I titled this thread "Minor Epiphany" for a reason. I had a minor epiphany last night while I was listening to my stereo. And I say minor epiphany because it wasn't a major epiphany like MikeL has every couple of weeks when he inserts some new gadget/gizmo into his system and the changes are so profound and the adjectives he uses to describe the new changes to the sound makes the system he was listening to before the latest gadget/gizmo sound like junk and you wonder how he ever tolerated the horrible sound that he had before he inserted the latest gadget/gizmo. Sorry Mike, I couldn't resist having a little fun at your expense, and I mean that literally. If you want people to believe that your system is on the bleeding edge of the art, you can't constantly make 'quantum' improvements to the edge of the art and have people take you seriously. Most of us know that once your system achieves a certain level of sound quality, significant improvements beyond that level don't come along every day and it's probably not going to happen at the end of a record weight for example.
Back to my minor epiphany...So last night I was listening to my system which now includes the KEF LS50s in place of my Def Tech BP7000SC speakers. There is no doubt in my mind that the LS50s do some things better than my much bigger Def Tech speakers. Voices are hauntingly real sounding for one and the soundstage is much bigger. There is a level of purity to the midrange and highs that is beyond what my Def Techs could provide. And yet there was that nagging little feeling that something was still kind of missing that you used to have with the other speakers and you wonder if the new positives outweigh the old negatives. As some of you are aware, I am using my Def Tech Reference subs with the LS50s because the LS50s are not full range speakers and really don't have much going on in the bottom two octaves that I happen to love. My subs each have a 14" subwoofer powered by an 1800 watt amp and they also have 2 passive 14" radiators. When I was using the BP7000SC speakers in my system with the pair of subs, I had the same subwoofers and amp times two for a total of four active 14" subs each driven by an 1800 watt amp and a total of twelve 14" drivers pushing air and energy into my room.
So there I was last night looking at and listening to my system and asking myself if I should just go ahead and sell the Def Tech BP7000SC speakers because I didn't see myself going back to them even though I still think they very good speakers. And then the minor epiphany struck-I said to myself "Self, I bet the Def Tech Ref subs have a low output via an RCA jack so that you could daisy chain subs together!" And then I answered myself and said "Yep, I bet they do and I know that my Def Tech BP7000SC speakers have an input for the sub." So I got up off of my ass and took a look-see behind the Ref subs and sure enough, there was an RCA jack labeled "low out." I reached into my stash of wayward cables and pulled out a pair of ICs and hooked the Ref subs up to the subs in my BP7000SC speakers. Bingo! Now I have the exact bottom end I used to have with a new quality of midrange and highs that I didn't use to have. I still have a grin on my face that I can't wipe off. I will not be selling my BP7000SC speakers. First of all, I would be lucky to get half of what they retailed for which was around $5400 which is chump change on this forum and lots of people have power cords that cost more than my speakers did. However, to buy another pair of Ref subs would cost almost $4K at retail which is more than I could ever get for my BP7000SC speakers.
There is much tweaking that needs to go on with regards to speaker/sub location in order to maximize the sound quality, but the good news is that I have a system capable of plumbing the bottom octaves with authority while maintaining a new found purity in the midrange and highs. Life is good.
Back to my minor epiphany...So last night I was listening to my system which now includes the KEF LS50s in place of my Def Tech BP7000SC speakers. There is no doubt in my mind that the LS50s do some things better than my much bigger Def Tech speakers. Voices are hauntingly real sounding for one and the soundstage is much bigger. There is a level of purity to the midrange and highs that is beyond what my Def Techs could provide. And yet there was that nagging little feeling that something was still kind of missing that you used to have with the other speakers and you wonder if the new positives outweigh the old negatives. As some of you are aware, I am using my Def Tech Reference subs with the LS50s because the LS50s are not full range speakers and really don't have much going on in the bottom two octaves that I happen to love. My subs each have a 14" subwoofer powered by an 1800 watt amp and they also have 2 passive 14" radiators. When I was using the BP7000SC speakers in my system with the pair of subs, I had the same subwoofers and amp times two for a total of four active 14" subs each driven by an 1800 watt amp and a total of twelve 14" drivers pushing air and energy into my room.
So there I was last night looking at and listening to my system and asking myself if I should just go ahead and sell the Def Tech BP7000SC speakers because I didn't see myself going back to them even though I still think they very good speakers. And then the minor epiphany struck-I said to myself "Self, I bet the Def Tech Ref subs have a low output via an RCA jack so that you could daisy chain subs together!" And then I answered myself and said "Yep, I bet they do and I know that my Def Tech BP7000SC speakers have an input for the sub." So I got up off of my ass and took a look-see behind the Ref subs and sure enough, there was an RCA jack labeled "low out." I reached into my stash of wayward cables and pulled out a pair of ICs and hooked the Ref subs up to the subs in my BP7000SC speakers. Bingo! Now I have the exact bottom end I used to have with a new quality of midrange and highs that I didn't use to have. I still have a grin on my face that I can't wipe off. I will not be selling my BP7000SC speakers. First of all, I would be lucky to get half of what they retailed for which was around $5400 which is chump change on this forum and lots of people have power cords that cost more than my speakers did. However, to buy another pair of Ref subs would cost almost $4K at retail which is more than I could ever get for my BP7000SC speakers.
There is much tweaking that needs to go on with regards to speaker/sub location in order to maximize the sound quality, but the good news is that I have a system capable of plumbing the bottom octaves with authority while maintaining a new found purity in the midrange and highs. Life is good.
