Filling out the sound

Rbschauman...did you buy all this new gear without listening to it? I am not asking in a critical manner, just wandering you if you auditioned it all at a dealer or not? If you did audition it and it did not sound lean in the mids and lower frequencies but is now exhibiting this leaness in your home, then it may be that you have a suckout in your room somewher in the low to mid frequency band and it may be ameliorated with a change in speaker placement and/or room treatments. Just one avenue to explore. If you bought the system sight unseen (or unheard) than you now have to figure out where this leaness is being introduced in the signal chain. I would still play around with speaker placement and see if that helps. Good luck.

I am not familiar with Rega gear, but I think that speakers are the most variable piece of gear in the chain of equipment. If you don't want to take the whole system back and start over, try some speakers that are known as having a warmer sound. I can vouch for Dali Helicon 400 MkI (not II).

You will probably have to get tube gear to reproduce or better your old system in this respect though.

Floor reflection typically causes some cancellation in the upper bass, around 100-200 Hz range. First try an area rug in front of the speakers.

my impressions of rega speakers (which i regard highly) is that they're extremely silky and revealing at the high end and tend to leanness at the lower end--curiously, rega doesn't publish frequency specs, so it's not easy to tell how deep they're supposed to extend. i'm not sure bases/footers/etc. will markedly increase low end response. tho i'd certainly experiment with placement, room treatment etc., at the end of the day i'd look at adding a sub.

Gentlemen,

Thanks for the responses.

Cmalak – Your point is well taken. This system is an assemblage of Rega products over time without audition. Therefore, I have no benchmark to refer back to.

Cmalak and others – You put forth my best hope; toying with speaker placement. Hopefully, I will pickup a bit of what I yearn for through repositioning. It’s what the US importer of Rega products suggested as well.
I do have to face up to the fact that the nature of the beast that I’m contending with (Rega products) in a perfect setting will not yield exactly what I’m looking for. I simply want to maximize its abilities.

Why did I assemble this system anyway? For durability (others in the house play it), affordability, the design of the R7 speakers (our cats can’t reach the fabric to hurt it) and cosmetic consistency.

BTW – Anyone care to suggest another high-end manufacturer who creates a full line of gear like Rega? (Pre & power amps, CD, TT, speakers, and tuner)

Randy