need amp recommendations for more separation of instruments


I've noticed that if I play music that only has a few instruments playing at the same time it generally sounds great, but, if it's got a lot of instruments playing different parts at the same time it all mushes together and you can't hear the individual instruments clearly. My current rig is a NAD M10 and Focal Aria 948s. At a store, I heard 948s paired with a front end costing about $100,000 and that system did not have this problem, at least it not to my ears. That tells me that with really good electronics this problem can be greatly reduced and that the problem is more with my electronics than it is with my speakers. But $100k is out of my budget. My questions are:

  1. Are there some classes or types of amplification that are notably better at getting separation between instruments in complex music?

2.  Are there some brands that are notably better at getting separation between instruments in complex music?

3.   How much would I need to spend to get something that solves this specific problem notably better than my NAD M10?

4. How much would I need to spend to get something that's a really good solution, where I probably wouldn't notice the problem unless I went out of my way to listen for it? (I know, this differs between people, but I'm still interested in your opinion).

Thanks,

ahuvia

My,speakers are about 9 ft apart, ….15” from the,wall, my sitting position is 9 feet from the speakers,slightly toed in. 
 

experiment, took me weeks to find the “spot”

once you find it, you will know.

also, I went from K-mart rcas to audioquest and Groneberg power cords , and still use my BJ rcas in main system, they cancel out the radio tower tweeter gibberish, broadcast.

 

experiment, move them, sit for 15 min,move,again, keep,a,written note of position or distance from wall, from listening position, all the goodie.  
 

take your time, as my wife said I was a crazed metalhead moron, moving, listening, moving, swapping,cables, different,cd,players, every day,for,about,a,week and a half.  You,will find your “spot” keep messing,w your system. 
 

I like moving stuff,around,as I,clean dust, etc from back of rack, also,when the stereo is,clean, t does sound better.

Thank you all. This is great advice. I'm looking forward to the adventure of tweaking the setup and I'm sure that will make things sound better.

But I want to double-check if I explained the problem properly. When I think of imaging, I think of the way different instruments seem to be "placed" on a stage between the speakers. That's not exactly what I'm worried about. My concern is that when, say, I'm listening to a symphony and the main theme is being played by the strings, but there is a flute in the background doing something a little bit different, the flute gets lost. I can hear that it is there, but I can't hear it clearly, it gets washed out by the louder string section. It is mostly a matter of the detail in the music getting lost when a lot of things are happening at the same time.  Is placement going to help with that?

Speaker placement and room acoustics is the first thing I would tackle. Equilateral triangle with speakers and listening position, then toe in to get the best compromise between image accuracy and soundstage width (it’s unfortunately always a compromise to some degree and requires time and effort to achieve a good balance).
 

Get some GIK or similar panels and treat the wall behind the speakers as well as first reflection points (read up on that…basically a mid point between listening position and speakers on the side walls). 

Few videos…


 

Re your flute question. Have you heard it live when it is playing in competition with a full string section? Unless it has been spot lit by a mic (many orchestras do use spot mics) I bet not. In a recording session the man at the mixer hitting the sliders will do much to accent the flute (or not). You may like the result or not. FWIW you may need a few great recordings which were made without spot lit violins (most are that's why the are often screechy and dominant and would easily hide a flute).

Don't blame your audio stuff for problems which may only be related to the way the recording was made.

Besides trying different speaker positions, consider having your room acoustically treated by a professional. Chances are, if the Focal dealer was using $100K of electronics to demo the speakers, I'd suspect they had also put a lot of effort in the the room's acoustic design.  That has a major impact on stereo imaging. As others have noted, early room reflections can smear the image of even the best speakers.

The only problem for many audiophiles is they do not have a dedicated listening room, but have their setup in a living room or other spot in the house that has to share duties with other family activities. While that typically limits what can be acoustically done to the room, that doesn't mean there can't be improvements.  That's where someone with experience in this area can be very useful.