Stereo Vs Home Theater

[RAJAN2420]

I am not a specialist in sound physics but call on you who've better experience than me :

I have a pair of N804 connected to a preamp Rotel 1066 and a Rotel 1075 for power. When I watch the movies the sound is rich, full with good bass but when I listen in stereo mode, the sound is laid back. I often hear that my amp has not enough juice to drive the 804.

1. How come I get a richer sound when I watch movies, than listening in 2 Channel mode? I thought the sound dynamics worked the other way around.
2. Always, in stereo mode, the sound seems to be better with analogue (RCA) connections than digital (Coaxial).

Thanks.
PS: the CD source is irrevelant here since the problem persists with different sources (NAD C541i being the worst) and I use Tara Labs for interconnects and cables.

[georgev]

Check the settings on your pre amp. But remember, stereo sound from a home theatre pre, will generally not be as good as from a stereo pre.
I am not familiar with the 1066 hence cannot advice on settings, but I think you should play around with your settings.
If you use analogue connections, then you will be utilising the DACS on the source, but if you use the digital coaxial then you would be using the dacs on your processor.
Some differences can be heard depending on the cable you are using.
Hope this helps,
George.

[ti33er]

Hi Ranjan2420

I once owned a ROTEL 1066 pre and from what I can remember one can disable the subwoofer in stereo mode - check that you have your sub enabled on 2 channel stereo...it may be that you are hearing your subwoofer in multi channel.

Also you have up to 5 speakers delivering bass frequencies with a cut-off typically at 80Hz in multi channel mode – Bass is naturally the supreme power thief of any amplifier, with 80Hz and lower being removed for the sub to contend with this leaves your speakers with the opportunity to concentrate on delivering the Mids and Highs …anyway for stereo alone 120Wpc for your N804s is not nearly enough juice IMO – ask your dealer to loan you a stereo amp < 200Wpc and see what happens?

Hope this helps.

PS. As Georgev mentioned, multi channel is a Digital connection and your Stereo is an Analogue connection – In Stereo mode you're amplifier is being fed frequencies from the DACs in your Source which will be different to your 1066 Pre's DACs regardless of which Source i.e. NAD/Tara Labs you are still sending Digi vs Ana …honestly this may not be the cause as the difference between Digi and Ana is usually subtle, I suspect your sub and Pre are playing tricks on you!

[RAJAN2420]

thanks gentlemen

[DrBoom]

I can confirm as well that most HT pre/pro's can't even come near the stereo performance of normal stereo equipment.
I've struggled with the same problem since day one, with my Rotel 1098.
Your 1075 is in fact powerful enough, but it lacks detail and speed imo, which is why it sounds so laid back.
I too started with a RMB1075, changed that to a Parasound HCA2205AT, things got a lot better already, but I wasn't there yet.
After another year or so, I started looking for the cause, which turned out to be the pre/pro as I suspected.
So last week I stumbled upon a great buy, a TAG McLaren AV32R 7.1 BP192, a few years old but in mint condition and only €1850 instead of the €5400 they charge for a new one.
If you're looking for high-end stereo in a pre/pro, I think this is about as good as they get, maybe there are a few others out there that have similar performance but I doubt they get much better.
I know how 804's sound on a high-end stereo amplifier, and this gets mighty close to that !
Even for movies and especially concert dvd's it has made a huge difference, and I wasn't really unhappy with the 1098 for those.
It's also very noticeable how incredibly good the TAG's DAC's are, much much better than the ones in the Rotel RCD1072 so I use the digital connection now, where with the 1098 I had better results with the analog connection.

By the way, I also have 804's, so I started out with a setup very similar to yours and I know how much better it can get.
I can honestly say this is the best addition to my system to date and I once had a Parasound C2 as well, but I like the TAG better for stereo listening. Movies were equally good with the C2 though.

[ti33er]

Congratulations on your system DrBoom - Caleb also has TMA btw! ...I can second that TAG McLaren Audio simply rOckS! - honestly the best sound I've heard next to the Classe/Omega components paired with B&W...such a tragedy TMA sold out to IAG who then stopped the line of production! £&@$$!!! (on the upside their equipment can be had for nothing if you are lucky enough to find well maintained TMA equipment on the 2nds market)

[georgev]

Have you listened to the Denon AVA1SR? I use it as a pre with power amps, and in two channel "pure direct" mode, is quite astounding. Not too far from my Stereo Pre, which is the Mark Levinson 38S.

[RAJAN2420]

thanks for your suggestions.
After browsing through various subjects on the Nautilii there seem to be a bit of consensus on marrying them to Chord.

George my first combo was Denon A1D married to 804; the sound was okay before i made the mistake of bi-wiring. it just didn't work. I know that A1d and A1s are not par. I'd watch out if a dealer can lend me one;
As most of us, searching for the sacred grall of good sound, I wanted to go to the next level and bought the Rotel and moved Denon to the garage.
As i said above, the sound is rich with tight bass, full throttle on five speakers when i watch movies.
Strangely, I seem to get a lot of dynamics in multichannel listening than simple 2 channel mode. As you say maybe Preamp Rotel is not made for stereo.
Ti33, I followed on your suggestion. i do not have LFE and i listen stereo in only 2 channel mode with Subwoofer in NO mode. I listened after switching to Yes mode. i found the sound a bit bright and i missed of course the bass !(one of plus points of the 804 is its ability to deliver good bass)

[georgev]

Rajan,
Dig out your Denon and try using it as a pre. Dunno if it has the pre outs.
You will connect analogue from the pre outs to your rotel power amp.
You can still then route your low freq. through your sub if you want to.
804's do have good low frequencies, but don't go very low, hence the sound(especially at low volumes) may seem flat.
I suspect the denon will give you better stereo than the rotel. But not with its own amps.
Let us know,
George

[csuzor]

I suspect that what you are looking for is hires multichannel music.

It seems that you appreciate the extended dynamics of movies (probably Dolby Digital?) and the "impact" when more than 2 speakers. What is your impression of music in dvd-a or sacd format? CD is much more compressed than either of these hires formats (even more compressed than DD), and unless you have a high end CD player, you should immediately prefer the extended dynamics and the impact of multichannel hires audio (from what you've said here).

Try it before upgrading, I have a similar config to yours, and I prefer multichannel on 9 out of 10 multichannel recordings (some are badly done)

Christophe