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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
 
Tweekerman,
What I mean by my last line is that if we tried to convey how significant a difference this player has made, it would sound like overstatement. This was NOT an incremental improvement. My previous player was actually separates, but I am reluctant to identify them. We had many good years from this equipment, and don't want to give them bad press.

This is an upgraded MK1.
kchahoc
85 posts
 
Yeah the ML 390s does pretty much the same thing for those speakes. As far as I'm concerned the best value in two-ways today.
onhwy61's avatar
onhwy61
5,218 posts
 
The REL claims to be a sub-bass system intended to supplement the bass extension of the existing speaker. It works best with speakers that already have reasonably deep bass capabilities. You don't mention what music you were listening to. I speculate that if you were to run it through an frequency RTA it would show little deep bass, but instead a hump around 60-80Hz. All good speakers should be able to reproduce these mid-bass frequencies with power and definition.
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!
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