Arcam Solo Movie speakers

[Leif]

Sorry about the length of this post.

I recently bought an Arcam Solo Movie 5.1 after the big price drop which I use with a pair of Monitor Audio Silver 1 speakers previously paired with an Arcam Solo mini. The music is stored as Alac files on an iPod and streamed to an Apple Airport Express and then via an optical link to the amplifier. My room is about 5m by 4m, with the speakers on metal stands with blu-tac pads, against a long wall and my chair opposite. Anyway, I first found the sound boomy and unprecise, which was largely rectified by placing the speakers 2 feet from the wall, not ideal in a modest room but it greatly improved the sound stage and bass. They are wonderful with classical and acoustic folk music, with a precise and clear sound, excellent with some rock such as Metalica, but sometimes with some rock music the bass is boomy and excessive. This is not something I hear when listening to the same files on my iPod through a Chord Mojo and Sennheiser HD600, or Audeze Sine. Ingeneral I prefer the sound through the Sine and HD600 headphones, which is not what I expect. Comments and thoughts as to why are welcome.

I suspect the speakers might have too prominent a bass for the room, or perhaps the room acoustics are the issue. The wall behind the speakers is made from brick or concrete blocks.

On a related issue, were I to change speakers, what do you get from higher grade speakers e.g. £1,000? Is the difference obvious? I have found that with headphones, a £500 pair can be noticeably clearer than a cheaper one, but even expensive ones can sound horrible to my ears due to non neutral frequency reproduction.

 

[expat_mike]

Sorry about the length of this post.

I recently bought an Arcam Solo Movie 5.1 after the big price drop which I use with a pair of Monitor Audio Silver 1 speakers previously paired with an Arcam Solo mini. The music is stored as Alac files on an iPod and streamed to an Apple Airport Express and then via an optical link to the amplifier. My room is about 5m by 4m, with the speakers on metal stands with blu-tac pads, against a long wall and my chair opposite. Anyway, I first found the sound boomy and unprecise, which was largely rectified by placing the speakers 2 feet from the wall, not ideal in a modest room but it greatly improved the sound stage and bass. They are wonderful with classical and acoustic folk music, with a precise and clear sound, excellent with some rock such as Metalica, but sometimes with some rock music the bass is boomy and excessive. This is not something I hear when listening to the same files on my iPod through a Chord Mojo and Sennheiser HD600, or Audeze Sine. Ingeneral I prefer the sound through the Sine and HD600 headphones, which is not what I expect. Comments and thoughts as to why are welcome.

I suspect the speakers might have too prominent a bass for the room, or perhaps the room acoustics are the issue. The wall behind the speakers is made from brick or concrete blocks.

On a related issue, were I to change speakers, what do you get from higher grade speakers e.g. £1,000? Is the difference obvious? I have found that with headphones, a £500 pair can be noticeably clearer than a cheaper one, but even expensive ones can sound horrible to my ears due to non neutral frequency reproduction.

I have an old Solo neo, and that came with Monitor Audio speakers. I was quite happy with them, but eventually I concluded that they lacked bass for some music, such as jazz. So i spotted a pair of Focal Aria 936 in a sale, and bought them. They work well with the Arcam, and do extend the bass enough to avoid the need to add a subwoofer.

If you are experiencing bass boom, then I suspect that it is down to room acoustics, because that is the opposite of what I experienced.

if you do explore other speakers, then try the Focal Aria 926s http://www.son-video.com/Rayons/Enceinte-colonne/Focal-Aria-926.html

Black or white are €1698 less a 10% made in france discount

 

[newlash09]

Experience. I have found that firing speakers down the shorter length of the room, piles up bass energy on the opposing wall. And if you are sitting with your back close to that wall, then that boom is inescapable. So I solved my problem by replacing my floor standers with a satellites system and handing over the bass to the sub, which lies below the couch. This way the bass is radiating from under me into the room and not piling on me. This has worked for me in my 11x17 ft room with solid concrete walls. Your room could be different

 

[Leif]

"If you are experiencing bass boom, then I suspect that it is down to room acoustics, because that is the opposite of what I experienced."

Thanks Mike. I suspect you are right. I placed the speakers directly on the supports, without Blu-tac, and it has tightened up the sound. Still, on a few songs I hear a 'boomy' bass, for want of a better description.

"Experience. I have found that firing speakers down the shorter length of the room, piles up bass energy on the opposing wall. And if you are sitting with your back close to that wall, then that boom is inescapable. So I solved my problem by replacing my floor standers with a satellites system and handing over the bass to the sub, which lies below the couch. This way the bass is radiating from under me into the room and not piling on me. This has worked for me in my 11x17 ft room with solid concrete walls. Your room could be different"

Thanks 'newlash09'. That is a good idea. I can easily attach a sub-woofer since it is a movie system, I suspect a local shop would let me borrow a sub-woofer to try. I could try various locations for the sub-woofer. Presumably the system detects the presence of the sub-woofer and then filters out the low frequencies from the stereo speakers.