2. amps-preamps
  3. 1040275897

What's My Problem?

OK, here's the situation . . . . hoping some of you with more knowledge and experience than I have can help me out.

On 2-channel listening, my system sounds great at low levels -- say at 9 o'clock or less on my VPC-1 passive preamp volume. Lots of openness and air, good imaging, lots of space around instruments. Of course, dynamics and bass suffer, but that's to be expected.

Between 9 and 12, the sound starts to get harsher and the soundstage begins to close up -- orchestral stuff sounds much more confused and congested. Above 12 o'clock, it's really not worth listening to.

These aren't very high levels -- 9 o'clock is my "late night with the wife sleeping down the hall" listening level, and 12 o'clock doesn't get Verdi's "Requiem" to real-life SPLs.

My first assumption is that my amplifier just doesn't have enough juice. But the RB981 puts about 200 wpc into a 4 ohm load, and I would think that would be enough to get to at least decent levels, even with my admittedly power-hungry NHT 2.3As . . . .

Alternately, I thought that maybe the 9000ES/RB981 combo wasn't ideally suited for a passive preamp. I understand that component matching is critical here, but I'm not really clear on how it works . . . . the volume gets loud enough with no problem, it's just that the quality suffers.

Then again, it could simply be "louder=more annoyance from digital harshness," and I need to replace the 9000ES with a better Redbook CDP. But it seems to me that if the CDP was to blame, the soundstage and "airy-ness" wouldn't change much as the volume increased.

Suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

Pat
tsrart

Showing 1 response by seandtaylor99

seandtaylor99
1,262 posts
 
test #1.Could you connect the 9000ES directly to the Rotel power amp and play a not-too loud CD (even beter does the 9000es have a variable output ?).
test #2Alternatively borrow a friend's CD player with a variable output , connect directly to the rotel, and see if it sounds better than your preamp at higher levels.
test#3 borrow an active preamp and experiment.

If any of the above experiments produce the same over-aggressive sound then it might be that the amp is underpowered. Marakanetz was correct to point out that not all watts are the same (well, they are, but the way manufacturers measure them varies). Rotel is a bit of a middle-of-the-road manufacturer ... not at all bad, good value for money, but not all that great either.

If either or both of the above produce a loud, but not so aggressive sound then it would indicate that the preamp is the probably cause of the problems. I don't know why this might be, but it could be an impedance mismatch (since it's a passive pre). In this case switching to an active preamp might solve your problems.

I very much doubt the Sony CD player is the root of the problems.

Good luck.
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