Letters - October 2008
Full-range or crossed over?
October 29, 2008
To Randall Smith,
Would you play your main speakers full range or cross them
over to a subwoofer in a home-theater system? I have a Revel subwoofer and a pair of
Wilson Benesch speakers for stereo. I am expanding my system to include surrounds and
processing for the new surround formats available on Blu-ray.
Tim S.
For home theater, I would suggest crossing your
speakers over at 80Hz. That way the big explosions can be handled by your sub and you’ll
not place unneeded wear and tear on your main speakers. Even if your main speakers are
capable of playing fairly low and loud, a good sub should still outperform them under
80Hz. Plus you can crank up your sub separately and really enjoy the explosive bottom end
of many of today’s Blu-ray soundtracks....Randall Smith
Amp and sub for new speakers
October 16, 2008
To Wes Marshall,
I have come for your advice once again.
After owning B&W 802D speakers with a Classé processor
and Musical Fidelity amplification, and B&W 805S speakers and a B&W sub with a
Denon receiver, I am branching out for my third stereo system. I've decided on a pair of
PMC TB2 speakers. I plan on using a Rotel processor I already own to give more roundness
and heavier bass to these speakers. What amplifier and sub would you suggest to give these
neutral-yet-punchy and detail-oriented speakers a more complete and full sound?
Your opinion is always much appreciated!
Mike Chuang
Glad to hear from you again. Wow, you have good ears.
Those PMC speakers are killer good. With proper placement, they have surprisingly deep
bass owing to their transmission-line design. You want a sub that will blend with
anything, and the best I know in that category is one from JL Audio. As for amps, I
personally like the Anthem line, but the Classé stuff is glorious as well. Good
luck....Wes Marshall
Multichannel preamp?
October 10, 2008
To Roger Kanno,
I recently read your
review of the Bel Canto PRe6, and I'm hoping I could ask for your opinion. I find
myself torn between jumping on the HDMI bandwagon or just taking my home theater back to
basics with a high-end multichannel preamp (like the PRe6). My goal is superior audio
performance. If HDMI and the latest audio formats (TrueHD, DTS-HD MA, etc) are the answer,
so be it. I guess my question to you is should I go back to having the player handle the
D/A conversion (using a higher-end Blu-ray player like a Denon) and use a high-end
multichannel preamp or wait for a well-designed processor to handle the D/A with the
latest audio formats. Current processors available that decode the latest formats are
mediocre at best in my opinion. I'm sure you've been asked this question hundreds of times
at this point. Any input will be greatly appreciated.
Tony
A high-quality multichannel preamp like the Bel Canto
PRe6 would be an excellent alternative to a surround processor providing you can find a
source with high-quality analog outputs. I have not heard the new Denon Blu-ray players,
so I cannot comment on their audio performance through their analog outputs. However, my
preference is to use the internal decoding of a high-quality surround processor and a more
modest digital transport. For instance, in my own system I use an Anthem Statement D2
processor and send digital signals transcoded to PCM from Blu-ray Discs via a Sony
PlayStation 3 and from SACD and DVD-Audio discs with an Oppo DV-970HD universal player.
For CDs, I have ripped my entire collection to a hard drive and use a laptop computer and
a Trends Audio UD-10.1 USB converter.
There are also a lot of HDMI 1.3-equipped processors on
the horizon -- from Outlaw, Rotel, NAD, Parasound, B&K and others -- that should be
able to handle the native Dolby TrueHD or DTS-HD Master Audio signal from an inexpensive
Blu-ray player. And Onkyo/Integra currently has an excellent 1.3-compliant processor that
several of our reviewers use.
The choice is yours, and although my preference is to
use the internal decoding of a high-quality surround processor, the Bel Canto PRe6 is a
wonderful piece that I owned for several years. You might also consider the McCormack
MAP-1 and Audio Research MP1, which I believe are still available, and Parasound has just
released the Halo P7 multichannel preamp....Roger Kanno
Integra gain issue
October 3, 2008
To Wes Marshall,
I don’t know if you have noticed with your setup, but
on certain concert DVDs I run out of gain on the Integra DTC-9.8. I have plenty of amp
(Sunfire TGA7400), speaker (Legacy Focus 20/20) and subs (dual SVS PB13 Ultra) and no more
volume! I called Integra, and the preamp output voltage is, if I remember correctly, only
1.0V, while the industry standard is more like 2.0V. I ran into the same problem with a
Rotel, then sold it and went to a Sunfire TGP5, which took care of the problem. I sold it
and now have the same issue with the DTC-9.8. It gets frustrating, as there are times when
I really want to crank it and can’t with an otherwise killer processor!
Bob Horn
Nice setup you have there. It’s my understanding
that the DTC-9.8 delivers 1V through the balanced outputs. Your Sunfire TGA4700 goes to
full power at .95V if you use the balanced inputs. So switching to balanced cables should
do the trick.
The other thing to remember is that 400W is just a bit
more in terms of perceived loudness than 200W, which is just a bit more than 100W. The
rule going up is double the watts for a just perceivable difference, half the watts going
down. Since your speakers put out 96dB for 1W (very sensitive), 100W would do 116dB and
that is louder than an Ozzy concert, 200W would do 119dB and 400W would do 122dB, which is
like putting your ear down to a jack hammer, so be careful. Good luck....Wes Marshall |
