My Pioneer System

[admin_exported]

For those who have asked.....

AV Stand & TV arrived. Still using old yamaha amp, panny dvd recorder, sky box and mordaunt short speakers

Pioneer Amp, blu-ray player & Tannoy speakers arrive (oh and sky hd as well)

Viewed from usual viewing position (settee at back of room)

and now the rear speakers and the sub arrive to complete the picture.

 

[Deleted member 2457]

Nice

, interesting where you put your sub, my sub is inbetween my centre and right speaker.

What made you decide on this combination with the pioneer amp? Was a demo? or did you hear they would be a good combination?

What do they all sound like together?

Thanks

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks Gel. Where you have your sub is probably ideal. But I couldn't put the sub between my speakers as when the room door is opened it would hit either the sub or the speaker. As a compromise It works quite well at the back of the room (and its out of the way). It is quite a powerful sub (1000w) so it does throw a decent "noise" out. The train crash on knowing is just truly sofa shaking.

As for why I went for pioneer and tannoy. Well initially I wanted the lx5090 tv, but then when the KRP-500a came out I saved up some more and went for that. However I just couldn't get one and scared of not being able to get a kuro at all I bit the bullet & went for the 600A (really glad i did now). Superfi were doing an offer on the LX71 blu-ray and LX81 amp, which I had read many many good things about. I didn't audition them. I just ordered. Bit daft I know. But I liked the thought of them all being from the same manufacturer and also the "only one remote" appealed to me. However it took Superfi ages to get the stock in (not their fault, same as everywhere at the time. No one could get LX81's anywhere). So in the interim I went to listen to it at a friendly local dealer (it was a very slow monday afternoon and he was bored too so stayed ages). I knew I had a made a good choice then.

Then I decided at some point in the future I would have to upgrade my mordaunt short speakers to be able to cope with the extra power of the LX81. WHSV had the LX5090, the LX81 amp, the denon 2500 blu-ray and the DC4 Tannoy revolutions as their recommended high end system (at the time). To cut a long story short (probably too late now) I plumped for the larger more powerful DC6's but upgraded the rears to the highline 500's & the sub to the sunfire (which not only looks gorgeous but is very small). The dealer I bought the speakers from did me a deal where he virtually matched superfi's price for me and I cancelled the superfi order and got the amp and blu-ray from him (albeit the LX08 instead of the LX71).

How does it sound? I'll be honest. It took a few weeks to run in. Probably the speakers more than anything else. But it honestly looks and sounds totally amazing. Many times you can't actually tell which speaker the sound is coming from. It really envelopes you. The components look great at night too. They have that great dimmed blue glow to them.

I still tinker a bit. Occasionally I'll mess with the MCACC settings or add a power cable but by and large that's it done now. Be another 10 years before I buy any more home cinema kit.

My only caveat is HI-Fi. I don't have room in my room for a separate hi-fi system. AV amps aren't as good as dedicated stereo amps and so maybe sometime next year I will buy a decent stereo amp and cd player and hook that up to the front speakers.

 

[Deleted member 2457]

Thanks for that Barnsleydave.

When my new system was set up, that was where the sub was put because I had my old one to the left of the right speaker and slightly in front.. But now I have got used to the new way and have just left it there.

The pioneer amps and the speaker match always interests me because I had a few problems myself.

I saw the match with the tannoys in what hfi fi and always wondered what it would sound like.

I see they are now recommending some montor audio pacakge as well with the pioneer amps.

I like the way the components look as well.

I think we brought our system's at the right time. I can't see the price we paid for our amp being that way for a long time and the blu ray player's have gone down hill.

And of course you got your tv at the right time too.

Thanks

 

[Anonymous]

NICE!!!!!! ;-)

I have a question about systems run-in times etc... How do you know the system is working properly? Is it really such a massive difference between out of the box and after the run-in period? How can you tell? You listen to the system every day so all the changes are happening slowly and you shouldn't be able to hear the difference or is it really so big that there is no way you won't noticed? I mean it has to be subtle but long process from what I can understand. So how you can spot the difference.... hmmm....

 

[Anonymous]

Thank you Stone.

Very good question. Personally I found Its is something which creeps up on you. So yes it does happen slowly. Don't get me wrong the system sounded fine when first plugged in. Everything was new. The only thing i didn't replace was a subwoofer cable.

I think "fine" was a good description of my initial thoughts. It didn't blow me away. It wasn't rubbish. It was just fine. If I'm being honest I was probably a tad disappointed as it cost so much money compared to my outgoing system. I think one day I just remember thinking "god that sounded good". Throughout that run-in period I also "messed about" quite a bit with the audio settings and the biggest difference in sound quality came after I changed all my speaker settings to small. But even taking that into account it is a gradual process. I don't think (well I couldn't) you can just listen to it one day and suddenly notice its 50% better than it was the day before.

 

[Anonymous]

Very nice setup...I reeeeeaally wish I had gone for the DC6Ts rather than the DC4Ts. Even more loveliness to look at, never mind any sonic improvement!

 

[Anonymous]

I don't think there are massive differences between the DC4's and 6's Accies (I'm not offering to swap btw). Obviously a bit taller with larger cones and larger power output. But you aren't going to notice that unless you turn your volume up quite loud. The thing that swayed it for me was apparently there is a big difference when you bi-amp the front speakers (which i have done). Other than that don't forget the DC4 were quite recently the WHSV high-end home-cinema best buy package.

 

[Anonymous]

what cable do you need to bi-amp the fronts? It is standard biwire cable (4 lines on both sides)?

 

[Anonymous]

Yes the cable with 4 lines on each side. I use Chord Rumour 4

 

[Anonymous]

One more thing Barnsleydave,

What cable do I need to connect my sub. I mean what is the output from the amp? Input on the sub will be the same no matter which sub I will go for? I think I am settling on B&W 610XP.... I live in a flat so don't need really big box, and as far as I can see from the comments, 610XP has plenty of power and depth. I just want to buy all necessary cables so when speakers arrive I have everything to connect....

 

[Anonymous]

Good sub from the reports I've read. And yes it would be annoying to get all your kit delivered an not have any way of connecting it all together. Digressing but my amp arrived without a powercable and I had to shoot out and buy one.

Anyway there are plenty of good sub cables around. In all fairness they are only glorified phono to phone cables. I use a QED Performance Miniature. One of the deciding factors apart from it being a good cable is that its a very small cable (hence the name). My sub is at the back of the room, as you can see, so I needed something that would fit between under the carpet, between the carpet grippers and the wall, which this does very well. Mark Grant also does some very good subwoofer cable. in fact all his cables are rumoured to be very good (and not expensive).

 

[Anonymous]

Fantastico!

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks Barnsleydave,

Is there a way of sending here PM's... I will have quite a few question for you (if you don't mind) as our set-up's are simmilar and don't want to carry on with this thread. Is it possible to exchange e-mails or something?

Thanks,

 

[Anonymous]

stone28:
Thanks Barnsleydave,

Is there a way of sending here PM's... I will have quite a few question for you (if you don't mind) as our set-up's are simmilar and don't want to carry on with this thread. Is it possible to exchange e-mails or something?

Thanks,

Stone - There isn't a PM system on this site. I have sent a mail to WHSV. In the meantime if its anything pressing please ask here. Just a warning, I'm no techo-geek. There are lots of things I don't know. But I'll help if I can.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks Barnsleydave,

It's I just that I am sure I will have a lot of questions about how to connect everything.. It's coming on Friday so whole weekend for setting it all up. I think I might go for than Mark Grand sub cable, and then some more Chord Carnival SilverScreen (as that is the one I already have for the rear speakers under my floor).

Anyway, how exactly I have to connect front speakers in Bi-Amping mode. I know I have to use extra two speakers' terminals from 7.1 system, right? And then, while doing auto calibration of the amp will it know that it's not 7.1 but that the front is "bi-Amped"?

Before doing auto-calibration on the amp do I have to set up sub (I think they also have some auto tune/calibration or something as well? Hmm, I just want to gather as much information as possible so I can do everything straight away.

Thanks.

 

[Anonymous]

Anothe thing.....

Are you using Kuro Link, one remote etc...?

 

[Anonymous]

Ok. First thing just Dave will do. Yes I don't have a problem helping you out ref connections etc. It can be daunting.

Probably a typo but its mark grant nor mark grand.

Just remind me again of your tv, amp, speakers and any sources (dvd, blu-ray, sky, etc) you are getting?

If its a pioneer amp (especially LX71/81/82) telling it you are going to bi-amp is fairly easy. I can explain that once you have confirmed the make of your amp. The short answer is yes. The auto-calibration knows you have a bi-amped system (once you have told it).

I'm not familiar with your sub but I'm sure its not impossible to figure out how we do that. So again we'll sort that out.

Just one thing if you are going to bi-amp you will need 4-4 speaker cable instead of 2-2. Chord Carnival Silverscreen is 2-2 cable (2 connections each end as opposed to 4 at each end). Bit of a bombshell but it is about 2-3 times more expensive.

Oh and I have kuro-link turned off but I can still control the pioneer tv, amp and blu-ray player all from the amps remote control. Only other remote I needed was the sky remote.

 

[Deleted member 2457]

Barnsleydave,

How did you upload your photos here.

I see you and bigboss have done it now, I was thinking about doing the same.

Is it easy? How do you go about it?

Thanks

 

[Anonymous]

gel:
Barnsleydave,

How did you upload your photos here.

I see you and bigboss have done it now, I was thinking about doing the same.

Is it easy? How do you go about it?

Thanks

Not straight forward. Try this link. make sure pics are saved as no larger than 400 x 400. Mine were 400 x 300

http://community.whathifi.com/forums/1/267165/ShowThread.aspx

 

[Anonymous]

OK, so my system will be TV as you can see in my sig, Pioneer SC-LX-82 amp, Pioneer BDP-51FD Blu-Ray Player and tannoys 6 front and dc4 rear + B&W610xp sub. I will buy few HDMI, maybe new mains. sub probably from Mark G (sorry for typo), thinking what's better £5 speaker cable and bi-amping (Chord Silverscreen bi-wire version 4-4) or standard stereo cable but higher quality - something like yours (question in my other thread). What else....... I hope everything will be fine... Ohh yes.... Speakers stands..... They are all so small (short)!!!!! If they are 60cm height, the speaker will be almost below my ear level (or on the level) and I know it should be higher then ear level.... Not sure how to do it... They all seem to be standard height 50cm-60cm..... which is really short.....

 

[Anonymous]

OK, You won't believe it!!!!! Tannoy is out of stock!!!! Why it always happens to me!?

 

[Deleted member 2457]

Why don't you try the Monitor Audio Silver AX6 AV12 speaker package with you pioneer amp, it is suppose to be a good match.

 

[Anonymous]

You know how it is (at least with me).. Once you set your mind on something, it's difficult to change it later.