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Thread: Well... I'm now an XR-55 owner...

  1. #31
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    Dec 2005
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    I am going to have to agree that the XR55 is bright and irritating. For the ones who don't think it sounds bright, I wish I could listen to yours because I want to know if there is something wrong.

    In order to remove that bright sound, I had to turn tbe treble down to -10. That made it much easier to listen to. Actually it sounds rather good with that setting. Almost like at 0 the treble it sounds like +10, and at -10 treble it sounds like it should at 0.

    Have any of you run SPL sweeps to see what sort of freq response your getting?

    I have tried it in 2 different rooms, with 6 different speakers.

  2. #32
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    Quote Originally Posted by darkhorror
    Have any of you run SPL sweeps to see what sort of freq response your getting?
    Yes, I've run many sweeps with differnet speakers in the same locations. Where are you getting peaks and dips?

    David

  3. #33
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    Mar 2005
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    Quote Originally Posted by darkhorror
    I am going to have to agree that the XR55 is bright and irritating. For the ones who don't think it sounds bright, I wish I could listen to yours because I want to know if there is something wrong.

    In order to remove that bright sound, I had to turn tbe treble down to -10. That made it much easier to listen to. Actually it sounds rather good with that setting. Almost like at 0 the treble it sounds like +10, and at -10 treble it sounds like it should at 0.

    Have any of you run SPL sweeps to see what sort of freq response your getting?
    You're running the xr55 with some Ascends? Very surprising.



    This is one of the few magazine reviews of the xr70 (basically identical to the xr55 except for HDMI and a few other minor features) I've ever seen:

    http://www.soundandvisionmag.com/art...article_id=806

    On page 2, at the bottom you can click on the "In the Lab" PDF link, wherein you will read this:

    "Although it met the manufacturer’s 6-ohm power spec in my tests, it didn’t perform to spec into 4 ohms and shouldn’t be used with low-impedance speakers."

    Followed by this very interesting sentence:

    "...frequency response was essentially ruler-flat, and there was no penalty in terms of distortion or noise."

    It's worth noting that the S&V reviewer used M&K speakers, which like the Ascends are known for their flat frequency response.

  4. #34
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    Dec 2005
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    There is no way my xr55 has ruler flat response, With treble set to 0 there is no body to it. The highs are way too loud compaired to the rest. which is why I think there may verywell be something wrong with the settings, because it sounds correct at -10 treble. Now I wish I had some way to test it but maybe it could be that the treble control is messed up.

  5. #35
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    Quote Originally Posted by darkhorror
    There is no way my xr55 has ruler flat response, With treble set to 0 there is no body to it. The highs are way too loud compaired to the rest. which is why I think there may verywell be something wrong with the settings, because it sounds correct at -10 treble. Now I wish I had some way to test it but maybe it could be that the treble control is messed up.
    hmmm...I wonder if you might've been saddled with a defective unit? If you have a CC near you, you might be able to order another xr55 from circuitcity.com and return it at a storefront if you get the exact same result.

  6. #36
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    Might there be a way to reset the unit to factory defaults and try setting it up again? That's sometimes a good solution to an elusive problem.
    www.popularsoundproductions.com
    Live sound reinforcement, live 24-track digital recording

  7. #37
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    Jan 2006
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    Quote Originally Posted by darkhorror
    There is no way my xr55 has ruler flat response, With treble set to 0 there is no body to it. The highs are way too loud compaired to the rest. which is why I think there may verywell be something wrong with the settings, because it sounds correct at -10 treble. Now I wish I had some way to test it but maybe it could be that the treble control is messed up.
    Yes... this is exactly it! However, I would swear that the sound is "variable", meaning that within a passage of the same song the sound is brilliant but, for example, in an a especially dynamic passage distortion (or over-emphasis for for lack of a better word) occurs causing me to scramble for the volume control... I, for one, think I've exhausted all of the adjustments since I'm only running 2-channel but if I discover any tricks I'll be sure to pass them along.

    I'm impressed by the XR55 but left scratching my head at other times. I do not have nearly enough listening experience with medium to high-end audio to make comparisons but by and large, and for the price, the "experience" is satisfying. One observation that is likely not relevant: the sound on FM radio is more comfortable/natural to my ears than my CD/DVD player (Integra)

  8. #38
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    Dec 2005
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    I believe the theories on the XR-55 brightness on the various forums I've read amount to

    1) crossover distortion (aka the highswitching frequency of 384KHz is not effective for whatever reason and the effects are audible).

    2) higher odd order harmonic distortion which is coming off as high frequency harshness.

    Under these conditions even a ruler-flat response can seem overly bright. Just like tubes can sound very warm relative to solid state (under nonoverload conditions), even with flat FR response due to even order harmonic distortion. The THD% only tells you how colored the distortion is, not what type it is or what order.

    That said, the XR55 is still a huge value because it puts out surround power levels that rival $1000+ receivers, and the clean stereo power with dual- and -triple amp is unmatched except with seperates, regardless of its shortcomings.
    Last edited by Asliang; 02-22-2006 at 04:21 PM.

  9. #39
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    Jan 2006
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    Asliang,

    In the case of the XR55 then, how, in your opinion, can a "flat" state be obtained in terms of tone? I haven't explored bi-wiring for example.

    Dumb question perhaps-- simply turning down the treble until the sound is pleasing to my ear is the obvious answer...

  10. #40
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    Dec 2005
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    Quote Originally Posted by Beuby
    Asliang,

    In the case of the XR55 then, how, in your opinion, can a "flat" state be obtained in terms of tone? I haven't explored bi-wiring for example.

    Dumb question perhaps-- simply turning down the treble until the sound is pleasing to my ear is the obvious answer...

    The tone is flat, you are probably hearing some higher odd order distortion that humans are more sensitive too than even order distortion. I think the easiest thing is to get another (much more expensive analog) amplifier. I'm not aware of any ways to mask distortion.

    Most amplifiers today measure very closely in FR. The differences are often inaudible (if you go to a website like soundstageav, the total differential between several amps is no more than +/- ~0.3db, and most of it in the upper registers beyond 15KHz. This is almost entirely inaudible. A -10db change in the treble is a huge change. The frequency response of the amplifier in no ways could be the cause of such widely differing opinions on what's bright and what's not. Likely the sum of the distortion and treble output is more listenable to you when its adjusted by such a wide margin.
    Last edited by Asliang; 02-22-2006 at 05:13 PM.

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