Are you satisfied with your home Audio System?

[NorthSky]

It's just one of several audio/video calibration test discs I use for simplicity.
My TV today costs roughly $500 ...or less on eBay. Some folks stereo 2-meter interconnects costs $50,000
When you win Gold in Rio it's worth no less than $750,000

Hiring a pro calibrator for a pro system setup would land you in another sphere all together.

No matter if you have a $100 sound system, or a $1 million hi-fi rig...happiness is not measured by this measured criteria.
We can be more satisfied in life with absolutely nothing than with absolutely everything.

This planet was created as a big garden in mind. The most satisfying home audio systems are the ones from the natural jungles.
...And then the rest. ...Ultra hi-end TTs with sculpted cartridges by the masters and the most beautiful music ever recorded in the world's history.

 

[TBone]

Hiring a pro calibrator for a pro system setup would land you in another sphere all together.

Personally, a TV should be properly calibrated out the factory, at least in one mode (usually "movie"). And lately, they very much are, my 3 yr old Sharp was near dead-on out the factory, and a few others (friends) I've tested demonstrated much the same. Expensive calibration is hardly the requirement it once was ...

 

[NorthSky]

Should it be the same too when we buy a home audio sound system...coming calibrated to our room acoustics from the factory?
Just kidding of course. But just to make a very important point; the room's acoustics and lights are important to a display and sound system for optimal performance.

Calibrating the room first for picture and sound quality is a good investment.
Then we can buy the gear of our choice, and be satisfied with its marriage with our room.

 

[TBone]

But just to make a very important point; the room's acoustics and lights are important to a display and sound system for optimal performance.

Yes, but IME, room calibration is more a matter of optimum distance and height, secure mounting, minimizing display reflections and despite maybe having to adjust back-lighting and gamma ... not much actual calibration is required.

 

[NorthSky]

Yes, absolutely. ...Plus fan noise, AC noise, comfortable room temperature, good popcorn, real butter, 3D glasses.

 

[fas42]

No matter which settings, although attaining good results otherwise, something always looked wrong and visually a bit fatiguing. Didn't know why for quite some time, but after trying another method, I realized that while I could set my TV dead on spec, my Panny BRP was sending an over-sharp signal at it's default setting. Sharpness on my Panny is now scaled back to it's minimum value (-1) and this is something I now recommend to any videophile; unless you own an OPPO, based on evidence and measurements I've witnessed (no links) the vast majority of BRP (main manufacturers) are set -by default- to include a tad too high a sharpness level.

Yes, sharpness is another of the key settings. Trouble is, TV studios send out an oversharp signal, it's easy to see the artifact in some of the programs - there's a reverse hump of intensity at a strong contrast edge, to artificially improve the impression of sharpness. And the best procedure to have no fiddling of sharpness by the TV signal receiver at all, to minimise making this worse. But sometimes the mimimum setting is not the "do nothing" mark, previous TV was fine, but the current one actually softens the signal at zero! By trial and error I worked out that 30% was actually the "don't fiddle with the sharpness!" mark - which means that the most natural looking visuals are achieved for reception, and videos.

 

[TBone]

Yes, sharpness is another of the key settings. Trouble is, TV studios send out an oversharp signal

geez, don't get me started on the crappy 1080p content sent by via our local cable. Terrible, but the peoples choice. If they can't get 1080p right, what hope do they have doing 4k?

My current TV is best-calibrated using usb apps/tools (if I had an OPPO BRP, i'd consider using it) and in actuality, very little calibration was required in order to get this particular model correct (w/ample settings, unlike the old days when you had to hack the service menu), 99% of the default settings came correct from factory (only in "movie" mode, every other mode proved an impossible waste of calibration time/effort).

Most of my 1080 content are BR movies, stream occasionally, but ... tv content is 1080/720 captured tv stations. over-the-air, which provides a head-over-heal superior signal compared to our local cable.

 

[Fitzcaraldo215]

geez, don't get me started on the crappy 1080p content sent by via our local cable. Terrible, but the peoples choice. If they can't get 1080p right, what hope do they have doing 4k?

My current TV is best-calibrated using usb apps/tools (if I had an OPPO BRP, i'd consider using it) and in actuality, very little calibration was required in order to get this particular model correct (w/ample settings, unlike the old days when you had to hack the service menu), 99% of the default settings came correct from factory (only in "movie" mode, every other mode proved an impossible waste of calibration time/effort).

Most of my 1080 content are BR movies, stream occasionally, but ... tv content is 1080/720 captured tv stations. over-the-air, which provides a head-over-heal superior signal compared to our local cable.

I do not watch much TV, but in my highly urbanized environment, FIOS delivers an excellent hi def picture for me. Prior to that, I was using Comcast, which was approximately just as good quality-wise. Several decades ago, before analog cable, TV reception was horrible here in the city. Digital cable has enhanced even analog cable substantially.

My only knock on cable or sat is the ridiculous bundled pricing model they all use, providing tons of garbage channels I would not think of watching. But, I have to pay for them anyway in my package to get the few channels I might actually want to watch. Even there, I pay for them whether I watch them or not. But, I like FIOS' selectable bundles much better than Comcast, as well as much better pricing and service. And, now, at least, I have a choice between two cable carriers, rather than just one total monopoly forever raising prices as before.

Like you, I have tweaked my set's settings very little from factory presets in Cinema mode. My almost 9-year old Sony SXRD 60" rear projector is still well beyond quite acceptable, though obsolete. I did add a Darbee box two years ago, and that added enough improvement to be a keeper. I think I will be able to hang in there until "4K" UHD technology stabilizes and becomes much cheaper. But, that is still a work in progress.

 

[TBone]

Funny, the party line here (friends) is that 1080 cable is excellent, therefore 4K cable must be better. At the very least, that's what Rogers wants you to believe. Our infrastructure is transitioning to all fiber-optic. My current setup is a bottle-necked (not fully) fibre optic connection, but that will soon change. That factor alone could eventually change my position, but until that time, every visiting acquaintance has easily admitted my OTA signal is easily more visually pleasing. Funny tho, the first thing they mention is that my TV is either a better model, or better calibrated, yet it includes little calibration and this particular Sharp was far from their top. Two of my buds are still hanging on to plasma's.

My only knock on cable or sat is the ridiculous bundled pricing model they all use

Agree, what tripe. I had hd cable (not long ago) package, still remember calling the cable company and arranging the package which was HD + "standard" package. After 3 months, one of my favorite sports HD channels suddenly disconnected. Calling the cable-co they explained this HD channel was optional at a separate cost, not included in the "regular" HD package (apparently I had trial privileges for 3 months).

So I did some quick math, asked 'em to disconnect all the duplicate and therefore redundant "standard" channels, minus that cost from the overall package. Of course, that was outside their package rules, so no-can-do. Didn't take me long to say goodbye.

 

[fas42]

geez, don't get me started on the crappy 1080p content sent by via our local cable. Terrible, but the peoples choice. If they can't get 1080p right, what hope do they have doing 4k?

What they're most likely doing is piling on the level of compression, this is something the stations can do easily adjust before and during transmission. It's like having MP3 audio where the rate can be fiddled on the fly anywhere between 320 and 64, say - and as soon as there are bandwidth issues, no prob's, just compress even more, squash the quality out of the signal! Being 1080p is not going to help, one iota, for this ...

 

[fas42]

That factor alone could eventually change my position, but until that time, every visiting acquaintance has easily admitted my OTA signal is easily more visually pleasing. Funny tho, the first thing they mention is that my TV is either a better model, or better calibrated, yet it includes little calibration and this particular Sharp was far from their top. Two of my buds are still hanging on to plasma's.

Our one and only "cable" company always had lousy quality, even the demo stands in the shopping mall with a Full HD channel going looked awful - how they got customers from that I do not know!

Accurate calibration is key - a very cheap set done right will beat the pants of the most expensive unit with poor settings ...

 

[fas42]

Back on audio for a second, member Pano on diyAudio - someone who "gets" what I'm on about - some of it, anyway , posted some interesting thoughts recently ... http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/lounge/292393-digital-audio-stress-16.html#post4803715.

 

[RayDunzl]

Back on audio for a second, member Pano on diyAudio - someone who "gets" what I'm on about

Distortion?

Measured distortion in the bass doesn't match the higher frequencies, maybe due partly to the room mode I haven't addressed properly.

Higher, the measurements look pretty benign to me. The measurement might even be dominated by the ambient noise here.

Also, since this is a sweep, the distortion readings are higher than they would be for a steady tone (if ambient noise isn't dominating).

 

[fas42]

Those are excellent results, Ray - I'm impressed! Distortion in the bass is the hardest to quell, and human hearing makes the job worse again - one reason I don't worry about producing the real thing in the lowest notes - I let my brain fill the gaps!

What Pano "got" happening, in his own rig at one time, was the full invisible speaker thing - no matter how closely you listened to his drivers you couldn't locate the sound as coming from them. It happens because of low distortion, yes - he did it using well set up, old fashioned, efficient horns.

 

[Blumlein 88]

Back on audio for a second, member Pano on diyAudio - someone who "gets" what I'm on about - some of it, anyway , posted some interesting thoughts recently ... http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/lounge/292393-digital-audio-stress-16.html#post4803715.

So you guys are a follower of the Peter Baxandall philosophy. All we need is truly flat response to 2 khz. Which implies -3 db at 20 khz and a first order rolloff above.

Cary had an interesting preamp in the way back when that I once owned. Had a moderately steep low pass filter at 20 khz. The lopassed signal was then fed into a triode to invert it and cancel out those frequencies in what went to the output. Actively subtracted any ultrasonic garbage from early digital you might say. I think the circuitry had something like 250 khz flat bandwidth with plenty of headroom. Haven't thought about that preamp in several years. It actually would be just the ticket for anyone using DSD.

 

[fas42]

So you guys are a follower of the Peter Baxandall philosophy. All we need is truly flat response to 2 khz. Which implies -3 db at 20 khz and a first order rolloff above.

Not really for me - what Pano is saying is that bad HF is bad for listening - so, do something about it! Personally, I like treble detail, but it has to be clean! Which I fix my way ...

 

[RayDunzl]

While reviewing the recent RMAF 2016 postings, despite the best efforts of the vendors, and with thanks to Amir for posting the pictures and his impressions on some, I found that I am still satisfied with what I have.

 

[iridium]

While reviewing the recent RMAF 2016 postings, despite the best efforts of the vendors, and with thanks to Amir for posting the pictures and his impressions on some, I found that I am still satisfied with what I have.

I am satisfied [very] also; which confuses me. I have no idea why I bought all those Nordost wires for $2 million.

iridium.

 

[Thomas savage]

I am satisfied [very] also; which confuses me. I have no idea why I bought all those Nordost wires for $2 million.

iridium.

Was in not something to do with world peace??

 

[iridium]

Was in not something to do with world peace??

Indirectly, but actual world peace would require moving all the humans off the planet Earth.

iridium.