I'm looking for some help and feedback from current or former B&W owners.
My use is about 50/50 for HT and music, however, I am much more critical when listening to music.
I recently purchased a 5.1 B&W setup with 1NT mains on FS-CDM stands, CNT center, SNT surrounds and an ASW650 sub. I also purchased a Pioneer Elite VSX-45TX A/V receiver and a Panasonic RP62 DVD player connected via MIT digital toslink. Retail price was just over $5K.
My room is 21x14 with a 13 foot cathedral ceiling. I set up the speakers using the MCACC feature on the Pioneer and checked everything with the AVIA disk and my R/S meter. Crossover is at 80hz with all speakers set to small.
Surround for movies is pretty good - not awesome. A significant upgrade from my Bose setup - althouth my wife isn't happy with all the extra speakers in the room. 2 channel music however is a bit of a disappointment. My 12 year old 50 wpc Nakamichi TA-2A/CDC-3A combo with ADS L1290 speakers was far superior. My dealer suggested that I needed an amp with more current to drive these speakers - so he loaned me a Rotel RMB-1075 - 120x5. The sound improvement was marginally better.
I'm not sure what to do next - in other words what is the weak link in my system? Is it the DVD player used as a transport? Is it the Pioneer Elite DACs? Are the B&W 1NT not as good as I originally thought - would the 7NT or 9NT be a great improvement? (I originally decided on the 1NT believing the midrange and tweeter were identical to the 7NTs and my ASW650 would cover the lower range quite nice.)
Bottom line is that I thought I would have a pretty awesome system for $5K and I don't. Do you need to spend a lot more to get a significant increase in sound quality? I am hoping to hear from other B&W owners expecially users with experience with the CDM line.
Note - I listened to a lot of equipment prior to making a decision, however, to be perfectly honest - I find it difficult to really separate speakers and receivers until I have it set up and properly configured in my home. I just don't have the time to set up several 5.1 configs in my house for a demo - so your help and experience would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
My use is about 50/50 for HT and music, however, I am much more critical when listening to music.
I recently purchased a 5.1 B&W setup with 1NT mains on FS-CDM stands, CNT center, SNT surrounds and an ASW650 sub. I also purchased a Pioneer Elite VSX-45TX A/V receiver and a Panasonic RP62 DVD player connected via MIT digital toslink. Retail price was just over $5K.
My room is 21x14 with a 13 foot cathedral ceiling. I set up the speakers using the MCACC feature on the Pioneer and checked everything with the AVIA disk and my R/S meter. Crossover is at 80hz with all speakers set to small.
Surround for movies is pretty good - not awesome. A significant upgrade from my Bose setup - althouth my wife isn't happy with all the extra speakers in the room. 2 channel music however is a bit of a disappointment. My 12 year old 50 wpc Nakamichi TA-2A/CDC-3A combo with ADS L1290 speakers was far superior. My dealer suggested that I needed an amp with more current to drive these speakers - so he loaned me a Rotel RMB-1075 - 120x5. The sound improvement was marginally better.
I'm not sure what to do next - in other words what is the weak link in my system? Is it the DVD player used as a transport? Is it the Pioneer Elite DACs? Are the B&W 1NT not as good as I originally thought - would the 7NT or 9NT be a great improvement? (I originally decided on the 1NT believing the midrange and tweeter were identical to the 7NTs and my ASW650 would cover the lower range quite nice.)
Bottom line is that I thought I would have a pretty awesome system for $5K and I don't. Do you need to spend a lot more to get a significant increase in sound quality? I am hoping to hear from other B&W owners expecially users with experience with the CDM line.
Note - I listened to a lot of equipment prior to making a decision, however, to be perfectly honest - I find it difficult to really separate speakers and receivers until I have it set up and properly configured in my home. I just don't have the time to set up several 5.1 configs in my house for a demo - so your help and experience would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!