My revised system. Upgraded from a basic Wadia 301 to a Wadia 861b with a GNSC reference mod. package upgrade. Next step will be to do the "SE" upgrade down the road in the not too distant future.
I had the Salons as well. Although incredibly transparent, they do lack bottom end authority. This became very apparent when I placed a pair of Wilson WATT/Puppies (that will be used for surround in my upgraded system) in the system. The Salons, are a ton more musical, they have no sound to speak of. But even with less woofer volume, the Puppies have a lot more bottom end (we won't talk about the X-1s that have actually taken the place of the Salons). I still speaker for speaker prefer the Salons by a large margin over the WP setup. You can always add more bass with a sub setup. Probably ideally with the new SUB30. You can't add that naturalness that the Salons possess, not many speaker out there in this price range that can claim this.
I have salons, I use the Bryston 7BSSt mono block amplifiers. 600w 8ohms 900w 4ohms. When the speakers and listener are positioned properly look out. The bass is so low (on movie tracks) you would think I had butt kickers.
Did you make sure that the AC polarity is correct to begin with or that the speakers are in phase?? Try there first. I use what amounts to 4ohm 800 watt Aragon monoblocks with my Salons, but have the voltage cut short so that only about 50-100 watts actually gets put to them in Class A operation. 100 watts is all thats needed to give realistic listening volumes in all but the very largest of rooms. And with the LF know set to "-" I still have about 3 db too much bass/midbass energy(Im making tube traps to compensate and finalize my room tuning)for my taste.
The Theta DAC and Gryphon preamp could be proponents to the thin sound, doubtful its the amp(unless there is a polarity or phase problem)in that setup. Is your friend complaining about bass with the Salon's or with Legacy speakers??
Hi, I also have Salons. I use them with all ML system: #32, #360s, #31.5, and #436 400 watt mono blocks. I'm very pleased with my system, yet my friends Legacy Focus system: Krell KSA 250 amp, Theta DAC and Transport, Gryphon Allegre Preamp, there seems to be a lack of slam and dynamics in the low end, the bass seems thin without a lack of foundation. On some recordings it sounds great, on others like Mr. Lucky by Johnny Lee Hooker, there is just no swing. My friend brought his amp and transport over to use with my Salons and we still hear the same effect. Do you think the speakers need more power, or a sub, or do you ever experience this effect? I suppose what I'm missing is some extra bloom and dnyamics in the bass. I'd be glad to exchange phone numbers and share ideas. Thanks, Steven
Decided NOT to have GNSC do their mod package. They werent willing to disclose whats actually done to the player and were very vague in description of whats done, and for $3300 you had better tell me exactly whats done to the player(other than adding a few blackgate caps,sound deadening and disconnecting some simple circuitry) since this is actually more money that what it costs to build the CDP from the ground up to begin with!
