704 Help

**dknightd** · 20 January 2007, 08:56 Saturday

What is it you do not like?

My guess is a combination of 2, 3, 4, 5, and 11) your room acoustics

**bigburner** · 20 January 2007, 09:30 Saturday

Hi BraveAnthony, and welcome to HTGuide Forum.

The 704 is a bright speaker if you put it in a room with lots of reflective surfaces (wood, glass, tiles etc). I bet the dealer's room wasn't like that. I also think that the 704 is slightly underpowered in its bass performance, so good placement in the room is important to get acceptable bass. What CD or DVD did the dealer play for you? Recordings vary dramatically. If I was selling 704's I would I pick a recording with slightly de-emphasised high frequencies and emphasised mid-low frequencies. Does any of this sound familiar to you?

Nigel.

**KRC** · 20 January 2007, 22:34 Saturday

Hi and welcome also. Yes the B&W's need break in time but I think your big issue is your source. Also, they need good quality power and a fair amount of it. Placement, speaker/interconnect cables also play a part. This last point can cause alot of debate. I would not be thinking about upgrading speakers right now, but I would look at your source and what you are powering your system with. With the 704 you have lots of speaker there, slowly work on the other stuff.

Kevin

**BraveAnthony** · 20 January 2007, 23:18 Saturday

Thank you for your responses.
I have calmed down since yesterday.

My dealer is closed today so I couldn't call them and ask about upgrade program. But now after reading your posts, I'm thinking maybe I should invest in a new amp. My receiver (panny xr-57) has 100w per channel. So I don't think it lacks power? I can see that a lot of you guys enjoy Rotel amps. Would pre/pro amp setup sound better than equally powered receiver? i.e. (RMB 1066+processor vs RSX-1057) Also, are Rotels so much better than say, Denon AVR-2807?

Bigburner,

I brought my cd to the dealer. But their room was carpeted. My family room is tile+area rug. I'll try to position the speakers in different position and report back to you guys.

thanks!!

**Iggurk** · 22 January 2007, 19:23 Monday

Hello!

My 2 cents:

1) Rubber feet not good, fore sure, go for good spikes.
2) Brand new speakers will never sounds like used one, give them around 100-150h of burning an they will sound much better than now.
3) Never listened, no opinion
4) 2 feet will be better, but as you said not always possible.
5) Playing cd with PS2? you crazy.... that will never sound good, change your source by something decent. If you buy good cd player let it decode the digital stream and use analog interconnect instead of the digital.
And it's not because it's digital that it will sound the same on all player, definitively not, even if it's only 0 & 1 even the interconnect cable will change the sound.

Regarding the receiver, think about changing it too, and even 30W could be far enough to drive 704, it's not the watt that are the most important.
You can also consider a dedicated amp.

And yes, Rotel sound better than Denon with 70x series, but that's not the only one. Denon for me as good pre-amp, but amp quality is poor.

Is your system for Home Theater or Hifi? That could change the choice of the electronics.

Yves

**BTB** · 23 January 2007, 02:12 Tuesday

Hi Brave Anthony

Welcome to the forum, and congrats on a great pair of speakers... I love mine.

Just a few comments, to underscore some things that have been said here already:

The speakers will need time to run in, a loudspeaker, being a mechanical device needs some hours of operation to achieve optimum performance, so give it some time.

Then as others have said, no insult intended, the rest of your system is not up to scratch. This is obviously important becuase your speakers will replay what you feed them... junk in, junk out.

Then, regarding the amount of power you drive them with... as a simple (often overstated) rule, within reason , you cannot have enough power, but to explain that statement fully would require a bit of space. I run mine on an amp that puts out in excess of 200wpc/8ohms continuous, despite the manufacturers max. power input guideline of 150w, this has really made my 704's "come alive" in many regards.

That said, your emphasis should be on quality power and source, esp. if you are considering a 2ch music system. And just in case you're new to these types of discussions, a dedicated CD player is still a better source than a DVD player or inexpensive universal player. Thankfully, these days (with CD being a "mature" technology) even budget CD players can offer very decent sound quality. These considerations will be a MUST if you hope to get the best out of a great pair of speakers.

Also consider what Bigburner has said, B&W's in general are balanced towards slightly "obvious" treble response, this will be quite taxing with poor quality partnering equipment.

So relax a little, you've bought a good pair of speakers and if you get the rest of your system sorted you could enjoy them for a while yet. Congrats! :T

**BraveAnthony** · 23 January 2007, 15:59 Tuesday

Guys,
Thanks for the advice and encouragements. The good news is I do hear improved sound after letting it play tunes for 50+ hours.
I actually have calmed down and gave up on the idea of upgrading to 804s. I think it would be more wise to invest in good receiver and rear speakers.
So what amplier/receiver do you guys recommend that wouldn't break my bank account? Specific brand/model would help.
Also, I'm thinking about buy CCM80s for my rear surrounds. 1) Do any of you know how these sound? 2) The dealer recommends NHT IC4s in lieu of CCM80s; he thinks NHTs sound better than CCM80s and goes well with B&W fronts.

Thank you for helping out a AV newbie!

**BraveAnthony** · 23 January 2007, 16:02 Tuesday

Originally posted by Iggurk

Regarding the receiver, think about changing it too, and even 30W could be far enough to drive 704, it's not the watt that are the most important.
You can also consider a dedicated amp.

And yes, Rotel sound better than Denon with 70x series, but that's not the only one. Denon for me as good pre-amp, but amp quality is poor.

Is your system for Home Theater or Hifi? That could change the choice of the electronics.

Yves

Yves,

I intend to use my system for 50 movies and 50% music. I was planning to buy ps3 but now I'm thinking maybe I should use that money to buy a decent receiver+cd player, especially since I don't game much. Any recommendation?

thanks in advance!

**BraveAnthony** · 23 January 2007, 16:04 Tuesday

Originally posted by BTB

That said, your emphasis should be on quality power and source, esp. if you are considering a 2ch music system. And just in case you're new to these types of discussions, a dedicated CD player is still a better source than a DVD player or inexpensive universal player. Thankfully, these days (with CD being a "mature" technology) even budget CD players can offer very decent sound quality. These considerations will be a MUST if you hope to get the best out of a great pair of speakers.

Would ps3 be a good source for playing cds? If not, what would be a good cd player?
thanks!!

**wgriel** · 23 January 2007, 18:15 Tuesday

Originally posted by BraveAnthony

Would ps3 be a good source for playing cds? If not, what would be a good cd player?
thanks!!

Lots of choices depending on how much you want to spend. But you could certainly do worse than the Rotel RCD-1072. If that's more than you want to spend, look at some Denon offerings.

And incidently, while you've been given quite a bit of advice above, I would *really* pay attention to speaker positioning and room treatments (if you can do any). As much of a difference amplification and sources can make, the room/speaker interaction is almost always a much bigger factor. Simply repositioning the speakers/adding some rugs & soft wall coverings can make a huge difference.

Having said that, I definitely would get a dedicated CD player! I haven't heard the receiver you've got so I can't really comment, but I suspect you will be better off with something that has greater current (for example, something from Rotel).

Bill

**Grasynoll** · 23 January 2007, 21:28 Tuesday

There's a nice NAD out there for 300 bucks.

**Ted** · 23 January 2007, 22:06 Tuesday

Originally posted by BraveAnthony

Would ps3 be a good source for playing cds? If not, what would be a good cd player?
thanks!!

8O

Assuming that about $600 is your price range since that is what a PS3 costs, I'd look at the Rotel RCD-1072 which retails for $700, but you could probably get it for $600 or not much more than that.

I'm sure there are other good players out there in that price range that would put the PS3 to shame in sound quality too.

I'm glad to read you are happier with the sound of your 704s!

Good Luck!

**BTB** · 24 January 2007, 02:38 Wednesday

Originally posted by BraveAnthony

Would ps3 be a good source for playing cds? If not, what would be a good cd player?
thanks!!

Hi BraveAnthony

I guess what we're trying to say is... it's difficult for any manufacturer to build a genuine "one-box-plays-all" solution at "budget" cost... inevitable compromises are made, and these days with the primary focus of the mass market on video formats and games, you can bet that the compromises will go the way of sound quality (that said, I hear the new PS3 plays SACD!).

Same applies for inexpensive multi channel amps vs. good old 2ch stereo... you do the math... build two amps to sell at the same cost: one with two channels of amplification; one with 5 or 6 or 7... which one do you think has the better internal components?

So, no, I don't think that a PS3 will be your best option as CD source, esp. since you say you don't game that much. Perhaps if you focussed on the upgrade of your amplification and CD source first and kept your PS2 (for DVD duty) for a while that would be a way to build your system up around your speakers.

As for "budget" dedicated CD players (roughly under $1000), I would look at some of the following options (in no specific order):

NAD C542
Consonance CD 120 Linear
Shanling T80
Arcam CD 73T
Cambridge Audio 640C

I know lots of people on these forums like the Rotel 1072, I am not one of them (no offence intended guys), it's basically been around too long without any significant upgrades and the competition has passed it by. Plus I just don't like how it sounds.

I would pays special attention to the two Chinese players in that list (the Consonance and the Shanling)... many around these forums (incl. myself) and a growing number of reviewers worldwide have recognised the merits of these machines (The Consonance [which I own] has just won the UK's Hi Fi + product of the year award). Basically they are built better than their western branded counterparts and in many cases sound more expensive than they are too.

Hope that wasn't too much information. :lol:

704 Help

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