Looking for ideas - new mono blocks for stereo music
eohtar OP Good choice the JC1's if you get a pair, in high bias mode they sounded really good on Wilson Alexia's my friend has, and as I said if too expensive the new JC5 stereo is suppose to have the same sound character but cheaper. Cheers George |
Good Day, Just to clarify, I did carefully read the OP concerns. I shared my observations because It took me a long time to appreciate the importance of building a strong foundation for a decent sound system. I shared my experiences because I found myself in a similar situation several years ago - at a cross roads on trying to achieve the best sound for the best value for my dollar. I like most initially looked at investing in the stuff you see, the components. Its not sexy to consider investing substantial money into the hidden unseen parts, like power delivery. But it is those parts that are the foundation of a system. I have seen people waste money buy throwing money at the problem by switching components and speakers in and out of their systems without ever addressing investing in a strong Power delivery foundation. The point was not to say that too much power is a bad thing, Rather than to point out that the amps design is more than substantial for the speakers he has and is happy with. He does not necessarily need new amps. However the amps that he has are most likely not performing to their maximum performance. Perhaps - 50% maybe - because they not getting enough power/ electricity to their internal components. If his amps are at not at peak performance neither is his system. The Power Chords I listed are solely engineered for that purpose. That is all they do. They are specifically designed to insure that maximum power/ electricity is delivery to each component so that the components are operating at their maximum performance. The more Power the greater detail is achieved. Additionally adding subs does not translate to to blowing out the neighborhood. Easily achieved by volume control. His speakers are rated at 32hz at the low end, to further achieve getting down towards lets say 20Hz with out investing a ton of money he would need to get a sub. By getting a sub to integrate with the system it would expand the mid to lower mid range increasing the overall sound stage and exposing a level of detail that he is seeking. This is unattainable with just his speakers alone. That sound stage would also have greater spacial separation while simultaneously achieving an overall lower bass response. This is just another long term cost effective way of looking at achieving or solving the issues the OP is facing. |
It's been a few days since my last post and I had some time to play around with my system. The first thing I did was to change the gain setting on my current amps from 2V to 1V as suggested by @elizabeth Next I slightly moved the speakers - they are now a bit closer together and more importantly, the left channel is a good bit further away from the side wall. After that it was time to calibrate all the settings (levels and distances) and finally do some listening. And I must say, it sounds pretty darn good right now. I am not sure if it was the gain setting of the speaker position (probably a bit of both), but the sound has opened up nicely and everything seems a tad more lively with plenty of detail. I will still look into (meaning listen to) a couple of amps mentioned here (namely the cubed Bryston, Pass Labs, and Classe but at this stage more to satisfy my own curiosity than an actual upgrade. Another item where @auxinput beat me to it is the suggestion of upgrading cables to get more out of my current amps. While I am not opposed to playing around with cables and agree that they can make a difference and/or help dial in the exact sound you want, I will politely ignore suggestions of power cords that have a listed price of $8400 (that's US btw). Especially when that suggestion had been posted on another threat almost verbatim by the same author. Not to mention the fact that two of those cables would cost me around $22K in Canadian dollars - three times what I paid for both amps together. No thank you! To sum it up - really quite happy with how the system sounds right now. Sometimes a few small changes can go a long way. I'll still look into some upgraded cable (both power and XLR) options but at some more reasonable prices. |
Agreed on the Audio Sensibility. The Signature Silver interconnects (either XLR or RCA) from Audio Sensibility are probably the best you can do. That is if you want silver. I used to own these interconnects before I moved to OCC/Rhodium. My cousin still has a pair of the Signature Silver XLR and they are hard to beat. Actually, I could build these cables myself if I wanted to, but it would cost just as much to get the wire/connectors, so it's a really awesome value for the money!! However, I would suggest you avoid the lower end Impact and Statement series as they use stranded conductors. You’ll do much better with something like Wire World or Audioquest. Keep in mind that silver has it’s own double-edged sword and can sound too bright/sterile/harsh on a system that has too much resolution. It’s a fine line balancing act. For power cords, I agree that getting $1,000 plus power cords is a total waste of money. Most of them use stranded conductors, which in my testing always results in sound that is not as good (phasing issues and solid-state sounding). I shy away from silver or silver-plated solutions as well. If you are willing to DIY, I usually get a used Audioquest NRG-4 cable and chop the ends, then put on Furutech FI-28(R) rhodium connectors for IEC/Male. At the used prices today, it will come to $450-500 USD for a power cord that will beat the crap out of most other cords in the market. The Audioquest NRG-4 uses all solid-core OCC type solid-core copper conductors (4 x 19awg for hot, 5 x 21awg for neutral/ground). What many people don’t realize is that the connector plug accounts for half of the sound quality of the cable. The stock NRG-4 cable sound nice and it has a very solid sound, but the gold-plated connectors will impart a warm sound with rolled-off/recessed highs. If you are budget constraint, you can even use the cheaper Furutech FI-11-N1(R) series or even go down to the Cardas 3455R connectors. For interconnects, I hand make all mine using braided 20awg solid-core OCC conductors and Furutech rhodium XLRs. Speaker cable is usually a double-run of Rocket 44/88 with Furutech rhodium spades. (two runs of Rocket 44/88 would be a 10awg speaker cable). |
