[Skoobs]

i would be very much interested to hear your thoughts on the SQ and how burn-in affects the sound.
 
i have the RTI a1 bookshelfs x4, a center CSI a4, and a PSW sub. however, at the moment half of the channels in my receiver are blown, so i am running two RTIs off the front surrounds, and the second two off the zone B hookups which are full range all the time. i also do not have the center channel hooked up.
 
the reason for this thread is the sound is starting to grate on me. its great for metal, but when i want to listen to something with slow, melodic guitar and soft vocals, its seems like the mids and especially the highs are really veiled. Makes me want to shut them off and put on my ath-es7s, which has more intimacy and is a very vocal-centric phone. i would put on my phones for music of the vocal genre, but i like to nap to it, and the phones are hard to sleep with haha
 
my plan was to get the Onkyo TX-SR707 reciever, plug in ALL my speakers, add the Polk XFI A4 surrounds, and use the auto-setup with the microphone. will the center and surrounds bring out the mids and highs?
 
I do love these for loud metal while working out, and movies though. they sound heavy.
 
Edit: i thought the surrounds were NOT ported, but they are. for some reason i thought the surrounds would follow the same architecture as the center channel, to bring out the same sounds as a center generally would. 
 
also: i was going to use the surrounds as my center left and right. as in not my rear speakers or my front ones, but on the center of each left and right wall.

 

[jilgiljongiljing]

It may well be the way you have things hooked up. What are you listening to? Surround encoded material? or plain stereo like cd? If its surround audio like DTS n stuff, you need your receivers channels working and all the channels to be at right levels and decently tone matched to get a good experience. If its just stereo, your sound should be best coming from front two+sub, you shouldnt try and upmix, theres really no point in that and it may well be the reason things get annoying.
 
For surround encoded material center channel is the most crucial part, where most vocals go and it anchors the entire system and maintains focus. Lack of center for surround material is not going to sound good, ever.
 
If you are having this issue based on just stereo material, why not shut off zone B and just listen to the fronts with the sub? Surrounds are just ambient sounds and general fillers in most program material. Its to give a sense of space, distance, ambience and used for the occasional sound effect from the rear. For most music, surrounds are mixed very cautiously to use backup instruments and crowd noise, or special effects.
 

 

[Skoobs]

very informative! thank you.