Please Mr, can you point me in the right....

Can you tell us a bit about your preferred listening levels?

 

There is no such thing as too much clarity: a hi-fi can never be too good.

 

I can't imagine that substituting a wolly bass monster of an amp is the way forward.

I have a small integrated that's often compared to the Sugden sound wise. I recently got my NS1000's back off a mate and slotted them in...no bass! Frankly I just dont have the power they need. I have returned to my Audes speakers which are similar tonally to my 3/5as and do lots of bass. Also and I know many will object, I binned my mana TT support and that helped alot.It's a big room your in and those bass drivers just won't do it without some power and lots of experimenting with position. All IMHO of course.

 

Power. Maybe that is the question, or reserves thereof. Totem have informed me that while they think the Sugden A21a is a wonderful amp, they do recommend the use of others with the arros because they need more power, i.e. amps like the Rega Mira and the Sim Audio 13 or 15 while OTOH Sugden have informed me that never, did they find that the A21a was incapable of producing more than high enough volume levels for any of the show room facilities they used when demming this combination when they distributed Totem in the UK. Excuse my ignorance but am I to take it that power here does not mean the ability to provide higher volumes than one could comfortably listen at but rather the ability to reproduce a bass line which somehow drains "power" at certain frequencies without affecting the general volume level. I never turn my volume control beyond say 12 o'clock even when the missus is out so I don't consider myself a headbanger by any means.
This is why I am going to try my old A4811, not as a permanent thing but just to see the effect of shoving more quantity of watts, albeit of lesser quality up my Arros because decent hi-fi of any description never mind Rega Miras or Sim Audio are a bit thin on the ground over here.
Many thanks for all your comments and ideas anyway and by all means keep 'em coming.
Chris

 

I'm sure you need larger bass drivers for your large room.

 

Chris,

Not sure it is necessarily a straightforward case of more watts. You also need to consider current. As I understand it, those nice big bass notes need a healthy dose of current to drive the 'speakers properly. Perhaps WM or one of the other technically minded people can better explain (or refute).

None the less, I'm with Dr. Devil on this one - Get bigger loudspeakers!

Regards,

Stuart.

 

I know you're all on tenterhooksl

The first thing I did was go back to using my Mana Sound Bases in the traditional way i.e. using the usual black balanced board rather than bolting a sheet of glass to the bass plinth of my speakers and positioning that on the upward facing spikes as if it were a source component. I know it works for some people and I had been using them that way for some time but for the usual reasons/excuses I had never gone back to using the traditional board just to check on which was really the better in my case. Yes, the sound is much better using the board - it is much more believable and I don't think I have lost any detail which is at least curious because using the glass gave the Arros a much more stable, rock solid platform but going back to their miniscule plinth and downward facing spikes onto the Mana board means a certain degree of tendency for the speakers (long very thin floorstanders)to rock backwards and forwards and from side to sidemove with the slightest finger pressure. Maybe it's not always a good thing for all speakers to be on an absolutely rock solid base.
To be continued...........

 

Hello Chris
I have a Lehmann Black Cube with the PSX which is the same as your BC SE. It does have very good coherence and musicallity, the PSX power supply as in the SE makes a large difference . If you were looking for better tone and clarity then you might improve on it but its weakness is not in the area you are looking at.
Regards
Richard

 

"I can't imagine that substituting a wolly bass monster of an amp is the way forward."

then the admission "I know you're all on tenterhooksl", which is apparently a reference to the method used to make wool - one of those wonerfully useful facts I learnt on holiday, in Suffolk, or Lavenham to be precise where the expression 'dyed in the wool' comes from.

 

My hunch would be buy a bigger/more sensitive speaker like (indeed) Living Voice or Tannoy horn-loaded speakers. Will cure all bass problems, but could well introduce others, so experiment with placements of both speakers and listener as well when demoeing new speakers.

 

had totem arro's too for some years, partnered with rega mira. mr. Bruzzese from totem is right, the arro's like more power/drive. ideal would be to find a second hand rega elicit, bit stronger than a mira and sounds better (had them both for many years). sounded wonderful with the arro's. Of course it will not shake the house, but more power from the amp helps a lot for bass. the elicit is as good as a cursa-maia for a lot less money (around 250 pound). used the arro with mira, elicit, cursa-maia, cursa-2exon and cursa-4 exons(!), and the elicit is all you need. Yep, totem like strong amps.
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