this system is a pish posh of components that come together more as a result with my infatuation with the individual components rather than from any sort of plan. I am afraid it was my first time out & I was rather wide eyed, having lived with an all pioneer system for years and years-sooo many years, and being crazy desperate to replace it.The system seems to excel in details and loudness capacity, and otherwise seems rather matter of fact.It is not bad sounding by any means, and i dont fault the components themselves. I just didnt give much thought to it& the result is mixed. Does anyone have any suggestions to make for,er, this obvious blunderer of sound? I repent, and I would greatly appreciate any advice or experience you have with these components, or about miracle upgrades. thanks!
Timf, Great system, I'm sure with a few minor tweaks here and there you will get it sounding they way you want it to. Are you running a sub with the CDM's? IMO the CDM's really need a fast 8" or 10" sub for a nice bottom end to round out the sound. My first pair of B&W's were the 602's thought they were awesome 2 channel hard rock stereo speakers, than moved on to the CDM1NT's like you did, now I have Nautilus 804's!! You said that you had "I had some complaints about the 602s-something niggling" Just curious what does that mean? Were they defective speakers?
I had a very similar setup around ten years ago. I had the original CDM1 with the Deonon POA8200 I think it was. I thought the Denon was too soft for the CDM1s. I switched to Nakamichi PA5II which made a world of difference.
viridian, Thank you for your suggestions. The 602's are unbelievably sensitive to placement, even to the sort of stand you use. It took me a long time to find the right place for them in the room where they would break free from the sort the very sound you described. While they do sound a lot better than they did when I first got them-even achieving that out of the box sound that makes them disappear, they have never really broken loose. I would not say they are a great rock speaker, even as they are dynamic and agile and big sounding.They are good speakers, but as i listen to all kinds of music they may not be a real all rounder.I like all three of your speaker suggestions, especially the kestrel.
You seem to have the makings of a nice rig probably the best place to start would be to make some nice audiophile buddies who could lend you some gear to try and get some comparison to what your components are doing. That said, I have found the B&W 602 to sound like speakers and to draw attention to themselves, breaking the illusion. Speakers are the most personal of components so comments are iffy at best, but you might consider giving the Epos 12, Meadowlark Audio, or my favored Paradigm Studio 20 a try. All really different sounding. Something may just gell in the mix. Good luck and keep hunting.
Mwilson- Thank you! I had actually considered the Nordosts at one time, but didnt get around to auditioning them. I definately will look into it. I do believe cables can make an important difference in sound quality.
TIMF, first of all, cheers to your honesty and candor - your system incorporates some great makes - I'm not familiar with every last component, but no doubt it sounds way better than you are letting on.
One observation I would make from my own experience - the Kimber KCAG is a remarkable cable but an absolute make-or-break component when matching systems. I've owned two pairs (still do, actually), and they have a fairly profound impact compared to other cables. They can either be a godsend or a nightmare. Personally, I find them to add speed, blackness, and reach-around depth to a system, but sometimes at the expense of soundstage and imaging (to the point where soundstage can be imagined to be fairly "clumpy"). I would suggest an audition of a couple of Nordost cables here: Blue Heaven and Red Dawn interconnects. Stunning value for the money, you might hear them out-soundstage the KCAG like I did... but the story doesn't end so easily. In my listening, I heard a wider presentation from the Nordosts, but also less punch - what I've noticed about the soundstage the KCAG presents is that it's more centered ("clumped" - as in, not so widely-distributed), which I actually preferred for harder music. I own both the KCAG and the Blue Heavens from Nordost, and love both. The Nordosts are superb for both high-freq and low-freq extension, and the Kimber didn't seem deficient here either. There is a noticeable difference between these cables, and I think it's worth exploring, as it adds serious "tuning" possibilities. The Red Dawn strikes me as a refinement of the Blue Heaven - improvement is obvious but not ground-breaking.
A fellow audiogoner "chichiuno" may be able to provide you with advice in Nordost line, and inquire about possibility of loaners to try them yourself. Clearly, this is not the only route, just something I've found playing around with KCAG in an A/B comparison. Listen to this thread for more suggestions...
