Need some audiogon expertise

I would bet money that this is not a componant issue, but a room issue! Check out http://www.rivesaudio.com They have helped me a lot!

It is amazing how much difference proper setup, and room taming can make. I have had some of the pieces you own and they did not have the 'bass shyness' you are concerned about, which is why I would blame the room.

Good luck!

Cables and cords are good way to tune a system, but it may be better to make sure everything else is matched first.

Tubes are also a good way to tune your system, but you seem to have everything dialed in and the bass may be tough to solve by changing 6922 tubes. In my system, changing 6922s have altered the sound in more than one area of the sound spectrum.

I checked the specs on the input sensitivity for your Aragon 400 mkII and it's rated at 22Kohm, which is in the same ballpark as the 23Kohm Pass Aleph 3 which I had trouble mating to my Blue Circle BC21 preamp. If the output impedance of your Audible Illusions L-1 is 2Kohm as Marakanetz says, that may be the reason right there. Previous A'Gon posters have mentioned a guideline range of 10 to 100 times [preamp output impedance to amp input impedance] and your set up is sitting on the very low end.

Do you lack dynamics if you turn the volume up? Along with the thin bass, this was another problem I experienced with the Aleph 3. A real shame because no amp has done guitars as well in my system as the Aleph 3.

Is it possible for you to substitute another amp in place of the Aragon just to see if that has an effect? Also, what's the output voltage on your CAL Icon? If that is too low it's possible the AI L-1 doesn't have enough gain to compensate for that.

Good luck and let us know how it goes.

Nrchy, thanks for the recommendation and the confidence in the equipment matching. I will take a look at the site.

Gunbei, the dynamics of my system sound great to me. The instruments are sounding as they should. I am getting a nice wide soundstage, not incredibly deep but wide. As I increase the volume the bass does increase and the music comes alive. I just figured with this set up i would have more trouble with being overly bloated as to being shy. I really think i need to address placement at this time.

I spoke with Brian Chenney today and I informed him of the trouble. He asked about putty and I told him that I had removed about a pea size amount so far and he said that I wasnt there yet and keep going. Also he said to try removing the jumpers and just using the bottom posts with the switches down. I also informed him i was using an aragon and he said look elsewhere for the problem. It more than likely is setup with speakers or room. To much magic for me to believe i am having a synergy problem. Thanks all for the recommendations and advice I am going to start putting some of your knowledge to work.

Kool 39, You just said something that got my attention - that is, that you have to turn the volume up to make your speakers come alive! I don't know what you were running before you got the VMPS, but one of the common issues with dynamic speakers is the need to crank up the volume on some models. I replaced my Quad 63's with 3 way dynamics which use Dynaudio drivers and that was the first thing I noticed - how much louder I had to play them to get them to sound full - and thankfully how much better they sounded loud, as opposed to the Quads. That may be part of your problem ....just different performance from different types of speakers. Also, for what its worth, I have a room 2 feet shorted than yours and my speakers are pulled out from the back wall 5 feet, they are 2 feet from the side walls, they are toed in to cross in front of me to help reduce sidewall reflections caused by close placement to the side wall, and the listening position is 4 1/2 from the back wall. Soundstaging is excellent and I'm flat to a slight rise at 32hz with a fall of starting at 28hz. A lot of patience, the RS meter, and a good test disc helped a lot to dial in the speaker location as well as the listener location. My speaker location coincided with the one recommended by Rives site (I found his site after I did all the hard work). Good luck......

"Need some audiogon expertise" by the number of posts above all that comes to mind is "Too many cooks spoil the soup."

Better luck next time.