If you are satisfied with Jamo performance, just add apropriate Jamo center ...
I am sitting 4m from the speakers (direct distance to each front speaker). The floor is laminated. Ceiling plasterboard.
I have tried to play around with the speakers positioning (putting them closer to the TV, moving them higher than they are now), but it had no effect on the dialogue clarity. So I went for a wider setup.
These speakers are old, not manufactured any more and later models seem to be worse in measurements than this series. But then again, it's just my inexperienced interpretation of the charts posted.
My assumption was that a quality stereo setup should give enough clarity so that I don't need a center, when I sit exactly in the middle between the speakers. Seems I was mistaken. I will have to either find something on the used market (good luck buying just a CENTER), or take one from a different manufacturer. What if I used one of the surrounds (a bipole speaker) as a center?
The issue is that I am not sure if I am satisfied with the speakers as such. I just don't know if the deficiencies are because of a wrong setup, or wrong speakers.
I think sometimes it's just vibrations and loose electrical/electronic connections. Sometimes unexplainable. Just make sure your subwoofer isn't touching the avr console/rack and also add some rubber/felt/foam isolation pad under the avr feet. I had same problems before but after doing that, it has never shut off on its own again. I also moved the avr further away from the subwoofer. Maybe that helps too.For the first time ever, today, when watching Edge of Tomorrow, around 0:17:xx, the amp shut itself down when watching the movie at -10dB. The surface was nowhere close to hot or very warm. I have never watched this movie this loud. More like on -20. I have watched others around -8dB, but those were not so full of effects.
Definitely get the sub first.I don't have a sub. And it's definitely that part of the movie (Edit: it was around 0:20:xx on the battlefield). Replaying it causing the same result.
I have also tried reassigning one of the surrounds as center. Much better vocal clarity (and I mean MUCH), I have to admit. But it was also lacking the deeper tones (configured the CENTER as a 'small' speaker in AV because the surrounds start at 65Hz instead of the 45Hz of the fronts) and frankly it was very unusual for me that most of the sounds came from below the TV. I found it very irritating, but probably I can get used to it.
So long story short: I need a good center or an amp that downmixes center into phantom centers with much better clarity.
And a stronger AMP. Or a powered sub.
Forgot to mention: the Jamo's are bi-amped. Not sure if this is a good idea given the setup. The Elacs don't support bi-amping.
Most of us use a subwoofer. You should only set speakers to small if you have a subwoofer.After re-reading the measurements in #4 (freq flatness in the 100Hz-10kHz range with +-1.2dB) and the fact that the sound does NOT come directly from the speaker, but rather from the 'room' (as opposed to the ELACs where the sound is coming directly from the speaker), I start to think that the JAMO's must not be utter garbage. Maybe the amps can't drive them properly in the vocal range, or it has to do something with the room acoustics and the ELACs seem not affected by that. Needless to say, I prefer the imaging of the JAMOs much more than the pointy and boring nature of the ELACs.
After discussing with Rick I have tried pillows to address the echo, swapping cables and amp output ports between the speaker sets, repositioning the speakers, but none of them helped to mitigate the subpar dialogue clarity for the JAMOs.
I feel I have to give some more chance to the JAMOs to prove their measured quality in real life and setup.
Mystery solved. The echo was added by the amp, in the "AUTO" mode. When switching to "Source Direct" or "Pure Direct" the dialogs suddenly became clear. Apparently this (old) Audyssey is having an issue with phantom center channels and somehow JAMOs are less forgiving (or more revealing, more affected by that, you name it) than the ELACs probably because their stage is naturally wider and the sound is more in front of me rather than in the speaker.
I have also realized (after reading amirs article) that I have done it all wrong and I need to listen to the speakers in mono.
When re-listening to some classical tracks (in mono), the triangle hits indeed sounded like bells on the JAMOs whereas the ELACs told me there was a triangle hit, but no tingling followed.
Funny thing is, I have realized that over the past days, no matter which speaker have I decided on as being better, I felt sad for the other paid. Either because
- I felt like I have been listening to a wrong pair of speakers for the past years and I need to get rid of them. Together with the doubt of what If they are indeed not that wrong and I am just unable to properly reveal their true quality and would be 'throwing out' an exceptional pair of speakers.
- or that the ELACs are not that big of a difference (or even a let-down) to my current speakers and I can't increase the sound quality being on the budget I am
Anyway, I have learned a lot from this experience, thanks for being here and helping me.