I bought a new receiver (Onkyo 805) and just hooked up my new speakers (two 5Ts and a 5C in the front, two 5Bs in the back, a Bravus 8 sub).  They really do not sound good. The high end and all its accompanying detail sound amazing, and the subwoofer is definitely working. Everything in the middle, though, sounds like it's just sort of flat. I've tried a few different settings in the receiver, and they just always sound crappy.  Right now I have the sub doing the crossover at 90, but I tried various other settings (both via the sub and via the receiver) and that didn't help. I need to be careful about the sub because I have already been warned by the girlfriend that the sub needs to be tamed or else the speakers must go back. I don't really disagree with her, either - you can feel the floor vibrating a few rooms away when it's not even very loud.

To rule out the problem being some receiver setting that I do not yet understand, I ran the two 5Ts and then the two 5Ts and the sub directly out of one of my Sonos Zone Players. Same problem.

I know some people say Aperions are "bright" sounding speakers, but I didn't think that brightness came at the expense of almost the entire middle range of sound.  This system is replacing an old Bose Lifestyle 28 system for which the speakers were mounted on a 9-foot-high ceiling with crappy in-wall speaker cable.  That system never really sounded great - there was a swath of frequencies for which the sound was lacking.  That said, the new setup is far worse. I know speakers need some break-in time, but I don't want to sit around passively waiting for them to break in for a week or two and then just end up sending them back anyway.   

Here are my questions:

1.  Are the speakers supposed to sound like this? I want to understand whether this is just a preference thing.

2.  How much will speaker break-in address my problem, and how long will break-in take?

3.  Can I do something with my receiver to remedy this situation? If so, can I hire someone to do it for me? (I have very limited free time at the moment.)

Honestly, after all the time spent waiting for these speakers, hooking them up, and tinkering with them, I am so irritated about the effort I've wasted that I'm on the verge of just boxing them up, sending them back, and starting anew with different speakers.  Note that I cannot really phone Aperion about this for the next few weeks because their very limited hours conflict with my work schedule. 

Thanks for any help you can offer. 

Ldren,

I have the 805 and now 8 Aperions hooked to it.

The new line is touted as having a higher power-handling tweeter with the new line.

If that means a brighter sounding speaker I would not want them.

If you have not done so already, run the Audyssey speaker calibration with the mic and I suggest using only 3 mic locations. Main seated position L/C/R. then save and exit.

This would be a good starting point. With Audyssey, my 805 set the speaker distances within 6 inches as measured manually for all speakers and levels were within 3db for all speakers in my 7.1 setup.

Check speaker setup settings via the OSD of the 805.

I had two Bose Acoustimass 7’s scattered around my main listening area but one of the base units is now a plant stand and the rest are in my office serving PC duty.

I would suggest, that in order to get a really good HT sound experience you will need to get involved and not bring in the Geek Squad.

You will want to experiment with various settings and sound fields the 805 offers.

I believe Aperion suggests a 48 hour break-in, but mine sounded great right out of the box.

Don’t give up just yet.

Ldren,

I read your post, and hear you loud and clear. I realize you addressed this, but honestly the best way to handle this is to give us a call here at Aperion. We are open from 8:00 - 5:00 monday - friday pacific standard time. Hopefully you can sneak in a 10 minute call to get this handled. We are not usually one's to downtalk anybodys system, but if your 5 series towers and the rest of your speakers aren't sounding better then your Bose system, then there is something most definitely wrong with your setup. We would be happy to take some time to talk you through this, so please give us a call at your earliest convenience. If that is simply impossible, email me at david.bolt@aperionaudio.com. We can get into some specifics of your system and go from there...

Until then...

 

Greetings,

Justwanted to know how the new speakers were treating you now?

I too had a Bose setup years back and the "warmth" was over amplified and bass/mids pushed in your face. 

I'm leaning towards personal preference or reciever config issue.

My 5T's recreate sound the way intended with no EQ modifications! No complaints

 (Keep us updated!

This thread is a year old. My guess is that he will not be keeping us updated.

For what it is worth, I have the 805 with 4 5B, a 5C, and a Bravus 12, and I cannot imagine it sounding any better. Especially when compared to "no highs, no lows, must be Bose."

Or two years old even. 

In any case, I can't remember what the problem was exactly, but this customer ended up keeping the 5Ts, 5C, 5Bs and sub and liked them enough that they also ordered a pair of outdoor speakers when those launched last year.  

All is well that ends well.