Recent content by solrage

I'm not going with a traditional horizontal center. I'm getting the S5m. It's a S7t in monitor form with two (instead of 4) bass drivers, so it's a bit less sensitive with less power handling; but the center will be closer to my MLP so the distance should off-set the loss in sensitivity/power...

Different model. They have a UDP800 ($1600) and UDP900 ($3000). I was considering getting the former: https://www.magnetar-audio-us.store/ I may just end up getting the Sony universal player and putting the remainder towards speaker upgrades.

I'd considered that but the S5m only has 300w of power handling, which is closer to the NC502MP specs, and the 3-channel Buckeye NCx500 is backordered for 8-10 weeks.

Understandable. I lurk so much some times I forgot how little I've posted here. :)

No worries. I did put a "(2)" next to the subs in my OP to indicate I was getting duals. With my last decision I made the mistake of getting one giant sub instead of multiple smaller ones; but I bought that many years ago before I got into learning about audio science. Most all of my new system...

That is the plan if I ever find a deal on them. Yeah, center is definitely crucial for movies, TV, and gaming. I've even found a lot of multi-channel music makes a lot of use of it.

Yes, I had Audyssey with my last system as well. I thought it sounded great for movies but generally didn't like it much for music. I'm hoping Dirac will handle music better and perhaps I'll leave Audyssey for movies. I think the reason they recommend doing multi-point calibration is so the...

Oops, I misremembered, it was 1.5w: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/review-and-measurements-of-violectric-hpa-v281-hp-amp.9331/ Still a lot, and, yeah, V281 is a beast when it comes to power. Really helps with quietly mastered music that stays below -20dB a lot.

I did list the number of subs. I didn't mention the DSP because I didn't really need advice there. The Denon comes with Audyssey and I'll be purchasing Dirac Live Bass Control. I'm going to test both with music, movies, and games, and go with whichever one I think is best, perhaps with some...

The big concern is the output capabilities into high impedance phones, which I own a few. The V281 outputs something like 3w into 300Ohms. I'd be surprised if any AVRs can do that, and that WILL make a difference on highly dynamic music that doesn't have brickwall mastering.

I've checked the frequency responses and they are pretty close. The Perlistens are better, of course (they're one one of the best measuring towers out there now), but the Ascends are still +/- ~2dB on axis. They should be pretty neutral like the Perlistens. Most of my surround listening is...

I seriously doubt the Denon HP amp would be as good as my Violectric V281. Most AVRs skimp on the headphone amp. section. My literal "end game" setup would, indeed, be all Perlistens, but it's not feasible at their asking prices. Maybe if some R5m's came up for sale used I could do it, but I'm...

Forgot to mention I also use headphones so I need a DAC with analog outs to the headphone amp. I'm pretty sure the A1H only has the one pair of RCA outs. I think it's pretty common to have surrounds that are different from the mains/center, and I'm not spending the extra money to get all S5m...

As luck would have it right when I finished selling off my old system a pair of Perlisten S7ts and Denon A1H came up for sale so I grabbed them. Now I have to put together the rest of my system and any advice would be appreciated. Besides the S7t and A1H nothing else is set in stone, but here's...

Great! I'll keep an eye on this thread for updates. :)