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Too much bass

Brief equipment list: Rogue Magnum 120 amps, AR LS3 preamp, Vandersteen 2c's.
The bass is overwhelming. Either source, CD or Vinyl I cant turn up the volume over 1/3 of the control knob. The music falls apart. I have had many other speakers using this combo of electronics. Proac, Thiel, Meadowlark and Magnepan.
It almost appears as the amps are clipping. But if I chose a program with very little bass involved, everything is fine.
Could my amps be clipping with these speakers? Are they a difficult load?
Thanks, Scott
scottht

Showing 2 responses by nsgarch

nsgarch's avatar
nsgarch
2,524 posts
 
If the M 120's are in Triode mode, try switching them to Ultra-Linear mode. Also (I assume you are, but....) use the 8 ohm tap for the 2c's. Other than that, your amps should have plenty of power.

The other possible issue might be speaker wire. Not the kind, let's not get into that, but the length. IMO, if they're over 8 ft. long, then the (tube) amps might be having trouble controlling (damping) the woofers. Also, as you may know, Vandersteen recommends bi-wiring these speakers for tightest bass.
nsgarch's avatar
nsgarch
2,524 posts
 
Scott, I was going to bring up the point Gunbei did, about amp/preamp mismatch, but you indicated that you didn't have this problem with several other speakers.

I suppose it could be the output tubes, as Gunbei suggests, but it seems unlikely they'd all go bad on both amps at the same time.
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