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Wrong setup?

Hi I love great sound, especially when hearing to classical piano music, but i don't know much about high-end audio components... In order to build a good setup, i bought quite good single components (based on internet reviews for the most part) but i didn't check what would be the final result once put together... I just assumed (and hoped) that good components together would just produce a good result... but the truth is that i am a little bit disappointed with the end result. I find that the sound has no (or little) depth + i hear a sizzling noise in the tweeters on high piano notes... So now i think that i should probably have put more attention on the "compatibility" of the different components. And i am looking for advices :) I'm thinking that maybe i should change my speakers... but need some specialists opinion. Here is my setup:
Marantz Integrated Amplifier PM-11S1
Marantz Super Audio Cd Player SA-15S1
Speakers Totem Hawk
Any advice or opinion is welcome. Thanks! Julien
julthi
lowrider57's avatar
lowrider57
5,417 posts
 
Also, the layout of the room, ie: is there carpeting or a wood floor, do you have any wall hangings to help absorb/diffuse sound waves, what's the distance of your listening postion? You didn't mention the the size of the room.

One area I can address are the Totem Hawks; speaker positioning is often critical with Totem. It takes time to get the best position; as Newbee said, distance from rear wall, distance from side walls, and distance between the spkrs will greatly affect their performance.
fingerpaws
51 posts
 
Get a copy of "Get Better Sound" by Jim Smith. He has won awards for his ability to set up systems at high end audio conventions. He has so many hints that your system is sure to sound better. I followed his ideas and have never been happier.
seikosha
218 posts
 
Another thing to consider is that not all recordings are good. First thing you need to know when evaluating a system is to make sure you are using properly recorded source material.
abucktwoeighty's avatar
abucktwoeighty
1,079 posts
 
How many hours on the set-up? These items need play time to settle in.
stewie
187 posts
 
That's good advice you're getting. I'd also add that piano recordings are by far the most difficult to engineer and reproduce. High-frequency sizzle is sometimes, strangely enough, more common in good quality speakers, if only b/c the low quality ones muffle the weaknesses of the recordings. As my speaker quality has improved, so has the high frequency sizzle on piano recordings.

One other thing about classical piano recordings is that the bass and mid-range tends to be weaker than I like. That bone vibrating solidity that you hear (and feel) when you get into the baritone and bass registers of a real concert grand piano isn't readily captured in the recordings I'm familiar with. That's less of a problem for me now if only b/c I can raise the bass volume to taste, owing to a bi-amped system.
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