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Need help - system performance

First I'll explain my system. Have a pair of Martin Logan SL3's (10" woofer with approx 4' esl panel), a pair of Parasound HCA1000A amps at 125 wpc each, a Parasound pld1100 line drive stereo preamp, a Pioneer Elite DV-05 dvd player,IXOS silver series interconnects (1/2 to 1 meter)and 12 gauge fine stranded monster cable MC-1 which has just an outer thick plastic jacket (16' speaker cables).

I have the amps horizontally bi-amped ( 1 amp for lows & 1 amp for highs). The speakers were bought used, are two years old, in mint condition, and were cared for. the amps & preamp were bought new and now have about 15-20 hours on them as well as all cables. DVD/CD player is connected to the direct input on preamp. polarity is correct on all terminations.

This is my sonic situation, when playing my favorite cd's, (you know the ones which have those exceptional quality recordings)the system sounds overall very good and bright. When watching dvd movies, it also sounds very good. When listening to most cd's however it appears to be lacking a little something!!!

It seams if the music be played consists of single or separable instruments, i.e. single guitars, horns or voices, the esl panels sound wonderful, but when its compounded such as rock and roll or the complete frequency spectrum, it seams to lack midrange, clarity, and sound stage. the 10" low end drivers seam to deliver a punchy bottom at times and muddy at others. The lower the volume the worse the condition. As far as listening to music from the tuner, well it sounds like absolute s....t. I have experimented with speaker placement with basically no differences. I have NOT tried to vertical biamp or drive the the amps as monoblocks.

I had a limited budget and spent approx 4K so far. I thought I did all the right research and made the right choices considering my budget. So what happening??

I tend to think the inexpensive speaker cables (bought from circuit city) could be causing the problem but I cant bring myself to spend a $1000.00 to proove it without talking to someone who knows more about it first.

Need intelligent help and recommendations....Steve Rounds
sfrounds

Showing 2 responses by abstract7

abstract7
541 posts
 
I'm going to disagree on the monoblock idea. I think bi-amping improves MLs a lot. Speaker cables--definitely change them. I'm not big on the networked versions. You have matching amps, so vertically bi-amping with very short runs of quality speaker cable would improve things. Spikes--absolutely--get them from ML directly.

Another tip: you can build a resistor for the power into the MLs. I have done this with a simple 125 volt radioshack 2k pot. I reduce the voltage to the ESL panels, they run higher than they should on my monoliths. I have not done this with SL3s, but it could tame some of the harshness.

Lastly, don't expect the SL3's to do BIG recordings (full orchestra--etc) as well as they do vocals, small jazz groups, and chamber music. They really excell in these areas and because of this you will notice they sound muddy in comparison when playing larger scale music.
abstract7
541 posts
 
I'd like to hear (second hand) how it sounds once you've made the changes. I agree with everything you are doing and think you will be pleasantly surprised at the improvements. Someday you probably will replace the parasounds, but the changes you are making now will delay that expenditure. The parasounds have the power you need, but not the finesse to get the most out of the ESLs. I don't think you have to spend mega bucks here, there are some really outstanding amps coming of age at real world prices. While I have not heard the Odyssey Stratos I have heard and read excellent things about it--particularly with ESLs. It may be worth auditioning some day. Do post your results on the current changes.
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