Excellent recommendations, thank you!
I’ll start with room treatment. I figured as much but wanted some validation. WAF is a very real concern so I will have to see what can be done. The egg-crate look is definitely in the no-fly zone. If anyone has recommendations on half-reasonably priced, GOOD looking room acoustics drop a recommendation here.
I did try every variation of the foam plugs that came with the Contours. Ended up with the bottom port plugged completely and half of the top port sealed. While I like a good solid low-end, these speakers have a full-fat sound. What I didn’t expect was the imaging and mid-highs to suffer so much but it might all be in my head :-).
As for the headroom comment, anything is possible but I experienced this with the Maggies years back. Too little power so I overcompensated with the Nova500. While I know I could have gone fancy with Naim or Moon, I figured the Nova would hold me over (and the WAF is just off the charts) with enough power. If anyone seriously thinks my problem lies in the Nova500 I could grab my friends Diablo 300 and give it a try. Might do that anyway just for fun :-)
If I can’t get the room to cooperate I’ll try a DSP or other gizmo. In my limited past experience with digital room correction, the results were somewhat boring - making the music a bit sterile if that makes sense. I’m sure technology has moved along since then.
If all else fails, I’ll pull out a good pair of cans and call it a day.
Thanks again,
Steve
I’ll start with room treatment. I figured as much but wanted some validation. WAF is a very real concern so I will have to see what can be done. The egg-crate look is definitely in the no-fly zone. If anyone has recommendations on half-reasonably priced, GOOD looking room acoustics drop a recommendation here.
I did try every variation of the foam plugs that came with the Contours. Ended up with the bottom port plugged completely and half of the top port sealed. While I like a good solid low-end, these speakers have a full-fat sound. What I didn’t expect was the imaging and mid-highs to suffer so much but it might all be in my head :-).
As for the headroom comment, anything is possible but I experienced this with the Maggies years back. Too little power so I overcompensated with the Nova500. While I know I could have gone fancy with Naim or Moon, I figured the Nova would hold me over (and the WAF is just off the charts) with enough power. If anyone seriously thinks my problem lies in the Nova500 I could grab my friends Diablo 300 and give it a try. Might do that anyway just for fun :-)
If I can’t get the room to cooperate I’ll try a DSP or other gizmo. In my limited past experience with digital room correction, the results were somewhat boring - making the music a bit sterile if that makes sense. I’m sure technology has moved along since then.
If all else fails, I’ll pull out a good pair of cans and call it a day.
Thanks again,
Steve