Bi-amping B&W 703's

Almost 2am and to my embarassment I shall admit that it's a Sony 5 DC changer. Far less then stellar but the Denon player I have has taken a life of it's own and convinced it's components to only read DVD's, CD's are ignored, haha.

Considering that neither the reviews of the Electrocompaniet amps nor the Musical Fidelity A308CR preamp were all that bad the source obviously is one of the things that needs attention. Other than that it's a NAD tuner.

Curtains don't exist and I don't think my lady would have any of them there, neither would I.

Speakr cables and interconnects are from audioquest throughout.

For now I think that the sources are the weakest components in the chain, however, the least pricey thing to change right now will be to change the amp setup and biamp the speakers.

Then get a better source and if that doesn't do it I'll have to take it from there.

Of what I read here it does seem easier to get different speakers that match my amps, after all, the amps aren't that bad I think.

Rodman99999, may I ask what setup you have?

Ok, time to go to bed and rest for a little

Thanks

My digital source is a BAT VK-D5(6 NOS Siemens CCa's). Analog- a Denon DP-75(custom plinth)/Magnepan Unitrac I/Denon 103D. I'm bi-amping a pair of modded Maggies and some 8' folded, tapered, transmission lines, loaded with Nestorovic 10" woofers(I build them in 1980 to go with the Acoustat Model III's I had then). The highs are powered by a pair of Modded Cary SLM-100's(TungSol 6SN7GT round plates/Sylvania 6SN7W/JAN CHS) and the lows- A modded Hafler TransNova 9505. I'm using a TacT RCS 2.2Xaaa to split the signal. Being single(again), the room was treated with a goodly amount of Auralex and LENRD bass traps(not the cause of my singularity though). I use Kimber's KS-1130 interconnects, and Wireworld Eclipse5(top)/Kimber 8TC(bottom) speaker cables. Does your system sound as bright using your NAD as the source? I'd be willing to bet your Sony is deficient in the mids and lows, making the system sound too thin. You've got decent gear. How close is your listening position to the speakers?

Wow, that sounds like you've put a lot of time in your system. Have to admit that I'm not quite that dedicated, haha.

It doesn't sound much different with the NAD tuner, but then again, I'd really have to do some listening since I hardly ever use the tuner.

My listening position is about 10ft from the speakers and the speakers are about 7 1/2 ft apart and not quite 1 ft from the wall (windows I should say) and I can't bring them out much more.

I thought about taking my amps to the PMC dealer and to hook it up to the PMC's and see what it sounds like, but since I just bought something for another expensive hobby I couldn't afford them anyway right now.

Since he has Rega as well I'll see if he'd let me audition Rega CD player home. People seem to be happy with those players of what I've read.

Music has been a great love of mine for that past 45 years. If what I hear in the home doesn't live up to what I hear live(two or more times a week, acoustic and amplified), I can't get enthused at all. Most of what I own didn't cost much but my time to mod it(and the parts). The most expensive pieces were the VK-D5 and TacT(about 5K each), then there's the cabling. The cost of NOS tubes nowdays is what's scary. By all means: If you can audition a Rega CDP in your home- do so(before making other changes). That will answer whether the problem is source related. I've never heard anyone describe Electrocompaniet gear as bright. It can't hurt to take them to the dealer, but there are a lot of variables that way(different room, speakers, source, wires). Then again: If they do sound bright in his system too.....

I'm not sure if the Electrocompaniet gear is what makes it sound bright. When you search for threads regarding the B&W 703's here it sounds like I'm not the only one having that problem, so for now the Electrocompaniet's will stay.

Not sure how easily I could sell them but so far I've never seen the AW220's stay for too long here in on the forum, unless people take them off because thay can't sell them.

If I can get the Classe CA-2200 for a good price I'd probably take it, but first I'd have to sell the EC's and for now I think it makes more sense to improve the weakest link in the chain and go from there.

Tubes did come to mind but I know way too little about them and so far everybody recommended amps that have around 200W/channel for my speakers and so I'm not sure what would match my speakers as far as tube amps go. And again, I could end up with something I don't like and be back to getting a better CDP first.

I actually just saw whole box full of tubes at a local auction house and wasn't sure if they were worth bidding on. In the end the whole box of them (around 200 of them in original packaging) went for about 30 bucks. But I don't know anything about tubes and these may not have done the trick for anything.

Ok, gotta go now. I'll talk to the Rega guy this week and see what he says. Might want to do some research here first though.