What is your setup and media sources for listening to high quality stereo music?

[eytonxav]

Got my LR speakers mounted on stands and center in the media cabinet, but still have to unbox and setup the Denon X3700H. I have not played with an AVR in many years so I am a little apprehensive. Do I change the TVs and Apple TV4k settings first and then connect everything to the AVR and then setup AVR or do I setup AVR first and adjust its settings and then change settings on the TV and Apple TV4K?

 

[Qs Laptop]

Got my LR speakers mounted on stands and center in the media cabinet, but still have to unbox and setup the Denon X3700H. I have not played with an AVR in many years so I am a little apprehensive. Do I change the TVs and Apple TV4k settings first and then connect everything to the AVR and then setup AVR or do I setup AVR first and adjust its settings and then change settings on the TV and Apple TV4K?

Nice pic, I like it!

When you say "connect everything to the AVR", what do you have besides the Apple TV?

How many 4K HDMI inputs are available on the Denon 3700? IIRC, there are more than one, but unsure how many.

Anyway, you are going to need to make a bunch of setting changes and it really doesn't matter which ones you do first on which device since they all need to be set up correctly or you won't get the desired results.

For example, one setting that I did not have executed on my C2 was HDMI Ultra deep color. This setting is found in the General > Devices > HDMI settings. I had it turned off which meant I could not get the C2 to display Dolbyvision or HDR10 content. As you probably know, Dolbyvision content looks awesome on OLED TV's.

 

[eytonxav]

Nice pic, I like it!

When you say "connect everything to the AVR", what do you have besides the Apple TV?

How many 4K HDMI inputs are available on the Denon 3700? IIRC, there are more than one, but unsure how many.

Anyway, you are going to need to make a bunch of setting changes and it really doesn't matter which ones you do first on which device since they all need to be set up correctly or you won't get the desired results.

For example, one setting that I did not have executed on my C2 was HDMI Ultra deep color. This setting is found in the General > Devices > HDMI settings. I had it turned off which meant I could not get the C2 to display Dolbyvision or HDR10 content. As you probably know, Dolbyvision content looks awesome on OLED TV's.

Thanks! Right now I just have the Apple TV4K and a 4K BluRay Player. May add a turntable at some point and am uncertain of whether some other music streaming device will be needed. The 3700 has 6 inputs, and I am planning to use it as a hub and connect it to the TV via eARC. I think since I will need to reconnect the existing HDMI cable that is wired from the Apple TV4K to the TV, I need to power off all devices when I re-hook up to avoid handshake issues. There are some many settings on the Denon its mind boggling and I am not familiar with what all they do, let alone the settings on the TV. I would like to be able to power on the TV/AVR/Apple TV4K and adjust volume using the Apple TV4K remote.

 

[Ronstar]

My system sucks. A cheap Sony receiver, streamed music, in ceiling speakers.

We had a good system in the 80’s, but gave it to MIL. She still has the speakers and I want them back. And get a turntable, a good receiver and some vinyl records.

 

[ERD50]

...

BTW -- The gauge of the speaker wire is very important. Not suggesting you pay premium prices for Monster Cable, but I used a heavy qauge wire to connect everything in my system.....even going so far as to make the lengths all the same -- front, rear and sub.

I think it would take a pretty extreme distance difference and very sensitive ears, and a rather extreme condition for this to matter.

12 AWG wire is 12.5 mOhms/foot (so 25 mOhms for the two runs from amp to speaker). Consider a 10' run vs a 20' run of unequal wire. I'll take the extreme case of the speaker dipping down to 2 Ohms (which only some speakers do, and at a fairly narrow frequency range).

A 10' run provides a drop of -0.107900637734123 dB, a 20' run -0.214477307835461
dB, so only about 1/10th of a dB at that frequency.

At a more typical 6 Ohms across most of the audio band, we are talking a mere ~0.036 dB difference.

So under some extreme length differences, demanding speakers, and 'golden' ears, well, maybe? But with those differences, the attenuation of the sound itself through air, room effects, and speaker to speaker and amp to amp and a dozen other variables are more likely to swamp it out. I didn't do the math on inductance differences, but I'm guessing those are minimal as well at these lengths and frequencies.

-ERD50

 

[eytonxav]

I think it would take a pretty extreme distance difference and very sensitive ears, and a rather extreme condition for this to matter.

12 AWG wire is 12.5 mOhms/foot (so 25 mOhms for the two runs from amp to speaker). Consider a 10' run vs a 20' run of unequal wire. I'll take the extreme case of the speaker dipping down to 2 Ohms (which only some speakers do, and at a fairly narrow frequency range).

A 10' run provides a drop of -0.107900637734123 dB, a 20' run -0.214477307835461
dB, so only about 1/10th of a dB at that frequency.

At a more typical 6 Ohms across most of the audio band, we are talking a mere ~0.036 dB difference.

So under some extreme length differences, demanding speakers, and 'golden' ears, well, maybe? But with those differences, the attenuation of the sound itself through air, room effects, and speaker to speaker and amp to amp and a dozen other variables are more likely to swamp it out. I didn't do the math on inductance differences, but I'm guessing those are minimal as well at these lengths and frequencies.

-ERD50

Right, my speaker wires are 10' and less, so I went with 14ga which is more than adequate for a discerning audiophile.

 

[Markola]

Sonos

 

[yakers]

Sonos

Yep, Dennon driven SONOS system, all wired to each room, controlled from my iPhone, except for price I'm in heaven

 

[OldShooter]

... BTW -- The gauge of the speaker wire is very important. Not suggesting you pay premium prices for Monster Cable, but I used a heavy qauge wire to connect everything in my system.....even going so far as to make the lengths all the same -- front, rear and sub.

Sorry, probably wasted money. (MSEE and former studio audio tech here) We are working with 4 and 8 ohm speaker impedance. The resistance of the connecting wires should be a fairly small fraction of those numbers. Ordinary "zip" cord is typically 16 gauge, which has a resistance of 4.09 ohms per 1,000 feet (slightly temperature dependent), so a long residential speaker run of 50 feet would have about 0.2 ohms of resistance. Just fine. Typically I buy 14 gauge wire just because it is easy to get, so I am working with 0.15 ohms for a 50' run. I would not worry a bit about using it for a couple hundred feet.

Regarding equal length runs, at less than 2 nanoseconds per foot, transmission time is not even close to being an issue. I suppose for a huge difference, like 10:1, one could argue that the difference in resistance should start to be considered, but in that case I would rather go up one gauge for the long run than deal with a big equalizing coil of wire for the short run.

Most of the talk of large and magic speaker cables is pure nonsense. I really don't understand why some enterprising state attorney general has not charged Monster Cable with consumer fraud. There is a famous experiment Google can find for you where a stereo magazine tested a super premium speaker cable against a speaker connection made from old coat hangers. "Expert" listeners could hear no difference.

 

[aja8888]

Sorry, probably wasted money. (MSEE and former studio audio tech here) We are working with 4 and 8 ohm speaker impedance. The resistance of the connecting wires should be a fairly small fraction of those numbers. Ordinary "zip" cord is typically 16 gauge, which has a resistance of 4.09 ohms per 1,000 feet (slightly temperature dependent), so a long residential speaker run of 50 feet would have about 0.2 ohms of resistance. Just fine. Typically I buy 14 gauge wire just because it is easy to get, so I am working with 0.15 ohms for a 50' run. I would not worry a bit about using it for a couple hundred feet.

Regarding equal length runs, at less than 2 nanoseconds per foot, transmission time is not even close to being an issue. I suppose for a huge difference, like 10:1, one could argue that the difference in resistance should start to be considered, but in that case I would rather go up one gauge for the long run than deal with a big equalizing coil of wire for the short run.

Most of the talk of large and magic speaker cables is pure nonsense. I really don't understand why some enterprising state attorney general has not charged Monster Cable with consumer fraud. There is a famous experiment Google can find for you where a stereo magazine tested a super premium speaker cable against a speaker connection made from old coat hangers. "Expert" listeners could hear no difference.

How true. I was almost 40 years old when a hearing exam said I couldn't hear beyond 12K Hertz. And the lower end was just under 100..

 

[bloom2708]

In the Metaverse I have a pair of these:

https://upscaleaudio.com/products/tannoy-arden-loudspeaker

In real life I have a Bose Soundlink Mini speaker.

 

[OldShooter]

How true. I was almost 40 years old when a hearing exam said I couldn't hear beyond 12K Hertz. And the lower end was just under 100..

Yes, that's another factor that particularly pertains to the crowd here and discussion of high-quality audio. A good experiment is to download some test tones from the internet and play them on good speakers where you are near-certain that the frequency response extends to maybe 15khz. See what you can actually hear. On my Kliipsch Heresys I can hear nothing from the tweeter. 8khz from the midrange is about my upper limit. I confirmed this by going for a hearing test. On the low end I am pretty good; not hearing much below 30 or 40hz but I don't know if that is the speakers or me. Anyway, that is good enough for all but the lowest organ music.

 

[jollystomper]

Yamaha AVR as the center. Connected to this:
- Yahama 5:1 speaker system (L/R front-back speakers are wall mounted in each corner of the man cave/theater, front center speaker in front center, woofer in corner about a foot off the ground
- Radio Shack Stereo Sound Mixer with 2 Techniques turntables (survivors from my DJ days)
- Sharp Dual Cassette Deck
- Crossley turntable/CD player/recorder
- Gaming systems (PS/3, WII)
- Fire TV stick
- Laptop computer (with attached Hercules DJ controller)
- Projector

The AUX port and an A/V switch with spare ports can be used to hook up other stuff as needed (e.g. VHS/H-8/Mini DV players).