Adding Hi-fi capabilities to current HT setup

[Noosub]

Hello everyone,

I have a Home theater equipment Q acoustics Concept 50 as Front, Concept 90 as Center, Concept 30 as Surround back and Sub SVS SV 1000 Pro, also have a Marantz Cinema 50 to drive the all. I have a rega 1 turntable in my bedroom and I would like to connect everything to the home theatre setup I was thinking adding a Audiolab 6000A in order to use it for the hifi part does it make sense or there is better alternatives? My budget is around 1300$

Thanks in advance for your help

 

[ryanmh1]

Hello everyone,

I have a Home theater equipment Q acoustics Concept 50 as Front, Concept 90 as Center, Concept 30 as Surround back and Sub SVS SV 1000 Pro, also have a Marantz Cinema 50 to drive the all. I have a rega 1 turntable in my bedroom and I would like to connect everything to the home theatre setup I was thinking adding a Audiolab 6000A in order to use it for the hifi part does it make sense or there is better alternatives? My budget is around 1300$

Thanks in advance for your help

I have both good news and bad news. The bad news is that the Audiolab will almost certainly do nothing to add higher fidelity. In fact, it could degrade it, particularly if you listen at higher volumes. The good news is that you need to spend exactly $0.00 to have a hifi setup. You have one. The Cinema 50 already provides it. It has far more power than the Audiolab ever would have, is likely just as clean and silent (if not more). Best of all, you have Audyssey XT32 built in to correct room issues. The Audiolab will most certainly fall short here. If you have not configured XT32, do so. Finally, since you have phono inputs, hook the phono stage up, put it in stereo mode, and you are set to go. If you listen at high volumes, just add more power, although I'm not sure those speakers could take or use all that much more, even if running full range. Plus, you are already running a subwoofer and presumably crossing the fronts, so you're likely not using the power you already have (since low bass may not be going to the Q Acoustics speakers)...

EDIT: One possible improvement, get the Audyssey app and look into stopping it from doing corrections around 400Hz. Or get really involved and use some of the free scripts that can improve its correction. Audyssey One or something, I think it is called. I haven't bothered with it yet. People get snookered into spending a lot of money on useless crap, but a home theater receiver with room correction really is the absolute best, cheapest thing, bar none, you can do to improve your sound. And you have one. Why would you disconnect it?

 

[GXAlan]

You really don’t need anything else. Just move the Rega to the phono input of your Cinema 50.

Do you have the Audyssey app? Or Dirac?

 

[Noosub]

I have both good news and bad news. The bad news is that the Audiolab will almost certainly do nothing to add higher fidelity. In fact, it could degrade it, particularly if you listen at higher volumes. The good news is that you need to spend exactly $0.00 to have a hifi setup. You have one. The Cinema 50 already provides it. It has far more power than the Audiolab ever would have, is likely just as clean and silent (if not more). Best of all, you have Audyssey XT32 built in to correct room issues. The Audiolab will most certainly fall short here. If you have not configured XT32, do so. Finally, since you have phono inputs, hook the phono stage up, put it in stereo mode, and you are set to go. If you listen at high volumes, just add more power, although I'm not sure those speakers could take or use all that much more, even if running full range. Plus, you are already running a subwoofer and presumably crossing the fronts, so you're likely not using the power you already have...

EDIT: One possible improvement, get the Audyssey app and look into stopping it from doing corrections around 400Hz. Or get really involved and use some of the free scripts that can improve its correction. Audyssey One or something, I think it is called. I haven't bothered with it yet. People get snookered into spending a lot of money on useless crap, but a home theater receiver with room correction really is the absolute best, cheapest thing, bar none, you can do to improve your sound. And you have one. Why would you disconnect it?

This is an amazing feedback thanks a lot, I have the Audyssey app I will remake the correction steps, thank a lot!

 

[Noosub]

You really don’t need anything else. Just move the Rega to the phono input of your Cinema 50.

Do you have the Audyssey app? Or Dirac?

Amazing, I have the Audyssey app, considering Dirac but wasn't sure it will be a big improvement compare to Audyssey XT32. thanks

 

[GXAlan]

I think doing the correction to 400 Hz only is a pretty reasonable strategy because your Q acoustics are probably pretty good as is. I think if you go full range, removing the mid range compensation tends to make music sound better. When you redo your measurements, it can be helpful to take multiple measurements. Most of the time with Audyssey, people just use a single measurement point because it is quick and easy. By using multiple measurements, it can help the minor variances in the measurements.

The most valuable upgrades are always in speakers. For movies adding a second subwoofer can help fill in some bass nulls. You will be able to see how the bass is performing using the Audyssey app. I personally would recommend adding some upfiring Atmos speakers. You don’t need to go very high end, but you do want things that are high efficiency and can hit the SPL you want. I personally like Klipsch Dolby Atmos up firing speakers because they have the true Dolby crossovers and they are efficient so they can project the sound to the ceiling and back to your ears pretty well. The older 500SA line can be found relatively cheap from time to time.

https://www.adorama.com/us1849476.html?gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAADxgUswO5bRI_L4xN4sK7b-loGCnE&gclid=Cj0KCQjw0Oq2BhCCARIsAA5hubUSQDwUNJWwbw7O2y8jMPMJqjWJjXtyp9rPFD7skhY82aFEddpVO0MaAuLsEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds&utm_source=inc-google-shop-p

If you can mount ceiling or front/rear heights, that is better than upfiring. I tried the old Pioneer Andrew Jones up, firing speakers, and they could not hit the SPL‘s that the Klipsch could and somehow did not simulate the height effects as well.

 

[Noosub]

I think doing the correction to 400 Hz only is a pretty reasonable strategy because your Q acoustics are probably pretty good as is. I think if you go full range, removing the mid range compensation tends to make music sound better. When you redo your measurements, it can be helpful to take multiple measurements. Most of the time with Audyssey, people just use a single measurement point because it is quick and easy. By using multiple measurements, it can help the minor variances in the measurements.

The most valuable upgrades are always in speakers. For movies adding a second subwoofer can help fill in some bass nulls. You will be able to see how the bass is performing using the Audyssey app. I personally would recommend adding some upfiring Atmos speakers. You don’t need to go very high end, but you do want things that are high efficiency and can hit the SPL you want. I personally like Klipsch Dolby Atmos up firing speakers because they have the true Dolby crossovers and they are efficient so they can project the sound to the ceiling and back to your ears pretty well. The older 500SA line can be found relatively cheap from time to time.

https://www.adorama.com/us1849476.html?gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAADxgUswO5bRI_L4xN4sK7b-loGCnE&gclid=Cj0KCQjw0Oq2BhCCARIsAA5hubUSQDwUNJWwbw7O2y8jMPMJqjWJjXtyp9rPFD7skhY82aFEddpVO0MaAuLsEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds&utm_source=inc-google-shop-p

If you can mount ceiling or front/rear heights, that is better than upfiring. I tried the old Pioneer Andrew Jones up, firing speakers, and they could not hit the SPL‘s that the Klipsch could and somehow did not simulate the height effects as well.

Thanks a lot upfiring atmos are great advice will focus on this and Audyssey adjustment.

 

[GXAlan]

Thanks a lot upfiring atmos are great advice will focus on this and Audyssey adjustment.

JBL Stage 240H (Latte)

Dolby Atmos® enabled add-on height module speakers

www.crutchfield.com

The new JBLs might be good too since they incorporate the HDI-style horn.

But what I don’t know is that the JBL is only rated to 75W, whereas the Klipsch’s are rated to 75W continuous with 300W peaks.

Again, I didn’t find the upfiring that convincing until I used the Klipsch. I have moved to ceiling mounted speakers though.

 

[mosco]