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I have NOVA V's and I am not happy

I have a Mark Levinson 585 and a pair of Sonus Faber Olympica Nova V's and although I admittedly have some room acoustic issues that I am working on I am not happy with the sound. 

I listen to music LOUD. This Pairing thru a pair of Kimber Cable 8TC's gets bright in what I think is the 2 to 4 khz range and the sonus faber nova's seem to mute the lower end of female vocals, artist like Macy Gray or Tina Turner dont seem to have the same drive in the lower octaves. At the same time the upper end of vocals like Sheryl Crow can get too bright and cause fatigue (I am assuming this is in the 2 to 4khz range) I have tried every speaker placement you can think of, toe in, toe out. distance from front wall and I am adding acoustic treatments as fast as they can be shipped. 

Here is my question, I had Mark Levinson 436 Mono Blocks in the past connected to a pair of B&W Nautilus 802's thru a pair of MIT Shotgun bi-wire speaker cables and I never noticed that system to be bright. Granted that system was in a different room in a different house. Everyone is telling me that B&W is a brighter sounding  speaker by far over Sonus Faber. If I decide after all my room treatments that I am not a fan of the Sonus Faber sound where should I turn for my replacement speaker? Or is it Mark Levinson's Fault? I want Rich Lush Loud Musical sound. I like a decent sound stage, I also really love it when when you hear decay from the instruments. I don't really care if that's what is neutral or not that's what I like :) 

Where did I go wrong and what can I do to fix it?

Thanks Lee

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overthemoon
417 posts
 

@mckinneymike Good luck in your search. There are a lot of options and I was in a similar situation about 10 years ago. I was very unimpressed with many speakers that had strong reputations - B&W, Mission, Martin Logan and others were close but there was something missing. 
 

And I have noticed my tastes change. I was really happy with both NAD and McIntosh previously and now I am much more drawn into Moon and Audio Research. 
 

I encourage you to create an audition list of music you like and have listening sessions at retailers and if possible friends systems. 
 

good luck

bigtex22's avatar
bigtex22
84 posts
 

I have these speakers paired with a McIntosh integrated amp and they sound sublime. 

bigtex22's avatar
bigtex22
84 posts
 

I’d add that my integrated has a EQ controls which gives me a lot of tonal flexibility. 

jhills
615 posts
 

The first place to start is as Eric suggested: eliminate your room effects bye setting near field (only 2 - 3 ft. from the front plane of the speakers. Adjust the volume to the perceived level you prefer to listen, and what you hear is, sonically, how the amps, speakers and cables are working together, at the volume levels you prefer to listen - with little to no influence from the room. If the tone, texture and balance of highs, mids and lows is what you’re looking/listening for, then you’ll know that what you have will work with optimal speaker placement and room treatment.

Listening at those higher volumes brings out the worst in a room and increases the need for dampening and other treatments to reduce the reflections and oddities that can raise such havoc with the balance, tone and musicality of a great system.

For serious listening, it would help a bunch to put a blanket in front of the TV screen and move the speakers out further from the wall and experiment from there.

Best of luck........Jim

lucapelliccioli
24 posts
 

I have Olympica Nova III and I can assure you they are not bright. I use silver cable from AQ (William Tell combo) and are great! 

My monos are PS Audio M1200s with tubes and this can help a lot.

in addiction I use Iconoclast XLR UOCC that are detailed and warm.

No issues at all.

Did you try swapping the speakers left/right in order to have more pressure between them behind vs towards the side walls? In my case this can bring different sound.

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