HUGE Spacious Surrounds - The

Eldartford: I could connect only the 901 surrounds from the AVP's pre-outs to a Yamaha reciever with ARC. Then, route the pre-amp signal to the AMP 5 and to the 901's.

The ARC may flatten the 901's out. A EQ, analog SLM and calibration CD may help further manual accuracy by ear.

Hung by their feet from a 45 degree vaulted ceiling, the main 8 drivers should reflect directly downward throughout the listening area. They could definately sound good if the 901's components have the inherent potential for excellent surround sound qualities. Given that I believe 901's probably have different sound qualities within reach using better equalizing/calibration equipment than the stock EQ. Properly shaping the sound with the system and room is the trick.

Knownothing: I believe 20Hz has three 56 foot wavelength impulses per second!

http://www.mcsquared.com/wavelength.htm

Yes, but 20kHz has a wavelength of only 0.0565 ft., and most people have a very difficult time "hearing" this frequency.

But most people who can hear at all, can "hear" 20Hz sound waves. Although they can probably "feel" sound at this low frequency as much as "hear" it.

Certified audiograms may be the best objective way to test hearing. Unfortunately, I'm only aware of OSHA type certified testing at 500Hz, 1K, 2K, 3K, 4K and 6K.

Test CD's can get beyond that, but a SLM would have to be used to determine threshold values at each frequency.

This could be helpful setting a system up after flattening out the room by with ARC or a CD and SML.

If someone has a 20 dB bilateral loss at 3, 4, and 5K Hz, adding 20 dB's at those frequencies should provide a flat response to the listener. Unilateral losses could be adjusted on that side only, etc.

Music jumps out when I cup both hands behind my ears. It seems to gather shorter treble wavelengths best. There's alot of interesting individual components to nice sound reproduction.

When voicing my custom built speakers with a test disk, I notice that my hearing runs out of steam at about 15000Hz, while my speakers and sound pressure meter keep going up to at least 21500Hz.

What I can hear sounds pretty good though. :o)

I've often felt that the Bose 901s would make good surrounds, especially with analog Dolby ProLogic, or if you can't go with 7.1. Properly set up they should definitely fill in the back half of the room. With digital you'd definitely want to use the active equalizer to get some treble.

However, time does march on. These days, for a small unobtrusive surround with room-filling hemispherical dispersion and a light, airy treble, I much prefer the Mirage Omnisat satellites, or OMD-5s.