RA-05 with B&W 684

[JaonL]

I'm new to this and trying to set up a good stereo system. Is the RA-05 a good match for the B&W 684. Anyone have experience with this combination. Is it a good all rounder for all sorts of music. It must go into a small to medium sized room.

Thanks

[dvda-sacd]

I don't like the mini-jack output for headphones, but I am a happy owner of a RA-05. I cannot comment on the B&W 684.

[miner]

B&W speakers are known to be high-current, high demand speakers. For my B&W N804 I initialy was using a Rotel RC-1070 amp (130w/ch). IMHO, not enought juice. Once I upgraded to the RB-1092 (550w/ch) thise B&Ws opened up. Not familiar with the 684 model.

[JaonL]

Guys do you think think the RA-06 will give me better sound quality out of the B&W 684"S. Will it be worth my while to spend the extra cash, this is as much as I can stretch the budget. What will I gain by buying the 06 as apposed to the 05.

Thanks
Jason

[JaonL]

I got RA-05 and b&w 684's. Had it about 3 days. I'm not happy with the sound. Top end is bright and overall sound is not so good. Anyone have experience with this combination.

Do u think amp is weak part or could it be these speakers that is spoiling the sound?

Any advice would be much appreciated

[cug]

B&W speakers are known to be high-current, high demand speakers. For my B&W N804 I initialy was using a Rotel RC-1070 amp (130w/ch). IMHO, not enought juice. Once I upgraded to the RB-1092 (550w/ch) thise B&Ws opened up. Not familiar with the 684 model.

Interesting enough. We compared the RC-1070/RB-1072 with (2x100W) with the RA-1062 (2x60W) and they sounded exactly the same driving a pair of 804S. There was no audible difference for four people in blind a/b. Nothing. Not at all. Maybe at higher levels, but certainly not at levels we were comfortable with.

A RB-1092 might have a different character and may sound different, I just don't believe it's the power alone.

cug

[JaonL]

So guys what speakers would you reccomend will match with RA-05 to make a good stereo system. It must go in my lounge which is not big and its a townhouse complex. I'm looking for a sound that gives you that wow feeling when you listen. Tight bass, good midrange and trebble thats nice and clear but not so bright that you can't listen for long periods.

My dealer is trying to help me out and will swap the b&w 684's for other speakers. I'm desperate to get this sorted out cause my dealer won't give my money back so I must find the correct match, from equipment that he sells.

Please can someone help

[JaonL]

Would a RC-06 Pre Amp and a Rb-06 Powe amp make a difference to the sound quality I get out of speakers. Any suggestions of a speaker that would work nicely with this combination in a small to medium sized room. The room is open plan with kitchen on one end and lounge adjacent. Please bear in mind that I live in a townhouse complex so can not play at very loud volumes.

[NonSense]

JaonL

You should provide some us with some additional information to help you out.

What are the equipment choices from your dealer?

also,

What are the furnishings like in your room? Hard/soft? Type of flooring, furniture and wall coverings? Lots of windows?

Do you need a floor standing speaker or would a nice 2-way bookshelf meet your needs?

[JaonL]

I know my dealer has rotel, b&w, Onkyo, Boston and i'm not sure what else. I live in a townhouse with open plan kitchen leading into lounge/tv room, with a sliding window onto patio. The room is rectanguler and at at the end by the patio window I have a couch against a wall and tv oposite with speakers on either side. Therefore between speakers and couch the space is not too big. So when I sit on the couch the sliding windows are on my left and on my right is kitchen. Between speakers and couch is a small rectanguler table. The whole area is carpeted, except for kitchen witch has tiles. I hope this gives you a fair idea of the room that the system must go into.

Once again any advice would be much appreciated.

[NonSense]

JaonL

Here are a few suggestions that come to mind from my own experience.

Any hard polished surface, such as glass will provide alot of reflection. Having a large sliding window at a first order reflection point on the left side will not help the sonic quality. You should experiment with soft, plush window coverings. A blanket will do for a test. The same goes for the rectangular table if it is made of a hard material. (I used to have a glass table which has now been removed.) You can also experiment with removing the table or throwing a blanket over the table to test.

You should also experiment with the speaker placement relative to your TV. Having a large item placed directly between the speakers doesn't help the sound stage. Try moving the speakers forward and the TV back allowing some air space between the speakers. In an ideal situation, you would have the speakers placed 1/5 to 1/3 the room length from the wall and the listening position 1/5 to 1/3 from the other wall. When your setup is the narrow direction of a room, you don't have this luxury.

Also, everyones ear for music is different. There are many audiophiles that dislike metal tweeter drivers. They opt to purchase speakers that use a softer driver material claiming the sound is less harsh. While others claim that these speakers sound dull or veiled. Each to their own. If you experiment with other speakers you should auditions ones with dramatically different design philosophies.

[JaonL]

Hi to all. I have a new problem with my system and any suggesstions would be of great use. The brightness and harshness of the speakers have mellowed alot, obviously speakers have been run in. However the original purpose of getting a RA-05 stereo amp and b&w 684's was to get a very good stereo sound for my cd's and to plug my tv/ satalite decoder into it and have good stereo sound while watching tv and listening to the music channells like MTV. VH1 etc. However the sound i'm getting is thin and dull, I have the audio cables from the decoder going straight into the aux of the amp, so sound should be good. Voices are soft and music is average. Its a poor sound as compared to my folks that are using a Yamaha HT amp with some mission floorstanding speakers, in prologic 2 sound is pwerfull and voices strong and crisp. A friend of mine has a old nad amp which has 3 channel stero and 2 Tanoy floorstanding speakers. He has the audio comming from the aux of the tv into the aux of the amp. His sound is also much better then mine.

Do you guys think that the 40 watts of the amp is the problem or just that these new b&w 684 speakers are not a good speaker.

Any suggesstions please..