Questions about biamping

[rjohn]

I recently purchased and re-foamed a set of Infinity CS 3007 speakers. They sound very good, especially in the mid and higher ranges. I have them separate from my regular system as it is in a cabinet which is very difficult to switch equipment in and out of. I am powering them with a Marantz 2285b receiver. Unfortunately the only external source is a REALLY cheap dvd player (I think I bought it at Riteaid for about $20). While using the FM tuner with a very strong signal or the dvd player with a variety of cds from AC/DC to Styx to the Eagles to Creed to Miles Davis the speakers sound great except the bass seems a little blurred at times. It may just be my imagination as sometimes I hear it that way and some times I don't. It could be as simple as the terrible inputs I'm giving them. I have been reading about these speakers and a lot of people commenting on them say bi-amping helps the bass on them. They do seem to improve with volume, but I really don't want to have to listen to music that loud. Would bi-amping help solve this problem. I have done a little searching for a reasonably priced amp to do this with and found a Marantz MM500U on Ebay for $100. Would this be a good choice? I have never done this before so I'm sure I'm probably way off in my understanding of the whole process. I don't want to go the sub-woofer route but rather would prefer to clean up and amplify the bass coming out of the Infinities. Thanks for any advice you have to give.

 

[nesbuddha66]

Looked those up and they are very impressive speakers. Not knowing anything about them, just seeing them, they should reproduce lower frequencies rather well. Id say the source of your lacking bass, is well, the source. Neither FM nor that dvd player will sufficiently bring out the best of those speakers. Find a better CD player before going the BI-AMP route. You aint gotta spend a lot, just try a nice sony, marantz, ect dedicated CD player

Though, eventually, bi-amping those would be both fun and rewarding, and should inevitably improve sound quality as each amp is less stressed focusing it's efforts on either spectrum of sound, rather then the whole spectrum.

Also speaker placement and your listening room are major factors here, take a look around ask some more questions. This is the fun part let it be so, dont fret, when you get it licked its super fun

 

[wweigle]

I have found that if my system sounds good with some music and not so good with other music, than its likely not the speakers but the source. Unfortunately, a some CDs/music are just plain poorly produced. Truth be told I never really noticed the difference in my past low fidelity life, but I sure do now. I have some cd/records I just don't enjoy anymore due to the poor production. Curtainly a poor CD player will have an effect on the sound, but it should not be an on/off thing. I go through the same situation, wondering whats going on as things don't sound quite right during some listing sessions, then I play a well recorded CD or record that I am familiar with and know is well produced, and I realize all is well. Its the source, not my equipment. There is a past Audiokarma thread on what music people use as their reference music, If I can find it I will link it here. Maybe someone else will If I can't find it. Good Luck!

 

[rjohn]

Thanks for the input. I'll look around for a cd player. I have always used the high end bluray player (not the cheap piece of cr.. now hooked to the Marantz) in my home entertainment center to play cds so I don't own just a cd player. The tv setup is a Pioneer VSX 919 AH hdmi tuner/amplifier playing through Dahlquist DQ5s in the front with some baby Advents for rear surround speakers. It sounds pretty good. I wonder if I should try replacing the Dahlquist speakers with the Infinities and see how that sounds? Any advice on the amplifier I mentioned on Ebay?

 

[whoaru99]

I'd pass on that amp. I think there are better ways to spend that $100, one of them being saving it towards something with some real beef.

 

[tubed]

I'm sure the speakers are wired in phase, positive to positive/negative to negative?

 

[rjohn]

Yes, they are wired correctly. I was very careful to put them back exactly the way I took them off. I made sure they are hooked to the Marantz correctly too.

I'd pass on that amp. I think there are better ways to spend that $100, one of them being saving it towards something with some real beef.

OK, thanks.

 

[saea501]

I have found that if my system sounds good with some music and not so good with other music, than its likely not the speakers but the source. Unfortunately, a some CDs/music are just plain poorly produced. Truth be told I never really noticed the difference in my past low fidelity life, but I sure do now. I have some cd/records I just don't enjoy anymore due to the poor production. Curtainly a poor CD player will have an effect on the sound, but it should not be an on/off thing. I go through the same situation, wondering whats going on as things don't sound quite right during some listing sessions, then I play a well recorded CD or record that I am familiar with and know is well produced, and I realize all is well. Its the source, not my equipment. There is a past Audiokarma thread on what music people use as their reference music, If I can find it I will link it here. Maybe someone else will If I can't find it. Good Luck!

Truer words were never spoken.

As your system gets better so does it's ability to show you shortcomings, particularly in the source material. You can even get to the point where you'll notice sonic differences in the production and engineering of recordings. Owen Bradley produced all of Patsy Cline's records. He also produced an album that KD Lang did of Patsy's songs. The sonic quality of those recordings is breath taking. Intensely dimensional and dynamic.

Don't always be so quick to look at your hardware when you put a recording on and it sounds........not so great. Depending on your system what you are probably hearing is the way that particular recording was put together.

 

[savatage1973]

As your system gets better so does it's ability to show you shortcomings, particularly in the source material.

Been down this road--kept upgrading my main system to the point that all I heard were the shortcomings of the source material--good recordings sounded amazing, but less than perfect recordings sounded absolutely awful--and I listen to a lot of 70's and 80's rock that was not notorious for being well-recorded/engineered. I actually "downgraded" even my main rig (it is still no slouch, by any means), so that I could actually listen to the music that I enjoyed, not just the flaws.