Thanks Moderator and splash (DT) and thankyou everyone for your responses. I might have to go and check it out on the weekend. It looks like I will need to wall mount my TV to get the XXL but it will probably we be worth it!

DT I have a question for you personally

I have noticed from your other posts you are running the exact same receiver as me (Yamaha RX 1040) Would you mind posting the EQ settings you are running on your centre and while you are at it your Left and Right channel on Parametric EQ settings? I have found tt wasn't until I manually Eqed the Yamaha where I got really good sound out of the speakers. For some reason Pure direct to me sounds very hollow and thin and I hate that setting so thats why I choose to run EQ. As I have mentioned in other posts I am still eyeing off a Marantz Av 8802 but I am pretty happy with the current sound I have now.

In the meantime I would be curious to see your EQ settings on your Yamaha so I can try it out if I can get my hands on the xxl. I will post photos of my current settings as well for you for my left right (which are identical) and my centre speaker now being the 60C.

The sound I am getting now is incredible and only looking for the XXL as it would be a huge step up from the 60C whereas the XL was comparable in a lot of ways to the 60c I heard. I am running a Emotiva XPA 5 200 W to each channel (no monoblocks yet dont have the room lol)

Hi Steveo, I use pure direct for 2 channel music. I have found it to be very clear and open. The hollow impression you are experiencing could be a speaker placement issue? To answer you EQ question directly, 2 channel I use pure direct so no EQ is applied. In SS I use PLII Movie with no adjustment's to Yamaha's default settings. I will also use PLII Music in some cases. I have setup my room to be acoustically friendly(as much as my wife allows:) ) I have the bass Xover set to 60Hz, but I am still evaluating the settings for the XXL. I will receive 2 items I will be using as reference tracks today and tomorrow. 1 is a movie with a scene that is challenging for a center channel. Dialog is low and in a echoing environment. It will be a good reference to set the bass to NOT clutter dialog. The other is an RCA 3 channel music recording of classical music. After I listen to these and decide on settings I will post results.

The movie is Skyfall and the music is RCA living series Rhapsodies (Thanks Wayne)

Have you run the YPAO in multiple positions? It might help. I personally try to avoid any additional processing of the original signal. Some older music needs the help if its recorded poorly. Anyway its a fun hobby, enjoy:)

Did you see Yamaha has announced the release of the next gen Aventage line? I am thinking about the 3050:)

Enjoy,
DT

Hey DT,
Glad you are trying Rhapsodies, and I want to try out Skyfall, which I have. Where, what part are you gonna test with?
I want to try it.
Please let us know what you hear with that new beauty center????
Happy listening,
God Bless, Wayne

Good afternoon, Wayne. The scene I had previously recommended from Skyfall was scene 8-10 where Bond returns from being AWOL to the new MI-6 HQ, which is under ground in a lot of concrete and brick. These two scenes have a lot of bass bloat in the vocals. If a center channel can reproduce clean vocals here, that's a great sign. This is the scene I use to tune my center crossover. Hope this helps.

Cheers,

T Cobe

Hi Wayne and T Cobe. I listened to the scenes in Skyfall you suggested at 40, 60, 80, 90 and 100Hz. I liked 90 best, but the dialog was crystal clear at all settings. At 40,60 it was a little lacking in bass and a bit tinty in other scenes. 80 or 90 Hz sound great, no bass babble in the voices. It was easy to hear every word. One thing I did use as a guide. In the scene where Bond, M and some administrator are talking about Bonds test results. I think its scene 9? Anyway as the admin guy leaves he wishes bond good luck. Right after that there is a low freq bass rumble 2 or three times in the next minute+- It was very noticeable between 40/60 and 80 Hz. The 40/60 it was barely present. 80 and 90 was very present, so I am going to use 80 for now. In my opinion the XXL is a superior center channel. It far exceeds the capability of the XL, and I was pretty happy with that. I was wanting a little more punch from the center and the XXL adds that and more.
I am using a BD version of Skyfall.


Wayne, thanks for the recommendation. I love the music!!! Great clarity and I found it for $3.99:) The center channel is VERY clean and BIG. This music really brings the dynamic range of the XXL to the front. I will say it again the XXL is a T1 without the subs:) That may be a bit of an exaggeration but not by much, but what a great combination. The details in the recording are earily present. Instruments are clearly placed and when the peaks hit the XXL keeps up!! It also drops to silence as well as the T1's.
I am going to be listening to some more tracks this weekend. I am going to watch more Skyfall scenes, there are some really big boom scenes at the end and I want to mess around with those. Ill report back later in the weekend.

Enjoy guy's and be safe.

DT

Hi DT thanks for the tests for the xxl keep them coming.

I am very curious now to what you said earlier about pure direct. I am curious because we have the exact same amp and I truly think pure direct sounds terrible and so does everyone who has heard it. I don't think it would be only down to the room. In saying this however I always eq my music no matter if I am listening to an ipod with headphones. I was wondering if you could an experiment for me? I have attached my eq settings for front L which is identical to the right channel on my 1s with the Yamaha on manual. I find this setting gives me more clarity, punch, dynamics and just overran sounds 100% better to me and everyone I A B it with pure direct.

I want to see what you think abut the sound if you try these eq settings on your tritons. It could be that u like this sound better but trust me when I say lure direct in sounds pretty awful. Since most people here including you are using pure direct I am putting it down to something on my side.

No rush but let me know if you decide to do it. Just try some songs you like and a/b test it and let me know what you find.