I know I'm a little late to this thread, but I wanted to throw in my 2 cents worth. I owned the D20r's and experienced the same issue with the bass using both tube and ss amps. The midrange and imaging are amazing, but I was able to move up to the D30r's in the last couple months and it's in another league sonically than the 20's. It's a more refined speaker all around and absolutely no issues with the bass. Very tight, deep and clean. It's definitely a big step up in my opinion and doesn't lose any of the midrange or imaging Magic Proacs are known for.
ProAc sound with SS vs tubes
Folks
I am close to buying a Proac D20R. I listened to them at the dealership yesterday, driven by a low power PrimaLuna tube amp, and was totally gobsmacked by the glorious midrange. When I get them, I will be driving them with something very similar - an EL34 powered 40w/ch tube amp. So I have a feeling they will perform close to how they sounded at the dealership!
The one caveat was that at the demo, when I played a bass-heavy electronic track and pulled the volume up, the bass started to get flabby and the port started "huffing". I don’t know if that is the technical term, but it felt like the speaker was losing grip on the bass and starting to lose control of the lowest frequencies with the synthesized bass jabs losing their timing. The track was Algae & Fungi, Part I - by Biosphere from the album Cirque, in case anyone is interested.
Based on that, my question is: is this something that is inherent to the speaker? I plan to switch my tube amp to a SS of significantly higher wattage soon. I am thinking either Ayre-V5xe, or the Hegel H-20 or one maybe even a Plinius-SA102 or SA-103 if I can find one at a reasonable price.
Can any Proac owners tell me if the bass response will tighten up with more power and a SS amp behind the speakers? Or is this a limitation of the D20R’s design that it’s bass response will not be well controlled with tracks that are bass heavy and highly rhythmic?
Thank you so much!
I am close to buying a Proac D20R. I listened to them at the dealership yesterday, driven by a low power PrimaLuna tube amp, and was totally gobsmacked by the glorious midrange. When I get them, I will be driving them with something very similar - an EL34 powered 40w/ch tube amp. So I have a feeling they will perform close to how they sounded at the dealership!
The one caveat was that at the demo, when I played a bass-heavy electronic track and pulled the volume up, the bass started to get flabby and the port started "huffing". I don’t know if that is the technical term, but it felt like the speaker was losing grip on the bass and starting to lose control of the lowest frequencies with the synthesized bass jabs losing their timing. The track was Algae & Fungi, Part I - by Biosphere from the album Cirque, in case anyone is interested.
Based on that, my question is: is this something that is inherent to the speaker? I plan to switch my tube amp to a SS of significantly higher wattage soon. I am thinking either Ayre-V5xe, or the Hegel H-20 or one maybe even a Plinius-SA102 or SA-103 if I can find one at a reasonable price.
Can any Proac owners tell me if the bass response will tighten up with more power and a SS amp behind the speakers? Or is this a limitation of the D20R’s design that it’s bass response will not be well controlled with tracks that are bass heavy and highly rhythmic?
Thank you so much!