2. amps-preamps
  3. 1040275897

What's My Problem?

OK, here's the situation . . . . hoping some of you with more knowledge and experience than I have can help me out.

On 2-channel listening, my system sounds great at low levels -- say at 9 o'clock or less on my VPC-1 passive preamp volume. Lots of openness and air, good imaging, lots of space around instruments. Of course, dynamics and bass suffer, but that's to be expected.

Between 9 and 12, the sound starts to get harsher and the soundstage begins to close up -- orchestral stuff sounds much more confused and congested. Above 12 o'clock, it's really not worth listening to.

These aren't very high levels -- 9 o'clock is my "late night with the wife sleeping down the hall" listening level, and 12 o'clock doesn't get Verdi's "Requiem" to real-life SPLs.

My first assumption is that my amplifier just doesn't have enough juice. But the RB981 puts about 200 wpc into a 4 ohm load, and I would think that would be enough to get to at least decent levels, even with my admittedly power-hungry NHT 2.3As . . . .

Alternately, I thought that maybe the 9000ES/RB981 combo wasn't ideally suited for a passive preamp. I understand that component matching is critical here, but I'm not really clear on how it works . . . . the volume gets loud enough with no problem, it's just that the quality suffers.

Then again, it could simply be "louder=more annoyance from digital harshness," and I need to replace the 9000ES with a better Redbook CDP. But it seems to me that if the CDP was to blame, the soundstage and "airy-ness" wouldn't change much as the volume increased.

Suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

Pat
tsrart

Showing 1 response by bishopwill

bishopwill
369 posts
 
Two possibilities occur to me. The first, and I think the mostly likely, is that you simply are up against the limits of your speakers. My experience is that NHTs do get harsh and ugly as they get louder. Many less expensive (and some more expensive) speakers are like this, a notable exception on the inexpensive end being the Paradigm Reference range which usually sounds better as it gets cranking.

A second is that you are experiencing hearing loss, a sometime consequence of which is the development of rising levels of perceived distortion as SPLs increase. This would require evaluation by an audiologist but it is a very real and well documented phenomenon.

Let's hope it is the former, or one of the other possibilities identified above.

will
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