amp or preamp..what should i keep?

im looking for a sound a little more laid back but with a nice quick and fast bass along with crisp clean upper freqs. but would like the vocals to stand out a little more than they are right now. right now they seem to take a back seat to everything else.

mike

I have limited experience with Paradigm speakers. My two sons each have a pair of Titans, and the Titans are balanced the way you describe them. Vocals take a back seat because the midrange is depressed compared with the frequency extremes.

You can compensate somewhat for this kind of thing with careful speaker placement but my suggestion would be to audition some other speakers just to hear what difference that might make. For example, I also have a pair of PSB Alphas, and they favour the mids more than the Titans I mentioned above.

My own main system speakers are Meadowlarks, and they have a nice balance to my ears. If you were patient, you might find a used pair of Meadowlark Kestrels in your price range, but since they are no longer made it might be hard to get an audition.

Don't rule out a source upgrade either, if what you really want to hear is more refinement in vocals.

Happy hunting!

I did some speaker moving tonight and althou it did help for instance i brought the speakers about three feet out from the wall and it seemed to unmuddle the sound so to speak. After more adjustmants it did get better but I think I am probably not going to get much flatter. I am using some nordost flatline interconnects and have tried my kimbers but I think the nordost sound a little better on my setup also running audio art speaker cables. One question is this, My speakers are bi wireable and not sure if this is hurting my sound but I am running a three foot pair of audioquest cables to tie the post together. My next purchase is for a pair of jumpers but for now this will have to do.

You are quite right to want to improve your jumpers.

If you want to know how biwiring would affect your sound, you might look out for a set of Audioquest Type 4 or 4+. This economical cable, as you probably know, is double-run solid-core and you can biwire with it. It's very good-sounding for the money and not hard to resell if it turns out not to your taste.