jumping back in, where should i start?


Hi, I have owned cary, belles, joule, and audio physic tempo's. all has been sold and am back to my first system that gave me a taste of what hi fi can be. I am wanting to upgrade but just not sure where to start, or how much of a difference will i see by bi amping my speakers? Currently I have b&w 630 speakers with a rotel rb980 power amp with a 940 tuner/preamp with a 991 cd player, i am wanting a warmer sound with fuller sounding bass. mostly listen to blues, rock,thank you for any info.Scott
52tiger
Post removed 
the rotel doesn't seem to push the speakers very well at low volume
Keep in mind that at low volumes your ears are MUCH less sensitive to bass frequencies, relative to their sensitivity to mid-range frequencies, than they are at higher volumes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fletcher-Munson_effect

http://www.lindos.co.uk/cgi-bin/FlexiData.cgi?SOURCE=Articles&VIEW=full&id=17

Regards,
-- Al
No, what i am saying is the speakers should sound full at a reasonable volume and that should only increase with volume not the sound it self.
Post removed 
I don't know your speakers but speaker efficiency needs to be considered if you are looking for low volume performance . By low volume I mean a level that does not require one to raise their voice for normal conversation in the listening area .

At first glance your 91db. speakers would look like decent candidates for low volume listening . But , a couple of other things need to be considered here .
1.) What does the impedance curve look like ? Does it dip way down in the bass region or have other wild swings ? You want a curve that is fairly flat near and above 8 ohms .
2.) What does the crossover network look like ? You need something that will use a minimum amount of power to operate it .
A single driver speaker would be ideal but a two way isn't bad if there is not a complicated network doing the division . Something like mine , which only have a capacitor , would be nice .
3.) What size is your bass driver ? It takes more power to drive a 15" woofer as opposed to a 5" one .

When considering low level listening it is important to get as much use out of the first watt of your amp as possible . If much or all of that first watt is used to operate your crossover network and/or drive a big woofer then you will need to increase the wattage , turn it up , to get good sound characteristics .

I hope that this helps you .

Good luck .