I have two systems. The living room system cannot sound as good as my loft NO MATTER WHAT I do. The gear is far more expensive in the living room. The room is your answer. I have accepted defeat in my case.
I have NOVA V's and I am not happy
I have a Mark Levinson 585 and a pair of Sonus Faber Olympica Nova V's and although I admittedly have some room acoustic issues that I am working on I am not happy with the sound.
I listen to music LOUD. This Pairing thru a pair of Kimber Cable 8TC's gets bright in what I think is the 2 to 4 khz range and the sonus faber nova's seem to mute the lower end of female vocals, artist like Macy Gray or Tina Turner dont seem to have the same drive in the lower octaves. At the same time the upper end of vocals like Sheryl Crow can get too bright and cause fatigue (I am assuming this is in the 2 to 4khz range) I have tried every speaker placement you can think of, toe in, toe out. distance from front wall and I am adding acoustic treatments as fast as they can be shipped.
Here is my question, I had Mark Levinson 436 Mono Blocks in the past connected to a pair of B&W Nautilus 802's thru a pair of MIT Shotgun bi-wire speaker cables and I never noticed that system to be bright. Granted that system was in a different room in a different house. Everyone is telling me that B&W is a brighter sounding speaker by far over Sonus Faber. If I decide after all my room treatments that I am not a fan of the Sonus Faber sound where should I turn for my replacement speaker? Or is it Mark Levinson's Fault? I want Rich Lush Loud Musical sound. I like a decent sound stage, I also really love it when when you hear decay from the instruments. I don't really care if that's what is neutral or not that's what I like :)
Where did I go wrong and what can I do to fix it?
Thanks Lee
- ...
- 107 posts total
@gs5556 Great suggestion ... |
If you are using separates, you might consider getting a Legacy Wavelet preamp/processor. Legacy can tune the Wavelet to your speakers and you can tune the room to the speakers with the built in software. It might be cheaper than buying another amp or speakers. You an also try Canare 4S11 speaker cable at less than $2.00 a foot. They are way better than the Kimber 8TC, not bright sounding, quite neutral. It’s a cheap way to see if it’s your speaker cables. |
I'm not an SS guy, but I don't think its the ML. And I'll probably get some SF blowback here, but the post-Franco tweeters have not been hot per se, but they ain't shy either. If you want to keep the SF's, look to stick a Cardas Golden Ref IC in the chain somewhere. If you dump the SF's and want to listen, er, loud, then I'd talk to the guys at Zu for a new speaker, get their dedicated spkr cable too, then get a level 2 Graceline IC after the ML - that will pin your ears back. |
- 107 posts total