I recently bought this set VT100MK1 and preamp LS15 and while I was at this seller house he demonstrated the sound from his online Tidal on TV connect optical to the DAC Luxman DA - 06 then this go to the preamp LS15 and out into the VT100. This set up sounds amazing at his house. However, when I came home play CD from the Sony X1100ES Blu-ray player RCA output into the LS15 and out to the VT100 and it sound horrible - no bass at all in any type of music. The sound sometime muffle and not clear and most importantly the bass missing tremendously. Im using a pair of KEF R900 Speakers. What is wrong here? can anyone help me correct the sounds? it is because I didn’t have the Luxman DA - 06 DAC? or it is because I don’t have those fancy hundred - thousands of dollars cable? or the CD source is playin at 41khz /16 bit not high enough signal?
This is my first system and I don’t know why I can’t get that high fidelity sound from the ARC equipments. I'm waiting for the Audioengine B1 to arrive so I can stream Spotify into the LS15. What is wrong with my set up? Thank you in advance for helping me solve this.
Did you receive owners manuals with your purchase? If not, you can find them on-line. They should help explain the XLR jumpers. They are little "U" shaped pieces of metal that the seller should have provided. Make sure you place them in the way ARC indicates.
ive tested the r900 speakers with another amp and its sounds wonderful much bass and strong. Switched to the ARC i just bought its missing about 60% bass compared to the original amp i have (MAC1500). And tonight I discovered the LS15 one of the tube (V3) has white sparks when i turn on. So now i can only conclude that either the preamp LS15 or VT100 amp is defects. I contacted the seller and he’s not responding- avoiding me. So I’m kinda bumped and feel down that this happened to me. I wanna ask him for money back but i doubt he’ll give back.
Ive demoed certain components to find that dynamics, bass, warmth, etc. were lacking incredibly. Could you ask the seller if they can come over and possibly bring the dac with them? Could you demo different components at a local shop? any professionals that can look at at your setup?
what were the speakers that the seller had? could it be that you liked the bass on those speakers more than the ref's? different speakers will do different things in the bass department. Also the seller might have a really good dialed in set up. Are you sure there is an actual problem or that you are just disappointed from the sound of your setup?
I still cannot figure out why the system doesn't have any bass like it should. thank you so much for you help and time. I really appreciate you and everyone who provided advices. wish I could get fix soon...
well, they were replaced by ARC service center in December 2018. So I will replace the pair V3 and V4. hope it would fix the bass response problem because right now it has no bass at all... comparing to the bluetooth gold phantom speakers it probably about 60% bass.
@lowrider57 I'm buying the Electro Harmonic 6922 tubes now on eBay. Pair for $42. The V3 tube is defects, so this could explain the weak bass response I'm getting...?
Preamp tubes are replaced in pairs. Two in the front, two in back. If the pair that supplies gain to the preamp are bad or weak, then there's not enough juice to drive the amp.
Look at the manual and identify which tube is bad... V1 V2 V3 V4
@lowrider57 i just bought this unit off from someone yesterday and he told me nothing wrong with it. So i guess he lied to me :((
i dont have any spare tube. If I replace this tube myself, do i need to rebais or anything i need to know? Perhaps this may fix my bass response problem?
Have you been interrupting power to the preamp, eg, pulling out the AC cable, powering the preamp or amp on, off quickly? There is a safety mode on the preamp if power is interrupted.
So as i was doing all these troubleshooting the LS15 keeps shutting off randomly every few minutes. This prob new since i got it yesterday. What is this guys? Im beginning to worry... :((
@lowrider57 i owned the gold phantom so i compared it to the arc and kef r900. The gold phantom has a lot of bass streaming from my iphone. Even when i connect the same sony to the Mac1500 amp it still has a lot better bass comparable to to the vt100. Could it be something wrong with the vt100 and ls15?
Aren't there those little U shaped shorting pins that go in the XLR jack if you use the RCA inputs? Or was that only on the amp, I can't remember, been too long since I owned ARC gear
@jea48 so i arranged the wires like you said as follow:
speakers neg ( - ) is connected to ( 0 ) common on the amp. Pos ( + ) on the 8 ohm terminal on the amp. This resulted same bass but when I reversed the wire it like slightly increased bass. Why is that? Just slightly not a lot. I compared this sound to the Devialet Gold Phantom and the phantom has so much more bass.
kentrent, When using the Mac do you have the tone controls set flat or are you boosting the bass?? If you are boosting the bass try it with the tone controls set flat and compare that to the ARC.
At the seller house setup, he only turn on 30% and i can hear music pretty loud. But when my setup i had to crank up to about 70% to hear loud.
Are you 100% sure you have the speaker cables connected to the VT100 amp terminals correctly? ( 0 ) is common, neg ( - ). Make sure both speakers neg ( - ) is connected to ( 0 ) common on the amp. Pos ( + ) on the 8 ohm or 4 ohm terminal on the amp. Verify 100% you have them connected correctly.
Also make sure the interconnects are plugged in all the way.
But i cant explain why my arc setup is low bass response. I’m kinda sad
and disappointed that i spend a lot of money but im not getting the
sound i want.
Again- did you swap the phase on **only one loudspeaker**? If you did both you would not find anything out. You have to swap the phase on just one.
@lowrider57 u are absolutely right about the Dac help gain. At the seller house setup, he only turn on 30% and i can hear music pretty loud. But when my setup i had to crank up to about 70% to hear loud. So definitely this confirmed that DAC increase gain. But i cant explain why my arc setup is low bass response. I’m kinda sad and disappointed that i spend a lot of money but im not getting the sound i want. Idk what’s wrong...
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