Things I'm still working through:
- So many potentiometers. This is a "me" problem, and not a Syn problem, but I have a pot on the Saga S, master pot on the Syn, pots on the surround and center channels, and then each of my amps have pots on them as well (Emotiva A100 for the mains, Ayima A07s for the surrounds and center). Still playing around with them all to figure out how to balance them all.
- Surround for gaming. I'm really, really impressed so far. I was worried about how this would go with surround coming from a matrix instead of object oriented. How would someone shooting from behind sound? Certainly, I had no problem with sounds coming from the left or right. And for the most part front and back was fine. But I still need more time with it. Footsteps seemed like they always sounded like they were behind me, even if they weren't in game. Not enough time on task here to make a concrete conclusion, but im still working through it. But I can say confidently, it is good enough for casual, single player gaming. For more competitve FPS, I use headphones anyways.
- Music in general. Its not that its bad, its just I still dont know what to make of it. I've spent so much energy the past 6 or 8 weeks focusing on making my 2 channel stereo set-up as good as possible, it was jarring to make such an abrupt switch. I'm still working on balancing the level of all the channels. But defintely some types of music lend itself better than others. I had a lot of fun listening to a couple tracks on Metallica SM2. Felt like you were in the amplitheater. Some more airy/acoustic music sounded cool too. Others were less than impressive. But again, i just need more time with it. Right now, seems like music is more of a really, really cool to have rather than any kind of replacement for 2 channel. But again, thats the absoulute beauty of this thing. You can have both at any given time with the press of a couple buttons.
Spent another night with the Syn. The first night was more about the inital set-up and exploration of its capabilities. Last night, I was able to focus on fine tuning the channel balance and shaping. And wow, after getting this thing dialed in, all my open questions from the first night have been answered. What an experience.
Its kind of hard to explain the process of getting the channels properly balanced. The best I can say is it reminds me of getting a subwoofer properly matched to a 2-channel system. You spend all this time tweaking the crossover by fractions of a Hz and barely moving the volume dial up and down until all of a sudden, it locks in, and you know you've got it right. Pretty similar experience geting all the channels from the Syn balanced, but even then, this analogy breaks down because you know what a properly tuned subwoofer is supposed to sound like. No peaks or gaps in the response, and when you get it right, you really can't hear it until you turn of the sub off, and then you realize how much it was adding to the music. With the Syn, there really isn't a playbook for how its supposed to sound. You just keep tweaking settings until it seems right. And then you try the next song, and it still seems right. And then another, and another. It still sounds good, and you don't even notice it anymore. Until, you turn off the surround channels and realize how much it is adding to the music. Its really, really cool.
And just to try to paint a better picture of what music sounds like through the Syn, it is NOT anything like "All Channel Stereo" like you might find on most AVRs. You're not getting the same sounds pounded into your ears from all directions like the garbage compactor in Star Wars. Instead, the soundstage and imaging from the main 2 channels still exists just like it would without the surround channels. The center image is locked in a bit more and the surround channels are more of an ambient enhancer to the soundstage rather than something you're actively trying to listen to. This results in something that creates a sense of expansiveness in some tracks to others where you are completly enveloped in the wall of sound. My favorite song so far has been Deftones Change (In the House of Flies). The song intro gives that airy sense of expanse and then when the chorus hits, you just get surrounded by walls of guitar all while the original soundstage still exists up front. I listened to music for probably 2 hours total, and I'd say 90% of the songs I played ranged from sounding incredible to really good. But there are some songs where it doesn't work and it sounds overly dark and muddy and generally unpleasant. Its hard to pinpoint exactly why this happens because I tried to pick songs that i thought would cause this problem and they didnt. And some songs I was suprised when I got that effect. (As an aside, might be time to get a Lokius.) But, overall, music is really cool, and I can absolutely see myself choosing to listen to surround instead of 2 channel for dedicated sessions. Not that this replaces 2 channel. Its just another option. Kind of like choosing between headphones or stereo. Now you get to choose between headphones, stereo, or surround.
Once I got everything balanced, I went back to try gaming again. And everything was solved. Any immersion-breaking or not being sure if what I was hearing matched what I was seeing, no longer existed with the channels balanced. And it makes sense. Similar to music, all the imaging from playing in 2 channel stereo still exists, but with the extra sense of ambience in the surroud channels. And there was one moment that stood out. A sniper from the other team missed me high and left from the front. And i heard that bullet track from the front left of my office to the back left. It was awesome.
Another long post from me, but I'll end with something I hope some of you can appreciate. At one point, I walked out of my office and I must have been smiling ear-to-ear and my wife asked me "What (are you grinning about)?" I told her "You know how I ripped out the surround from the office last month? Well this company I really like released this new thing... yada yada yada" And by the end of my explanation she could obviously sense my overwhelming satisfaction and gave me the most geniune "Well, I'm really happy for you, dear." that a wife could possibly give for something she absolutely couldn't care less about. So thank you, Jason, for bringing that kind of joy into my home.
I still have barely touched the headphone output, other than to verify that it works. Hope to dig into that this weekend.
… 
).
