Hi Everyone
First post for me.
I finally moved into my new home and finished my basement this year which included a built in Home Theatre. It is not a dedicated room, more of a multipurpose room skewed to Home Theatre.
I guess I will start by listing my equipment
Cambridge Azur 650BD
Cambridge Azur 650R
Energy RC 70 Floorstanding Speakers
Energy LCR Centre Channel
Ceiling Mounted Surround - not sure of brand.
Klipsch RC 10 Sub
Espson Power Lite 8100 Projector
Monster HTS 3600
The room is all hardwood and mostly wide open. About 1/3 of the room is 18ft wide at its widest point and 16ft for the rest. It is about 33ft long. So its about 575 sqft. and rectangular.
The fronts are hidden behind a 102 inch acoustically transparent screen. They are elevated 3ft off the ground. I placed them on the floor in front of the screen and could not perceive much of a difference.
The main listening position is mid room just less than 2/3 in, (19ft according to the set up mic).
Here is the issue:
If i am willing to listen to music at mid to mid high levels I am all good. At first as I raised volume to get into that concert like feeling, the system started to struggle with voice echo. I managed to alleviate a lot of this as the room started to be filled with furnishings. But at higher volumes it is the the weakness of the sound. However because I cannot dedicate a room, and I am unwilling to go all silly with acoustic panels etc., I will live with this limitation. Plus I am awaiting a large area rug (12x10) that will hopefully absorb even more echo.
Ever Since a lot of the echo was managed I have come to realize that the sound seems to feel stretched at higher volumes - not so much distorted.
I always seem to be pushing the 'dbs' last 12% to get to the volume that I want. This is across many different media - CD, DVD Audio, SACD.
I am not sure what my next step should be. I am trying to get that feeling of transparency and clarity - not necessarily audio purity.
My first thought was - bite the bullet and use the Cambridge as a preamp and get an amplifier. From what i read I may be under powering the RC 70s.
I think that a 200 what per channel 3 -5 channel amp would do the trick but I cannot afford to dump 3-4k on a good amp. My budget would be 1k - 1.5k max.
Am I missing something here?
BTW it is all professionally set up with 12 gauge shielded speaker cable and quality wiring.
Thoughts?
Thanks!
Will post photos soon.
