Joseki

[SomaJoe]

Hello,

I have a couple of questions for you B&W folks. But first a bit of background. I have a pair of CDM-7SE's for the mains, a CDM-CSE center, and two DM601's for surrounds. My sub is the ASW-2000. All of these items were purchased in early 1999.

My first question is about the sub. How does it rank in comparison to some of the newer stuff like SVS? It is presently in a corner and it seems a bit boomy to me. Unfortunately, I have limited leeway in terms of moving the sub. Also, would you consider this to be a musical sub (which I consider to be more important.)?

My next question is about amplification. My current setup involves the Denon AVR-5700 but I am moving on to the Rotel separates. So in terms of the amp, should I go with the 1095 (200 x 5) or will the 1075 (125 x 5)be enough? The mains are only rated to 150 watts and have a 90db sensitivity per the specs. Would they benefit from the increased headroom of the larger amp?

Thanks for the help!

David

David:
I've never really listened to the ASW2000, but I do currently own an ASW500. I bought this a couple of years ago to pair with my DM601s, but primarily for home theater usage. Mine is also in a corner, and it's very boomy and not fast enough for really good music. I've been researcing a replacement sub for a while now. I've heard that the new Nautlilus subs are much better than their previous subs (but B&W isn't exactly known for good subs anyway). I'm going to listen to it at some point, but currently, my top contender is a REL acoustics storm III. My dealer highly recommends this sub for music. It has both high level and speaker level inputs, and lots of adjustments for really tight integration with the mains. I think Red was looking at a REL sub as well.

I've got a 1066/1075 combo, driving 4 N805's and 1HTM2, and it plays loud enough for me. However, listening to hi-rez music with a large dynamic range, I can comfortably listen at 60% to 70% of the maximum volume. Playing the white (pink?) noise test tones, 70% equates to 70db at my primary listening location. I have never heard any clipping or distortion yet, but if I had to buy again, I'd probably get the bigger amp. My move to separates made a HUGE difference; what I really like is that I can hear everything more clearly at lower volumes.

-joe




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