Music sounds terrible - Marantz SR6015 + Monitor Audio Silver

[ShanePJ]

That's good to hear regarding the hi-level input @KingsGambit

Usually a muddled sound can be a few things. So, I would suggest powering the woofer off and running the eq again to see what happens with the sound. I know its a pain, but I have a feeling that it could be the woofer encroaching into the speakers frequency ranges.

Also double check that you haven't wired any of the speakers out of phase

Do you have a photo of the setup so we can see if there is also something obvious causing the issue

 

[SeanBrothers]

To be fair, I had to run Audyssey 3 times before I was content, and, coincidentally or not, I used the Audyssey app for the 3rd calibration.

 

[DrH]

@KingsGambit
Are you still having trouble with music playback

 

[KingsGambit]

That's good to hear regarding the hi-level input @KingsGambit

Usually a muddled sound can be a few things. So, I would suggest powering the woofer off and running the eq again to see what happens with the sound. I know its a pain, but I have a feeling that it could be the woofer encroaching into the speakers frequency ranges.

Also double check that you haven't wired any of the speakers out of phase

Do you have a photo of the setup so we can see if there is also something obvious causing the issue

I don't know if this is what you meant, but this is a photo of the main setup.

I do intend to ventually wall mount the screen and move the centre channel onto the top shelf there. Also, I've straightened up the floorstanders since I took that photo and ran Audessey again. The first time I ran it, it picked up that I'd wired Front R out of phase but corrected that. Rears are out of shot but they are working. I've played some dolby digital demo videos and the channel separation is great.
I think it's something with the settings on the amp, the mode it's in maybe. I have crossover at 80Hz, all speakers set to small, multieq set to flat.

@KingsGambit
Are you still having trouble with music playback

I haven't had a chance to tweak since the above helpful posts, so I have these suggestions to try. It was still outstanding the last time I tried.

To be fair, I had to run Audyssey 3 times before I was content, and, coincidentally or not, I used the Audyssey app for the 3rd calibration.

I didn't know there was an app. Does that do anything differently to running it directly on the amp? I ran it a second time after a second time, but movies aren't a problem, they sound good. What settings do you use for music playback?

 

[SeanBrothers]

I didn't know there was an app. Does that do anything differently to running it directly on the amp?

Supposedly the app is able to commit more processing power to the calibration. I can neither confirm nor deny this. However, you are able to modify the calibration curve, including removing the 2kHz dip that Audyssey applies by default.

What settings do you use for music playback?

I use Stereo (2.1) most of the time, with Audyssey always set to Flat. Sometimes I let the upmixer use all 7.1.4. I should note, however, that I have a separate power amp for the front channels, so this may provide more "life" to them.

 

[KingsGambit]

So I just took these and I think those are all the relevant settings I can see. After Audessey, I changed Fronts from Large to Small, crossover to All and 80Hz, Sub to LFE and 120Hz, MultiEQ to flat. I don't know if I'm missing anything or have set something wrong.

 

[JJ Ewing]

Hello

My 2 cents to the topic.
I have Marantz SR5014, Front speakers: Canton GLE490.2. Cabling to the speakers are 2.2mm2 DALI. In order to have music that satisfy me I need to use FLAT for Audyssey, Dynamic EQ: ON with reference offset 10dB: M-DAX : Low. Using Stereo mode for music without LFE. Of course calibration performed for all spots as per instructions.

I am using HEOS app for listening over DLNA. I am mostly listening to FLAC and DSD as files, Spotify , Youtube from TV and TuneIn for streaming. I tried Tidal Hi-Fi but I was not impressed with the difference than Spotify.

So apart from that, if I do not set the settings as I listed above the sound is flat and not lively at all. Maybe I am not much of an audiophile but if I use direct/pure direct the sound does not get much better, just the opposite...I am not sure why.
Maybe again my ears are not used to quality hardware.

I did some tests when I got the AVR and I do not see much difference than streaming from HEOS app, HDMI cable nor Optical one. Have not tried RCA as I do not have proper source.

So as advice: please check all cables for polarity, sometimes auto calibration mismatch the settings of you have big object close to the speaker. Especially for front ones. So double check old way

And just as side note, when you perform Calibration you need to be extremely quiet during the procedure. This could also ruin the results. There is very useful guide in the forum for Audyssey calibration best practices.

Hope this helps even slightly

Best regards!

 

[KingsGambit]

I have Marantz SR5014, Front speakers: Canton GLE490.2. Cabling to the speakers are 2.2mm2 DALI. In order to have music that satisfy me I need to use FLAT for Audyssey, Dynamic EQ: ON with reference offset 10dB: M-DAX : Low. Using Stereo mode for music without LFE. Of course calibration performed for all spots as per instructions.

I am using HEOS app for listening over DLNA. I am mostly listening to FLAC and DSD as files, Spotify , Youtube from TV and TuneIn for streaming. I tried Tidal Hi-Fi but I was not impressed with the difference than Spotify.

So apart from that, if I do not set the settings as I listed above the sound is flat and not lively at all. Maybe I am not much of an audiophile but if I use direct/pure direct the sound does not get much better

Thank you for the reply, I appreciate you sharing that. There's quite a lot to keep track of per input it seems. I haven't even noted the value of Reference Offset or M-DAX, and am not sure what they'd alter or whether I should change them.

Another member very kindly offered similar advice and having put things onto flat and a pure, music does sound better, tho I haven't tried streaming again. CDs and vinyl sound fine at least. And with your advice and that of other helpful folks I think I know which settings to tweak and how.

I did do my best to let the calibration run in silence, tho I think I'm going to pick up the app version and run it from there, since apparently it can offer different and better results. It picks up my front speakers as large and crossovers at 40Hz, which I manually changed to small and 80Hz for all.

If you don't use pure/direct, which music setting do you use may I ask? I see options like Neural and Virtual and it's baffling.

 

[Mark.Yudkin]

So I just took these and I think those are all the relevant settings I can see. After Audessey, I changed Fronts from Large to Small, crossover to All and 80Hz, Sub to LFE and 120Hz, MultiEQ to flat. I don't know if I'm missing anything or have set something wrong.

Try setting the Music Surround to Stereo (last screenshot), ignoring all of the "surround" options. Leave the rest as shown.

The improvement for stereo sources should be nothing short of utterly amazing.

 

[JJ Ewing]

Hi

My front speakers are quite wide range therefore I let them play Full range. Also I do not use SUB for lower frequency during music listening. For M-DAX I could explain briefly. It tries to restore original sound from compressed audio formats. At least as much as possible, but as end result at least for me, non-much technical, it produces a bit more high and deeper base from the speakers alone, so I use it with "LOW" setting no matter digital source. MED and HIGH forced high frequency a lot and I do not like the sound.

M-DAX SR6015

manuals.marantz.com

The rule thumb is MED and HIGH for heavily compressed files and LOW for no so much compressed, 320kb/s for example. But I do not buy that, therefore try with my ears

For Direct/Pure direct I am not sure if they disable internal equalisation at full or just partially but I do not like the sound either when they are activated. Even with 5.6Mhz DSD files. Of course it depends on the recording but at least from the source I got them, seem to be captured properly.

On later stage I will find proper SACD played and will test with commercial CDs to see if the result I will like more.

For "reference offset" here is a video that at least for me explained a lot, what it does and the guy did some measurement to proove. That helped me understand which setting to use and when.:


I do have some "flat audio" and less high frequency on my receiver during the movies though. But I think this is due to the fact it is entry level SR series receiver When I jump someday to 7 series or above the things will differ but for now $$$ matters and I stick to this one for a while

Cheers

 

[JJ Ewing]

If you don't use pure/direct, which music setting do you use may I ask? I see options like Neural and Virtual and it's baffling.

Same as Mark said. These mentioned are something like surround processing. I do use Stereo for listening to music.
The sound is a bit quieter without pocessing, but we have volume knob to correct that

Cheers