805s

[monk_d_syple]

Hi can people with 805s, who are very happy with them (I know there is a battle in anoher thread between 5s and 4s) detail their setup.

room size
pre amps/proc/rec
power amps


I want to ask my dealer to set up for me different options in the store and eventually choose the best. I currently own 604s and they aren't doing it for me music wise. They aren't working in my room size 4 by 5. Oh btw, I'm 50/50 for music and vids. I therefore would be more interested with people who have an HT setup. Please include your Centre spk


Pros and cons of your setups would also be appreciated.

Thanks.

Karma, I'm hoping you'll participate.

thanks all

[JKalman]

Do a search, this subject has been beaten to death in the last month. There should be one thread not too far off the first page of threads if you look a little tiny bit...

Good luck.

[Karma]

HI Jeff,
We agree again. Twice in one day. Were on a run 8) 8) .

Monk,
Jeff's right. Do a search. I seem to be the 805S champion around here. If, after you have read the various threads, you still have questions I'll be happy to respond. Especially, do a search on Pocket Rocket for a very good pro and con discussion between me and Rebelman.

He just can't admit defeat.

Sparky

[RebelMan]

Especially, do a search on Pocket Rocket for a very good pro and con discussion between me and Rebelman.

He just can't admit defeat.

Sparky

Hey Karma, you've just "Sparked" my interest! :lol:

It's becoming quite obvious that self indulgence is becoming a regular staple around here lately. Enjoy yourself.

[monk_d_syple]

Hi I've gone thru the pocket rocket thread. You stated your B&W setup but you didn't state what you were using to drive them etc. Interesting post, I'm really looking forward to testing them. Well I'll keep reading. Feel free to post your setups tho if you wish. I'm still very bewildered as to how some people in this forum can have 800 towers in such tiny rooms. How do the ears cope with the bass?

[Guy]

My room is 3x4m. 805s work very well in my room even close to the rear wall (43cm from back of speaker to rear wall). I have adjusted my sub for flat in room response.

Using Musical Fidelity A5 CD Player and A300 Amp. You may want to look at the A5 amp since A300 is discontinued.

Pros - Sounds awesome. I don't feel the need to upgrade for now as I am currently achieving what I believe to be the ultimate musical experience however my views will probably change once I listen to the 802Ds.

Cons- Spend less time with my Wife :E which I think is a con

[JKalman]

Hi I've gone thru the pocket rocket thread. You stated your B&W setup but you didn't state what you were using to drive them etc. Interesting post, I'm really looking forward to testing them. Well I'll keep reading. Feel free to post your setups tho if you wish. I'm still very bewildered as to how some people in this forum can have 800 towers in such tiny rooms. How do the ears cope with the bass?

I'm using 802Ds, don't know if my setup will be much help to you, but here it is... My Room dimensions are 14' x 36', I'm using the 14' wall as my front wall currently but I am moving the setup to the other side of my office where I will have 18' x 36'. My speakers are currently 8' off the front wall to deal with the TV interference. They are 3 feet from the sidewalls. This makes them around 6.3-7' apart from each other (I don't feel like remeasuring for this post since I am going to switch everything around soon enough anyway). I sit around 8' back from the speakers.

This is my current gear:

B&W 802Ds
Bryston 9B SST
Bryston SP1.7
Denon DVD-5910
Ayre C-5xe (being shipped soon)
Xbox 360
HD DirecTV
Sony XBR 36" flat screen tube TV (I'm currently in the process of divorcing the TV equipment from the audio equipment because until I have a front projector the Tube TV interferes heavily with the depth and cohesiveness of the soundstage.)

Gear on my short list:

Ayre V-1xe (will order this next month or the month after)
Ayre K-1xe (will order this in 5-6 months)
Sony VPL-VW100
AKG K 701s or Sennheiser HD 650s
Benchmark DAC1 or Sugden Headmaster or... (When I finish getting the Ayre items I will likely get headphones and headphone amp/preamp/DAC to listen to music in bed without annoying the wife.)

[JKalman]

As far as I am concerned though, I will be happy to stop buying equipment for awhile after getting the Ayre amp and preamp. I have demoed items costing up to three times the price that I didn't think surpassed the sound of those two pieces of equipment mated with the Ayre C-5xe (all connected with XLR cables).

[audioqueso]

As far as I am concerned though, I will be happy to stop buying equipment for awhile after getting the Ayre amp and preamp.

:rofl: yeah right... don't we all say that? Next thing you know, we want something else. lol

[Karma]

HI Monk,
I'm glad you worked your way through the thread. I thought it was a good one.

I use kind of a strange setup which is why I didn't want to get into it on that thread which was focused on the speakers. I have a Krell KAV280P stereo preamp, a Krell 3250 three channel power amp for the front main and center speakers. I use a Denon 3805 AV receiver for decoding and to power the surround speakers. A Denon DVD3910 plays the shiny disks.

The speakers are 805S L & R front and an HTM4S for the center. I recently bought SCMS's for the surrounds in a 5.1 configuration. I have dual ASW800 subs.

My bedroom is 15 X 12 X 8 feet, rather small for an HT system. The room is treated with 3 ASC tube traps and informal, wool wall hangings and thick carpet. The speakers fire across the the 12 foot dimension. The front speakers are about 3 feet out from the front wall and about 4 feet from the side walls and are about 6 1/2 feet apart.

For movies I sit about 6 feet from the front speakers, kind of close but it works well. For music I move back to about 9 feet. The room setup is really optimized for music. Surrounds are mounted on the rear wall. I have a 42 inch plasma between the front speakers with the center speaker mounted over the TV.

I'd love to say all this was scientifically determined but, in truth, I did not have many options. It does work pretty well.

Don't hesitate if you need more info.

Sparky

[george_k]

JKalman,

You might want to try out a pair of grado's cans. Although, I don't know if you've already narrowed it down to the seinheisers or the akg's but I'm sure you'll find all the information you need over at head-fi.org

[monk_d_syple]

Thanks guy this is very handy. My room is about 13"*9". Or in meters 5 by 4. It also quite small, this is why I feel like the 805s would work for me. This is going to be a long term project for me and I doubt I will be upgrading after this if I end up happy. This is why I'm going to take my time, research, test and come up with something very good and affordable. I know a bit about music fidelity, I own a few monos from them. I don't know much about Krell except that they are quite expensive. I'm thinking of testing Rotels 1098 proc and 1095 amps. Followed by Classé ssp300 proc with CA-3200 power amps. It seems that a lot of people around here have these setups. The Rotels always have the same comments (great for price). But this can be very misleading. I'm going to test these 2 first and then maybe Krell. Hey Karma do you have pics of your layout? That would be great if you don't mind sharing. Others can post theirs too. I know it's been done before, but that thread is huge. If you can lead me to the page that would work too.

Finally, I'm thinking of having the 2 805s matched with the 805's cntr HTHMS4. I am not sure if I'll be going for subs yet. I know 805s need subs. But for a guy with mono Jazz CDs would a sub change much? For movies, right now, I pretty much turn my sub to very very low. Action movies are not my thing. I'm also not thrilled with surround in my little space. Just not worth it for me. What do you think? Suggestions, criticisms are appreciated. WHat's important for me clarity and detail, music and movies. Oh Karma how good is the Denon 3806(i think)? I've heard a lot inconsistent comments on it. It could save me money on the long run for surround and all, if I cave.

Cheers all.

[Karma]

HI Monk,
I'm planning to post some pictures as soon as I get around to taking them. Your space is small. This forum has some true experts on HT who can advise you better than me about the possibilities with your room. My main experience is with stereo systems. HT is much different with different challanges. I would post your room size questions on the Home Theater forum. I'll bet you will get some interesting answers.

I think you are on the right track with the 805S's. They are at their best in small spaces like yours or mine. As for subwoofers, they will not perform to their best because of the small space. I would probably go with a single 12" sub or none at all.

For the type of recordings you listen to I can't say. I have heard some older jazz recordings out of the 1950's that really surprised me with their quality. I would still get a sub simply because the 805S's need to have the lower octaves filled out. Remember, a double bass will go down to around 30Hz which will be ignored by the 805S which rolls off below 60Hz and doesn't have much useful output below 50Hz. Don't skimp too much on the sub. A bad sub is worse than no sub.

The Denon I have is the 3805. I think it is very good sounding with no bad habits, will have plenty of power for your needs, and is filled with nice features. But it is a 7 channel receiver designed for surround sound use. If you don't go with surround then you may be wasting your money on capability you will not use. I like it a lot.

When I first started putting this system together I used the 3805 to drive the 805S's as well as all the other speakers in the surround setup. It did very well but, naturally, it is not a Krell. The Krell stuff came into my system about 2 months after I started so I had a good chance to evaluate the Denon. For the money I think it is hard to beat. I think you will get many different opinions about the right receiver on this forum. The best thing to do is to go out and listen to the prime candidates.

Sparky

[JKalman]

I had a 3805 for 2 weeks before returning it to buy separates. If I recall it doesn't have to be used as a 7.1 setup if you don't want to use it for 7.1. You can use two channels for a separate room or separate stereo channels if you choose, or you can use those two channels for bi-amping as well. Those are two alternatives to a flat out 7.1 system setup with the 3805.

[Karma]

HI Jeff,
I think you are right but it's not entirely obvious from the manual especially the biamping which Denon does not endorse.

Jeff, do you think a person would do best buying a stereo receiver for stereo use or use a receiver like the 3805 in a stereo mode? The cost of a typical Denon range 7.1 receiver is not terribly expensive. As you said, it seems like it would be a good stereo solution.

Sparky

[monk_d_syple]

Hi guys. Interesting. My plan is to have a 3 fronts and no backs (lack of room). FR C FL. I won't have a choice but to buy a processor or receiver. I'm doing this for DOLBY Digital over stereo when watching DVDs. I prefer having a center for dialogue. What do u think? Would this work ok? My setup (processor/rec and amps) will be considered for future speaker addition.

[asrovnal]

Sparky - Denon DOES endorse bi-amping with the 3806, the instructions are on page 72 of ther OI. They have made it a simple procedure using the OSD. The back suround amps can be assigned to Front for bi-amping, Front B for another two channel stero output for another room, or left as surround back amps. You had better look again at Denon.

[JKalman]

HI Jeff,
I think you are right but it's not entirely obvious from the manual especially the biamping which Denon does not endorse.

Jeff, do you think a person would do best buying a stereo receiver for stereo use or use a receiver like the 3805 in a stereo mode? The cost of a typical Denon range 7.1 receiver is not terribly expensive. As you said, it seems like it would be a good stereo solution.

Sparky

I would think it would depend on the speakers. If you had high quality speakers, I would go with a higher end pieces of equipment, separate preamp/amp, possibly even monoblocks if you can spend that much. That is what I am doing with my 802Ds, getting the Ayre V-1xe and K-1xe, as you know. I think you would get more from a dedicated stereo setup since the Denon is meant for HT and probably sacrifices quality in the stereo department to be good at being an all around HT receiver at a low price point. For the price it definitely gives you a lot of technology. Some people aren't that critical of stereo sound quality and the Denon is a great piece for them. My wife is one of those people; she doesn't take the time to notice the difference between the car stereo and my 802D setup in my office...

I thought the Denon was great with the Polk surround speakers I had, which I was using as a surround system for my Macintosh computer with the Macintosh acting as the source component. It was pretty good for a computer surround system, and it was fun to play games on it, but I returned it to use the money for higher end equipment. I think it will drive most speakers though. I'm not sure of the sound quality on higher end speakers. I have never experimented with it on higher end speakers. I plan on buying something like this again for the next PC I build once I finish putting my audio system together with all the Ayre gear. I have to decide whether I will go with a front projector for gaming consoles, or whether I will build myself a new monster gaming machine with watercooling and overclocking.

If I do the computer, then I will probably buy a 3805 used, since the 3806 has problems I heard, and some cheap 1k polk surround speakers, and get ready for all the next generation FPSs, MMORPGs, and FPSMMORPGs. I guess another consideration is that if I wait a little longer I might be able to hook my next computer up to the front projector and get really decent resolutions, making both mutually inclusive.

Denon gives you instructions for bi-amping in the manual or on their website if I remember correctly, don't they? I don't remember if they endorse it, I think they do give instructions, but it is so long ago, I may be wrong about that.

[JKalman]

Hi guys. Interesting. My plan is to have a 3 fronts and no backs (lack of room). FR C FL. I won't have a choice but to buy a processor or receiver. I'm doing this for DOLBY Digital over stereo when watching DVDs. I prefer having a center for dialogue. What do u think? Would this work ok? My setup (processor/rec and amps) will be considered for future speaker addition.

I don't see why it wouldn't work.

If you can't put surround speakers into your system because of space, you should consider looking at some of the virtual surround systems on the market. If you have the right shaped room, symmetrical, you can use some virtual surround systems to manipulate the audio timing and bounce the audio signals off the side walls and the back wall so that you hear sounds behind you if you set it up correctly. Yamaha has one, and for other companies I would check on the Dolby website to see if they endorse anyone, or do a search on google and see if any of the systems are getting any recognition for actually working well.

I'm not sure how well some of them work. The Yamaha one worked suprisingly well when I demo-ed one as a consideration for my Master bedroom plasma screen, but our bed is too close to the wall so it wouldn't have worked well for my wife and I.

[Karma]

HI asrovnal,
Maybe for the 3806 of which I have no specific knowledge. I own the the 3805. I think it is also possible with my unit but I read that Denon does not endorse the procedure for my 3805 due to the possibility of introducing noise. I don't have an opinion because I have not tried it. The biamping procedure is not in the manual.

Once again, I own the 3805 not the 3806 as clearly stated above.

Sparky

[asrovnal]

Progress!