Almarg and atmosphere, you have it correct. I believe the paradigm crossover unit is 20k, SE, as per my referenced thread. (That user had the exact same crossover, but with a ref 3. It seems I would need to have a balanced crossover, as the ARC doesn't like to have both the SE and the balanced outputs running together. Imho, equipment costing this much should be built with more robust or better implemented output stages. Many of us will utilize two seperate amplifiers or in my case an amplifier and a sub crossover. We shouldn't have to worry about the output stage "choking". The difference in sound quality once the crossover unit is disconnected is amazing. I had no idea how much I had been missing before. I will not connect the sub until I can figure out what I will do to remedy this shortcoming, because the bloom and air is too good to give up just to extend the bass. From Preamp to crossover, I'm using a set of 1 meter silver interconnects that were made by a gentleman for me that I no longer have contact with. I do not know it's capacitance. The signal from the crossover is fed mono to the 555se with a no frills radio shack gold single cable which is two meters. I would assume the capacitance of the radio shack cable, and the he input impedance of the 555se doesn't matter because the paradigm crossover is acting as a buffer itself, and that the issue is from the paradigm to ARC relationship.
Don't think my preamp likes feeding signal to two seperate places.
Just discovered that my system sounded noticeably better when I disconnected the interconnects that feed my subwoofer crossover unit. Simply having them connected, micro detail diminishes. Treble gets a little less extended. Is this what is meant as an impedance mismatch? It's obviously affecting the fidelity arriving to the main stereo amp. Now I'm stuck with having better bass or better micro detail and sounstaging. Is there anything I can do? I'm bummed out. The main stereo amp is fed by balanced out from the pre. The subwoofer crossover unit is fed by rca out from the pre. It seems like the preamp doesn't like feeding two things at once. This is a really upsetting discovery. It's not a huge difference, but noticable to me. Now the system sounds absolutely incredible, but now I don't have any sub bass.
ARC LS 17 preamp-----main out rca to paradigm x30 sub crossover------adcom GFA555se (as subwoofer Amp)
Main output XLR to ARC DS450
is this a limitation to the ARC ls17 circuitry? Would the preamps up the range not have this phenomenon? I know it's not arcs hi end model, but I wouldn't expect this from a unit at this price range. I wouldn't think I would have to have this compromise.
Any thoughts?
ARC LS 17 preamp-----main out rca to paradigm x30 sub crossover------adcom GFA555se (as subwoofer Amp)
Main output XLR to ARC DS450
is this a limitation to the ARC ls17 circuitry? Would the preamps up the range not have this phenomenon? I know it's not arcs hi end model, but I wouldn't expect this from a unit at this price range. I wouldn't think I would have to have this compromise.
Any thoughts?
- ...
- 28 posts total
- 28 posts total