I'm a big proponent of AVS Forum, and over there, many people recommend room treatments.
The consensus there is that the following have the greatest impact on sound, from most impact to least impact: 1. The speakers. 2. The room and speaker placement. 3. The processing (DAC, preamp). 4. The amplification. 5. The cabling. ...with 1 and 2 having a much greater impact. I can vouch for this. Even though I've improved my processing and amplification, my system in my previous home sounded better due to better speaker placement and a more optimal space. The bad news is that room treatments aren't exactly out-of-the-box solutions. They require some research and experimentation and one solution doesn't work for everybody. One company that comes close is RealTraps: http://www.realtraps.com/ To test out whether room treatments would help your main listening area, put soft materials like pillows or blankets at the first reflection points. Another approach is equalization to improve frequency response, particularly for bass. But this is a band-aid solution - room treatments actually address the problem. However check out Room EQ Wizard: http://homepage.ntlworld.com/john.mulcahy/roomeq/index.html (free!) and the Behringer Feedback Destroyer Pro: http://www.behringer.com/DSP1124P/index.cfm?lang=ENG Setting up EQ is a little bit fiddly, but it can get rid of that bass boominess most systems usually have. And you probably won't find a sub-$1000 receiver that will make a large difference in your sound. zooropa320 wrote: > Thanks for the input skunk, ezkcdude & Mike. > > While I would love a retreat with a separate its not practical in my > current house. The closest thing to it right now is listening directly > at the pc with Klipsch ProMedia 5.1s (really only needed the 2.1s > though). > > As for the source files, I have ripped my collection using EAC and > encoded with LAME using the --alt-preset standard command line option. > I didn't do a true ABX comparison with FLAC but I listened to some > samples and read some research and decided MP3s were good enough for > me. Hopefully I don't upgrade my system so much that I can now tell > the difference! > > I purchased my system 4 years ago and that's the last time I did any > research on anything. Overall HT and music sounds decent but nothing > special. Not sure what my expectations should be, but I think it > should sound better than it does. Maybe it needs to be tuned in some > way or I need to experiment with the placement a bit but it sounds like > an average system (whatever that means) to me and on paper it seems like > it should sound above average and I would like to do something to > improve it if possible. > > Skunk - even though a separate setup isn't practical right now what > would you recommend for a decent 2-channel setup based on my listening > preferences? > > Based on the lack of suggestions (so far) to add other hardware > components it seems like another amp/pre-amp or dac would not make any > significant difference? Is there a "super receiver" which has great > internals which (practically) eliminates the need for separate > components? > > -- ___________________________________ Mark Lanctot ___________________________________ __________________________________________________________ Find your next car at http://autos.yahoo.ca _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
