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Help - new house - new setup?

I have just moved house and the new room is about 20x18 with 28 foot ceilings and glass/openings on 2 of the walls.

My system was CAT SL1 with spectron musician amp playing through VS VR4jrs. Front end Michell Orbe and Oppo 105.

I went all HT and got Halo A51 and JC1 monos with a Marantz 8802.

I was expecting a big improvement but the sound is lost in this room and sounds poor.

Someone suggested JL audio fathom to take the weight off the VR4rs so I got a 212 which has improved bass substantially but SPLs are still weak.

I feel I need to upgrade the JR4s and would like to spend up to 10k on some new speakers or Albert is advocating 5k to upgrade the JR4s.

Any suggestions would be most welcome as I live in the sticks and my nearest decent dealer is 250 miles away.

I am considering ML Montis/Summit, Revel Salon, Wilson Sophia 3, Thiel cs 3.7 and Legacy Whispers among others.

My main concern is having a speaker that will give the SPL level necessary for this room.
musicalal
onhwy61's avatar
onhwy61
4,163 posts
 
I could be totally wrong, but I don't understand why many people are recommending mid to low sensitivity, wide dispersion, direct radiating loudspeakers. At 10,000+ cubic feet, the listening space is huge. The OP implies that he listens at very high sound levels and I just don't see how loudspeakers with 8-10 inch woofers are going to provide sufficient low frequency response in such a large room. Almarg makes a point about reflected sound possibly not being a problem, but I think a controlled directivity loudspeaker would lessen the problem even further.

Again, I ask the OP to indicate how loudly he desires to listen.
shakeydeal
979 posts
 
"I know you don't want to debate your answers, but I think you meant vertical biamp and not biwire."

He never wants to debate what he writes. Nothing new here.

Shakey
almarg's avatar
almarg
8,673 posts
 
06-04-15: Onhwy61
Almarg makes a point about reflected sound possibly not being a problem, but I think a controlled directivity loudspeaker would lessen the problem even further.
To be sure it's clear, my point about reflected sound possibly not being a problem pertained ONLY to reflections from the ceiling.

Best regards,
-- Al
musicalal OP
18 posts
 
MY OP may have misled you all.

I actually prefer to listen to music at low levels but that projects clearly and transparently in 2 channel with power and dynamics when it is called for in the music not just by turning the wick up..

However for movies I do like to step it up a bit but do not count that as audiophile sound just good effects.

MY main issue is the 2 channel does not come across at all like I have been used to with what was considered inferior electronics so either the space and layout are too much for the VR4s or I need serious room treatment.

Probably both. But one of my questions is would I be better getting the VR4jr upgrade for 5k which Albert says makes them compete with 20k speakers or am I better getting some used top line speakers which are capable of higher SPL.

I know what I like in a speaker but am not that good at room acoustics or speaker specs.
zd542
5,339 posts
 
There is one thing you can do that will help you figure this all out. Set your system up in a different room that's more like the one you used to have it in. You should be able to tell almost immediately how much of an impact the new room is having. I know I sound like a broken record, but I still think removing your CAT preamp had a larger impact on SQ than you may think.
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