My Journey to Audio Nirvana

[rksingh1]

Bi-amped the LR they will over power the center channel.

I have tried changing this - no effect. Do we know where the Audio setting or Video settings option is in Prime Video? I searched - could find anywhere. Was hoping to play around with changing audio to stereo, or something else and see if that helps?

What are the chances of it to be with cable? Considering it was all fine with LR, I doubt the HDMI cable is an issue.

 

[Love4sound]

I have tried changing this - no effect. Do we know where the Audio setting or Video settings option is in Prime Video? I searched - could find anywhere. Was hoping to play around with changing audio to stereo, or something else and see if that helps?

What are the chances of it to be with cable? Considering it was all fine with LR, I doubt the HDMI cable is an issue.

Well my observation is that audio will be very weak in both NF and prime so cant blame the gear. And also i have tested playing NF, prime contents from PS4, Blu ray player, Shield and firestick. Firestick had very low volume output compared to ps4 and blu ray player. Cable you don't need them to be high end or expensive. Based on my observation NF and prime you cant expect the bright and dynamic sound stage in a HT set up. I just use them in my mobile during travel.

 

[Srinivasa Rao]

Well my observation is that audio will be very weak in both NF and prime so cant blame the gear. And also i have tested playing NF, prime contents from PS4, Blu ray player, Shield and firestick. Firestick had very low volume output compared to ps4 and blu ray player. Cable you don't need them to be high end or expensive. Based on my observation NF and prime you cant expect the bright and dynamic sound stage in a HT set up. I just use them in my mobile during travel.

Probably what you state about Netflix and Prime audio is true. I have tried Baahubali movie on Netflix and it has low volume and the same movie blueray downloaded on external hard drive and played with Kodi has excellent audio quality. So it has to do with streaming input too.

 

[RajithKumar]

Ur centre is off axis ...Try to locate it in center (equidistant between Front L & R,Ur case u may need to move ur Front right further far away ) .Then do the YPAO calibration .
Play a original source content ( either Blu-ray or BR Rips) which have good screen / dialogue presence.
Try to adjust the cross over settings of Center channel and try to listen it.

 

[rksingh1]

I turned off all the sound processing in the X96 mini - there were two places where it was processing it and that seemed to have helped 50%. I am still not extremely happy with dialogues - but I can live with it.

I did one stupid thing BTW. I tried to add a cheap subwoofer to this setup. I got myself Yamaha NS-SW050 for 10k during amazong sale and I hoped it'll give me some more depth to lower notes. Turned out to be disaster. Either I got a faulty subwoofer or it is a total piece of sh*t.

Unboxing and total review is here. Jump to 5-6 mins for listening to the test audio and how bad the bass is. I returned it immediately.

I was hoping to get a simple, inexpensive decent sub - but I guess I'll need to take that jump to 50k category.

 

[Deleted member 15865]

I am not into HT, but can’t help appreciate how you’ve gone lengths at documenting your experience and impressions. You seem to have a passion for it.

 

[rksingh1]

I added TataSky Binge to the setup on Saturday.

My tatasky was due for a recharge. When I opened the app - i got a pop up for free one month with Binge. This was around 2:30 in the afternoon. I clicked yes for it and went about recharging the Tatasky. By 4:30pm, same day, a person came with brand new Amazon Fire stick with Tata sky branding and installed it. I was amazed with the speed of it. In two hours, I had it up and running.

Anyway - not very impressed with it. Audio problem continued with Fire stick. I had to disable Dolby audio in settings to get a respectable audio. I fail to see why would I have to disable it. Also - surprisingly, I found that Fire stick heavy-processes the video. I saw bit of grainyness / excessive sharpness on the videos displayed by the TV. The same MI4 played with better image processing from Android TV box.

I liked the interface of the device and how easy it is to navigate/consume media - but I am not excited with its audio / video features. Played Hotstar and Hungama too - they seemed better. The audio search happens only in Prime Video. Thankfully, there was a video option to make the quality high/medium/low. Nothing much for audio.

Here is the video:

 

[rksingh1]

So almost after one year, I added a sub to my setup. It is Rythmik L12 - thanks to the group buy initiative. I had no intentions of getting the Rythmik - I joined the group just to see and read the experience. Ended up placing the order in March and sub was eventually delivered in May with all the lockdown scare.

The setup and initial experience is here:

Since then - the setup has matured a lot and sub is sounding way better. I am extremely happy with how well it has integrated with the rest of the setup. The bass feels to be coming alive and it is lot more lively now. Music and movies, both the expereinces have gotten better.

With that - my all major expenses are done. All I need is 2 surround and 2 atmos speakers. They are relatively cheap - but configuring them in my house is a HUGE challenge. For now - it continues to be 3.1 setup for me.

 

[Love4sound]

So almost after one year, I added a sub to my setup. It is Rythmik L12 - thanks to the group by initiative. I had no intention of getting the Rythmik - I joined the group just to see and read the experience. Ended up placing the order in March and sub was eventually delivered in May.

The setup and initial experience is here:

Since then - the setup has matured a lot and sub is sounding way better. I am extremely happy with how will it has integrated with the rest of the setup. The bass feels to be coming alive and it is lot more lively now. Music and movies, both the expereinces have gotten better.

With that - my all major expenses are done. All I need is 2 surround and 2 atmos speakers. They are relatively cheap - but configuring them in my house is a HUGE challenge. For now - it continues to be 3.1 setup for me.

Congrats. Try to add surrounds atleast. 3.1 is more or less a notch above sound bar set up. 5.1 should give you a good home theatre experience.

 

[argentum246]

Thanks @rksingh1 for being the part of group buy .. Rythmik has capability to make ppl happy despite their room sizes . It just extends capabilities of the fronts and center mid and low range to a more authoritative sound and when it comes to growl the evil look in our eyes when friends and family jump from the sudden slam is icing on the cake. 20hz to 40hz is it’s sweet spot but friends do say it acts like a couch vibrator even at times. After center this is the most important piece that you should never ignore. No wonder it is one of best choice to test low notes around the music / theater studios of the world. Even for music be it classical or pop it never fails to amaze you.

 

[rksingh1]

I did a detailed review of Rythmik L12 after 2.5 months of use.

Overall - it is working great. I still need to add surrounds.

 

[rksingh1]

I thought it might be a good idea to do a long term review of the yamaha AVR 585.

Very happy with it so far. One reason could be that I have nothing else to compare it with, but nonetheless, good AVR in budget.

 

[rksingh1]

Added surround speakers to the setup. Taga 806S. Below is just the review of Taga speakers. I'll finish the setup of surrounds later and post a video of that.

 

[rksingh1]

Did a long term review of the Polk S55 speakers. Doing good job so far.

 

[rksingh1]

My 5.1 setup is running little interestingly for me.

The surrounding speakers are around 95 degree and 4 feet above ear level from sitting position. There are few things I am not sure of:

1. In my 5.1 setup, I get sound from all 5 speakers all the time I play anything from tata sky or prime. Is it how it's supposed to be?

2. While surround content plays as well, but there isn't that great surround feeling of bullet firing from side or cars going from one side to another. I get the feeling, but it isn't that prominent. However, surround sound tests from youtube play good with good effect.

3. When I am sitting in front of the TV, I get the feel audio coming straight, when I turn sideways, I feel the sound coming from the surround speakers. Is that usual with all of you?

 

[Love4sound]

My 5.1 setup is running little interestingly for me.

The surrounding speakers are around 95 degree and 4 feet above ear level from sitting position. There are few things I am not sure of:

1. In my 5.1 setup, I get sound from all 5 speakers all the time I play anything from tata sky or prime. Is it how it's supposed to be?

2. While surround content plays as well, but there isn't that great surround feeling of bullet firing from side or cars going from one side to another. I get the feeling, but it isn't that prominent. However, surround sound tests from youtube play good with good effect.

3. When I am sitting in front of the TV, I get the feel audio coming straight, when I turn sideways, I feel the sound coming from the surround speakers. Is that usual with all of you?

Getting sound from all speakers depend on the content. Check the input and output signal. Also check what DSP mode is set. The feeling that you are missing in bullet firing or cars going from side to side, could you confirm source and content details? There can be two reasons one is the content is weak and the other reason is not enough SPL in MLP.

 

[shinshya]

If you change the DSP mode(left and right arrow keys under the label PROGRAM on your Yamaha remote) to Auto you would get that 5.1 effect even on Tata Sky movies. I get it from my Yamaha 585 without any issues.

 

[RajithKumar]

My 5.1 setup is running little interestingly for me.

The surrounding speakers are around 95 degree and 4 feet above ear level from sitting position. There are few things I am not sure of:

1. In my 5.1 setup, I get sound from all 5 speakers all the time I play anything from tata sky or prime. Is it how it's supposed to be?

2. While surround content plays as well, but there isn't that great surround feeling of bullet firing from side or cars going from one side to another. I get the feeling, but it isn't that prominent. However, surround sound tests from youtube play good with good effect.

3. When I am sitting in front of the TV, I get the feel audio coming straight, when I turn sideways, I feel the sound coming from the surround speakers. Is that usual with all of you?

4 feet above ear level seems to be too much..I remember the surround speakers needs to be 1.25 times the height of your front speakers as per Dolby spec.Kindly check it , if possible try to bring it down.
Also to check surround speakers performance ,play some Bluray content or rips or demo clips...
THX demo clips have some good content to check your surround speakers performance.Try it.

 

[rksingh1]

I had done a stupid mistake. The distance parameter set in AVR was wrong - I had set it to be distance from AVR vs distance of speakers from me. Making that change improved the experience.

Auto mode is good too. I feel, it largely depends upon the source - Hotstar doesn’t have Dolby content and not all amazon videos are mastered for Dolby.

 

[deserteagle]

I had done a stupid mistake. The distance parameter set in AVR was wrong - I had set it to be distance from AVR vs distance of speakers from me. Making that change improved the experience.

Auto mode is good too. I feel, it largely depends upon the source - Hotstar doesn’t have Dolby content and not all amazon videos are mastered for Dolby.

Try these samples. If surround effect is still not good then there might be setup issues:

Dolby Atmos - Official Site

Take your music and entertainment to the next level with Dolby Atmos, a revolutionary spatial audio technology for the most immersive sound experience.

www.dolby.com