New purchase Project Essential 2 turntable & Marantz CD6005

mumof2

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Apr 20, 2015
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Was really looking forward to listening to my old LPs from the 80s and was horrified at the sound! I know the Project is an excellent turntable and the Marantz is a great CD player. CD sounds OK (not great) but can't bear to listen to the records! Very boomy, dull sound. I know the set-up is possibly questionable but anyone know what I should check first?

My amp and speakers are old (but gold!):

Arcam Alpha 7

Acoustic Energy 100 series speakers

One speaker has either only base or treble coming through depending on how they are connected! Help!
 

davedotco

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Apr 24, 2013
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First thing to check are your speaker connections, they are bi-wireable so make sure you connect properly to both sets of terminals in the correct manner or use the links and make sure they are nice and tight.

When you have done that try setting up the system with the CD player, if you can not get them to sound right with some experimentation, then your old amp and speakers are not as good as you thought they were.

Get a decent sound using the CD player first, then look at the turntable, the setup and support of the TT is pivotal, but there is no point in trying to sort that out if the rest of your system is sounding naff.
 

Depending on how the are connected??? Can you expand on that?

There should only be one way to connect these if you are not bi-wiring them.

As stated before ( by davedotco) check they have the terminal connecting bars in place (they connect HF terminals and the LF terminals). Also check the actual speaker driver rubber surrounds. Are they intact or torn?
 

mumof2

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Apr 20, 2015
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Hi there,

Checked all cables and reconnected everything from scratch. The cables I am using are Van Den Hul Clearwater. Have not bi-wired the speakers but CD player is back to sounding decent.

Turntable still sounds awful. I redid the calibration of the weight and did everything from scratch. Could it be my LPs? They sound very boomy and crackly not anything I can bear to listen to!
 

davedotco

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Apr 24, 2013
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mumof2 said:
Hi there,

Checked all cables and reconnected everything from scratch. The cables I am using are Van Den Hul Clearwater. Have not bi-wired the speakers but CD player is back to sounding decent.

Turntable still sounds awful. I redid the calibration of the weight and did everything from scratch. Could it be my LPs? They sound very boomy and crackly not anything I can bear to listen to!

Have you sorted the bass/treble issues on the speakers? If you have sorted that then you need to look at the setup, again working with the cd player as a source.

First thing to check is the speaker positioning, the AE speakers are of a type, big and bassy sounding and this might be the first issue. Get them rigidly mounted and well clear of the walls, at least a couple of feet, then work on positioning relative to the listening position. Try to optimise the performance with the cd player.

When you have that sounding as good as it can, look at the player. Assumning the arm/cartrige to be correctly setup, where is the player positioned and what is it sitting on? With bassy speakers this is absolutely critical.
 

matthewpiano

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Yes, the turntable needs to be decently isolated from the vibrations from the speakers, and really should be placed on a shelf of its own. This could well be your issue so follow davedotco's systematic advice and check through/consider everything.
 

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