2. home-theater
  3. 1202910048

What to upgrade in an exsisting HT setup

Hello, I have posted few threads up here and not really sure where to start. I currently have a home-theater setup that consists of audiowise, an Odyssey Stratos Extreme for my 2 main stereo channels/HT fronts, a Parasound HCA-855A for my center and surround channels, an Outlaw 950 for my pre-processor-tuner needs, an Adcom GCD-575 CD player. For speakers I have Infinity Kappa 8.1's series II for the front 2 channels, Infinity for the center, Klipsch Synergy B3's for my side surrounds, and Bose Acoustimass double jewel cubes for my rear surrounds. For my sub I am getting ready to replace, looking at an SVS 10" sub.

Now after saying all of that. I want to open up the detail of my music to get closer to the musicians per se. I have had an idea of adding a Belles Soloist 3 as HT Bypass, but not sure that I want to swallow $750 price tag. MY QUESTION is what would be the best idea on how to open up the music detail or what do I upgrade first? I am leaning and wanting something that is neutral in the sound. Maybe looking for other alternatives other than the Belles. But also keep in mind I have come from an Adcom amp to the Odyssey amp, I want to KEEP the Odyssey and build the system around that. Does Odyssey build a pre-w/HT Bypass? Any ideas? Anyone?

Thanks,

Boat
boat
ckoffend
684 posts
 
With regard to placement, you can impact the sound very substantially via speaker placement. If you are getting your initial reflections at your seating position based on the present location of your speakers, you will loose potentially quite a bit of detail due to the smearing type affect. Frequently this can be addressed with rather minute changes in the speaker placement (inches) and also via toe-in to eliminate some of these initial reflections/timing issues. Cheap and easy to play around with and sometimes the impact is huge. If you adhere to the Wilson rule of speaker placement, incremental moves of even less than an inch can have noticeable impact/change to the sound.
boat OP
6 posts
 
Oh, okay, I didn't know that. I will angle them slightly toward my chair. Right now they are facing straight forward. Thanks for the tip, Ckoffend. We'll see how that sounds.
ckoffend
684 posts
 
Boat, you want the side wall reflections to cross paths either behind you or well infront of you. If these reflections cross paths at your seating position you brain will have a more difficult time adjusting for this and the counter phase signals will cancel each other and you will get smearing. Between toe-in and other very small incremental movement you can correct for this and then determine if you really need more highly resolving equipment or if it was just placement.
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