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  #31  
Old 12-01-2017, 01:29 PM
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Massive - did you have to raise the roof? Interesting species of trees you have there.
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  #32  
Old 12-19-2017, 11:26 AM
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I'm finally able to make it back to my new speaker thread. I appreciate everyone's positive reactions and posts. My father in law, Melinda's dad, just recently passed away so I've been mostly focused on helping and being supportive with her and our family.

I am overall very happy with the new speakers although as I mentioned before they have been more challenging than expected to integrate into my room. I will do a full write up on my setup process, including working with the JL Audio CR-1 (which made integrating the subs 10x easier!), and share my listening impressions very soon.
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McIntosh MC501s, XRT29s, XR27, WS350s
ModWright LS 300 Preamplifier
Denon AVR-A100 HT Receiver
JL Audio F113 subs with CR-1 Crossover
Schiit Audio Yggdrasil DAC (Analog 2 + Unison USB)
Sonore Ultrarendu with Uptone Audio LPS-1.2
Uptone Audio EtherREGEN network switch with LPS-1.2
Oppo UDP-205 with ModWright Signature Truth Tube Modifications
Clearaudio Performance SE TT with Hana ML MC cartridge
ModWright PH 9.0x Phono Stage
ASC & RealTraps Panels; APS PurePower 2000; Daedalus Audio DiDs
LAT International, Shunyata, Wireworld, WyWires Cables
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  #33  
Old 12-28-2017, 02:48 PM
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Since I'm taking this week off I thought I'd work on finishing up my write up of my new to me XRT29 speakers and integrating them into my system with the JL F113s and the CR-1 crossover. I'll write this in two parts - the first part will be about the JL Audio CR-1 and the second part will be my impressions of the XRT-29s.

Since the CR-1 was delivered to me before the XRT-29s arrived, I thought it would be fun to hook it up and see how it sounded with my LS360s. I have a XTZ Room Analyzer that I used to confirm my levels and crossover slope, and this was also used later for the setup of the XRT-29s. I did a very basic 80hz crossover for both speakers and sub, and it sounded very good without a lot of effort at all. I also listened to the speakers both with and without the CR-1 inline, and could tell almost no difference either way. If I could tell any difference there might have been a slight bit of extra sharpness in the treble, but not enough for me to be able to say for sure either way. The only other time I might have noticed a slight loss in transparency is when using the sub/speaker balance control, so I integrated everything in terms of volume with the sub volume controls and left that flat/centered. Overall, I found the CR-1 to be extremely transparent - a very good sign, to say the least!

The LS360s measure flat to 20hz in my room so I was curious to see how much adding the dual F113s to the mix for stereo listening would change the sound. The improvement was immediately apparent - much more fullness to the bass, especially at lower listening levels, and more punch. All of the other things you have heard before about improved midrange clarity and soundstage also applied here. I was very pleased with the improvement, so much so that I was wondering if I even needed to upgrade the speakers to the XRT-29s. If I hadn't, I would have still been very happy with how my system sounded. More on that later...

The CR-1 crossover made setting up and integrating the subs extremely easy. The ability to adjust and fine tune crossover points for both subs and speakers, as well as being able to mute any of the outputs for either sub and/or either L/R speaker makes listening and adjusting much easier and faster. I decided to run my subs in stereo vs. summed (mono), so adjusting phase (which you have to do with the sub front panel controls) for each left/right pair was also much easier with the muting abilities vs. having to turn on and off amps and subs manually each time.

The CR-1 is also fantastic for integrating a 2 channel and multi-channel HT system into one setup utilizing the subs for both. In my particular setup it's especially nice, since my ModWright LS 36.5 preamp will run HT passthrough without being turned on. The way I have the CR-1 configured is to run balanced outputs from the preamp to the CR-1 and then balanced outputs from the CR-1 to my MC501s. Unbalanced sub inputs come in from the HT receiver or processor. Unbalanced sub outputs go to the two JL F113s. With this setup, I can listen to HT via my Denon AVR-A100 with the preamp and CR-1 turned off (or in bypass), which does a straight passthrough of the 2-channel inputs and sub inputs without engaging the unit or the crossover controls. To listen to 2-channel you turn the preamp and the CR-1 on. It is perfectly seamless and extremely easy to go back and forth, and makes everything super simple to operate once everything is set up correctly. The CR-1 also has the ability to fine tune the levels of both subs and speakers at the crossover point with a damping control to ensure smoothness or to help balance things out. I didn't need to use this feature with the LS360s, but I did much to my surprise with the XRT-29s, and it was very helpful to have. More on that in Part 2...

For anyone considering the addition of the JL Audio CR-1 into their system, I highly recommend it! I wasn't sure at first if I even needed one, and that thinking was quickly erased once I incorporated it into my system and started using it to integrate my speakers and subs. The flexibility, transparency, and especially the ability to integrate subs for both 2-channel and HT/surround exceeded my expectations!
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McIntosh MC501s, XRT29s, XR27, WS350s
ModWright LS 300 Preamplifier
Denon AVR-A100 HT Receiver
JL Audio F113 subs with CR-1 Crossover
Schiit Audio Yggdrasil DAC (Analog 2 + Unison USB)
Sonore Ultrarendu with Uptone Audio LPS-1.2
Uptone Audio EtherREGEN network switch with LPS-1.2
Oppo UDP-205 with ModWright Signature Truth Tube Modifications
Clearaudio Performance SE TT with Hana ML MC cartridge
ModWright PH 9.0x Phono Stage
ASC & RealTraps Panels; APS PurePower 2000; Daedalus Audio DiDs
LAT International, Shunyata, Wireworld, WyWires Cables
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