Urgent ! Please help improve my system, b4 I am forced to sell it !

[supo]

I have just set up my Canton Movie CD 1 Sub-satellite system with Panasonic SA-X70, the movie sound is good, but I am very dissapointed with music; can anyone suggest how I can improve this, or do I need a different amp? as I mainly listen to music, I need the music quality to be very good, pls help.
Or is the speakers?
I was told Cantons need hours to run in-will this make such a dramatic improvement?
The system is not even sounding as good as a 10-year old Aiwa Midi stereo system!

 

[supo]

Anyone please!

 

[IanMcc]

Hi Supee,

I have also just bought a satellite system - MS Genies and Yamaha 750 amp.
It is fantastic with movies - far better than my old Sony all in one system, but I am extremely disappointed with the music performance. My 8 year old Sony Mini system sounded far better with music. Not quite what I expected from a £1500 investment!!
Like you, I am also at a loss as to whether the amp or the speakers are the culprit, or whether "running in" will resolve the issue.
However, my initial feeling is that in general satellites just cannot cut it with music, as my package would seem to be regarded as the best satellite package at the moment, and if they are not good enough then I wonder are there limitations as to how well satellites can reproduce music. My only hope is that running them in may improve things, otherwise I will be left very disappointed.

Sorry I could not be more helpful.

Ian

 

[supo]

Thanks, I wish I knew this earlier. My main interest is in the music. If its like this, I might have to sell mine eventually OR but two good speakers for the fronts and switch to stereo on my receiver anytime I am playing music

 

[hornydragon]

supee calm down you made a mistake, not the first to do so, wot be the last, but learn your lesson, dont buy blind!!!!
check your other threads lack of run in time and set-up maybe the problem......

 

[Kazman]

Satellites are rarely good with music, and very few AV amps can claim to be musical.

Getting the balance right is difficult. A Panasonic amp from the get go is almost certain to be a failure with music, the amp you are using almost certainly has a digital amp, and not an analogue one. Digital amps at the moment are not really known to be good with music, and tend to be very bright sounding, especially at the budget end.

If you're priority is music or music is very important to you, then Marantz, YAmaha (RXV750 and above) and NAD should be on your shortlist. Satellites are a general no no.

If you can return the items as not being satisfactory to you, I would do so, and start again. If you give us a budget, we can probably help you to create a shortlist that will be both musical and good with movies . If you can't, you could either try to sell them on the classifieds here, or put the purchase down to experience and live with it until it is time to upgrade.

 

[Kazman]

There is.....possibly.....another way.

Take a pause as uncle Kaz explains.

If your Panny amp has preouts for the front three channels, you could think of going the power amp route and some floor standers. A pair of these: http://www.avland.co.uk/marantz/ma6100/index.htm

And a set of these: http://www.avland.co.uk/ms/ms914/ms-914.htm

Would transform your system

 

[hornydragon]

KAZ nice idea but probably cost more than the original system......I agree the Panny AMP was the wrong choice for musical however as it is all digital there may be mod to transform this unmusical unit into a stereo beast see www.avsforum.com where the US equivalent has been doing an superb job with its all digitakl amplification....... and putting PAY to the DPR2005 from HK!

 

[supo]

Thanks for your replies. My plan is as follows
1.Try to set what I have now as well as I can to get the best out of them.
2. Spend some money (max £250/350Euros/$450) to improve things. Upgrade one or two years later.
3.How about the bose speakers? Are they quite good with music?
4.From your replies-the Panasonic SA-XR70 should be fine? And I only need to improve on the Speakers?

 

[hornydragon]

BOSE are worse than the canotns....give them time to run in and get the sub integrated properly (not easy) and see post above!

 

[supo]

Thanks. Will see

 

[Diamond]

AV-amps can be as good with music than integrated. A (good rep) finnish Hifi-magazine reviewed a ProCaster AV-amp, which is really cheap. It may be a CA-clone or something, but it got better scores for SQ than some 2x the price integrated.

That has stirred things up here, a lot of conversation you can believe. Also an experienced Hifi reviewer blindtested an amp and another one 10x more expensive. He said the cheaper was more dynamic etc.. These things are psychological very far, at least I'm in peace right now with my AV-amp.

I think SQ comes with the speakers very much. With movies every other speaker sounds good, with music you can separate good from bad. With subwoofers, I think it's just opposite.

 

[Mango Bob]

Buying a pair of Canton fullsize speakers (CD100 or CD50?) as fronts would give you a much bigger sound for your music. I found that no satellites I listened to really cut it in stereo - which is why I went for floorstanders.
You can use the rest of your CD1 set for 7.1 duties but will probably need to upgrade the sub eventually. As already said, the pannie isn't the most musical AV amp.

 

[Dfour]

Ive just looked at Panasonics web site and it appears theat the amp does have multichannel inputs so you could run a stereo amp (second hand Nad 3020 for instance) in tandem with the Panny. You still going to have subwoofer intergration problems though and the sounds still wont be as good as using full size speakers.

Supee you dont say what your using as your musical source. If your using a cheap dvd player this will also not help as most cheap dvd players are pants (technical term here ) with music To improve the cd sound get a dedicated cd player.
Remember : Pants in - Pants out

 

[supo]

Can anyone recommend a good Multi-cd changer-prefarably SACD/DVD-audio

 

[gavp]

My advice to keep the cost down, get some bigger speakers for the fronts, use this as your upgrade basis, you can have the best cd player or amp but if your speakers aren't up to the job how are the amp and cd player suppose to relay their sound to you in a way thats enjoyable?
Once you have more cash upgrade your amp and eventually better DVD/CD player, you mentioned when setting the system up you thought that music through the speakers wasn't that good, trust in your judgement

 

[Diamond]

I agree with gavp. There is no difference in dvd- or cd-players if you connect it digitally. That's just bull. That's like getting £1000 cables and hoping for the best.

Speakers (setup) and the room they're in, are everything. Then we can talk about amps and cables...

 

[supo]

Well, well well- the amp has developed a fault. Shows overload and goes into standby. it was not hot as I have kept it well-ventilated. I bought it with credit card on 12/2/2005, and its already faulty. Are they all that flaky?
I hope I can get the supplier to take it back as it is within the cooling-off period of ten days, and can exchange it for something else, but what? I don't know. I like it to be slim and capable of 6-channel, and musical. Or is it a simple thing easily rectified without an engineer fixing it?

 

[Magnet & Steel]

Well, well well- the amp has developed a fault. Shows overload and goes into standby. it was not hot as I have kept it well-ventilated. I bought it with credit card on 12/2/2005, and its already faulty. Are they all that flaky?
I hope I can get the supplier to take it back as it is within the cooling-off period of ten days, and can exchange it for something else, but what? I don't know. I like it to be slim and capable of 6-channel, and musical. Or is it a simple thing easily rectified without an engineer fixing it?

which retailer did you buy it from?

 

[supo]

It was Krish audio, through their web site

 

[Kazman]

Hmmm, Krish have a bit of a mixed bag reputation when it comes to returning faulty gear. Whatever you do, don't get a like for like replacement, especially if you want a musical system.

 

[Dfour]

Can anyone recommend a good Multi-cd changer-prefarably SACD/DVD-audio

Nad make one though how good it really is is a good question. I would SERIOUSLY make sure you demo it before spending that sort of money.
http://www.superfi.co.uk/index.cfm/page/moreinfo.cfm/Product_ID/1310

 

[supo]

UPDATE:
The Panasonic receiver gave up the ghost for no reason(see post#18 above). I returned it and asked for Pioneer C502S instead. Hope it will be good musically.
I connected the Canton speakers to a 10-year old Aiwa 3-disk Midi HIFI system, they sounded much better with the Aiwa; in fact almost as good as Bose Lifestyle 48 I listened to in a store over the weekend.

Which leaves my poor sound quality to either the Panasonic receiver or my cheap and cheeful Pacific DVD player from ASDA.
Guys, please recommend good multi-disc changers-cd OR DVD, but good for playing music. Thanks for all your useful comments

 

[jrturbo]

Hi there

Just my 2 cents worth, the sound qulity is the sum of your components and how they integrate with each other.

You have purchased the equipment and your are not currently happy with the sound delivered.

If you mainly listen to music avoid if you can satelite speaker set ups as general rule of thumb, but you have already purchased them, so for the time lets stick with them, you have done the right thing by trying the satelite with your previous hifi set up and have comented that they sound a lot better.

Now the problem could be either the amplifier or the source playing the CD, since you mention that you are using a cheap ASDA dvd player as your audio source, I would be inclined to connect it to AIWA midi system and try it out ( I asume the your midi hifi must have some for of aux input ) I am almost certain you will find that your music will sound worse, but in doing so you will confirm one way or another this theory.

Since you have returned your panasonic amp you no longer have the posibility of trying the set up the other way around until your replacement receiver amp arrives, when it does, try out your music with asda dvd player and with your mide system as a source and in doing so you will know for def if the cheap and cheerfull dvd is the source of you lack of sound quality.

Most people who listen to music mainly either buy expensive DVD player that sounds good with music or buy a separate CD player for music playback, although there are some reasonably priced DVD player that sound good with music, general connsensus for example is the LIMIT 900 which apparently gives a really good sound with CD playback. (check the DVD players forum for more info )

You may also want to invest on a pair of decent speakers to use as you main stereo, wether they are floor standers or smaller units on stands will depend on you budget and size of the room and keep the remaining satelites for 5.1 movies.The amplifier you have chosen does not have a speaker selection swicht a/b, but whatever you do, please audition before spending anymore money, find a retailer that will let you return the speakers if you are not happy with and exchange them or refund if yout not satisfied after an agreed trial period.

Hope this helps

 

[Dfour]

Heres the links for the 800SE
http://www.play.com/play247.asp?page=title&r=ELEC&title=509319
and the 900SE
http://www.play.com/play247.asp?page=title&r=ELEC&title=509316

Both out of stock at the moment though

I dont understand why you want a multi disk changer as the sound quality from them is inferior to a single disk player. I would guess if you really had to have one the Nad I posted is most likely the best bet.