As I said earlier, the T5 sub is not big enough. I have a room the same size which my floorstanders & a Rel Storm 3 with a little more power and 10 in. woofer would not output enough bass. The T5 has 125 watts with an 8 Inch woofer which is not enough power nor air movement for the room. . The best purchase I made was 2 Rel S5 clones w/ 12" and 550 watts. Sounds great now
Integrated amps for lean speakers
Hello all. Upgrading my integrated now. We are in a bigger room at 22 x 16 x 10 foot ceilings. Just picked up a pair of Neat Iota Xplorer speakers (6 ohm impedence). The demo sounded fuller and richer in a smaller room driven by Sonnet monoblocks. Current space certainly exposes the weaknesses of my 20+ yr old Rotel integrated. High freqs are forward, mid-bass punch is lagging except at much higher volumes. I have a REL T5 subwoofer to help.
My goal is to get most out of these somewhat lean speakers with a more forceful amp that will accentuate the mid-bass punch without overdriving the ribbon tweeters. Getting a more forward sound in the low level listening would be a bonus, although at 88 db sensitivity I’m not sure that will happen.
Budget is $2K-$3k with new and used options in the mix. For the right piece I suppose I’d stretch it closer to $4K. Rogue Cronus Magnum II, Margules ACRH-3, Aavik I-180 while very different are in the running. Parasound Halo 6 and Plinius Hautonga come to mind through research. Having a hard time auditioning equipment these days since the brick and mortar landscape sure has changed in the last 8 years around here.
Anyone listen to the Margules Integrated? I heard their tube amp at T.H.E. Show 2 weeks ago and it sounded glorious driving Raidho speakers but the ACRH-3 was not in loop at the time so I never heard it. It has a tube front end and ss amp section so perhaps will tame the highs a bit? Again the big goal is to regain the tight mid bass that the Paradigm mini monitors brought (they just cracked at higher listening levels in that room). Your thots? Thank you mucho.
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Thank you all. I did tweak speaker positioning and will do more this weekend. I've only had the speakers a week and have worked long hrs so far. They have about 80hrs run-in time on them. Stephen at Neat said 200 hrs is their recommendation so more time to go but you've given me great food for thought. There seems to be a strong sentiment for a better sub, or maybe two. My prior understanding is that adding stronger bass uplifts the mid bass punch and provides better overall sound? Sounds like you agree. I actually lowered the REL crossover setting to about 50 Hz from 80 when I switched to the Xplorers which advertise 30 Hz v. the Paradigms that were at 70Hz. I did lower the volume too with the idea that a lighter bass volume from the sub would support rather than overwhelm the main bass output. My plan is to boost the sub volume and play with positioning this weekend. Also, Stephen at Neat said at a recent show he drove the Xplorers with an Atoll IN300 amp, FYI. I love the idea of room acoustic treatments, just something I have to see how to achieve. That's a new area for me. I'll look into that and see how to analyse and treat the room. I know all the "cheating" that goes on at audio shows is for a reason :). Thanks all. |
Rel recommends putting sub in the corner and slowly pulling it out to find its best position. It will give you more bass in the corner. But as I said, with the Rel Storm 3 I could not get enough bass and I had it turned to max. But every situation is different. Hopefully you can get the T5 to work for you. Its worth trying and if not maybe another T9 to go with the T5. Keep us posted. And congrats on the new speakers. Break in can be painful at times so I'd wait for the to break in before spending and $$$. Then you will have a proper baseline |
You might want to rethink that and increase the crossover frequency. Hi-Fi News measurements shows a -6 dB point of 75 Hz on the Neats - link. Try using a test tone to blend the sub(s) and adjust output - link. Make it sound as even as possible as the frequency rises. |
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