2. amps-preamps
  3. 1075645071

Help me find it again

I need your collective advice.

I have reached a critical point. If I don't start enjoying my system again, I will give up and sell!

I listen to mostly rock and pop with some blues and jazz. A little large orchestra stuff. I grew up listening to the best jazz and rock and roll live at my father's bootleg clubs. I've sat at the piano and poured drinks for the count, twisted with Chubby and lived in "Salt Pork West Virginia". I played piano and hammond organ professionally for several years working everything from rock to jazz to blues to gospel. I know how music sounds. I know how it can move you.

I have been living with my current system for about 6 months. "Maybe I'm doing it wrong, but it just don't thrill me the way that it should."

The sound is very clean but lacks emotion. It has a thin low end. Sometimes sounds harsh in the high end. The mids are good. It sounds like crap on lots of recordings that were OK on less revealing systems.

Components: Audiomeca transport and DAC, Aloia pre-amp, Goldmund 28M amps, Piega C-40 speakers, Goldmund line treatment, Piega speaker cables, Audio Techne interconnects.

I already have dedicated lines.

I'm done with vinyl. Just too much work... My turntable and record cleaner will be on the gon soon.

Room is large (32 X 20 with vaulted ceilings that rise from 10 to 18 feet). The system is on the longer wall with the shorter height. I have thick rug and window treatments. The speakers are spaced 3.5 feet from the wall and 11 feet apart. Seating is 10 feet back from the speakers and 6 feet from the back wall.

I'm thinking I need to change the preamp (perhaps tubes), but I'm willing to consider almost any changes. My current economic situation might limit my options. Also, since I live in central NC, it is almost impossible to audition anything...
spudco
jazzdude
332 posts
 
Just a couple of ideas. 1) Move your speakers closer to the wall to reinforce the bass/fundamentals. 2) Try a tube preamp. 3) Audition different speaker cables and interconnects. I would recommend Acoustic Zen and Cardas but there are many others. Call fatwyre.com to setup the audition. 4) Consider different speakers. 5) Maybe something with your front-end, while Audiomeca is very nice a lot of people say that it is rather polite and soft. That may not be the right digital gear for a rocker and bluesman.

More feedback from you on how you pieced together your system would be useful. I am curious to know the order in which you purchased your components.
cdc
1,783 posts
 
I agree about changing your speakers. Avanteguarde are emotionally involving but they do have horn colorations and you may not like living with that either.
Vienna Acoustics, Aerial Acoustics, or Vandersteen as others have suggested are good alternatives.
ducsurfer
11 posts
 
how the hell could anybody suggest sell your piegas..... you guys must be totally crazy.... this is one of the best speakers out there... unless you have heard piega do even try to suggest something like that...

like others said give them real good juice and get a room accoustics guy in there.... that will be your best.... your gut instinct drove you to piega... so that sound you love everything else can go... stay with the piega... if it has not happened yet...
rooze's avatar
rooze
635 posts
 
Just my two penneth for what it's worth....I was at exactly the same place as you are at with your system (albeit, my components are very different than yours)....I was on the verge of packing it all up and selling it on AG. I've posted a few threads in the past, basically moaning and groaning about having to drag my Maggie 3.6's around the room trying to get a 'good sound'. Well, as a last ditched attempt, before giving up, I bought a Tact RCS 2.0 - Room correction preamp. They are a steal direct from the m/f at $1500, with a two week return policy, so you have nothing to loose.
It slots easily between your transport and DAC, and setup is a complete breeze, though time consuming. I can't say that I've completely nailed the right tonal balance for me, but I've been able to warm up the sound of the 3.6's, roll off a little treble harshness, extend the bass a little and remove soom of the peaks and troughs on the frequency repsonse curve in my room. Bass is now consistent, midrange is warmer, there is no loss of detail that I can detect, and I'm a lot happier about the system.
The only downside is that it is a bit tweaky, you find yourself switching in different frequency repsonse curves to suit a particular CD's tonal balance, so it is a little distracting at times. However, I think this 'tweak factor' is probably just 'newness' and that the novelty will wear off and I can get back to enjoying music.
Highly recommended component in my humble opinion.
timf
237 posts
 
I guess to find it again you would have to look in the right place. Easier said than done. Still, would it be too far off base to say it sounds like you are a person who really loves music? Maybe this is the part of your system that is failing you right now. Maybe you have gotten all from your collection of recordings that you are going to get for the present. I mean, it terms of content more than sound quality. Maybe a little time invested in expanding your collection would be time well spent? For myself, I find that when I am being "hypercritical" of my system it is usually true that I am also being hypercritical of a great deal more going on in my life. Of course, this may not be you.
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