Advice on system and speaker placement-B&W


My system is the following:
B&W N804 speakers
Musical Fidelity a3cr pre
Rotel 1080 Amp (200 watts/channel)
Cary 303-200 CD
Harmonic Tech Truthlink Interconnects
Tara Labs Prime 100 Speaker Cables
System running for three years now and fully broken in

My room is 20 ft wide, 35 foot long and 15ft high, along the right 35' section, there are several large openings into other rooms, along the left side of the 35' opening there is a large opening into the entryway. Speakers are 10 inches off the 20 foot wall and 10 feet apart (I can't move the speakers out further into the room).

My system sounds wonderful on well recorded rock, jazz and classical, but many CDs sound thin and uninvolving, with too much highs. Does anyone have any advice as to how to make my system sound better for the other 65% of my recordings? I have started other threads on this topic, but without the whole story on my room setup. I am skeptical of expensive changes to amp/preamp because my system sounds just great on 35% of my recordings. I could use a sub, i could look at new speakers (i like a rich full sound but with dynamics), or maybe an extra CD player (that is easier on the recordings-but not sure if this would be enough to solve the problem). I know this is a complicated question, but there seem to be many of experienced folks out there. Anyone have a simliar situation or setup and advice? Any help would be appreciated.
jeffsel

Showing 3 responses by ubglub

If you can't have the speakers further out into the room or closer together, have you tried relocating them to the long wall? I had some older B&W M801s in that kind of arrangement and they imaged amazingly well despite everything being "wrong" about it. The speakers were about 10' apart and 12" out from the wall (to the back of the speaker box). In this position, the speakers became transparent, and it sounded like the music was coming out of the wall between them, with considerable depth in the sound image. I've never heard anything else like that, before or since.

Note: In the setup I just described, the long wall behind the speakers consisted of traditional interior plaster over solid masonry. That combination of materials might have accounted for much of the acoustic success in an otherwise atypical placement. Thus, if you can move your speakers, I'd also recommend that you determine which is the most solid wall in the room, and try the speakers in front of it. Start out with your 10' spread and approximate listening position, and then play with pushing the speakers a few inches toward or away from the wall until the image "focuses" on it. If it isn't working, try putting them a little closer together and repeat the exercise, or adjust the toe-in. Keep an open mind about listening position too, as you change the speaker positions.
Its interesting that the issue of tubed amplification came up. It hadn't occured to me before. I've been using a very good tube pre with SS amps
Jeff, this might sound ridiculous, but with my B&Ws, even increments of 1" can make a difference when you're talking about distance to the back wall. Have you tried moving them out 1 or 2 inches?