being said, BR video is indeed a magnitude above DVD so I still encourage a BR player for him, when he's ready.

Yes, the video is another story. It is so real, you can't explain it compared to DVD. The flesh is just ... well like real flesh.

Amazing.

Which is especially great if you're a zombie, I guess.

Once again, thanks for all the advice!
I guess I'm almost there in terms of having the necessary HT components. Frankly, while I'm very pleased with the M60/VP150 across the front, I must admit I was expecting an even better performance improvement when I upgraded from Nuance speakers (yes, I remember all the hype and ridicule about these things when I first bought them about 10+ years ago).
I kept the surrounds (Nuance SAT 1's), also have what I think is a decent sub (Sound Dynamics THS-10 with 100 watts RMS 0.04% THD), and fairly recent Sony DVD player (with HDMI). So, aside from the BR player, I wonder if it is the AVR that is the weakest link here.
Which leads to another question.....if the media player (CD, DVD or BR) merely "transfers" the digital info (the ones and zeros) to the AVR, why do some CD players cost in the thousands of dollars? Dumb question??

Stupid Question, but have you calibrated all your speakers and subs to the same SPL. How do you have the settings in the receiver setup, for ex., speaker size, crossover, etc.?

Thanks SQ.
AVR is set to small/small/small with 80 hz crossover.
Sub volume is manually set to what I "hear" is balanced with the fronts, and cross over setting is turned all the way up (sub volume is only at about 30% level based on the volume dial, if that means anything). I don't have a SPL meter (never used one before, and not even sure how it would work!).
For what it's worth, the fronts are all cabled with axiom speaker wire, and sub is hooked up with axiom coax cable.

Does your receiver have test tones/pink noise, where you adjust the dB level of each speaker and the sub to be the same? I assume you would have to do this by ear, if you don't have an SPL meter.