Answered What is the best setup for music?

AlexKalopsia

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Hi everyone, this is my setup:

- Onkyo TX-RZ720
- XTZ Spirit 2 (L/R)
- XTZ Spirit 8 (Center)
- XTZ 8.17 (Sub)

While I have found a fairly good balance for watching music with the 3.1 setup, I am struggling finding a nice setup that works for music.

I have a Rega Planar 1 that is connected to a Rega Fono Mini preamp, which eventually connects to the Onkyo.

My main problem right now is that if I go full stereo I feel like I am lacking some low frequencies, therefore I would like to find a way to make sure the sub can be used to fill the room a bit more.

Unfortunately I haven't found a way to really achieve this and force my 3.1 to switch to 2.1. I tried setting up a manual EQ on the settings, but there is no way to just skip the center speaker (or at least I am completely unable to achieve this). With the EQ i can manually drop the Center frequencies to -6.0db, but there is still sound coming out.

I would be curious to know what you recommend for music and if you have any advice on how to improve my music listening experience.

Thanks
 
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No receiver, unless you want to talk about Arcam or Anthem, will make a good job of stereo music. I have a Denon X6200, which was just one tier below Denon's then top receiver the X7200. Yet I found it totally underwhelming with music. There is no way that an entry or mid level receiver is going to outperform a modest stereo amp.

To improve music performance it is perhaps best to introduce a stereo amp with HT by-pass into the mix. Your Onkyo has left and right pre-outs, I believe. These can be connected by RCA to a stereo amp that has HT by-pass. The front speakers are then connected to the stereo amp only. For watching TV or film then both the receiver and the stereo amp are fired up, the volume of the stereo amp being controlled by the receiver.

For music from your Planar then that would be connected to the Phono line in of the stereo amp and used as normal. The receiver would not be used. I have a Rega Elicit-R and switching between 5.1 and stereo is a simple press of the button on a remote.

There is one major drawback and that is the cost of stereo amps with HT by-pass, the cheapest Rega is the Elicit-R. This is the best way to get quality music into a surround sound system without having to set up a completely different system.

http://audiophile.no/en/articles-tests-reviews/item/426-amplifiers-with-processor-input

As for your problem of getting sound out of the centre does the Onkyo have a stereo setting within the audio options.
 
Thanks for the detailed answer. I am guessing that an Onkyo A9150 is not a good enough solution worth of having a separate amp just for music?

Regarding the Onkyo settings, as I said I am able to switch to a 2.0 setup, but not to a 2.1 (which is what I am trying to do to fill the room a bit more)
 
I've owned an Onkyo stereo amp in the past, in fact I still have it locked away, but I've never liked their sound signature which is more of a reflection of my tastes rather than any Onkyo short comings. I do know that both Denon and Marantz and probably other makes have stereo 2.1 setting within their menus, my Denon X6200 being one, and this goes right through the range.

Marantz are considered to be more musical than Denons thanks in part to their HDAM circuitry. I was quite underwhelmed by my Denon's musical abilities and was the driving force behind getting a quality stereo amp. It has it's benefits for surround use as well. The front soundstage now seems wider and with the strain of driving the front stereo speakers being taken away from the Denon that saved power is now distributed among the remaining connected speakers giving more headroom.

I don't use a sub when listening to music as for my personal taste my speakers go deep enough and if your speakers don't then you would probably have to get a sub with a separate high level input as well as LFE. Now the costs are starting to mount!

To improve your musical enjoyment perhaps you should look at changing the receiver for a more modern one. A newer one will also give you the option of more immersive sound with Dolby Atmos being onboard. It will also give you the ability to run 2.1 for stereo. With the speakers being in wall I don't think you want to go the new speakers route.

Another consideration but this time it involves a stereo amp without HT by-pass working alongside a speaker switch such as the Beresford 2770. You would just use the stereo amp for music using the Beresford to switch between that amp and the Onkyo. That however may also mean changing the sub as well so allow for both receiver and new amp to power the sub, I'm not sure the current sub can do that.

Your choice to improve music is coming down to the simple solution of a new receiver or the more complicated one of new stereo amp and possibly a new sub and speaker switcher. Personally I would go down the new receiver route as that is something than can be built upon and improved even though with your 3.1 layout any receiver is going to have a lot of built in redundancy.

Look at the Marantz stable but not the slimline ones, your speakers at 86dB sensitivity need a bit of power. If funds permit then the best musical receiver would be the Arcam 390.

Marantz UK | AV Receiver

AVR390 - AV Receiver - Arcam
 
Wow, I never answered to this!

So, it turns out my current receiver does not have PreOut on the speaker channels (only on the sub), so I don't think I can do any HT-bypass.EDIT: Now that I think about it, I have a Zone 2 PreOut: https://www.zkelectronics.com/images/TX-RZ720/North America/back.jpg

The idea of using a speaker switch is interesting, but now I am more and more thinking that - perhaps, I should run speaker music with my current setup, and try and find a good headphones solution to have a better music experience.

I'd like to understand if, for instance, plugging in some Audeze LCD2 (LCD2 Classic by Audeze) onto the receiver will allow me to properly enjoy some good sound or if even in that case I would have to find a different (stereo?) amp

Thanks again for all the info, it's been really helpful
 
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A good set of headphones is always going to give a better performance for music, even with a receiver. Headphones take the room out of the equation and you will receive the best signal and audio quality that the receiver can deliver. Difficult to find the actual specifications for the headphone so perhaps best to look at headphones that have a low ohm rating.

The second zone RCA will allow you to connect a headphone amp up so you could use a dedicated amp such as the Arcam rHead or Rega Ear. These will generally tend to be better than using the receiver's own headphone section but not massively so depending on headphone amp selection. Like everything in audio the more money you throw at it the better it tends to sound.

I use my headphones directly out of my Denon receiver, especially for music videos. For SACD listening though I do use a dedicated headphone amp and Oppo PM1 headphones. Headphones can really be the best way to listen to music in many situations.
 

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