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Digital sound is fine, but analog rolled off Why?

My set up is Oppo CD-player->Music HAll Maven(ClassAB at 100W)->ATC SCM12 speakers.

When I listen to CDs I am pretty happy with a sound, but once I switch to LPs: Rega P3->Denon DL-160 cart.->Rotel RQ-970BX Phono stage my sound looses stage and it seems like treble as well as bass are rolled off. Adding volume does not change the quality of the sound at all.

I tried the same analog combination with easy-to-drive speakers of the same volume and analog sound became much more open and alive/present than with my ATC speakers.

I am puzzled : I know on one hand that ATC speakers are very hard to drive, but I lack engineering knowledge to conclude how is it possible that digital source produces decent sound and analog source drops in quality?
The only idea I came up with is : My phono stage does send enough information to my amp for easy-to-drive speakers, but that information gets lost when I switch to ATC SCM 12s.
Any ideas why this is happening? Could speaker such as ATC kill analog sound in my system?
dkzzzz

Showing 2 responses by tvad

tvad
9,467 posts
 
Roll-off is often a symptom of impedance mismatch (output impedance being
too high relative to input impedance).

Somewhere there's likely an impedance mismatch; perhaps between the Rotel's
output impedance and the Music Hall's input impedance, or perhaps the loading
on the DL-160 is too low.

Without knowing the specs on the Rotel and Music Hall, it's impossible to say for
certain.
tvad
9,467 posts
 
How do I check for impedance between components?
Dkzzzz (Threads | Answers)
Manuals often publish the impedance specifications in the back of the book.

Otherwise, you can ask the manufacturer, or you can sometimes find the info in reviews, especially the measurements section of Stereophile reviews.

It may be difficult to obtain the input impedance spec of the Music Hall Maven. I have read more than one post where Roy Hall basically told the person asking the question that the specs weren't available.
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