Demo - MA Radius 5.1 setup

[Tarquinius]

I've just demo'd a MA Radius 5.1 setup at 7oaks today, and thought it might be useful to share my thoughts as I know others on the forum were thinking of these. Hope it may be useful to others.

I'm very new to HC setups, so the views below are those of someone very new to 5.1 systems (although I have had decent stereo setups in the past, so I like to think I know what stereo should sound like

I'm interested a setup that can deal with 50/50 films and 2 channel stereo. The setup I demo'd was:

• Yamaha RXV 459 I wanted to listen to the Onkyo 605 but none available
• Denon 1940 DVD
• MA R90 fronts
• MA R45 rears
• MA 225 centre
• MA R720 sub

First in 5.1:

1. In 5.1 listening to the effects in Battlestar Galactica, I was absoulutely blown away. The power, detail and dialogue was simply awesome to my ears.

2. The surround effects of the system were pretty good, though not brilliant. I suspect here the weakest link was the R45s. They were very acceptable but I suspect that R90s at the back would have given that something extra to the surround effects.

Next, for stereo music

Bit of mixed bag:

1. Vocals were brilliant. The midrange, and the stereo imaging were excellent. Especially when listenting to music that is very focused on vocals without much else going on.

2. Solo Instrumentals were also very good. A guitar sounds like a a real guitar. And a piano sounds like a real piano. The tone, clarity and detail is all there.

3. Now here's the downside. In music where there is lot going at once (lots of instruments plus vocal, plus drums), everything became a bit muddy and confused. The clear detail, imaging and clarity of the different instruments started to get lost. Everything kind of merged together into a single sound so you couldn't pick out the individual parts of the music. Brass and Wind instruments sounded extremely bright even harsh. OK, I'm being tough on this system here as I know I'm comparing it with what a dedicated stereo setup should be like !!

The music situation did improve somewhat with the a Marantz 6001 DVD player which was more laid back I thought and just seemed to let the music 'gel' a bit better.

I'm not sure how the Onkyo amp would compare with the Yamaha I heard? But I assume it would be at least as good?

But overall I think I could be happy with this package - a lot more pluses than minuses ! And quite an acheivement given its size.

I'm wondering if I can fit some larger front speakers in, but I thiink I could certainly live with this MA setup as is.

[mendd3]

Replace the sub with a better one, not a more expensive one, a better one! Velodyne do good subs.

Monitor Audio Bronze bookshelves will match the r225.

I would go for the r90s over 45's def!!

[clayton]

Had a demo of these myself last week tried the R45 as rears & i couldnt hear anything @ all, swapped them over for the R90 & the rear sound came alive.
I also tried the 180 as a centre but this proved to be a very weak speaker so ive gone for the 225 as a centre & 250 for front main with the 90s backing everything up....sub wise think i'll be going for a SVS SB12 Plus, my system will only be used for Movies/tv no music.