Letters - April 2007
Setup issue with Paradigms?
April 26, 2007
To Wes Marshall,
As a music lover living in Calcutta, India, I was surprised
at the number of speaker brands available when I went shopping: Mordaunt Short, Paradigm,
Boston Acoustics, KEF, Polk, Bose (this is Amar Bose's hometown), Jamo, B&W, JBL and
yes, Klipsch. All of them have authorized reps here.
After a lot of listening I bought a pair of Paradigm
Monitor 7s and paired them with my Yamaha 1400 amp. They sounded so awful. The only thing
good about these speakers was the midrange -- it was tremendous, and really open. The
clarity was amazing, but there was no bass and my amp was sweating trying to drive the
93dB-sensitive speakers.
I then read your review and auditioned the Klipsch RF-35
(an improved version of RF-3). These speakers rock! Pete Townshend is in my room today. I
can’t thank you enough for suggesting them.
One thing, though: The clarity in the mids of Paradigm was
much better and as an afterthought I miss the same (after having had it in my room for
seven days). I am wondering if a very powerful sub -- an SVS or something -- could have
solved my Paradigm woes. Am I complaining? I hope not, as my Paradigm dealer was livid
when I told him that I wanted to return the Monitor 7s.
Amit
I love the Internet. Imagine trying to get print media
around the world like this. It's a delight to correspond with people from other countries.
Your receiver puts out 110Wpc, and the Paradigms at
93dB in-room sensitivity are actually quite easy on it. The speaker and your amp should be
capable of peaks around 113dB, which causes hearing damage. So if you were having trouble
getting volume, my guess is that you had the “level set” feature on the Yamaha
set too low. If you use a sound-pressure meter like the RadioShack model, you would want
to set the speakers at the THX level of 75dB, then everything should play as loud as you
can stand it.
Everyone’s room is different and everyone focuses
on different sounds. If you like the Paradigms, I recommend you get them back. I also
recommend getting a sub -- Paradigm makes several excellent models, as does SVS.
But, once again, there is a system issue if the speaker
won’t play loud. They should be almost deafening. Let us know what you do….Wes
Marshall
Preamp quality
April 20, 2007
To Doug Blackburn,
With advances in quality assurance and manufacturing today,
is there any truth to the notion that preamplifier capability and quality in top-shelf
AVRs, such as the Denon AVR-3806, perform near as well as separate preamplifiers with a
cost of at least two times as much, such as the Bryston P-16? I’m new to hi-fi, but
it seems to me the greatest advances are in the preamplifier section of a system.
Amplifiers change very slowly over time in relation to other system components. Speakers
change very slowly. Source components change, but a quality CD player or vinyl player will
be a quality CD player or vinyl player ten years from now (IMHO). However, the
preamplifier seems to become antiquated after a few months. If I sink my money into a
$3000 CD player and a $5000 amplifier, can I get away with a $1200 AVR without sacrificing
sound quality? Will this route enable me to put my money where it’s of greatest value
and simultaneously keep pace with the latest innovations in processing? Don’t all the
chips and circuit boards come from the same place anyway?
Dave
You have asked some very complex questions that have
complex answers. It's going to take a while to cover the topic.
The first thing you should know is that the amplifiers
in AVRs (audio/video receivers) sound increasingly bad as you use speakers that are
increasingly better. In other words, if you use speakers that are very easy 8-ohm loads
and are designed with the intention that they be used with an AVR, that AVR won't sound
too bad. However, those very speakers are not going to be nearly as good as more expensive
speakers with better capabilities/performance. And those more expensive speakers are not
going to be designed to be easy to drive for an AVR. The better speakers are going to be a
difficult/complex load that will drive the AVR amplifier section nuts. The result can be
really awful sound. I've heard cases where a male vocal was so oddly reproduced I didn't
recognize who was singing.
So let's say I've convinced you that you'll never use
the amplifiers inside an AVR. You'll use the pre-outs to drive external amplifiers or you
will use a surround processor (no internal amplifiers) with standalone amplifiers. Will
the AVR used as a surround processor sound as good as a probably more-expensive surround
processor? Here the answer gets less clear. A really good surround processor
($2500-$10,000+) is going to have parts quality and circuit topology so much superior to
any AVR that there's simply no contest. Below $1500, the AVR and surround processor are
much closer together in parts quality and construction. There may be cases where an AVR
used as a surround processor (not using the internal amplifiers) sounds as good as some
surround processors in this lower price range, and in other cases, the surround processor
may perform better. It all depends on whether you are comparing a "better" AVR
to a "worse" surround processor or vice versa. There are very few AVRs being
made that have internal amplifiers that are as good as standalone amplifiers. B&K and
McIntosh come to mind immediately, but there may be others. But these AVRs tend to be
$3000 and up -- way up in the case of the McIntosh.
All the chips and circuit boards do not come from the
same place. There can be very different performance (sound quality) from two different
implementations of the same chip. Power supplies make a big difference.
The quality of the RCA jacks on the back panel make a
difference. Whether the AVR uses a small two-wire power cord or has a socket that allows
you to use an aftermarket three-wire power cord makes a difference. How well separated the
video, analog and digital sections of the AVR or surround processor are makes a
difference. There are an almost infinite number of ways to make a surround processor sound
better than an AVR if the surround processor has a higher budget for design and parts.
You also mention being concerned about obsolescence,
and right now that's a heck of a concern. Primarily because the high-definition disc
formats both support two new Dolby Digital audio formats and two new DTS audio formats.
None of these four formats are supported by any AVRs or surround processors yet (at least
none I'm aware of; it has to be coming soon though). When support appears, it will
probably be in AVRs first. Any AVR or surround processor you buy today is already obsolete
because it doesn't support these four new digital audio formats. You may not have a
high-def disc player now, but anybody interested in home theater will have a high-def disc
player sooner or later.
The lowest-priced surround processor and outboard
amplifiers I feel good about recommending are Outlaw Audio's 970 processor and five of
their 2200 mono amplifiers. Using mono amps allows each amp to be placed close to a
speaker. This allows short speaker cables. Short speaker cables and long interconnects
sound better than long speaker cables and short interconnects. But the Outlaw package is
$1922. It will kill a $1200 AVR from Japan, especially if you are using higher-performance
loudspeakers. But it's $722 more expensive than a $1200 AVR. The amps will last through
several surround processors though, so spending money on better amps is never money
wasted. And an AVR will never have amplifiers as good as those five mono amps.
On the other hand, I have a hard time recommending any
AVR or surround processor right now because they don't yet support Dolby Digital Plus,
Dolby TrueHD, or the two forms of DTS-HD. So there is no one easy answer about what to buy
for the best performance. Budget and aspirations for your system are huge factors in what
will ultimately work out best for you….Doug Blackburn
Time for HD DVD?
April 18, 2007
To Randall Smith,
I am finally starting to get excited about HD DVD just by
reading the reviews of HD DVD movies and the lower the price on the players. However, I
have a four-year-old Sony 51” widescreen CRT rear-projection TV. It’s quite good
and I do enjoy watching regular DVD movies on it. However, being older, it only has
component inputs and DVI inputs and has 1080i and 720p capability. Will such a TV be able
of showing the superiority of HD DVD over regular DVD? Should I expect a significant
improvement or just a slight improvement? Or would I really require a newer good-quality
LCD or plasma TV to really see the benefits from HD DVD?
Sanjay
I say go for it. If your TV does in fact have 1080i
capabilities over component, then you are set. Your TV may not be as advanced as some of
the newer TVs available, but the picture you will experience with HD DVD will be far
superior to that of standard DVDs and make your current TV look better than it ever has.
You can always try the new HD DVD player on your existing TV and see the results for
yourself. If the picture doesn’t totally satisfy you, then perhaps you should look
for a new TV. In addition, if you have a receiver that has multichannel inputs, you can
also experience the new sound formats, bringing the HD experience even closer to the scale
you may have enjoyed in the theater. Let us know how it goes….Randall Smith
HT review of Mirage OM Design OMD-28s?
April 11, 2007
To Doug Schneider,
I read your review of the
Mirage OM Design OMD-28 on SoundStage! A/V. They sound like amazing speakers.
Will you be reviewing the home-theater system soon?
Kevin Waller
I am thinking about reviewing the whole system
because I was so impressed with the OMD-28s. However, I can also tell you that if I do, it
won’t be soon. I don’t even have the speakers here. I’ll talk to Mirage,
though, and see what they say….Doug Schneider
Oppo connection?
April 5, 2007
To Wes Marshall,
I truly appreciate your reviews. I just purchased the Oppo DV-
981HD on impulse because of the outstanding reviews. Then it finally dawned on me
after more extensive reading that it does not have component connection and requires an
HDMI connection. Neither my receiver (Arcam AVR-300) nor TV (Sony KDF-60XBR950) has an
HDMI connector. Is there a way to get the highest-quality output from the Oppo without an
HDMI connection?
Dr. Bill Healey
The short answer is no. Sorry. With the advent of HDMI
1.3, you'll be wanting HDMI capability on both your processor and your display. So use the
'981's S-video output, which will give you 90% of the value, and wait it out until you are
ready to trade up….Wes Marshall
Paradigm and JL Audio
April 2, 2007
To Randall Smith,
Did you ever have the chance to compare the Paradigm
Servo-15 v.2 with the JL Audio
Fathom f113? Or did you hear them apart? Please let me know. I’m looking for a
tight, dry and very quick low end. These speakers are hard to find here in Europe. Can you
help me out with you’re experience?
Alex
No, I have never had the opportunity to hear the
Paradigm Servo-15 v.2, much less in the presence of the f113, so unfortunately I cannot
compare the two. However, I can speak to the build quality of the Servo sub. Last November
I witnessed the birth of one at the Paradigm facility. I recently reviewed the Paradigm
UltraCube 10, the only Paradigm sub I have had in my system for a long period of time.
While being a small cube, it still provided exceptional low-end performance. I can only
imagine how good Paradigm’s reference sub can be. On the other hand, I am still
having a love affair with my JL Audio f113, which is my reference subwoofer. You cannot go
wrong either way. I am not sure that JL Audio is shipping overseas at this point, so
hearing one may be next to impossible unless you travel to the States….Randall Smith |
