System Help


Moved my system from 16 x 17 x 9 dedicated room to a dedicated 16 x 32 x 8 listening room. What once was a marvelous listening experience has turned into a diffuse, muffled, lifeless, boring system!

Speakers: Volent CL2i
Amps: ASL Cadenza
Pre: Allnic L1500 & Reference Line Preeminence 1A
2014 Mac Mini with Keces PS, SSD & maxed RAM

Any Suggestions? Can the room make that much of a difference?

Thanks
Ag insider logo xs@2xcommunique1
Good advice from sbank and shakey.

A Cardas set up is a good place to start with your speaker. Variations in recommendations are permissible. Don't get too anal.:-)

Your room has an inherent problem dimension wise, and that is the multiples, i.e. 16x2 = 32 and 8x16 &32 are multiples. This can cause substantial nulls and nodes in your room which can make the lower mids down thru the bass seem either boomy or thin. These can be difficult to tame but a lot of headway can be made by close attention to listening chair and speaker placement. Inches can matter a whole lot. It really helps if you have a sound pressure level meter and an audio frequency test disc so you can measure the SPL at various frequencies at the listening position and make adjustments. I would do this BEFORE I tried to tame or change the room itself by using absorbers/reflectors/traps etc which IMHO should only be used to fine tune after you have identified and understand the room and have found the best positions of the speakers and listening seat. This is not a quick fix however, it takes a lot of time and attention to detail! I would also recommend that you resist the recommendations to buy equipment until you figure out your best set up. Compared to room/set up issues, equipment changes are minor and will just have you chasing your tail! :-)

BTW, do not overlook toe in issues, including using that to minimize first reflection points.

Good luck with your project. Been there, done that, and it probably took me over a year to really get it done right.
Many years ago after removing a 65" tv from between the speakers, it took MONTHS and MONTHS ... to get it to sound good again. The tv acts like a front wall reinforcement ... basically just had to re-position the speakers again.

I think your system should work in the new room so just keep tweaking speaker placement.
Yes, the room does make a difference. For better or worse, it is the most important component of any rig. Keep me posted & happy listening!
Sorry for having checked out from my post for a bit. Graduated from Seminary and finally getting some time. In regards to my DAC, its a Sonore DSD and quite wonderful.

The room is 15 X 27. I'm ordering OC 703 for first reflection locations and corners

Tried changing tubes from 845M to 845C. Worse...changed back!
Swampwalker,
I sit in equal triangle or a tad further.I move forward or backward and try to lock-in that magic distance. Volents don't need toe-in...very wide dispersion characteristics these ribbon tweeters have.

Overall...some music sounds incredible..except in the bass which continues to be very ill-defined...I hate it. But mid-bass on up is awesome. Though I am talking about tonality/timbre not so much soundstage accuracy.

In short, the more variety in the music I play the more I get confused. Things just popping in and out of the soundstage like I've never heard before.