suggest improvements to my bedroom set.
Discussion
i have a budget seperates system in my bedroom consisting of:
mint 70's Yamaha CA-810 amp / CT-610 tuner
stanton st-100 turntable
pioneer dvd/cd player
wharfedale diamond 8.4 floorstanders
the speakers can be bi-wired and the amp can feed two sets of speakers, so i have the amp set to do this and run 4 wires to each speaker.
the room is 16ft square, system facing the bed. i watch a lot of dvd's in their but it also seems to be the place i retire to to relax/listen to music.
qns:
is wiring the speakers in this manner a good idea? would it be better to just use the main speaker outputs and just use 2 wires? i am vaguely aware that using 2 sets alters the resistance, but no idea what affect this has on sound quality.
has anyone had any experience with a dynamic range expander such as the dbx 3bx? i have been interested in getting one of these for a while, but listening last night has really made me want one. the difference between well produced albums [i.e. dylan's blood on the tracks] and modern noisy ones [blur's 13] is like night and day. there is also a noticeable difference between vinyl and cd. i think a range expander will help, am i right?
how should i position the speakers so that the sweet spot is along the headboard?
what would be a better choice of cd/dvd player? this one is on its way out, i was thinking one of the old denon reference 300/500 series.
cheers.
mint 70's Yamaha CA-810 amp / CT-610 tuner
stanton st-100 turntable
pioneer dvd/cd player
wharfedale diamond 8.4 floorstanders
the speakers can be bi-wired and the amp can feed two sets of speakers, so i have the amp set to do this and run 4 wires to each speaker.
the room is 16ft square, system facing the bed. i watch a lot of dvd's in their but it also seems to be the place i retire to to relax/listen to music.
qns:
is wiring the speakers in this manner a good idea? would it be better to just use the main speaker outputs and just use 2 wires? i am vaguely aware that using 2 sets alters the resistance, but no idea what affect this has on sound quality.
has anyone had any experience with a dynamic range expander such as the dbx 3bx? i have been interested in getting one of these for a while, but listening last night has really made me want one. the difference between well produced albums [i.e. dylan's blood on the tracks] and modern noisy ones [blur's 13] is like night and day. there is also a noticeable difference between vinyl and cd. i think a range expander will help, am i right?
how should i position the speakers so that the sweet spot is along the headboard?
what would be a better choice of cd/dvd player? this one is on its way out, i was thinking one of the old denon reference 300/500 series.
cheers.
With regards to bi-wiring, there's lots of thought on it, but basically there's not really any general rule on whether it improves the sound quality or not, some say it does, some say it does not - personally I think it's highly variable depending on the speakers/amp so the only way to find out is try it for yourself and see.
A good starting point though is to make sure that by bi-wiring your amp and speakers will be vaguely compatible.
Assuming you amp is built for bi-wiring, then typically its output impedance will increase from 4ohms to 8ohms (but power will halve), when bi-wired.
To avoid stressing your amp, you want your speaker load to match closely with the amp output impedance. I.e. you don't want the speaker impedance to be below the amps impedance.
So where as with single-wiring, with the amp at 4-ohms impedance, you're speakers are likely to be higher than this so it shouldn't be a worry, with bi-wiring this may cause an issue as the speaker impedance may drop below the bi-wired amp impedance of 8ohms.
Bare in mind though that the manufactures ratings may not be correct and that impedance is not constant throughout the operating range of the speakers/amps.
This is the theory anyway, it may or may not make a difference, but I'd check your amp/speaker ratings first if you do go ahead and try it
A good starting point though is to make sure that by bi-wiring your amp and speakers will be vaguely compatible.
Assuming you amp is built for bi-wiring, then typically its output impedance will increase from 4ohms to 8ohms (but power will halve), when bi-wired.
To avoid stressing your amp, you want your speaker load to match closely with the amp output impedance. I.e. you don't want the speaker impedance to be below the amps impedance.
So where as with single-wiring, with the amp at 4-ohms impedance, you're speakers are likely to be higher than this so it shouldn't be a worry, with bi-wiring this may cause an issue as the speaker impedance may drop below the bi-wired amp impedance of 8ohms.
Bare in mind though that the manufactures ratings may not be correct and that impedance is not constant throughout the operating range of the speakers/amps.
This is the theory anyway, it may or may not make a difference, but I'd check your amp/speaker ratings first if you do go ahead and try it
Edited by navier_stokes on Tuesday 21st April 17:33
i checked when i wired them like this originally and they are ok either way. i don't think it'll make much difference in this system anyway.
noone tried a dynamic range expander then? they seem to have died out with the advent of CD's but i've read good things. but then again, i also want a reverb amp!
noone tried a dynamic range expander then? they seem to have died out with the advent of CD's but i've read good things. but then again, i also want a reverb amp!
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