Thanks for the comment ghdprentice. I've added photos of all the components in my system to my profile. Hopefully, you can view these? The Dynaudio's (20+ years ago) were $1,600/pair, the Focals $4K (2 months ago). I am in the process of a side-by-side comparison, but I'm wondering if changing out to a high quality source integrated amp would bring out more of the Focal's (i.e. perhaps they are limited in their potential at this point)?
Shifting center image and recommendations on an approach
I am a relatively new member of Audiogon and this is my first post. I apologize for the length of this. I’ll get better in the future. I’ve had the same system for many years and recently upgraded old Dynaudio speakers to Focal Aria 936. I’ve had them for two months and have struggled mightily with placement. For context, I have a Rotel pre-amp and amp (both older) and a Bluesound streamer. I also have an off-brand integrated tube amp (Yaqin).
I continually experience a shifting center image. It is primarily skewed more to the right. I’ve used the usual test songs such as Ballad of a Runaway Horse (as well as others, including 3 people Describing Position On Sound Stage in Stereo). The strange thing is that I hear the center image shift over to different positions across different listening sessions. I’ll adjust the speakers slightly to regain a center image, come back and it will be back to right or left. I eliminated the speakers as the problem by hooking up my old Dynaudio’s and experienced the same condition. I switched outputs on the pre-amp, also resulting in the same condition.
Well, today, I hooked up my integrated tube amp and I no longer experience the problem. Image is center and overall soundstage is good. So, it would seem to be a problem with my old Rotel pre-amp. Apparently, I must have been dealing with this for a long time and only became aware of it once purchasing new speakers and being more intentional about the soundstage. Ironically, I don’t hear a significant difference between my Dynaudio and Focals – I’m comparing each at this point.
Here’s my question (sorry!). Have others experienced a similar situation and how did you resolve it? And, I’m interested in opinions regarding returning the Focals (I’m within the period to do so) and getting a better integrated amp OR keep the Focals, knowing down the road, I’ll upgrade the integrated amp, thereby (hopefully) realizing the greater potential of the Focals?
Thanks very much in advance
Showing 5 responses by hazeloop
dadork - Howdy. I would say around 80-100 hours roughly. |
@ghdprentice - thanks for the comments. I will upgrade the whole system at some point. This isn't a fair assessment, but currently the speakers are roughly 50% of the cost - I say that due to the age of much of the equipment - 20+ years (I didn't count for inflation - 😀). I will say this to you and @ghdprentice @kota1 - I haven't been fair when it comes to the amount of break-in period and dedicated listening sessions. Since I switched to solely using the off-brand Yaqin (which I want to swap out), they have sounded better and I'm moved the speakers out for a wider soundstage w/o losing center stage. I will look into Audio Research per your suggestion. When I purchased the Focals from a local dealer, I also auditioned B&W's (704's I think) and Sonus Faber (Lumina and Sonetto) side by side and did like the Focals better (plus it was a better price since Focal seems to moving the 936 out). I think the next step is to sell the older equipment (Rotel's) and the off-brand tube-amp (not until I replace it mind you). The challenge is where to even sell this equipment at this point? Thanks very much for the all the advice. |
@kota1 - didn't mean to copy you. I'm not interested in room treatments at this point. Thank you. As @ghdprentice indicated, that can come later. |
@carzmaguy88 - Thanks for your response. I am completely with you on the placement of the speakers. It is driving me nuts. Focal actually provided the following recommendations which seem to contradict each other -
I use it as a guide, but listening is more important (obviously). My current placement is 42" from front wall on both speakers and 31" from left wall and 29" from the right wall. I have a window on the left side and bookshelf (built in) to contend with on the right side. Do I read your placement correct that there is significant toe-in to your listening position? Some recording have better soundstage (center, width and depth) than others. I feel I am becoming a snob and focusing only on music that sounds good, which is a problem. Older recordings (vinyl or streaming) that I really like don't sound as good. I need to get over that... Thanks again ! |