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MX135 comments

When you touch the endcaps are you feeling a static shock? Is the AC ground, third prong, still on the power cord? Are you using any type of power conditioner? Are you using cable and if so do you have a ground lifter on the line in to the house?

Isn't video fun? You should see the mess that audio is in on the new HDMI video connector. Job security for the engineers on this one!

When we do the CEDIA show they always lay new carpet, it is very dry and we get shocked on everything we touch. The gear does not shut down but it is painful. We now take cans of static guard and spray the carpet in front of all the display racks. Works pretty good to.

Ron-C
 
Mine has all prongs, no conditioners (I think they're B.S.).
Not sure about the ground lifter in the house.
The shock jumps the volume knob every time too.
 
You can use a ground lifter on the 135 and see if this lessens the problem. If you are getting a spark everytime you touch the 135 there is a lot of static build up.

Ron-C
 
Thanks Ron. My situation is actually weirder than I've described. The HT is in one room, while the stereo is in the next room. Same contiguous w2w carpet, same Mc endcaps. The HT runs through a Monster HTS500 power conditioner, all prongs are there, and the ground in the wall plug is valid. There is no cable, only satellite. The stereo runs through a Monster AVS-2000 with the 2 power amps on a power wedge 122, all the same story on the prongs and ground. I never get shocks off the C-200 or anything in the stereo, but get one about 25% of the times I touch the 134. It seems to relate entirely to humidity, but the difference sure beats me!
 
You might try an experiment of plugging the MX135 into the wall and bypassing the condtioners. Try it with and without the ground pin engaged.
Let us know how this works.
Ron-C
 
I'm not a fan of conditioners. As far as I'm concerned the retailers fill people heads with scare tactics to sell them. I think the gear has all it needs built in.
Ans yes, I've had many of them, and yes I've had power surges and outages.
You'd think that Mac, Madrigal etc. would sell them if they felt a need.
Anyway, I digress...Ron, any news on the computer program for the MX135?
 
Ron,

Dimension and panorama sound intriguing; however, the remote (Harmony) for my MX135 doesn't have a Home button. I tried pressing all the buttons, but nothing happens. I can only adjust center width via the trim mode. Am I missing something?

Glen
 
Ron --

I have a few questions regarding the MX119 and MX135. As far as I can tell, neither of these units has DTS 96/24 or Dolby Headphone. Are these units software upgradeable, and if so, will there by an upgrade that will add these processing modes? Also, is there any way to expand a SACD or DVD-Audio surround mix that is fed into the MX119/MX135 through the multichannel input to 6.1 or 7.1? I suspect that the multichannel input is a pure analog bypass and that the answer to this question is no. Could an MSE1 be inserted between a DVP861 and an MX119/MX135 and be used to add a rear center channel to SACD or DVD-Audio surround mixes? Finally, is there any processing mode similar to Trifield (i.e., three channel stereo)?
 
Gee, I haven't looked at this tread for a while. McGlen, the home button is on the other remote, the HRO44. Did your MX135 come with both? If not let me know.
Dolstein, the MX119 and 135 process everything up to 24 bit and 96 KHZ. There is no Dolby Headphone since there is no headphone jack. Three channel stereo is available on the three channel mix disks only. The analog inputs are 7.1 but the multichannel mixes are all 5.1 or less. You can take the two channel mix of anything and take it to 7.1 using Dolby Pro logic II or DTS-Neo-6. Most of the multichannel mixes fail because they are mixed for a different room and speaker spacing than consumers use. This is often 5.1 where the listening position is in the center of the ring of speakers. So most mixes sound better when processed using DPL-II which can be adjusted for your room and speakers.
The MSE-1 is not as high performance as DPL-II.

Ron-C
 
ron-c said:
Gee, I haven't looked at this tread for a while. McGlen, the home button is on the other remote, the HRO44. Did your MX135 come with both? If not let me know.
Dolstein, the MX119 and 135 process everything up to 24 bit and 96 KHZ. There is no Dolby Headphone since there is no headphone jack. Three channel stereo is available on the three channel mix disks only. The analog inputs are 7.1 but the multichannel mixes are all 5.1 or less. You can take the two channel mix of anything and take it to 7.1 using Dolby Pro logic II or DTS-Neo-6. Most of the multichannel mixes fail because they are mixed for a different room and speaker spacing than consumers use. This is often 5.1 where the listening position is in the center of the ring of speakers. So most mixes sound better when processed using DPL-II which can be adjusted for your room and speakers.
The MSE-1 is not as high performance as DPL-II.

Ron-C
Click to expand...

Ron -- Just because the MX119 and MX135 don't have headphone jacks doesn't mean that Dolby Headphone wouldn't be useful. All you'd need to do is connect a headphone amplifier to the second zone L/R output. That said, I hope that future A/V control centers will include headphone jacks (the full size ones, please) and Dolby Headphone.

You weren't clear in answering my question about whether these products have DTS 96/24. I believe this is the most recent DTS algorithm. Just because a surround processor has 96/24 A/D converters doesn't mean it has DTS 96/24 processing.

Couldn't you get the equivalent of Trifield by using Pro Logic II and simply adjusting the the speaker set-up for no surrounds?

The MSE-1 may not be as high performance as DPL-II, but if I'm not mistaken, that's the only McIntosh product out there that could extract a back surround channel from 5.1 SACD/DVD-A material.
 
Dolstein,

ALL DTS modes are supported on these. Any 5.1 digital source can be played back 7.1 in either DTS or Dolby decoding formats.
You can adjust any of the music modes to do whatever you want them to do. This includes what speakers play at what levels.
The manuals are online. Check them out..

Ron-C
 
Having Ron jump in and assist on this site is tremendously helpfull. We should be very appreciative. He has helped me a great deal. :thmbsp:
 
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ron-c said:
Dolstein,

ALL DTS modes are supported on these. Any 5.1 digital source can be played back 7.1 in either DTS or Dolby decoding formats.
You can adjust any of the music modes to do whatever you want them to do. This includes what speakers play at what levels.
The manuals are online. Check them out..

Ron-C
Click to expand...

Ron --

I have the MX119 owners manual. It doesn't say anything about having DTS 96/24 processing, which, as far as I can tell, isn't a particular "mode" but is simply the latest generation of DTS processing. Here's a link describing the various DTS formats: http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-6463_7-5024537-3.html?dir.

The speaker set-up section of the manual is a bit confusing. I think that if you set Surround and Back Surround to "Off" in the set-up menu, and then select "Music 1" as your processing mode, you'll end up with something similar to what you get with Trifield -- a stereo image spread across the front three speakers.
 
Dolstein,

There is this DTS logo on the front of the units that says, Neo-6, 96/24, DTS ES......check it out..

The speaker set up menu is crystal clear. If you only want the three fronts to play turn the rears down on the front panel trim selector..

Ron-C
 
Does the MX134 have all these same speaker control functions? I am about to hook up rear speakers for a 7.1 set-up. How can I get the rears to play with multi-channel audio or DVD films?

My MC402 sounds incredible with my new N802's (pre-diamond, I got a deal). My Harmonic Tech cables needed serious break-in but now sound great. I love this stuff!

-JR-
 
The MX134 will use the rear surrounds for movies. If you are listening to 5.1 DVD-A or SACD from a multi-channel DVD player you will only get the 5.1 playback. If you take the two channel out then you can use a 7.1 channels using DPL-II.. It is important to adjust the DPL-II parameters for your speakers and room. Use the Home button and the navigation keys to make these adjustments.

Ron-C
 
jrsystems said:
My Harmonic Tech cables needed serious break-in but now sound great.

-JR-
Click to expand...

Your cables need to "break-in"?!? Are you kidding me? What exactly about your cables need to break in? There are no moving parts and nothing to change over any period of time. If cables do change then they are defective. But what exactly did you mean when you said your's needed to break-in?
 
Hostility?

JimmyNeutron said:
Your cables need to "break-in"?!? Are you kidding me? What exactly about your cables need to break in? There are no moving parts and nothing to change over any period of time. If cables do change then they are defective. But what exactly did you mean when you said your's needed to break-in?
Click to expand...

I'm suddenly beginning to see why the moderators delete all cable threads...

But to answer the question, there are some cables that use materials that change their dialectric qualities with use. It's unclear how much of a sonic difference this really makes, but there is a measurable electrical effect. At this moment, there's no way of knowing whether the golden ears will turn out to be right again, or deluded again.

Now Jimmy, before we both get banned and this thread smacked, let's drop the cable topic, ok? Well... I am, anyway. :yes:
 
I didn't know cables were a hot topic! I read a forum on these cables, Harmonic Technology Pro-9's (I was surprised there is a forum on a specific cable) and quite a few people posted that these cables need serious break-in time. I did not believe this could possibly make any difference.

I set up my system in my newly completed family room with the new wires and N802 demo speakers (the speakers were well used and I listened to them in the store where they were fantastic). My new system sounded terrible, seriously down right lousy. I assumed it was the acoustics in the room and began the long negotiation with the wife to put treatments on the ceilings and walls (this did not go very well.) I let it run for a couple of days and it was like a different system. Even one of my friends (not an audiophile) that had heard it at first came back over and immediately noticed the difference. I still cannot get over the change in sound quality from something as intangible as wire break-in! I'm just glad I don't need panels on the ceiling though!

-JR-
 
Negotiableterms said:
.

Now Jimmy, before we both get banned and this thread smacked, let's drop the cable topic, ok? Well... I am, anyway. :yes:
Click to expand...


I was just curious, that's all. The only cable I've heard that had to be "broken-in" was a broken cable. :lmao:

Also, and again I'm just curious, if cables change their capacitance, or whatever, when a signal runs thru it, thereby needing a "break-in period" to sound better, do they revert back to their original state once the current is removed, ie, powered off? And if so, would'nt this be a charachteristic you would'nt want? Another question, if breaking in a cable makes "a huge" difference, as the poster claimed, then doesen't it stand to reason that the cables in equipment would also need to break-in over time (not including tube equipment)? It would seem to me that having to break-in ANYTHING audio or video should be performed at the factory before it leaves the plant, as this would be an unwanted side-effect (and it is a side-effect as manufactures do not claim their cables perform better with break-in - sans tube and speaker gear which is obvious).
 
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