2. amps-preamps
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New blood needs your Amp/system advice, please.

Greetings, Fellow Enthusiasts. This is my debut post on any sort of hi-fi forum. Excited to begin tapping into some of your knowledge/expertise.

I am slowly trying to piece together a clean, simple and very musical two channel experience. Cut my 'Seperates' teeth on a Rotel system about nine years ago... good entry level gear. My pre-amp recently died and I started a pupae phase of more critical listening and put together a few new pieces.

current system:

power plant: PS Audio PS-600

pre-amp: Audio Research LS3

cd: Naim CD5i

amp: Rotel RB 981 {120 wpc}

speakers: Paradigm Studio 100's V3.

speaker cables: Transparent "The Wave"

interconnects: Interlink "The Link" 200

The system sounds okay with vocals, guitar and horns etc. but is fairly flat and muddy in much of the mid-lower ends. It's seems obvious that these speakers are severely underpowered. Is this likely what I am hearing? What steps should I take to attain more balance in this system? How much power would be enough?

What Amps would you recommend?

Got a great deal on most of this gear and am still auditioning. Am not really married to any of it and am willing to consider replacing to gain a more musical enjoyment.

Thanks in advance for your time on this.

Cheers! Timothy
timtopper
Post removed 
hbarrel's avatar
hbarrel
342 posts
 
Start auditioning gear.
It doesn't cost anything but your time.
If one or more amps don't wake up the speakers then...
pehare's avatar
pehare
835 posts
 
I used to have an LS-3 like yourself & ran it with a Classe CA 200 amp (the model w/the heatsinks on both sides). It was a great match & those amps can be had very reasonably. good luck & have fun.
gmood1
1,251 posts
 
I certainly don't want anyone to feel I'm picking on their speakers.There are plenty of speakers that cost more and have worse horrific measurments than the Paradigm 100v3.One of my favorite planars(Magnepans) measures like crapola. It's panels are inverted out of phase also.Soliloquys drivers are not in phase either. As well as some Sonus Fabers,Dynaudio and Vienna Acoustic models. Speaking of which the Vienna Acoustic Mahler has a horrific suckout between 800Hz and 2.4Khz..I'm talking -12dB. This is where a good portion of the human voice lies as well as many unamplified instruments.The Hz's and the dB's of Real Music.The Proac 3.8 and Magnepan 3.6R have 50Hz humps you could sit on..this may make them difficult to set up in certain rooms.It will give you a perception of more bass that really isn't in the actual recording...If you like it... roll with it.

The point is the measurements may help you in figuring out what sound you can live with in your room. And it may give you a head start on what you need to do to help the speakers along.You must decide what parts of the music are most important to you. Some just like a lot of volume..regardless if it makes all the instruments sound ridiculous or unnatural. Listening to different implementations of speakers/equipment in your room is the only way to know for sure what's right for you.

Good Luck
timtopper OP
13 posts
 
My apologies for not getting back to this discussion any sooner. Much obliged for all the great insight. Quite surprised by the myriad of responses.

Want to spend some time researching some of the different options you have suggested - probably graduating from smaller tasks like tweaking and connection/cabling to the more involved scenarios like equipment swapping.

I'm certain I will have more specific questions in a day or so when I am finished with my immediate travels. Cheers,
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