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My stereo isn't doing it for me. Need advice

I have been trying to get a great sounding room for a while now and it still doesn't sound great or even good. I have a Prinaluna Dialogue 5 power amp and a Primaluna Prologue preamp. All with stock tubes so far. A Marantz c6005 CD player. Morrow mc3 interconnects and Kimber 8tc speaker cable. My speakers are Dynaudio x12's which sound the best in my room. I also have Dynaudio x32 speakers and a pair of KEF LS50 speakers. Also a REL T-5 subwoofer. My room is my office and is 9 x 11 with 8 Foot ceilings. Some acoustic stuff sounds great but the louder stuff not so much. I find I listen to music that sounds good rather than music I want to hear. Any suggestions on what I can change. I also bought a Class D Audio 200 watt per channel amplifier that makes everything sound even worse.
128x128dylanfan
zd542
5,339 posts
 
"A budget CD player can sound damn fine, and anyone who has been in this game long enough can tell you that. Please give the pontificating about $3000 players a break. Dylanfan, ignore this "advice."

I have to agree. If you judge audio components by how much they cost, you'll have a train wreck. Its very common for a lower priced component to sound better than a more expensive one.
veroman's avatar
veroman
291 posts
 
blaming a 500$ cd player is ludicrous. it is the room folks. beyond that the source is foremost. are they next generation cd's? redbook is very hard to get right unless the recording was primo, which many can be
chrisr's avatar
chrisr
444 posts
 
I would do at least one full wall of auralex, preferably behind the listening seat. The key is to kill reflections and make your room acoustically bigger.
I had a room like that 12x11, with back fully treated, each side partially treated, center front wall treated, and two columns of foam (4ft tall/12" diameter) in the front wall corners... music was inaudible before treatment, and great after, with all sorts of big and small speakers.
zd542
5,339 posts
 
"05-25-15: Veroman
blaming a 500$ cd player is ludicrous. it is the room folks. beyond that the source is foremost."

That might be true, but its still speculation. I could argue (successfully), that the problem may lie elsewhere. Unless someone has access to the OP's system and room, we can only guess as to what the problem is. Getting good sound is a hands on activity just for that reason.
lowrider57's avatar
lowrider57
3,018 posts
 
Dylanfan...Lots of great advice, and as always, Al has suggested a good idea in trying the different taps on the amp.
The consensus is that the room is the problem area in reproducing good sound, but I still say first run your system in a near-field setup to verify good synergy between components. Your CDP will sound fine playing modern CDs from quality record labels.

If you are pleased with the result, then use the full room and set up acoustic treatments. Several members on this thread have small rooms and can advise you on the size of panels.
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