Did you do the demo where your system is or in the garage? (I'm thinking about a possible bad room interaction.) Try swapping out the Denon and Analysis cables back to the Onkyo with lamp cord. See if it improves back to what you remember from the demo. If it does improve, then I would guess either that there might be a defect in the Denon or the Onkyo was colored in a pleasing way. Good luck.
Budget system not up to expectations...
Hi.
I've just set up a new system, and I'm trying to troubleshoot it.
Hopefully, someone might have some insight for me.
I had an older Onkyo system (SV414 amp with 6CD) powering some old Infinity Studio Monitor 100s.
I'd been looking around to upgrade my speakers, and decided that B&W CDM1s sounded great for their pricepoint.
I found a used pair, that the seller let me demo, and they sounded great compared to what I'd previously had.
So upon purchase, I decided that it was time to move up from lampcord and buy some quality speaker cable.
I selected a used 10' of Analysis Plus Oval 9, which came with the T1 spades, that of course did not fit in the Onkyo barewire speaker connects.
So I had to upgrade my amp. I decided to go with a Denon AVR-1803 receiver over the Yamaha RX-V800.
Of course when the Denon arrived the speaker posts fit banana & barewire only (I could have sworn I read that it had 5-way!) which when speaking to Analysis Plus about retermination,
they said that AudioQuest makes a Spade to Banana adapter that would be just fine. It didn't make much sense to me that if the construction of a cable is so crucial, how an adapter could be harmless, but I took the manufacturer's word for it.
I noticed that my Apex DVD player had a digital coax out, so I figured, why not see how that fits in with the system, since I already own it, plus the cost of an AQ VSD1 coax.
So finally, this evening, I got a chance to hook it all up after a month of frugal planning.
While it sounds better than my old system, I can't quite tell if I'm being over-expectant, but it doesn't quite sound as good as when I demo'd the speakers on my old Onkyo connected with quickly stripped spare coax I had out in the garage.
The sound seems muffled, and the stereo field sounds completely fake. If I position myself near the sweet-spot, and lean from left to right, it feels like the corresponding speaker is simply louder, and there is no illusion of stereo space.
I auditioned the same CDs on both the Onkyo CD through Analog, and the Apex DVD on both digital and analog. (the Onkyo had much much more bass.)
Can anyone offer any suggestions?
System recap:
Denon AVR-1803
B&W CDM1 on Apollo A3 stands
10' Analysis Plus Oval 9 with T1 Spades & gold banana adapters
(used, so pre-burnt in)
Onkyo 6-Disc changer
Apex AD-660 DVD with Digital out
I've just set up a new system, and I'm trying to troubleshoot it.
Hopefully, someone might have some insight for me.
I had an older Onkyo system (SV414 amp with 6CD) powering some old Infinity Studio Monitor 100s.
I'd been looking around to upgrade my speakers, and decided that B&W CDM1s sounded great for their pricepoint.
I found a used pair, that the seller let me demo, and they sounded great compared to what I'd previously had.
So upon purchase, I decided that it was time to move up from lampcord and buy some quality speaker cable.
I selected a used 10' of Analysis Plus Oval 9, which came with the T1 spades, that of course did not fit in the Onkyo barewire speaker connects.
So I had to upgrade my amp. I decided to go with a Denon AVR-1803 receiver over the Yamaha RX-V800.
Of course when the Denon arrived the speaker posts fit banana & barewire only (I could have sworn I read that it had 5-way!) which when speaking to Analysis Plus about retermination,
they said that AudioQuest makes a Spade to Banana adapter that would be just fine. It didn't make much sense to me that if the construction of a cable is so crucial, how an adapter could be harmless, but I took the manufacturer's word for it.
I noticed that my Apex DVD player had a digital coax out, so I figured, why not see how that fits in with the system, since I already own it, plus the cost of an AQ VSD1 coax.
So finally, this evening, I got a chance to hook it all up after a month of frugal planning.
While it sounds better than my old system, I can't quite tell if I'm being over-expectant, but it doesn't quite sound as good as when I demo'd the speakers on my old Onkyo connected with quickly stripped spare coax I had out in the garage.
The sound seems muffled, and the stereo field sounds completely fake. If I position myself near the sweet-spot, and lean from left to right, it feels like the corresponding speaker is simply louder, and there is no illusion of stereo space.
I auditioned the same CDs on both the Onkyo CD through Analog, and the Apex DVD on both digital and analog. (the Onkyo had much much more bass.)
Can anyone offer any suggestions?
System recap:
Denon AVR-1803
B&W CDM1 on Apollo A3 stands
10' Analysis Plus Oval 9 with T1 Spades & gold banana adapters
(used, so pre-burnt in)
Onkyo 6-Disc changer
Apex AD-660 DVD with Digital out
- ...
- 19 posts total
- 19 posts total