As some forum readers may be privy to, I am at the crossroads of a very important decision concerning my speakers. I have my 802Ds up on the classifieds at Audiogon, as well as mentioned in a thread in the Pawn shop here on thiese fora. My initial decision to sell them was fueled more by what I perceived as a lack of dimensionality from my system. Here is what I have discovered during the last 24 hours which is radically changing my view on my 802D speakers, and no, I am not planning on starting my own weekly TV drama starring Kiefer Sutherland. Though after reading this post you may feel you saw the first episode... :
To seek advice concerning this lack of dimensionality I noticed in my system I posted a thorough question on Audiogon, which as always proved to be the best thing I could done in (that site has the most well educated and helpful audiophiles in the world giving advise freely and cheerfully if you ask them nicely and coherently). Not only did I receieve help, but, interestingly enough, I was fortunate enough to receive a lot of advice from Kal (Kalman) Rubinson, who wrote Stereophile's stellar review of the 802Ds, as well. I saved his posts to a word file so I may explore programs he mentioned, which look like they will be great help in treating my room down the road once I iron out the initial kinks in my listening area, but this is beyond the scope of this post.
My room is completely devoid of any formal treatments and to make matters worse I have limited space to move my speakers out from the front and side walls. The furthest I had moved the speakers out from the front wall previously was 4 feet. I have a 36" Sony XBR tube TV between my 802Ds. I currently have my speakers 3 feet out from the side walls due to my need for adequate space between the two speakers while avoiding too much early sound reflection.
At the advice of many people on Audiogon I needed to either move the TV completely from between the speakers, or move the speakers 8 feet out from the front wall and 6 feet from the TV. I had nothing to lose so I did so. Right away my whole system's dimensionality was shifted into 3D. I can still hear the TV causing problems with the 3D soundstage image even though the speakers are now 8 feet from the front wall. This amazes me. I had no idea what a profound effect an object in the middle can have on the sound of a system, even when that object is visually very far away (I guess I will have to get a front projector to really solve this problem, or make it a dedicated audio system with no TV). My system went from flat and dimensionless to full of depth. This likewise gave instruments and musicians a place on the dimensional soundstage to occupy, they weren't simply pasted on a flat surface anymore. I thought 4 feet from the TV was enough, but I was so wrong it wasn't even funny, and like I said, even at 8 feet out from the front wall (6 feet from the TV), I can still hear the TV effecting the ability of the soundstage to blossonm into full 3D glory.
To make a longer story short, I recieved much advice concerning other ways in which I can treat my environment to make the 802Ds sound even more 3-Dimensional. This potentially saves me a ton of money considering I was about to purchase $22k USD speakers that I knew for certain could produce a 3-D soundstage, because now I know that the 802Ds are similarly capable. I have a large list of ways I can continue to improve my audio environment, which could potentially take months to fully implement, and are also beyond the scope of this post.
This leads towards my question, and the second installment of my own version of the series 24 Hours. I am still overwhelmingly impressed with the Ayre gear. I already purchased the C-5xe for universal stereo playback. I plan on purchasing a 3-channel V-6xe, two of their soon to be released 300 watt MX-R monoblocks, and possibly one of their preamps, either the K-1xe or the K-5xe if I can figure out why one is around 3 times more in price than the other. Though I may not get the preamp if I find it is not necessary with my Bryston SP1.7 upgraded to the SP2 (though it might be nice to have the cheap preamp for backup during future upgrade situations). I plan on selling my Bryston 9B SST as well since I wil be using the Ayre amplifiers instead.
The question is concerning the Wilson speakers I heard on the Ayre demo system. I still love how engaging and musical they sounded. They sounded different from my 802Ds in a good way. I want to imagine myself owning both and being able to switch back and forth depending on what kind of mood I am in on any given day. This is the dilemma. How can I pull this off using the same system? I am wondering if I can mix these two brands somehow between the front and surround channels if I only use surround for movie soundtracks and not for music? Perhaps there is a programable preamp I can purchase which will change the sound characteristics of the 802Ds or the Wilson Watt Puppy 7s when they are being run together during movie soundtracks? I hate to think I will have to choose between one brand or the other, when both have unique sounds which I find pleasurable in different ways. Perhaps the surround channels are discrete enough in movie soundtracks that it won't be an issue?
Well, there you have it. Two episodes later and 22 left in the season. I could certainly use any advice or help anyone can offer on how to commingle these two different speaker sounds into a unified home theatre system. How can I make the B&W 802Ds and the Wilson Watt Puppy 7s work together, or can they work together at all? If you think this is ridiculous, great, please let me know you feel that way and explain why. Any inspirations, insults or thoughts on this topic will be appreciated. :B
Thanks,
Jeff
To seek advice concerning this lack of dimensionality I noticed in my system I posted a thorough question on Audiogon, which as always proved to be the best thing I could done in (that site has the most well educated and helpful audiophiles in the world giving advise freely and cheerfully if you ask them nicely and coherently). Not only did I receieve help, but, interestingly enough, I was fortunate enough to receive a lot of advice from Kal (Kalman) Rubinson, who wrote Stereophile's stellar review of the 802Ds, as well. I saved his posts to a word file so I may explore programs he mentioned, which look like they will be great help in treating my room down the road once I iron out the initial kinks in my listening area, but this is beyond the scope of this post.
My room is completely devoid of any formal treatments and to make matters worse I have limited space to move my speakers out from the front and side walls. The furthest I had moved the speakers out from the front wall previously was 4 feet. I have a 36" Sony XBR tube TV between my 802Ds. I currently have my speakers 3 feet out from the side walls due to my need for adequate space between the two speakers while avoiding too much early sound reflection.
At the advice of many people on Audiogon I needed to either move the TV completely from between the speakers, or move the speakers 8 feet out from the front wall and 6 feet from the TV. I had nothing to lose so I did so. Right away my whole system's dimensionality was shifted into 3D. I can still hear the TV causing problems with the 3D soundstage image even though the speakers are now 8 feet from the front wall. This amazes me. I had no idea what a profound effect an object in the middle can have on the sound of a system, even when that object is visually very far away (I guess I will have to get a front projector to really solve this problem, or make it a dedicated audio system with no TV). My system went from flat and dimensionless to full of depth. This likewise gave instruments and musicians a place on the dimensional soundstage to occupy, they weren't simply pasted on a flat surface anymore. I thought 4 feet from the TV was enough, but I was so wrong it wasn't even funny, and like I said, even at 8 feet out from the front wall (6 feet from the TV), I can still hear the TV effecting the ability of the soundstage to blossonm into full 3D glory.
To make a longer story short, I recieved much advice concerning other ways in which I can treat my environment to make the 802Ds sound even more 3-Dimensional. This potentially saves me a ton of money considering I was about to purchase $22k USD speakers that I knew for certain could produce a 3-D soundstage, because now I know that the 802Ds are similarly capable. I have a large list of ways I can continue to improve my audio environment, which could potentially take months to fully implement, and are also beyond the scope of this post.
This leads towards my question, and the second installment of my own version of the series 24 Hours. I am still overwhelmingly impressed with the Ayre gear. I already purchased the C-5xe for universal stereo playback. I plan on purchasing a 3-channel V-6xe, two of their soon to be released 300 watt MX-R monoblocks, and possibly one of their preamps, either the K-1xe or the K-5xe if I can figure out why one is around 3 times more in price than the other. Though I may not get the preamp if I find it is not necessary with my Bryston SP1.7 upgraded to the SP2 (though it might be nice to have the cheap preamp for backup during future upgrade situations). I plan on selling my Bryston 9B SST as well since I wil be using the Ayre amplifiers instead.
The question is concerning the Wilson speakers I heard on the Ayre demo system. I still love how engaging and musical they sounded. They sounded different from my 802Ds in a good way. I want to imagine myself owning both and being able to switch back and forth depending on what kind of mood I am in on any given day. This is the dilemma. How can I pull this off using the same system? I am wondering if I can mix these two brands somehow between the front and surround channels if I only use surround for movie soundtracks and not for music? Perhaps there is a programable preamp I can purchase which will change the sound characteristics of the 802Ds or the Wilson Watt Puppy 7s when they are being run together during movie soundtracks? I hate to think I will have to choose between one brand or the other, when both have unique sounds which I find pleasurable in different ways. Perhaps the surround channels are discrete enough in movie soundtracks that it won't be an issue?
Well, there you have it. Two episodes later and 22 left in the season. I could certainly use any advice or help anyone can offer on how to commingle these two different speaker sounds into a unified home theatre system. How can I make the B&W 802Ds and the Wilson Watt Puppy 7s work together, or can they work together at all? If you think this is ridiculous, great, please let me know you feel that way and explain why. Any inspirations, insults or thoughts on this topic will be appreciated. :B
Thanks,
Jeff
Comment