Need advice.

[rsmt2000]

Hi

I have towers/ RAAL and a Horizon/RAAL. I am currently driving them with a Marantz 1603. There is no sub in the mix now. It is mostly used for music and some tv. I recently got some room treatments from GIK and acoustimac to get them out of way:-).

I am looking at few options to upgrade my system

1. Rythmik F12
2. Denon 4520CI which I can get for $799 from AC4L.
3. Add an Emotiva XPA-3 to the current Marantz.

May I know which ones of these or a combination there of is the correct way to do it ?

P.S My reference is a couple of audio shows where I listened to SALK speakers ( which are many times more expensive than the towers I have though) and was mesmerized every time. I am sure if I buy them and bring them home they wont sound any way near as they sound in that treated room and hence I got some treatments at my place too.

[Mag_Neato]

Option #3 will NOT be a viable option. There are only pre-outs for front L/R + Sub so the 3rd channel of the XPA-3 will be wasted.
Option #1 will probably give you the biggest gain in performance as you will be able to cross the speakers at 80Hz and free up amp power for the mids-highs.

[N Boros]

I agree that the F12 will likely make the biggest difference. In fact, because you are considering a sealed sub with a smaller driver, am I correct in guessing that you have a smaller room? If you do have a smaller enclosed room and the F12 is the right size, then options 2 and 3 might be unnecessary. Now if you are interested in purchasing the Denon 4520CI for some additional features that you might not have right now, that would make sense. But, if you are not finding the sound harsh at higher volumes in your room, then the additional power from the Denon and even the external amps might not be necessary.

Remember that to find the right sub to pressurize your room you need to add up the total volume that the entire room is opened to. So if you are in a living room that is open to the kitchen, dining room, etc. you need to include that as space as well.

If you don't have to do the 2nd and 3rd options you might have more money freed up a second sub to get more uniform response across several seats and not just one.

One more thing. You said the Salk's in a demo sounded amazing. Maybe your current speakers do as well. If you remember the recording they were playing try to find it. The sound quality widely varies from one recording to the next. So not all things will sound amazing, unfortunately. It is so much easier to be a videophile than an audiophile. Video standards and quality keeps improving rapidly (increasing dynamic range, color gamut, etc.). While, on audio recordings we get more and more dynamic compression. It takes more work and effort to get good audio quality. It still baffles me that Netflix and other video streaming companies are discussing streaming 4k video, when many of the titles still have lossy 5.1 or even stereo mixes that don't sound so great. It doesn't take much more bandwidth to just give us lossless audio in the stream, rather than 4 times as many pixels.

[Beave]

What size is your room? What are the dimensions? Where are the speakers placed? And how loud do you listen?

[rsmt2000]

My room is a family area in a town home which has kitchen behind the listener position. It also has an open area into the living and dining area. The total area of this place is ~900 sq.ft with 9 foot ceilings. The family area is about 14ft * 11ft. The distance from front wall to LP is about 10ft. Speakers are 1 ft from the front wall and about 7 ft apart. I have acoustic panels behind the speakers ( which am I told are the least bit of my problem). I have corner bass traps in the front and a bass trap behind the LP which happens to rest on island in the kitchen.

My sources are mostly CDs played thru Sony Blu ray player and streaming music ( pandora, spotify) through AirPlay. I am using mono price 12ga speaker wire.

on my marantz 1603 I go to about -30 Db at my loudest. Audessey by the way sets them to about -5db or -6db after calibration.

[rsmt2000]

Now if you are interested in purchasing the Denon 4520CI for some additional features that you might not have right now, that would make sense. But, if you are not finding the sound harsh at higher volumes in your room, then the additional power from the Denon and even the external amps might not be needed

The reason I am looking at Denon 4520CI or a marantz 7008 is audessey xt32.

[Mag_Neato]

You can get Audyssey XT32 in the Denon X4000 as well.

[Beave]

At those volume levels, I doubt you're straining your AVR's amplifier section too much, if at all.

An AVR with Audyssey MultEQ XT32 might be a significant upgrade, or it might not. Tough to predict on that.

A subwoofer (or two) might help as well. But do you have neighbors in the townhome? Would they be disturbed by a subwoofer? Also, in my experience, subs become more important in bigger rooms, and/or when the system is played louder. Neither of those is the case with you (although the room is kind big all told).

All in all, it's tough to know what if any would be the greatest improvement.

[N Boros]

My room is a family area in a town home which has kitchen behind the listener position. It also has an open area into the living and dining area. The total area of this place is ~900 sq.ft with 9 foot ceilings. The family area is about 14ft * 11ft. The distance from front wall to LP is about 10ft. Speakers are 1 ft from the front wall and about 7 ft apart. I have acoustic panels behind the speakers ( which am I told are the least bit of my problem). I have corner bass traps in the front and a bass trap behind the LP which happens to rest on island in the kitchen.


That is about a 8100 ft^3 space you need to pressurize if you get to get the full experience of a subwoofer, which is huge. Now, if you have close neighbors (like you may in a townhouse), this might not be something you would want to do. But, if you are interested in getting the best performance in the 80Hz region and below I think you would need a bigger sub. More along the size of the Rythmik FV15HP, F25, or the new FVX15. It doesn't sound like you need external amplification, which would free up money in your budget if you wanted to do this.


The reason I am looing at Denon 4520CI or Marantz 7008 is audessey xt32.

This is definitely a good reason to look for another receiver. I too in the near future would like to upgrade receivers to get this feature and Audyssey sub eq and Audyssey dynamic eq.