@russ69 why would the amp & pre be an issue if I’ve had nothing but great results with every set of speakers up till this point?
Great speaker sounds terrible in my room?
So today I took a ride to demo a set of speakers that has had my interest for quite some time, the Ref 3A Royal Virtuoso. These things are completely overbuilt, top notch parts and built like tombstones, the cabinets are made of Corian and are completely inert. They sounded excellent during the demo. The owner was running them with a beautiful VAC preamp / Pass labs amp and a Moon Dac-streamer. They were on 24” stands and approximately 2ft off the back wall. They sounded superb as expected…I pack em up, take em home. I rig them up…my setup is near field with the speakers 10ft off the front wall and the speakers are 5ft away from my listening position. I fire them up and….shocker. They got nothing. They literally were lost with Zero bass response. I actually thought maybe something was connected wrong…I checked the connections ( more on that in a minute) all good. These are higher efficiency (91db) than my ProAc Response D2’s (88db) yet the Ref 3A’s sounded much lower at my usual listening level. I’m still scratching my head over how this speaker is unable to kick ass. I have decent gear with plenty of firepower (ARC D400MKII amp, Levinson 380s Pre, Denafrips Terminator Dac, Aurender N100SC streamer. I’ve had Sonus Farber Concertino’s, Vienna Acoustics Haydn, KEF 150’s and my ProAcs all set up in the same manner and they all were excellent performers. The one thing that I’m wondering about is the Binding post on the Ref 3A…it uses the Cardas screw down clamp type post that only accepts spades or bare wire. my cables are banana terminated and I was using cheapo adapters. Could this all could be a connection related issue or just a speaker/room mismatch?
Thoughts / comments are much appreciated
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- 113 posts total
Mostly because they are not working with your new set-up and are known to be a very flat and neutral type sound. Something a little "livelier" might work better. |
Nice speaker for sure but too bad the 'distance from the wall' thing didn't set in. I don't think any electronics will solve it, nor will 7 feet out from the wall, still too far for any bass reinforcement is my guess. Along with others, if you're going to keep and enjoy those, I'd add a good subwoofer or two (or four inexp. ones). I don't see another, as viable, solution. Good luck with figuring it out; the speakers aren't at fault. Hope you enjoy them! |
OP - Sorry to hear about your sound issue but seems like you just want to argue with the suggestions people have given. oldhvy's suggestion of putting them on the floor will definitely help bass a lot. Also moving them back or in a corner. Most of these guys have very good suggestions, with the exception of yogiboy. Yogiboy, no disrespect but HUH? If all else fails, sell them. Good luck! |
I’m happy with the ARC/Levinson, I’ll most likely just have to wave the white flag and sell the A3’s if I can’t get them to work their magic in my room. If they were an end-game speaker i’d definitely go down the path of upgrading components. These were intended to be used for late night listening. My thought process was that a speaker with all the attributes of the 3A (higher efficiency, larger drivers, very dynamic) would be better suited for lower volume listening sessions. I didn’t weigh too heavily on my set up conditions because of the success I’ve had with lesser speakers. Duh-oh! I still have faith…we’ll see! |
- 113 posts total