System upgrade?

womble72

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Hi. I posted on here a few weeks a go explaining I wasn't keen on how my old Denon 355uk amp, DCD 685 and Kef cresta 30 floorstanders were sounding and I was thinking of replacing the amp and speakers for something like the Dynaudio xeo3 and then replacing the cdp, if nescessary and when funds allow.

My living room in my new house is 3 x 5 meters and the speakers are in an awkward postion, close to a built in shelf/cupboard unit beside the chimney breast and the whole system either sounds booming bass or really weak If i bung the speaker ports or fiddle with the amps bass control.

I'm now thinking, as well as the xeo3 option, another idea would be to replace the whole sytem, budget £1500, for an amp, cd, speaker package but for the money i'm not sure whether the active xeo3's are better than a £1500 system. My other problem is i need the speakers to sit either side of the chimney breast and they can't be floorstanders or standmount, they will have to sit on the built in (extremely sturdy) shelves.

Listening distance is about 2 metres away and preferably I would like a set up to really fill the room when playing stuff like the Foo Fighters etc.

Thanks for any advice given.
 

gregvet

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womble72 said:
My other problem is i need the speakers to sit either side of the chimney breast and they can't be floorstanders or standmount, they will have to sit on the built in (extremely sturdy) shelves.

Listening distance is about 2 metres away and preferably I would like a set up to really fill the room when playing stuff like the Foo Fighters etc.

Thanks for any advice given.

My limited experience of Dynaudio speakers is that they need a lot or room to breathe, and i would never advise them on a shelf close to the wall. Other (preferably front ported or sealed box) speakers will be much better in that situation IMO.

Are you happy to go seoncd hand to keep within budget?
 

womble72

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Absolutely happy with 2nd hand. Speaker locations is my biggest problem and is probably why my Kef floorstanders sound really booming in the bass department.
 

RobinKidderminster

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I think yr kefs are rear ported so others will suggest better 'bookshelf'. Maybe sell those and see how well it all sounds with new spks. I won't mention room treatment. Yes I will. Room treatment may tighten everything. I dont know yr amp. I would suggest decent budget on speakers and time on room treatment and positioning then think about demo of electronics as budget allows. But I know less than nuffin' since joining the forum
 

womble72

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A change around in room furnishings isn't possible so perhaps swapping the Kefs for a pair of front ported/sealed cabinet speakers would be a good place to start. As i've said in previous posts, I quite like the write ups for Neat Iotas but I'm concerned my budget Denon amp n cdp wouldn't do them justice.
 

gregvet

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I think it would be worth a try. The Iotas arent supposed to be that hard to drive, and they are designed specificaly to go up against a wall and dont suffer too badly for being on a shelf (so I am told).

I dont know how they cope in a big room, but otherwise I see no reason for them to cause any issues. Maybe try to get a home demo?
 

Craig M.

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For that sort of budget, my default recommendation is Avi ADMs, in case you've been living in a cave they are an almost complete system. They've just released a new variant with a Scanspeak tweeter, they definitely shouldn't boom.
 

womble72

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Got to admit, I've never owned a sealed box type speaker before... Do they lack bass with there being no port?

The ADMs look like a good option but would the Xeo 3s out perform them on sound?
 

Overdose

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If the Xeo 3's sound anywhere near as good as the BM5A's then they will sound very nice indeed, but they are rear ported like the BM5As and will not be ideally suited to a shelf or close to a wall at their backs.

The ADMs are front ported and if all other things were equal, this alone would be reason enough to choose them over the Dynaudios. The thing is that they are not equal and it could be argued (I've not heard the ADMs) that the better drivers and higher power and headroom of the ADMs put them ahead of the Dynaudios.

As has been mentioned before, these would be my default suggestion also for your situation. I think that they seem unbeatable value for money at their price point.
 

Craig M.

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womble72 said:
Got to admit, I've never owned a sealed box type speaker before... Do they lack bass with there being no port?

The ADMs look like a good option but would the Xeo 3s out perform them on sound?

I've owned sealed speakers before, the bass does roll off earlier than a ported box of the same size. You would really have to try them to see if they suited your room. The roll off on mine (scm19) just happened to coincide with a room mode, so it was a happy marriage between speaker and room. Having said that, the ADMs easily held their own with my (at the time) system which retailed for around £6k - and they've been improved since then. You can find much more info on their forum/website.
 

womble72

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drummerman said:
You say 'new home'.

Did you like your system before the move?

regards

To be honest, when I bought the Denon gear I was on a strict budget and it was the best I could do. I've never really fallen in love with the sound an its always been just a 'make do' system. Many years later I'm now in a position to rethink my hifi as I'm finding I'm listening to it a lot more and want a setup that I can enjoy.

The amp and the Kefs will go into my garden studio and will be hooked up to an iPod dock. The CD player will stay in the house with the 'new' system until funds become available to replace it.
 

SpursGator

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By far the biggest weakness in your system is the Denon amp. If you replaced it with - say - a Naim Nait 5 or a Roksan K2 Kandy, you could well under your budget and potentially transform the system. If you found a lively enough amp, you maybe could get away with stuffing the port on your KEFs to tame the bass (i.e., the bunging option that is too mellow with your current amp). It would leave you 600 quid toward some new speakers in case it didn't work - that would buy some EB2s to sit on your bookshelf, or get you 2/3 of the way towards ATC SCM11s.

That Denon cannot control the bass on a pair of KEF floorstanders - of course they are boomy. Even a five minute demo of one of the above amps (or countless others around a grand) with your current speakers will make this obvious - the difference in bass control with the Nait, for example, will even be obvious to your wife's mostly-deaf godmother. Then work on taming the speakers' bass, if it's still a massive problem, buying some sealed bookshelf speakers if all else fails.
 

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