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An electrocompaniet tale

Once upon a time there was a Krell amplifier driving a pair of B&W Nautilus 805 speakers. To extend their bass to the infernal regions these speakers found a friend called the REL stadium III. And everyone lived happily ever after until today.

Today our electrocompaniet CD player arrived. Audiogon used. For the first 15 seconds it sounded like we really had something here, resolution, soundstage, believable reproduction of the sounds of indiviual instruments playing in ensemble, sweet and involving.

Then, said I, let's take a listen to what happens if we turn off the REL sub, as I walked toward the little green rocker switch on the back of the unit. Then to my astonishment I discovered that the REL had NEVER BEEN TURNED ON. Riveting, earth shaking bass from bass-anemic speakers via a CDP upgrade.

Go figure. I thought I might describe everything we now hear, but I convinced myself that noone would believe us anyhow.
judit
judit OP
217 posts
 
Onhwy61
The B&W Nautilus 805 is supposed to roll off between
30 and 50 Hz if I remember correctly. I have been using
the REL at its lowest crossover.

I was listening to Patricia Barber Nightclub, to Shostakovich,
to Brahm's, to the Canadian Brass among others.

My point is, of course, that I had no idea how seriously my cd playback was limiting the bass frequencies getting to the speaker.
karls
332 posts
 
Are you sure you had the switch right? They ARE upside-down, you know, since the Brits love to drive on the wrong side of the road....

Just kidding!
zaikesman
3,017 posts
 
Don't be so surprised! Your tale is not only eminently believable, it is to be expected if the high end is indeed truly a better way. I have experienced this increase in bass recovery phenomenom several times during the course of my system upgrade path, all with the same speaker (the speakers, Thiel CS2.2's, were the first things to be upgraded in this system). This has included DAC, cartridge, phono section, preamp, amp, and cable upgrades. All other things being equal (and excepting the high-efficiency, low-power contingent), less premium gear should always be inferior in wide-bandwidth high-performance capability. When it comes to electronics, power supply improvements alone will account for much of the superiority as it regards bass response in particular. There ought to be obvious reasons why we pay what we do for this stuff. Happy listening!
marakanetz's avatar
marakanetz
5,473 posts
 
Listening to ECI3 integrated amp I realized that there are not only tube or ss watts but there is an Electrocompaniet watts as well.
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