Halo p5 A21 and Totem Forests

[schmendrick]

I have always had Avr’s as I love home theater and movies. The Avr: Pioneer Elite vsx94txh powering Boston Acoustic VR975, VR12 and Infinity Quadpoles for surrounds. I stream music and movies from a netgear stora to my ps3 feeding my Pioneer Elite Plasma. I don’t have a dedicated room. It’s a wide open floor plan. I have speakers spaced 9 feet apart no toe in and I sit 15 feet away as this is what my current layout in room dictates.

I have switched gears a bit and gone into separates for music. My new gear: Parasound Halo p5 and the A21 Amp and almost forgot, I also have a new pair of Totem Forests as I have retired The VR975’s that served me very well for 12+ years.

So here are my questions:

1. The p5 has no room correction, so how to best optimize sound balance. I find most dominate speaker is the left one. When I use bypass to my avr that does have room correction the sound is more balanced. I am using avr in pure direct mode (I believe all room correction is disabled in avr when in this mode) and it sounds better than the p5.
2. I also pulled out of mothballs a Denon dcm 270 for cd playback connected to the p5 analogue inputs. I know it’s probably not the best transport but its all I have currently. I have been reading up on the Oppo bdp 105 and 103 and am considering purchasing one of these just not sure which one would best suit my needs with my existing equipment. Any suggestions here much appreciated.
3. On the p5 is there a difference which input is used? Say Optical or Analogue. With ps3 I have both outputs being used, well actually all 3 being used HDMI to Avr and optical and analogue out to their respective inputs on the p5. I can’t notice a difference personally.

I thank you all in advance for your help with this as I know what this setup is capable of.

Regards,
Mike

[madmac]

I have always had Avr’s as I love home theater and movies. The Avr: Pioneer Elite vsx94txh powering Boston Acoustic VR975, VR12 and Infinity Quadpoles for surrounds. I stream music and movies from a netgear stora to my ps3 feeding my Pioneer Elite Plasma. I don’t have a dedicated room. It’s a wide open floor plan. I have speakers spaced 9 feet apart no toe in and I sit 15 feet away as this is what my current layout in room dictates.

I have switched gears a bit and gone into separates for music. My new gear: Parasound Halo p5 and the A21 Amp and almost forgot, I also have a new pair of Totem Forests as I have retired The VR975’s that served me very well for 12+ years.

So here are my questions:

1. The p5 has no room correction, so how to best optimize sound balance. I find most dominate speaker is the left one. When I use bypass to my avr that does have room correction the sound is more balanced. I am using avr in pure direct mode (I believe all room correction is disabled in avr when in this mode) and it sounds better than the p5.
2. I also pulled out of mothballs a Denon dcm 270 for cd playback connected to the p5 analogue inputs. I know it’s probably not the best transport but its all I have currently. I have been reading up on the Oppo bdp 105 and 103 and am considering purchasing one of these just not sure which one would best suit my needs with my existing equipment. Any suggestions here much appreciated.
3. On the p5 is there a difference which input is used? Say Optical or Analogue. With ps3 I have both outputs being used, well actually all 3 being used HDMI to Avr and optical and analogue out to their respective inputs on the p5. I can’t notice a difference personally.

I thank you all in advance for your help with this as I know what this setup is capable of.

Regards,
Mike

Getting the Oppo player is a great choice, but expensive!. I'm not sure which model has the better DAC's, but in your case, I would go with the one with the better DAC's since this is a dedicated 2ch music setup. Send the analog out signal to your amp from the Oppo. Bare in mind that you would be paying a lot for both great audio AND video with the Oppo. This might not be the best choice if music playback is your main goal here. There are still plenty of super, stand alone CD players out there that will give you great 2ch playback as good as the Oppo for much less, but without the video.

In the case of the PS3 (Awesome piece of equipment!), I would use only the HDMI or optical out to your P5/amp since the DAC's in the PS3 are not that great. It is considered by many to be a benchmark for Blu ray playback and video quality. It also does a damn good job with DVD's as well!.

As for the speaker balance issue, since you have no room correction and sound balance options, you will have to make subtle changes in your speaker placement until you get the sound balanced the way you like it. Totem's are great speakers and small changes in speaker placement will produce dramatic results.

[schmendrick]

Madmac.......

Thanks for your response and suggestions. I am in the process of moving my speakers around bit by bit and the sound is becoming more balanced, so thanks for that tip.
Would you say the dacs are better in the oppo than the ones used in the p5 and if so could I just use the oppo as a pre amp. Or if I was to keep the p5 how would I best integrate the oppo into my system. I guess if I buy the bdp105 I could remove the ps3 from my setup as well.

[madmac]

Yes....you would not need the PS3 anymore unless you are into gaming. The Oppo will out perform the PS3 in both audio and video performance. I would send the analog signals to your amp from the Oppo via good RCA patch cords. It's DAC's are superior to those within your equipment. I had a chance to fiddle with the Oppo once and it's quite the piece of hardware!. Make sure you read the rather extensive manual to get the most out of it. It's also rather large so make sure you make room for it in your setup!!.