I think I am figuring out what it is that is bothering me... sounds reasonable on music but I hear unnatural stuff during movies. It appears to be an over-aggressive bass processor. If I set the bass tone control to full cut the extra burbles are pretty much gone.
Got my amps today but still waiting for the surround decoder. Soon...
JR
[edit] I watched a couple movies with one amp and an old pair of studio monitors. The roughly 10W @ 8 ohms won't make my ears bleed, but adequate for my quiet living room. No bass funny business but less perceived very low frequency output. Clearly the computer speaker sub was adding bass distortion (for effect).
Looking forward to adding 4 more channels. Today I need to recone my 6" 2-ways to use for rear channels.
I have a good (big) sub, and one odd old AR4 speaker from the 60's i can use for the dialog speaker. The other AR4 from that pair was stolen from my parents house in the '70s.
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[edit2] replaced the surrounds on my 6' 2-ways and they even make good sounds now. \
I expect the decoder any day now so i'll be up with what passes for surround these days momentarily.
I ordered a kit of replacement surrounds for the 8" 3-way since their surrounds are in the later stages of deterioration. I replaced the woofers once already before I left Peavey (free friends and family plan)
Not sure If I like the 8" 3 way or the 6" 2way better... the 6" 2 way is an old friend I haven't listened to for over 20 years. I know the engineer who designed them (Bruce Zayde) and they don't suck (great vocals)... Hopefully in the surround arrangement none of them will be called on to make low bass so the differences between the 8" and 6' woofer will be less noticeable.
I am a little nervous about the orphan AR4x I plan to use for dialog... A little WWW search suggests it has a cloth surround so may be in better shape than the foam surrounds that last 10-15 years if lucky. I found kits for the AR4x so I can repair it too if needed. I bought it in the 60's so more than half a century.
The woofer has the accordion paper surround that looks in decent shape, it's probably 20+ YO too...
My house was a grave yard for old speakers. This should be in my entropy thread, I am slowly undoing decades of speaker decay.
BTW it's really nice listening without all the bogus tricked up bass....
JR