[mhrischuk]

Hello. I'm new here and this is my first post.

I haven't really had any "high" end equipment but I do like the high end sound. I had a Hafler 500D but never had really good speakers to compliment them. I really liked the power I could put through my ..... excuse me... Bose 901 Series 1's but I would sometimes put it into thermal. I didn't like the variable fan in it.
Finally I found some better equipment many years ago at an audio store liquidation auction. I got a pair of Definitive BP8's and a pair of B&W 805's. I also pickedup a pair of B&W Matrix 3's at another auction. The Definitives sounded really nice but 805's took over. The are just a much better sounding speaker... especially with voice.

I also have a rack of left overs from the eighties. I bought into the Carver stuff. All brand new M-500T "magnetic field" amp and the sonic holography crap. I sold off the pre-amp but still have the amp, tuner and cd player, still up and running in our living room entertainment center driving those 40 year old 901's. Can you believe that... 40 years old and I can push those things till the m500 clips with no apparent harm. I did buy an electronics upgrade kit for the Bose EQ. That thing has been a problem. It's a full set of new caps and whatnot. Just got to get around to it.

We had a recreation room built onto the house in 2008. I did a full home theater setup listed here.
L/R: B&W 805's
Center: Paradigm C5
Surround sides: Paradigm SA-15R Ceilings
Surround backs: Paradigm SA-15R-30 Ceilings
Sub: Velodyne SPL-1000 Series 1
Sub: SVS PB13-Ultra.
Cabinet: Salamander Synergy

I drive it with a Pioneer Elite SC-05 A/V receiver that does 7.1 at around 120 WPC
Both subs are active so no power for them.
Panny 65" plasma.



The 805's simply aren't a match for that massive Paradigm C5 center. I also really like my 2 channel music loud at times... hence those old 901's.

So now that I can afford a little more I decided to get some loudspeakers that match my ears. I have a set of Legacy Focus SE's being built for me as we speak. It's gonna be about 4-6 weeks before I get them. These puppies way 200 lbs each and have some serious capabilities along with impressive power handling capacity... 500w+

So I get this feeling the Pioneer just won't do the SE's justice and made a knee jerk purchase. I picked up a lightly used, cosmetically perfect 14B SST for $3500. Now I'm not sure what to do with the implementation of this monster. I guess I would run the R/L low level from the Pioneer to the 14 and from there to the SE's.
I was wondering if anyone has ever done a dual switchable setup. One where for the more often used home theater mode, I could switch to all A/V power but when I want serious listening, switch over to the 14. That would mean much less on-offs for the 14 and I don't need it really for the HT.

The other thing I have going is the A/V receiver has audio setup mode that has the mic. It will run through a test cycle and preset the EQ and speaker levels from where the mic is placed. I'm wondering how well this works with the R/L's being hooked up to low level outs. 

Thoughts? 

[Phil A]

Does the Pioneer have provisions for a 2nd Zone?  If so it can be run to the 14BSST and you can either get another pair of speaker cables or just swap the ones you have into the 14BSST.  A 2 channel preamp with HT Bypass is another option.  For a bit when I had the 14BSST I would have a set of balanced cables from the HT pre/pro and another from a 2-channel preamp and would just swap them.  If you're go to use the Pioneer as a preamp you can just do the normal HT set-up and then when you want to listen to music hook up the pre-out cables.  Lots of options

[Phil A]

PS - welcome to the forum!

[BrysTony]

First of all welcome to the forum and I think you are going to love that 14BSST.  I think you are on the right track for the setup.  I would connect the front R & L pre-outs to the 14BSST and the the 14B to the new Legacy speakers and run them all the time.  The Bryston amp won't mind at all.  Your 805s can move to the surround duties.  Your setup mic will make the balance adjustments for your HT just fine.  Then when you want to listen two channel just turn the speakers off on the Pioneer and all you will be getting is the pre out to the 14B.  I did try to run a switchable setup using 2 amps to one speaker using a Niles DPS-1 Amplifier/Speaker A-B Selector switch but I was not happy with it because its' cheap tiny speaker connections were just poor.  There is not a good way to do it that I am aware of but I don't think you need to do it.

From the picture I did notice one glaring problem with your room setup.  You must get rid of that Philadelphia Eagles blanket .

Tony

[Mag]

Hi, don't know how the Pioneer compares with Yamaha, but if you listened in multi-channel music mode. Then the Bryston 14 would cause a mis-match in speaker performance.

In HT cimema mode, where the center channel is the dominant speaker. This may not be a problem as you can adjust the center channel parameters to compensate. Therefore the 14 with pre-outs and the SE can be left on/included in HT mode.

The auto EQ will still work with the 14 amp on the pre-outs.

[headshrinker2]

Welcome to the forum.  Room looks nice!  Makes me want to watch a movie.

[RLL1]

Welcome to the forum!

[mhrischuk]

Does the Pioneer have provisions for a 2nd Zone?  If so it can be run to the 14BSST and you can either get another pair of speaker cables or just swap the ones you have into the 14BSST.  A 2 channel preamp with HT Bypass is another option.  For a bit when I had the 14BSST I would have a set of balanced cables from the HT pre/pro and another from a 2-channel preamp and would just swap them.  If you're go to use the Pioneer as a preamp you can just do the normal HT set-up and then when you want to listen to music hook up the pre-out cables.  Lots of options

Thanks all for the welcome and all of the responses.

Yes it does have a zone two but I might want that for the screen porch. Not a bad idea.

[mhrischuk]

Hi, don't know how the Pioneer compares with Yamaha, but if you listened in multi-channel music mode. Then the Bryston 14 would cause a mis-match in speaker performance.

In HT cimema mode, where the center channel is the dominant speaker. This may not be a problem as you can adjust the center channel parameters to compensate. Therefore the 14 with pre-outs and the SE can be left on/included in HT mode.

The auto EQ will still work with the 14 amp on the pre-outs.

I haven't heard much of people playing music in multichannel mode. Is this more of an exception?

[Mag]

I haven't heard much of people playing music in multichannel mode. Is this more of an exception?

Yes it's an exception. I've been an advocate for mult-channel stereo. It sorta evolved from Surround Sound as I could not get proper speaker placement for stereo or 5.1. Also the realization that practically everything is recorded in stereo.

The main advantages is a wider soundstage and enveloping sound. Disadvantages, typical av/receiver have a high background noise compared to a dedicated 2 channel pre-amp. Possible phase issues and speaker localization, so speaker placement and time settings are important to obtaining a cohesive soundstage.

Which is why I purchased an SP2 to obtain a lower noise floor in multi-channel mode. However now that I can directly compare multi-channel stereo to 2 channel stereo having a low noise floor. The difference is not that substantial and is more room dependant.

My room is long and narrow so I get what is best described as a wall of sound. At the Dealers demo room, he had like a concave front wall and in 5.1 the sound was enveloping.

[amblin]

There'r usually pre-out ports so you can connect your seperate power amps.

I just googled a copy of your A/V amp's manual but they didn't specify the output voltage of those pre-out ports. But they did specify that those 'r line pre-outs, so i'm guessing around ~1v, if that's so, it'd be fine.

But many of these Japanese A/V amps employ lower-than-average voltage @ those pre-outs，if that's the case, it'd be too low for your 14B which will hurt the signal to noise ratio/2ch noise floor.

you'd best call Pioneer's tech support and get the accurate numbers. And since you already picked up the 14B, why not give it a spin and try out the result
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Otherwise, take a look at those specialized H/T processor/pre-amps, there's a huge Denon , and Bryston's SP2.