Will a 3-channel separate Amp mellow big two tower speakers?

[AussieNewbie]

Hi, I wonder how to achieve better sound from my old but expensive tower and centre speakers. I suspect they need higher amperage and power to sound mellow. 14 gauge wires.

I have two big tower speakers (each consists of Morel supreme 28 mm twitters + 1 Morel 160 mm carbon fibre/ Rohacell composite and two Nomex 210 mm woofers with crossovers at 200 and 2600 as per factory current website -I bought them in 2012 from NZ, I live in Brisbane). I used to run them with very old Denon 3312 and they sounded rather bright. An addition of REL TX9 with high-level Neutrik Speakon connection helped immensely. Now, I have moved to a newly built house with a dedicated media room with Integra DRX8.4. I have a 7.2.2 set up. I am trying to achieve a much better sound quality at moderate volumes. Cumulative wattage rating of all the drivers in tower speakers would be around 500 watts+.

What triggered this chain of thought was that two KEF Q350 bookshelf speakers sounded warmer and far more detailed / good separation with old AVR in another room.
Will addition of a 3 channel Emotiva amp XPA3 3-channel (on Black Friday sale) help the sound quality. My aims are: 1) I should be able to hear whispered dialogues in a movie clearly at mid low volumes Eg -3dB to -6dB to reference 2) The main 3 speakers to sound as warm and as clear as possible. 3) Will I miss the trick of using neutrik high level connection to REL if I have to use the RCA pre-outs for the three channels?

The other details: 4.8 M X 4.5 M X 2.85 M ceiling, 120 inch screen, and Sony es5000 4K projector. One RELTx9 subwoofer and another canton 8.4 subwoofer (couldn’t afford two RELs). Not yet calibrated properly because the sound absorption panels have not been hung on walls yet. I will eventually add two rear ATMOS ceiling speakers. I clipped the whole AVR on one occasion when went up to a very high volume of 81.5 (in absolute terms) - all channel stereo.

 

[Tankini]

Maybe the amp in between the left or right, the middle amp.
May get some chocolatey smooth mid-range.
Your Room, Your placement of Your speaker's will have a better chance of (mellowing)

 

[dolynick]

A change in amplifier isn't likely to result in any major change to the tonality of the speakers unless one was really not working properly or up to a reasonable spec. Any changes are likely to be fairly subtle.

For 3) I don't see why you have to lose the REL high-level connection. Just move the high-level out connection to the new amplifier. It just pulls the signal out from the mains out lines and should migrate without much issue.

As for 2) and changing the tonality of the speakers... That's largely just a function of the speaker design. Your best bet for taming the high frequencies (since you say they're too bright) might be some room treatment (dampening some reflection points) and playing with toe-in. Most tweeters have narrower range of dispersion than other drivers so shifting the angle might knock down the output at the listening position fairly effectively.

Or you could just apply a little EQ to the signal to knock down the highs a touch. An AVR will do usually this globally to all channels with a tone control and RoomEQ typically doesn't touch the highs (although some will let you if you opt to). Your best bet might be something like a miniDSP box in line with the line out for the mains to the amp (if you go separate) or one of the models that works over HDMI and intercepting the signal into the AVR.

 

[TLS Guy]

Hi, I wonder how to achieve better sound from my old but expensive tower and centre speakers. I suspect they need higher amperage and power to sound mellow. 14 gauge wires.

I have two big tower speakers (each consists of Morel supreme 28 mm twitters + 1 Morel 160 mm carbon fibre/ Rohacell composite and two Nomex 210 mm woofers with crossovers at 200 and 2600 as per factory current website -I bought them in 2012 from NZ, I live in Brisbane). I used to run them with very old Denon 3312 and they sounded rather bright. An addition of REL TX9 with high-level Neutrik Speakon connection helped immensely. Now, I have moved to a newly built house with a dedicated media room with Integra DRX8.4. I have a 7.2.2 set up. I am trying to achieve a much better sound quality at moderate volumes. Cumulative wattage rating of all the drivers in tower speakers would be around 500 watts+.

What triggered this chain of thought was that two KEF Q350 bookshelf speakers sounded warmer and far more detailed / good separation with old AVR in another room.
Will addition of a 3 channel Emotiva amp XPA3 3-channel (on Black Friday sale) help the sound quality. My aims are: 1) I should be able to hear whispered dialogues in a movie clearly at mid low volumes Eg -3dB to -6dB to reference 2) The main 3 speakers to sound as warm and as clear as possible. 3) Will I miss the trick of using neutrik high level connection to REL if I have to use the RCA pre-outs for the three channels?

The other details: 4.8 M X 4.5 M X 2.85 M ceiling, 120 inch screen, and Sony es5000 4K projector. One RELTx9 subwoofer and another canton 8.4 subwoofer (couldn’t afford two RELs). Not yet calibrated properly because the sound absorption panels have not been hung on walls yet. I will eventually add two rear ATMOS ceiling speakers. I clipped the whole AVR on one occasion when went up to a very high volume of 81.5 (in absolute terms) - all channel stereo.

As usual the problem you are having is going to be the speakers and not the amps. Who made and designed those speakers? 200 Hz for a passive crossover is very low and invites serious problems. I suspect the mid is actually a bass/mid and not a proper midrange driver. Incidentally Morel make and excellent mid that can be crossed at 400 Hz and 4KHz. The design with two tweeters is usually a bad plan. So I suspect speakers problems in spades. The fact the KEF sounds better is what I would expect. You will not solve your problems with an amp change, but a speaker change.

 

[everettT]

As usual the problem you are having is going to be the speakers and not the amps. Who made and designed those speakers? 200 Hz for a passive crossover is very low and invites serious problems. I suspect the mid is actually a bass/mid and not a proper midrange driver. Incidentally Morel make and excellent mid that can be crossed at 400 Hz and 4KHz. The design with two tweeters is usually a bad plan. So I suspect speakers problems in spades. The fact the KEF sounds better is what I would expect. You will not solve your problems with an amp change, but a speaker change.

Would a crossover redesign be an option for him? IIRC this is factory design.

 

[TLS Guy]

Would a crossover redesign be an option for him? IIRC this is factory design.

May be if there is really good data on the drivers. Two tweeters though is not an encouraging sign. There is good data on the Morel drivers. I have no idea who made the Nomex woofers. There are no Nomex or 210 mm drivers listed on the Morel sight. I know the Morel line pretty well and I have never come across a driver of that description from Morel. From his description his speakers are clearly a result of design malpractice.