HK/Carver

[CECAA850]

This is one of those questions that you kinda get the feeling you know the answer to but ask it anyways. It's a little bit long so maybe I should start with..........Once upon a time I had a pair of RF-5's hooked up as L and R ft speakers in a 7.1 set up. They were being driven by HK's flagship receiver (at the time) the AVR-7200. S&V measured it in the 2 channel mode at over 190 wpc. All was good in my HT till the upgrade bug hit and I gave in to the RF-7's siren calling. What to do now with the RF-5's? Bedroom here we come. I had a Carver 100 wpc amp with matching pre-amp I bought new in the '80(?)'s. I was all set. Both systems use fairly comperable CD players. The 5's are relatively close to the corners of the bedroom whereas the 7's are away from the corners in my HT (living room). The bedroom is large as far as bedrooms go but not as large as the living room. BR has a vaulted ceiling and LR has a peaked ceiling. Got it? O.K. my question. The 5's sound so much better than the 7's that I find my self listening to 2 ch in the bedroom more than the living room. Would the concenses think the difference could be more attributed to the room or the amp? Sure I could lug speakers around the house and find out for sure but it's more fun (and easier) to get some thoughts. Sorry for the long post. Carl

[DrWho]

Well why don't you just switch the amps instead of lugging the speakers around?

If the differences are still there, then you know it's the acoustics.

[scriven]

I'll put my money on the room.

[CECAA850]

Basically, I, in my infinite wisdom, bought the biggest receiver that would fit in our 3 piece oak entertainment center. So big that it will only fit in from the backside, which means about a 4 hour emptying and disassembling procedure to get the receiver out or disconnected. One of my more brilliant moves, if I do say so myself. I never talked about the differences in sound. The HK/7 set up lacks a well defined soundstage and the mids are clear but somethings just missing. Treble is.....OK. The Carver/5 combo gives the sound that Klipsch is famous for. Lots of definition, a soundstage that extends well beyond the width of the speakers themselves and crystal highs.

[Mighty Favog]

Sounds like a classic case of what seperates sound like over an all in one unit....and the room.

Once I went from a Carver MX150 Receiver to Mac/Rotel seperates it was like night and day. I found the Receiver's preamp to be lacking of many things even though it works perfectly even after it had a tune-up from Everett Audio in Washington state. Two channel worked o.k. but put it in A&B spkr mode and all was lost. Dynamics, sound stage, clarity, balance etc...all of it. I now hav eit set up in my study using it only for a tuner and an amp, a Carver C-1 is pulling the duties of preamp in that system now.

But it still doesn't compare to the main suystem in my livingroom.

[scriven]

Can you take the Carvers to the RF-7s and try that?

[CECAA850]

Believe it or not, the easiest thing to do would be to move the speakers. I would need to bring the 7's to the bedroom to see how they sound. The problem there is I still wouldn't know if it was the amp or the room as the 7's would be in the room where the 5's sound good with the amp that the 5's sound good with. To bring the Carver into the living room would be the most practical as someone earlier suggested. That would involve moving the amp, preamp and cd into the living room. It is currently housed in a unit next to the bed. That set up will come out the front but will still be a PITA. I guess I just talked myself out of moving the speakers as the only thing I would find out is the limits of my back.