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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

Showing 5 responses by zd542

zd542
5,339 posts
 
The ceiling may not be that bad. Is the room like a big box, or is the ceiling sloped?
zd542
5,339 posts
 
The main issue is that you don't have a preamp. If you still have your old one, try it. Its hard to go from something like a CAT to a HT processor. You may need to do some work in other areas as well, but trying a different preamp would be the first thing I would do if it was my system.
zd542
5,339 posts
 
"One more thought; if you are currently passively biwiring I suggest you use the "vertical" biwiring method, keeping one amp per speaker, versus the "horizontal" method of splitting the amps' use between speakers. I find the vertical to be a bit better."

I know you don't want to debate your answers, but I think you meant vertical biamp and not biwire.
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.
zd542
5,339 posts
 
"06-04-15: Jdoris
Don't think of your room as a problem, think of it as an opportunity to try some stupid big speakers. :)"

At least someone here is thinking clearly. For a moment there, I thought we were fresh out of audiophiles.
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