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Money well spent on Amp or Speakers

Hey Everyone,

This is my first post on Audiogon so please bare with me. I currently have a very simple stereo setup:
2 B&W xt8 speakers
1 B&W PV1 sub
1 Rotel RC-1550 Preamp
1 Rotel RB-1552 Amp

Everything was selected due to the slim design and that they fit snugly under/near my TV Cabinet. The room with the gear is rather small at roughly 350 sqft and it is mainly used for TV and light CD playback. I just feel that the current setup is missing a lot of mid-range and the disconnect can be audibly noticed in the gap in-between when the speakers seems to fade away and the sup kicks in. I would like to keep everything as simple as possible and wanted to get the communities feedback as to what component in the chain should/could be replaced for the best sonic improvement? I would only want to upgrade 1 component at this time and am leaning towards a tube based amp. Any thoughts/suggestions?
pndxprss99
metralla
945 posts
 
selected due to the slim design and that they fit snugly under/near my TV Cabinet

Maybe you have taken the "fit snugly" idea too far and have your speakers tucked away. Make a test with them pulled way out into the room.

Regards,
elevick
2,636 posts
 
I agree with Metralla. Try moving the sub as well. Have you played with the crossover settings and volume on the sub? Try setting it lower, ie move from 80hz to 40. I would bet that your best results would be eliminating the sub, finding the best location for the speakers and then hooking the sub up to the second set of pre-outs if there are two sets of outputs. Then, slowly bring up the volume on the sub while running it full range. You won't have a gap at all and just have to avoid too much overlap.

A tube amp won't help your problem.
maineiac
649 posts
 
What is your goal? If you want to listen to 2 channel music then your thinking tubes is good but that doesn't exactly fit with your speakers. In the end you will likely end up having to replace everything but speakers first would be the way to go. Listen, listen, listen to a lot of different makes and models.
efner's avatar
efner
99 posts
 
I'd replace the Rotel amps with a used Manley Stingray.
If you don't poke it you can always resell it here and not lose much if any money.The stingray puts out 45 "tube" watts and sounds great.they can be had for about $1300.
kclone's avatar
kclone
679 posts
 
IMO, put your resources toward speakers. Get on on the sonic signature you like and then optimize electronics from there, I mean later on of course when you have some funds. Then, stay the heck off this site and others otherwise your pocketbook will take a hit. :)
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