Best Home AV Products of 2021 - Editor's Choice Awards - news discussion

@AndyF83 and @Joe C on the basis that the PB1000 Pro outperforms what I've got, I am surprised to read your comments. Have you asked for any help with position, placement, room size and EQ? Or is that all good? Sorry, I'm not being condescending here just suggesting that if my slightly inferior product is completely awesome (both for TV/films and music) then I don't understand.

I’m incredibly limited in position and placement because of my room size and shape - 2.1m wide x 4.4 long - so am restricted to it being at the front in one of the corners.

Have used the SVS app, and obviously Audyssey with my Denon. It may just be me having had cheaper, harsher units before and this is blending in seamlessly like it’s supposed to.

I don’t want house shaking bass (well, I might but my wife doesn’t…), but still feel I need to play around more. Possibly the Denon needs to have the relevant level raised
 
I think the performance has been fine, it's mostly slight buyers remorse in that a smaller sub would've been more sensible. It's only occupying unused space though.

The most impressed I've been so far was when watching Cabin In The Woods. Only time I've properly had house-shaking bass, which definitely added to how scared my girlfriend was!

I'm sure the SB would've suited my needs, but we're probably all guilty of being a bit excessive with our equipment at times.
 
I'm sure the SB would've suited my needs, but we're probably all guilty of being a bit excessive with our equipment at times.

I have no idea what you mean (he says, watching the 65” OLED in a summerhouse at the end of the garden)
 
I have no idea what you mean (he says, watching the 65” OLED in a summerhouse at the end of the garden)
Wanted to go dual subs, couldn't fit 2x PB1000's Pro's, so opted for 2x SB2000's Pro's! How I got that past the OH - to this day remains a mystery! Possibly never to be solved! 😂😂...

PS: Couldn't be happier with the subs. They totally deserve their place on this list!
 
Best High End Subwoofer is a £1200 Rel?

Leaving the performance aside of this pea shooter, I think the rel subs look tacky and horrendous. Were the designers engaged in a competition to see how many times they could get the Rel name plastered all over it? We’ll start with each of the legs boys….
 
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Thanks for the write up. Appreciate the time and effort taken.

I hope my AVR has a good few years left in it. The cost of a suitable replacement seems to have skyrocketed, with little prospect of notable discounts in the near future.

I fully appreciate that the lowest price AVR listed is described as "value" rather than "budget," though it's definitely not cheap.

If I was shelling out £1,200 for an AVR, I'd want to feel confident it would last a good many years, which given how rapidly technology and formats evolve, may not be the case.

Couldn't agree more. I'm going to be in the market for a new AVR come January and I my eyes opened when I saw "Best value AVR..." I was so excited to see what won it ... and then I saw the price. And its the cheapest on there !! 😂
 
I don't own a single product in this list and I couldn't be happier.
 
I’m incredibly limited in position and placement because of my room size and shape - 2.1m wide x 4.4 long - so am restricted to it being at the front in one of the corners.

Have used the SVS app, and obviously Audyssey with my Denon. It may just be me having had cheaper, harsher units before and this is blending in seamlessly like it’s supposed to.

I don’t want house shaking bass (well, I might but my wife doesn’t…), but still feel I need to play around more. Possibly the Denon needs to have the relevant level raised
I turned my sub 90 degrees and it made a noticable difference (PB2000 PRO), could try that but it depends on layout of the room and placement of the sub.

I have a Denon AVR too. Another thing you could try is setting all speakers to "small" and setting your subwoofer crossover to 80hz or so.

Once you have manually set speakers to "small" (not full-range) you will be able to adjust the High Pass Filters "HPF's" for them individually. If Audyssey defaulted a certain speaker to "full-range", then it should be safe to set the HPF to 80hz. However, if it is a small speaker, you may need a higher HPF, such as 100hz or 120hz.

When you have done this exercise, take a note of the HPF value you set for your Front Left "FL" & Front Right "FR" speakers e.g. 80hz.

As an aside, ideally the FL & FR would be well matched to your centre speaker and therefore they all have the same HPF value but this may not always be possible.

Finally, set the Low Pass Filter "LPF" of the subwoofer to the same number as what you noted down.

This allows your speakers to focus on the frequencies they specialise in and the subwoofer to do likewise. They're not trying to do each other's jobs, so it all works better 👍
 
I turned my sub 90 degrees and it made a noticable difference (PB2000 PRO), could try that but it depends on layout of the room and placement of the sub.

I have a Denon AVR too. Another thing you could try is setting all speakers to "small" and setting your subwoofer crossover to 80hz or so.

Once you have manually set speakers to "small" (not full-range) you will be able to adjust the High Pass Filters "HPF's" for them individually. If Audyssey defaulted a certain speaker to "full-range", then it should be safe to set the HPF to 80hz. However, if it is a small speaker, you may need a higher HPF, such as 100hz or 120hz.

When you have done this exercise, take a note of the HPF value you set for your Front Left "FL" & Front Right "FR" speakers e.g. 80hz.

As an aside, ideally the FL & FR would be well matched to your centre speaker and therefore they all have the same HPF value but this may not always be possible.

Finally, set the Low Pass Filter "LPF" of the subwoofer to the same number as what you noted down.

This allows your speakers to focus on the frequencies they specialise in and the subwoofer to do likewise. They're not trying to do each other's jobs, so it all works better 👍

Thank you very much for this - genuinely appreciate it.

I checked and all my speakers were set to small - but the crossovers were very different (and quite a difference between my fronts and surround which are all the same speaker!)

Have now set everything to 80Hz, including the LPF, and will give everything a test after the football. Although may have to adjust for my overheads as they are small units.

Unfortunately can’t rotate the sub 90 degrees without having to put it behind the sofa against the rear wall, which is even less ideal that having it at the front in the corner (as I understand it).

But looking forward to a tinker later

Thank you again
 
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No worries Joe, hope it all sounds better once you're done 😃

If your ceiling speakers are smaller, don't be tempted to go for the same low crossover as the rest of the speakers; it could result in distortion or, at worst, damage to the ceiling speakers. This is because they will try their hardest to reproduce those low notes, requiring higher excursion the smaller the woofer, which can result in bottoming-out, tearing of the speaker cone etc.
 
No worries Joe, hope it all sounds better once you're done 😃

If your ceiling speakers are smaller, don't be tempted to go for the same low crossover as the rest of the speakers; it could result in distortion or, at worst, damage to the ceiling speakers. This is because they will try their hardest to reproduce those low notes, requiring higher excursion the smaller the woofer, which can result in bottoming-out, tearing of the speaker cone etc.

A quick edit to my original post - speakers were all set to small, not full!

Any suggestions for what a Cambridge Audio Minx Min 22 should be set to?

No worries if not, I’ll have a Google a bit later
 
When you ran Audyssey, what did it suggest? With the setup mic. it runs a frequency sweep for each speaker and can tell how capable individual speakers are, so it's your best indicator without investing in more kit.

If Audyssey set it to 100hz or 180hz, whatever it is, leave it there, you can go higher but don't go lower unless you're sure.

So if it set your FL & FR at 80hz and your centre at 100hz, you might choose to leave it as such and crossover your subwoofer at 80hz. Or you could go with 100hz across all three and crossover your sub at 100hz. But in either option, you would never set your centre to 80hz, in case you damage it (unless of course better knowledge or measurement equipment says otherwise).

Surround and ceiling speakers have a lot less work to do because filmmakers know the screen is up front and that's where they want to keep your attention. The human ear is also slightly less sensitive to sound coming from such positions so, overall, surround and ceiling speakers don't need to be as capable as the front 3. This means having a higher crossover on surround and ceiling speakers is relatively unlikely to diminish your enjoyment/audio experience. Therefore let Audyssey determine the HPF value and don't worry if it seems high.
 
When you ran Audyssey, what did it suggest? With the setup mic. it runs a frequency sweep for each speaker and can tell how capable individual speakers are, so it's your best indicator without investing in more kit.

If Audyssey set it to 100hz or 180hz, whatever it is, leave it there, you can go higher but don't go lower unless you're sure.

So if it set your FL & FR at 80hz and your centre at 100hz, you might choose to leave it as such and crossover your subwoofer at 80hz. Or you could go with 100hz across all three and crossover your sub at 100hz. But in either option, you would never set your centre to 80hz, in case you damage it (unless of course better knowledge or measurement equipment says otherwise).

Surround and ceiling speakers have a lot less work to do because filmmakers know the screen is up front and that's where they want to keep your attention. The human ear is also slightly less sensitive to sound coming from such positions so, overall, surround and ceiling speakers don't need to be as capable as the front 3. This means having a higher crossover on surround and ceiling speakers is relatively unlikely to diminish your enjoyment/audio experience. Therefore let Audyssey determine the HPF value and don't worry if it seems high.
Front set was 120 and rear were 150.

Front L+R was 60, Surrounds were 100, Centre was 40.

Distances are a bit out too, so I’ll change them
 

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