Anyways... I have boiled things down to either the Parasound A23+ (it falls under my AVR's voltage sensitivity or 1.2v. It has a gain of 29 and I like that it has a gain knob. I was considering the Rotel 1582 for awhile but the input sensitivity is around 1.8v I think and there is no gain knob. Another person told me that he had to push the volume higher then the standard AVR would go to get the same loudness results. That did not sound good. 2,000-2,500 ish is my budget. What would you do?
Why did they sound bad and if so wouldn't an external amp help them sound better? If not then why not?
Eppie’s post #38, as well as ski2xblack and others, have suggested that B&W speakers tend to be power hungry. I don’t disagree with them. However, it is common for people who are dissatisfied with their system’s sound to look for greater amp power to solve the problem, while ignoring the idea that their speakers may be at fault.
I strongly suspect it’s not amplifier power, nor is it room correction achieved through wall treatments or digital room EQ … it’s the speakers themselves.
If you’ve already described how your speakers sound in an earlier post in this thread, please direct me to it. If not, can you please describe just what sound from your system leaves you dissatisfied. Use any “sound quality jargon” you know, just so we know where to begin with this. It’s not easy to talk about sound quality, especially online. It’s kind of like dancing about architecture.
For what it’s worth, “fast bass & slow bass” are ways to describe woofer & sub-woofer sound quality – fast bass is good – slow bass is bad. It’s not about the onset speed of a single bass tone, it’s about how quickly or slowly that tone shuts off. If a woofer rings on & on (also called poorly damped bass or speaker over-hang), that single bass note continues longer than it should, resulting in muddy sounding bass & lower mid-range. It’s caused by improper cabinet volume (often too small) for the bass driver. Speakers with bass ringing problems are cheaper to build & ship. They sell well because they’re cheaper and they result in exaggerated (louder) upper bass. This is true for both speakers and sub-woofers.
For the time being, ignore what you heard at the Magnolia dealer. Most dealers, including Magnolia, use careful room treatments, speaker & listener placement, and music selection to highlight their higher priced products. It’s not so much dishonesty as it is misleading. It also shows off their highest priced products that also happen to provide them with the largest profit margin.
Also, switch your sub woofers off. Listen only to your speakers, played full range without any digital EQ. Sub woofers certainly help most systems, but they can confuse any effort to sort out a reason for overall sound quality problems.
