Why don't my Wilmslows sing?

[waltona]

I visited my brother on the weekend and listened to his Dynaudio Contour 1.3MkII speakers and I have to say that I was very impressed.

The problem is that when I came home and listened to my Wilmslow Vogues (SS 18W8545 D2905/9500) I was quite disappointed. There is a distinct lack of bass and very little soundstage in comparison to the Dynaudios. The whole sound was rather flat.

My question is can my relatively cheap amp/cd player (Arcam Alpha)r eally make so much difference to my speakers performance? Can the room size/shape and speaker positioning affect the sound so much?

I know that my drivers should deliver a similar level of performance as the Dynaudios and I know that Wilmslow are well respected but why such a huge difference in performance?

Any suggestions welcome.

Big A

[analog_sa]

My question is can my relatively cheap amp/cd player (Arcam Alpha)r eally make so much difference to my speakers performance? Can the room size/shape and speaker positioning affect the sound so much?

Al of the above can make a huge difference. It may be a good plan to borrow some of your brothers components over a weekend. At least it will help you get some point of reference.

[5th element]

Or even put your speakers on his hifi and see what happens. That way you see what his room does too.

A high quality amp can make a HUGE difference over an also ran.

[Mark25]

It sounds like you have one of your Vogues out of phase, check the wiring.

I found the contour 1.3 mkII dull, with ill-defined bass with respect to my own wilmslow home studio monitors. Personally; i found the bass of the smaller contour 1.1 much more accurate and enjoyable.

The wilmslow products are generally voiced neutral, so may sound a bit thin compared to comercial boxes that have a circa 100 Hz hump, to make them sound bigger than they are. But IMO that neutrallity is what makes for a long-term enjoyable, exciting sound.

Your tweeter should also be standing out as being a long way ahead of the contour unit.

Mark

[waltona]

Thanks for the replies, its good to be reassured that Wilmslow know what they are doing.

As for transporting equipment about, my brother has kindly informed me that his equipment isn't going anywhere! Nice eh. I suppose he does live 200 miles away.

I'm currently building a gainclone using Brians LM3875 PCBs so hopefully that will improve things. The quoted sensitivity is ~88 so hopefully the gainclone shoould be fine for moderate listening levels. I will also probably be looking to build a DAC at some point, maybe a Scott Nixon kit.

My wife is going to visit family for a couple of weeks soon so I think I'll have a play at moving my speakers into various different positions in the room and also get the amp closer to the speakers.

@Mark

I checked the wiring and everthing appears to be connected as it should be. Should I try switching reds for black to see what happens?

[Mark25]

.........
@Mark

I checked the wiring and everthing appears to be connected as it should be. Should I try switching reds for black to see what happens? [/B]

Having both speakers out of phase is unlikely to produce the big effect you are looking for, you could try tho....... try swapping just one out of interest. Are you 100% sure the internal speaker wiring is correct?

[waltona]

I bought the speakers 2nd hand and I've never opened them up but I'd be very surprised if the internal wiring wasn't correct. The cabinets looked very well built so I'd imagine the same care was given to the crossovers.

I'll try switching the phase on one of them tonight but to be honest I imagine that their placement in the room and the shape of the room is the main problem. Unfortunately I'll have to wait for the wife to be away before playing with that.

Thanks all

Al

[5th element]

Even if care was used when constructing the crossovers internally, it is still rediculously easy to accidentally hook up the tweeter with the incorrect polarity, especially if you build the second one on a different day to the first. I wouldnt count this out as a possability, although unlikely if another person has lived with them.

If indeed one is completely out of phase with the other a reversal of the wiring from the amp to the speakers will resolve this really easily. One way will have bass, one wont. You will still have the extension but the bass will have no power whatsoever.

If the speakers are indeed 88dB then that means they either have misquoted sensativity or zero bafflestep compensation, try moving them closer to the back walls and see if this improves things.

[Mark25]

you can easilly test the polarity of the bass unit without opening the box, just connect a 1.5 v battery accross the bass unit term's and see if the cone moves in or out. With batt' + to speaker +, the cones should move outwards.

[waltona]

I'll try that battery thing when I get a chance. Thanks for the help and ideas.

Al