[Frans]

Wow, that Soundscape C8 looks bad-ass! My C7 sits inside a TV stand so the side-firing passive woofers of the C8 would be wasted on me.

In my Home Theater setup with a dedicated subwoofer it makes less sense, but I'd love to hear from those who have practically incorporated the C8 this in their setup? What is the use case, subwoofer-less 3.0 and 5.0 systems?

[Austin08]

For some reason, When watching movie, I felt a bit of transition between woofer and midrange. Sometime, Male voice got a bit more bass or lower tone that make it sound less natural. This is only happen when I am watching movie. So, I cross over my SS8C at 80hz when watching movie and feel dialog cleaner and more natural. I though it would the same case when listening multichannel music or watching blu ray concert. But it turn out, I prefer to run fullrange for all my front three speaker. Much more alive and dynamic. Human voice does not suffer or inherit the low tone sound like when I am watching movie. Maybe the technic of recording movie and music are different but it is good to know that I am be able to do that with the SS8C.

[yetis]

The more I read these sorts of discussions, the more and more I am convinced the only way you get real, seamless synergy is with a full vertical center.  I know its not a practical solution. 

I would add, have you considered any form of room correction? This might help solve the issues.

[Austin08]

I would add, have you considered any form of room correction? This might help solve the issues.
 Logged

I believe it is more on my listening reference and the materials that I am listening to than the SS8C itself. I do run multiQ XT on my marantz Processor. Not all male dialog suffer the same low tone voice that make it sound like speaking and breathing through microphone. Actor like Silvester Stalone, Vin Diesel, George Cloney....all have lower tone voice to begin with. This is never be the case when watching blu ray concert or dsd multichannel.

[JonnyFive]

I do run multiQ XT on my marantz Processor.

I've spent a lot of time learning about Audyssey, calibrating, measuring, etc.  I will say this.

The only acceptable version of Audyssey is XT32.  All lesser versions (including the XT I have on my Marantz) attempt to correct the "hair" in the high frequencies.  This is counterproductive, because if you move your head even an inch, the high FR changes drastically. This is how high frequencies behave, and it just doesn't matter because your brain bins these frequencies together.

But XT tries to "fix" this problem, and it results in really unnatural higher frequencies (not to mention, it doesn't have the proper resolution to correct the bass frequencies either).  XT32 transitions more to a parametric EQ on the higher frequencies, ignoring the "hair" as it should.  XT32 also does a bang up job on the bass, as I've measured on my subwoofer.

My SS8s sound thin, brittle, terrible with Audyssey XT engaged.  There is simply no way around it except to run them on Bypass with the option of crossing them over to a sub.  The first comment I get from the Audyssey crowd is that I'm not running it right.  I know how to run Audyssey properly, using all positions, I've re-done it several times, with/without toe in, using a boom mic stand, etc... the result is always the same.

So the artifacts in the male vocals you're hearing are likely more due to Audyssey XT than anything else.  My GR Research N3S center channel sounds freaking terrible with XT engaged.  I'd bypass XT at least on the mains, cross over to a sub and let the XT32 filters there manage the bass.

Just my $.02 after much research and hours upon hours of toiling trying to get XT to work properly with the SS8s.  The answer is, in my opinion, XT and below are not properly designed correction software.  XT32 is not just an incremental upgrade from XT, it operates fundamentally differently (and better) on the higher frequencies.  -Jon

[Austin08]

I agree with you. The XT version is not as good as it was supposed to be. I found my system sound a bit richer and fuller without it. I only engaging it when watching movie due to the fact that I often watching late at night so EQ would help me a bit in dialog. But when listening to multichannel music, I prefer to run without eq and in fullrange mode. Well, most of the time, i listen to vinyl on my 2 channel rig with SS8, BAT, Rogue amp and VPI table.

[Saturn94]

I got a chance to hear Jon's SS8's today and he's right....they sound better without XT.

[Frans]

I have the XT32 Audyssey and the sound is usually preferable with Audyssey on for most applications. The sound is duller and flatter without. YMMV considerably of course, but I've had good experience with it in a tough room.

[JonnyFive]

I have the XT32 Audyssey and the sound is usually preferable with Audyssey on for most applications. The sound is duller and flatter without. YMMV considerably of course, but I've had good experience with it in a tough room.

I'd really like to hear XT32 in my system as well.  I'm between that vs Anthem's new ARC for my next processor.  I really like Audyssey's dynamic EQ...it gives great bass at lower listening levels.

[Frans]

The Marantz feature that prevents bass from traveling though walls (LFC) gets my wife's full approval. She actually noticed!!!!