Hi everyone,
Like the title says, I recently moved into a new home and took my old system with me. System consists of Rotel RB-1080 (for the fronts), Rotel RSX-1056, B&W 703's up front, B&W HTM7 center and B&W DS6 surrounds. Sub duties are from a Paradigm Reference Sub 12 which needs a minor repair before it can get back into action . . . PW-2200 handling duties in the interim, LOL.
Anyway, in my old room I would have described my system as "effortless". I had great balanced sound and I didn't have to get into the volume much at all. Going into the 60's on my RSX-1056 was very unusual and it was LOUD. This room was shaped sort of weird and was about 12x24 with an adjoining hallway. This was a main floor room as well so not in the basement.
The new room is much smaller and is roughly a 12x15 square with an adjoining staircase. It is in the basement. I have some issues with bass response that I've managed to get a decent handle on by moving the sub and listening position around (sound treatments are in the future), but my main concern is the way I have to push the volume on the 1056 to get similar volumes to my old room. I was listening a minute ago and had the 1056 on 65 and it sounded very good, but probably about as loud as what mid 50's would have given in my old room I think. Obviously this is a but subjective, but I do know that the new room requires a much higher volume setting for similar output than the old room.
The ONLY thing that has changed (other than the room obviously) is my speaker wire. I had to get new wire when I moved and I hate to say it (since I didn't buy into there being THAT much difference in wire), but I just bought some generic copper speaker wire to make my runs. It's nothing fancy, but mind you, neither was the brand name wire I was using before. Still pretty "entry level" stuff for the most part. Is it possible that the wire is the culprit for needing to crank the volume so much? Could it possibly have that much more resistance than the old stuff?
I don't think anything is going to get damaged, but I would rather run my amps at a lower setting if possible. I didn't think going to a smaller room would require the volume to be cranked more, I actually expected the opposite.
Any thoughts as to what may be going on here?
Thanks in advance for any ideas you can share!
Like the title says, I recently moved into a new home and took my old system with me. System consists of Rotel RB-1080 (for the fronts), Rotel RSX-1056, B&W 703's up front, B&W HTM7 center and B&W DS6 surrounds. Sub duties are from a Paradigm Reference Sub 12 which needs a minor repair before it can get back into action . . . PW-2200 handling duties in the interim, LOL.
Anyway, in my old room I would have described my system as "effortless". I had great balanced sound and I didn't have to get into the volume much at all. Going into the 60's on my RSX-1056 was very unusual and it was LOUD. This room was shaped sort of weird and was about 12x24 with an adjoining hallway. This was a main floor room as well so not in the basement.
The new room is much smaller and is roughly a 12x15 square with an adjoining staircase. It is in the basement. I have some issues with bass response that I've managed to get a decent handle on by moving the sub and listening position around (sound treatments are in the future), but my main concern is the way I have to push the volume on the 1056 to get similar volumes to my old room. I was listening a minute ago and had the 1056 on 65 and it sounded very good, but probably about as loud as what mid 50's would have given in my old room I think. Obviously this is a but subjective, but I do know that the new room requires a much higher volume setting for similar output than the old room.
The ONLY thing that has changed (other than the room obviously) is my speaker wire. I had to get new wire when I moved and I hate to say it (since I didn't buy into there being THAT much difference in wire), but I just bought some generic copper speaker wire to make my runs. It's nothing fancy, but mind you, neither was the brand name wire I was using before. Still pretty "entry level" stuff for the most part. Is it possible that the wire is the culprit for needing to crank the volume so much? Could it possibly have that much more resistance than the old stuff?
I don't think anything is going to get damaged, but I would rather run my amps at a lower setting if possible. I didn't think going to a smaller room would require the volume to be cranked more, I actually expected the opposite.
Any thoughts as to what may be going on here?
Thanks in advance for any ideas you can share!
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