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Im no where near as knowledgeable as most of the guys in here, but bare with me. Your system should sound better than anything you could possibly buy on the high street (dixons, john lewis, argos etc etc) if it doesnt, then yea, somethings wrong.

Are you playing copied CD's with a low bit rate? rubbish in, rubbish out.

Did you demo other systems before you bought it?
 
Are your speakers mounted on stands? Have you tried moving them about a bit to get a better sound? Are your cables properly terminated and connected securely?

What is it that you don't like about the sound? Lack of bass, too harsh a treble, lacking in drive or rhythm?
 
Hi smoove,

Used to be a what hifi junkey and knew a little bit but may still be off the mark with what i say here!

That's a nice set up you have there and should sound great! :cool:

Don't know what sound you expect or are getting. Should be fairly warm and energetic of what i've heard from marantz. Though the size of the monitors could mean that bass isn't overly obvious! There are a couple of things you could consider.

The speakers are fairly small standmounts. If you're not getting full bass or the treble is overzealous, positioning them closer to wall may help. Indeed, the closer a speaker is moved to a corner the more the bass will grow (though this corner approach is frowned upon as it effects stereo imaging).

Once you get your ideal sound you could also try toeing the speakers in. This will improve stereo imaging and make the performance of the music more real!!! You can do this by pointing the speakers towards a converging point about a foot in front of your head when you're sat in your prime listening position!

Leaving the components powered on always helps snooth the presentation of the music too!

Also, you mention the QED banana plugged cables (i take it these are the speaker cables) hopefully you're using similarly capable cables to connect the cd player to the amp. Usually reserve 10% of the total budget for cables. I made the mistake of sticking with some fairly decent but cheap (£50) cables when i upgraded my components to a Cyrus CD7Q, PSX-R and Smartpower. It was initially dissappointing until i took the plunge and bought some cables priced at £150 (Russ Andrews Silver Streak)!!! :eek:

The increased price of the cables may seem a lot but when you consider that the CD player and power supply (effectively a combined unit) cost £1500 the £150 cable completely reflected the rule above! Since that purchase i have never looked back!

What stands are you using? Light weight or unfilled stands can starve bass weight and attack! Bluetacking the speakers to the stands can help improve the presentation!

Finally, always a contentious point... but, are the cables you're using directional? If so check that the arows point in the same direction the signal is travelling (e.g: arrows on cable between cd player and amp should point towards the amp - arrows on cable between amp and speakers should point to speakers)!

Hope that helps and apologies in advance if anyone finds that something i've said is completely wrong!!! :rolleyes:
 
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As already asked, they key question is why you think that your system is not really floating your boat.
Did it in the shop, or has it only been like that in your home? Has it had a turn for the worse recently?

The most obvious ideas are about speaker positioning (do you have a TV between them, will sound better without), and also the cabling. I know it may sound condescending, but are you sure that the speaker cables are plugged in the correct way round? I've known some VERY experienced stereo users to accidentally run their speakers out of phase, usually resulting in a lack of bass and for the stereo image to drift to one side.

Keep us posted.
 
One thing I found when i bought my first sperates system was the connections were intermittent.

Once i had wired it all up it sounded a little muffled or muted. After I had a fiddle with the connections into the back of the speaker, the treble kicked in and the sound became much clearer whilst still being warm.

Even though the connections are made, fiddle around a bit. Don't know what a bannana plug is so the above may not be relevant.
 
Well i can safely say that the MA speakers are certainly not bad speakers. They are an amzing speaker for the price. I just have blutac feet on mine which attaches them firmly to my built in desk. One is in the corner and the other is pretty close to the wall. I have the hooked up with some nice £2.50 a metre ixos speaker cable into my arcam amp. My source is a cheap marantz cd63 that is about 10 years old, but has had some extensive modifications done.

I doubt very much that the marantz kit you have is the problem, and my only feeling is possibly the connections, speaker positioning, or even a fault in the equipment. Take all the cables apart, check that the connections are clen, and carfully but firmly re-attached everything. Try it in different rooms, in a variety of positions to see if the problem persists.

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adfinni said:
Well i can safely say that the MA speakers are certainly not bad speakers. They are an amzing speaker for the price. I just have blutac feet on mine which attaches them firmly to my built in desk. One is in the corner and the other is pretty close to the wall. I have the hooked up with some nice £2.50 a metre ixos speaker cable into my arcam amp. My source is a cheap marantz cd63 that is about 10 years old, but has had some extensive modifications done.

I doubt very much that the marantz kit you have is the problem, and my only feeling is possibly the connections, speaker positioning, or even a fault in the equipment. Take all the cables apart, check that the connections are clen, and carfully but firmly re-attached everything. Try it in different rooms, in a variety of positions to see if the problem persists.

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I've always found all Marantz equipment to be great quality especiall the cd players, however I have always been dissapointed by the sounds of their amps.

If you look in my sig I have a Marantz pplayer which I bought at the same time as a PM-66 Ki Sig. I sold the amp within a month cos it was rubbish, toppy and harsh!

I replaced it with the Rotel RA-03 and this is the best amp i've heard for under £1k in years.
 
My thoughts on this:

Expectations - What were you expecting to get? If you have come from a cheap stereo you might have been expecting an increase in SQ (which almost certainly happened) but you might not have realised how this takes place. "Better" is an infuriating term because it depends on the person sat in front of the system!

As others have said, setup could be the critical factor here. The very first thing I would check is that you have the speakers in phase: + to +, - to - on both speakers. You should also be using exactly the same length cable for both speakers - if you arent you may well have phase errors! This will be massively affecting the sound if it is the case!

Second thing to check is room positioning. Every room is different but you should find a sweet spot where the speakers are at their best - put them there :p Seating positon is a factor so you should take that into account (you want both speakers the same distance from you and at the same level).

Another thing to bear in mind is that the music you listen to might not suit that particular setup - I am not massively familiar with the Marantz sound so I couldnt go into much detail but it is possible that your dissatisfaction is entirely down to the way your kit is presenting the music!

A lot of people (wrongly, imo) address this sort of thing with the Audiophile "Magic Bullet" - Cables. I dont really want to spark a huge debate on the subject but in this situation, I would suggest that you try the other suggestions first before going and seeing if you can get some trial cable from your local god hifi shop. Really objectively see if you can get it to make a difference. I only say this because I have come across people in the past that have spent obscene amounts of money on cable only for me to fiddle with speaker positioning for a little while to get "transformations" that far outstripped any gains they got from the cable.

If you still dont like it after all of the above please dont write off hifi totally - if you decided to sell that you could put that money with not an awful lot of extra investment towards a second-hand system that was the high end in its day (much better SQ than the marantz for the same money!)

I hope you get to a stage where you can enjoy your kit as much as I do mine :)
 
I agree with DRZ for the mostpart

Make sure all the cables are connected correctly and wired correctly and play around with the speaker positioning.

After this if you are still unhappy with the sound then I don't think buying expensive cables will make enough difference to change the sound into something you like.

Good cables are always a good thing but IME they will help you tweak the sound more to your liking and not completely change it.

If you read my previous post about my old PM66-Ki sig, I bought the VSH D102 Mk3 interconnects and chord carnival silver to try and change the sound. It helped but the main difference ultimately came from buying a new amp.
 
smoove said:
Well, I was expecting something a little warmer, the quality is ok I suppose, but I think I could half spent half as much and probally been just as satisfied. Everything just sounds flat, feels like its just holding back a little, the bass is there with no doubt though, but I just cant put my finger on it.

Right now my speakers are situated about a 1.5metre apart and are sitting on my desk, with a TFT in between, which attached to the wall. Speakers are about 2inches away from the wall, same length of cable between.
Speaker positioning is a problem, as they need to be infront of me, because I use them for my PC sound as well, so they can only go on one wall, where the plug socket is.

I'll go over and re-check my cabling now..
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:eek:

Positioning is your problem there! If they are 1.5m apart you really need to be ~1.5m back from them to get a proper stereo image. 2" from a wall on a desk isnt going to do them any favours whatsoever either!

I thought you said they were on stands? If they are on stands on your desk... get them off!! Blue-tack the speakers to your desk as far forward as you can if you must keep them there.

If you dont notice an INSTANT transformation I would be very suprised indeed!
 
^as above, but if possible try and get them off the desk. Even wall mounting brackets would be better (an thats saying something)

BTW, if they are too close to your PC and monitor they may affect them long term. PC speakers are magnetically sheilded but normal speakers aren't!
 
Depends on the speakers. I have some Mission bookshelves here somewhere and they are shielded!

Wall mounting brackets wont be better than the desk if he can pull them forwards on the desk a bit ;) (Unless the speakers yearn to be insanely close to a wall)
 
DRZ said:
You should also be using exactly the same length cable for both speakers - if you arent you may well have phase errors! This will be massively affecting the sound if it is the case!
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:o

I normally avoid just cringe & avoid the snake oil posts, but I have to jump in on this one..

unless you are using cable runs with differences of hundreds of feet you wont get any problems with different cable lengths, you are talking 1-2 nano seconds propogation delay with a 3M speaker cable with a decent CSA, humans can only detect shifts in the millisecond range, thats a factor of a 1000 larger.
 
I would suggest going to a decent HiFi shop, and finding some wall brackets to get the speakers positioned and mounted very firmly..... assuming you haven't any free floor space for stands..... Done properly you can still get good sound this way.... I have a pair of Linn Tukan on wall brackets in my study, they are rock solid on the "Linn Brakit" and are very musical.
Get a couple of mates to hold them against the wall and move them around a bit, try and find the best spot...
I don't go for expensive cables etc, most of it is hugely marked up prices, and this level of equipment doesn't justify IMHO.

2nd option...buy some head phones ...sorry bit harsh, but without a correct set-up you are wasting your time !

Finally everyone has there own "quality level" what works for them.... maybe yours is higher than your current equipment.....but I feel you are far from hearing what it can do.....
 
mcmad said:
:o

I normally avoid just cringe & avoid the snake oil posts, but I have to jump in on this one..

unless you are using cable runs with differences of hundreds of feet you wont get any problems with different cable lengths, you are talking 1-2 nano seconds propogation delay with a 3M speaker cable with a decent CSA, humans can only detect shifts in the millisecond range, thats a factor of a 1000 larger.
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Any change in length is going to give you phase errors. I know what you are getting at though (A 7.5km difference in cable length is needed for a phase shift of pi @ 20kHz) BUT phase shifts in millidegrees have been tenously linked to differences in percieved sound quality.

The difference in capacitance/resistance/interference WILL make a difference though (not to phasing errors, admittedly).

I am not the greatest believer in cables (as you would know if you have read my posts in here) but my degree is opening my eyes to fractional things that might appear to be mathematically insignificant but have a measurable effect on things.

After all, test have proved that frequencies as high as 100kHz have an effect on percieved sound quality (as well as ECG traces showing increased brain activity, despite the candidates claiming not to be able to hear anything at all) . People still believe that the 20-20k rule still applies though.
 
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