The Apex Club

I'll work on trying to get some pics uploaded, 1st attempt failed! 

Audyssey was run before we watched the film last night. I'm used to having my previous floorstanders quite wide apart. Prior to the Apex i had some CM8s at home which i was considering buying, the mids & highs that are reproduced from those speakers are incredible. Maybe my ears also need to adjust to a another brands sound. I'll play around with the L&R channels tonight and see how i get on. 

Thanks for the reply/help. 

First, I'd advice taking the grilles off (and running Audyssey again!). Even if these are supposedly designed to affect the sound as little as possible (according to MA themselves) I'd think those might hold treble and "airy" details back a tad. I never care for grilles because they act like a veil in front of the speakers (never a good thing). Those B&W are nice, I've heard them a few times. I'd say they might be a tad "brighter" than the Apex, which are more smooth, though still highly detailed.

Let us know how you get on!

Ha, thanks. Thats correct the sub is the RXW-12. I'm slightly concerend that the speakers are to high. The wife was giving me jip about not having them any lower or dropping the L&R channels in line with the centre. 

Ignore all the cables etc. All will be hidden and out of sight. 

Right. Cables ignored! 

Your wifey might be on to something there. As for me (you might have seen my photos already?) well mine are placed slightly lower than ideal (which would be at ear height while seated) ontop my a/v cabinet and all three are aligned horizontally with each other. Works terrifically well in my room (easy to hide cables away too!). This kind of set-up does not suit everyone though (especially not if you have a little one running around touching everything... hehe).

As you can see the speakers are placed fairly close together aswell but the soundstage is way larger than what one might suspect just from viewing the photo. Also, I prefer to have the front "wall" of sound not too detached from the on-screen action (if that makes sense?) which I would probably get if I had them spread apart. Either way, my room is too small for that.

Yeah, I've seen your pic a while back and love it. I used it as an example to show the Mrs what the system looked like :-) 

Out of interest can we compare settings?? 

Crossovers are set as.... Front at 60hz, centre at 60hz and sub set to 80hz. Both fronts and centre set to small. 

Thanks. 

I second that, i really love Ricky's setup! And the speakers really go with his contemporay setup

Just an update for Ric71 and Ricky, i havent had a chance to setup my second AW12 yet, probably will do over the weekend. Will post my findings once i get setup.

@atkins4725 - give the speakers a chance to run in, you wont be disappointed, they'll sound better over time. May be re-run your speaker calibration again? Best to do it when its quiet and you can tweak it up if you need to afterwards.

The Apex has been the best sub/sat speaker system i've ever owned but thats how it sounds to my ears. This is my fourth package (after tirelessly trying other brands over the years) and i'll be sticking with the Apex for many years. The first system i owned many years ago was a Bose Accoustimass 15....yes i know....i too can't believe i just said that....

Oy, thanks a bunch for those awesome comments! 

I am planning slight changes to my room and set-up but it'll be a while coming! 

Gotta tell you gosahl I was just about to post asking where your feedback was on your dual subwoofer installation! Can hardly wait, hehe. Have you already picked a spot to test first? However happy I am with the result on my side of things hopefully you won't be too limited by placement options as I am in my room.

As a general recommendation, 'small' and 80Hz cut-off frequency for all satellite speakers works best for most users. That is also a common recommendation for lots of speakers in home cinema set-up's, regardless of their physical size. I'm using that setting myself, even though the Audyssey calibration set my A40 center to 60Hz. I think that is because 1) it goes deeper than the smaller A10 2) it's low frequency reproduction gets a boost because of placement close to the tv. That latter reason might also be why your calibration set yours to 60Hz as your speakers are placed close to the wall. 

If you haven't done so already I would also advice reading up a bit on Audyssey on their homepage. I've learned alot on how Audyssey works and how sensitive the calibration procedure actually is and how much it can differ from doing it half-cocked and doing it right (dead silence = A MUST! tripod = A MUST! the list goes on...). They got great amounts of tips and FAQ's over there awsell.

Audyssey themselves tend to recommend leaving the frequency cut-off the way the calibration sets it, because that is how the speakers happen to measure in your particular room. But I say this: USE YOUR EARS! Simply experiment by changing the cut-off frequency upwards to 70Hz, 80Hz etc after you've run your calibration. As you know the trick is to get the best possible blend with the subwoofer and have that "airy" reproduction coming from the satellites without them sounding "thick" trying to reproduce frequencies they are not comfortable with (or even meant to).

Guys

What screw sizes/ lenght did anyone use to mount the apex 40s on a drywall? (dot and dab plasterboard)

thanks

Sunil4, 

I used 40mm with plugs.

Ok, cheers for the info.

I repositioned the front L&R channels a few inches wider late this afternoon and straight away the sound is so much sweeter. (not as muddled, much clearer). 

Now to re-run Audyssey and maybe a few tweak :-D 

Sunil> you can use screws leght what you want, but minimum 40mm, pay atention that screws "head" must fit to Apex brackets recesus..i used 60mm screws..

Atkins>i like your TV very much:)super..but i will buy Panasonic plasma >)

Great! See how small changes can have a large effect 

Keep us posted!

I have my Apex A10's crossed at 80hz and my A40 is crossed at 100hz. All set by Anthem Room Correction. The A40 is crossed higher as their is a sip in in the frequency response due to its position under the TV but ARC has smoothed most of this out. 

@ gosalh looking forward to your findings. Give me a shout over on AVFORUMS