Kef q550 "upgrade" woes

I just installed Amazon Music windows app and clicking on the quality icon got this - be interesting to see if setting your audio device as optical vs HDMI changes the "device capability"

The motivation for doing so was to compare youtube vs Amazon music, my sample track was "Goodbye Horses" by Q Lazzarus.

What is interesting to me is AM has several versions and it's as if they're "mixed" differently. The "ultra HD" version opens with a booming bass tone, almost like the THX effect, whereas the HD version opens differently



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And Pink Floyd DSOTM says this, which suggests something in my chain is a bottleneck at 48 khz

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EDIT: going into Denon HDMI properties and adjusting some settings "fixed" it

View attachment 1649801

OK this is interesting... I don't get like "onkyo avr".
What I see is nvidia rtx3080 audio out or something like that - The amp doesn't show as a sound output at all, did you rename yours? If your sound is going out from gpu it should be gpu name?


I will have a play with amazon music desktop app or tidal this wekeend and let you know what I see so can compare.

However in my scenario I don't think the capability list will be going by what the optical cable can ACTUALLY DO, because IIRC correctly one of the only downsides to using a toslink is it doesn't talk to other parts, it doesn't say "I'm hdmi, I can do xxxxmbps @xxxbit".
It might be taking that number from the windows settings above.
 
We're all a good bunch (although some haven't been around the block as much as me for problem finding and that takes many years of playing with many different systems to be able to knuckle down with unusual problems like yours)

In reality, the Q750's are really more in line with the 55's you have and those should have been the ones purchased over the Q550. I feel though that the smaller Kef's are so much more musical and once the woofer is nailed, you shouldn't need to look back. I'd put that money towards a new av receiver and then you'll be up to date. Please also try and have a listen first as what one person thinks is fantastic is another person's worst nightmare

P.S. Thanks for the kind words and just enjoy your toys now and try not to get sucked into the details and digits as the system has to please your ears and no one else and that's all that really matters :smashin:

Yeah this is what I've been thinking maybe I messed up as I do like a lot of bass with house music, but it's that punch/kick I want, which is "mid bass" right?

But yeah I read somewhere - that the q550 may actually produce an even tighter/lighter, more mid range sounding tone of bass than the q750 (+the guy was told to avoid the q950 as they are for large rooms). And that again was my exact thinking:
Q550 = highs and mid bass.
Sub = relatively good lows (say to 40hz) and mid lows.

I assumed the 8" sub would be better for those "mid-lows" where like a 12" would struggle to nail those 60-200hz tones accurately. I mean what is the kick/beat in a house track? 100hz? 150hz? I have no idea.

I don't understand how the highs would sound different even on the q950 but can kind of understand when someone said the q750 would be better for bass... I mean at like 8" bass AND mid/uni-q drivers they're the same size as subs!
What do you mean exactly more musical?

I have been thinking WHY we don't see many speakers with different size drivers though.... Some high end ones do? Eg the focal grande utopia em evo looks like it has:
2 x 4.5" driver for mids,
1 x 8" for mid lows?
+a whopping 12" for lows?
 
I don't understand how the highs would sound different even on the q950 but can kind of understand when someone said the q750 would be better for bass... I mean at like 8" bass AND mid/uni-q drivers they're the same size as subs!
It's the larger tweeter on the 950's which changes the sound of the speaker. Ideal for cinema but to my ear's, they're just nowhere near as enjoyable for music (but I'm sure some will disagree and that's the beauty of hi-fi as its so suggestive and we each enjoy different sounds, which could also include you if you get the chance to hear them)

As for the woofer, It's a shame you didn't have a woofer with a high-level input as this will enable you to seamless integrate with woofer for stereo and as you have to use this feature by ear, it means you can tune it to your ear to

Rel, BK and MJ Acoustics are the brands that offer this feature

Watch one of Rel's Videos (and this one on how to connect), it might give you an insight in to what you need to do in order to get that slamming effect. If you do go for a Rel, make sure its a T series and really you need something with more power than the T-Zero as this is a nice compact unit, but for music, It's not enough to really partner with the Kef's. I would expect that if you did this, you wouldn't need the 750's either as like I mentioned, a woofer setup this way adds and equal and opposite effect adding more range to the entire speaker giving it a much larger sounding feel without having to move up the range

Yes smaller woofers with good power should work faster dynamically, but in reality, a large capacity digital class d amp should have enough control to stop start a woofer for musical ability. 10" is where you need to be, 12" is a harder driver to drive

The age old theory used to be that for music, the woofer needs to be downward firing as its harder to detect where the bass is coming from (although its also meant to be omnidirectional anyway), others enjoy forward firing woofers and some even enjoy more than one in different parts of the room. At home I've used this feature since I've owned a woofer which is now quite a few years (I'm on my third) and I'd never have an alternative version

They're not the easiest to setup, but once you have found a setting you enjoy, take a photo or write down the settings as our ears are fantastic at lying to us and trust me, they really do as I speak from experience :laugh:
 
One thing to note as well is when I go from DD live to pcm its considerably quieter

as a result of this thread I actually touched my 20 year old MP3 folder that I haven't touched for years, most of the MP3s are 192-320kb. I then downloaded some Daft Punk FLACs and compared vs the MP3s. Hard to do a side by side example because the MP3s were louder than the FLAC.

Likewise, I can play Spotify / Tidal / Amazon Music from my PC, from Chromecast, or from phone to AVR, or through HEOS and they don't play at the same volume.

Also, my previous AVR was calibrated and sounded amazing, but then afterwards I noticed that audyssey wasn't enabled for every input, and so I had no idea of knowing whether it was the audyssey or non audyssey settings that had been calibrated. Listening to the same input with audyssey enabled/disabled.
 
MP3s were louder than the FLAC.
That's quite normal although with the DR loudness, some modern marital might be louder due to the way its being recorded

Out of interest, with Daft Punk Album (is it Random Access Memories), I've got this on CD and Digital hi-res and they are recorded at different (especially if you read the blurb as the DR is different) although I have to say out of most of the hi-res files I've go, the Daft Punk is no better than the CD recording to my ears as the CD is a cracker on my system
 
That's quite normal although with the DR loudness, some modern marital might be louder due to the way its being recorded

Out of interest, with Daft Punk Album (is it Random Access Memories), I've got this on CD and Digital hi-res and they are recorded at different (especially if you read the blurb as the DR is different) although I have to say out of most of the hi-res files I've go, the Daft Punk is no better than the CD recording to my ears as the CD is a cracker on my system

Yeah, it's hard to do true comparisons because there's so many other variables that are out of our control.

And definitely RANDOM ACCESS MEMORIES is a pretty good album to test a system on because of the care, precision and attention to detail that went into its recording.
 

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