Alchemist Kraken bit of advice please

Hi all,
Looking for a bit of advice. I've recently got my much lusted after Alchemist Kraken pre & power amps setup with some new speakers, Monitor Audio Bronze BR5 floorstanders.
Unfortunately they have no choice but to live on opposites sides of the room so I have 7m speaker cables running between them and I must say I'm somewhat disappointed with the sound.
As promised there is plenty of power but the sound is muddy & lacking in clarity. I know these amps are a little more traditional sounding than modern equipment but this is more than that.
Anyone have any experience with these amps, are they very sensitive to cables? I've tried to separate them from power feeds as best as possible and the interconnects couldn't be any shorter.
Just out of interest the volume control has to be kept right down to keep the sound at a reasonable level (on a 1-10 scale less than 2), don't suppose there's a fault here is there or is that a symptom of 6ohm speakers?
Any & all advice gladly received.
Thanks
Jon

 

The amps are good and wont be responsible for such a gross effect unless faulty.
More likely down to the strange speaker placement .
If you can temporarily put the speakers in a more usual position, try that and see what happens.

 

Hi Rob,
Thanks, maybe a misunderstanding. It's not the speakers that are on opposite sides of the room but the system on one side and the speakers (surrounding the tv) on the other, hence the 7m cable run between system & speakers.
The speakers are relatively packed in close to the corner of the room but not much I can do about that.

 

If youre puttting the speakers into a place where they sound muddy, options I woud say are -

1) best option - use room acoustic materials to improve the bass - especially bass traps around the speakers
2) when you've reached the limits of acoustic treatment, you can use digital eq to finish the job.

I much prefer the 'sound' (as if it has a sound) of 1) as opposed to 2), which is IMO the poor relation of making a room sound good.

Im sure if you go into a hifi shop it will be all about cables, cd players, amps etc... hifi shops dont sell the products we're talking about here.

 

Thanks Bottleneck,
I'll try dragging the speakers out into the room & see if things improve, they won't be able to stay there but at least I'll be able to stop worrying.
Bass certainly isn't a problem, plenty of very hard hitting bass no problem it's the clarity of the sound thats the issue. The system sounds like a hifi as opposed to sounding like the real thing, if that makes sense.

 

the acoustics of the room are a much bigger factor than equipment by far.

I recently heard a £1,500 system show a clean pair of heels to a £25,000 system - purely down to the room differences.

Not an exageration, the cheap system sounded loads better - and the £25k system was far superior equipment (in every way)

 

i used to be invived with alchemist, are they the chrome/gold nob version?

 

Check the speaker cable for connections. Muddy sound seems like one of the speakers polarity wrong.

 

Put your ears right next to the tweeters - they are definitely working aren't they?

7 metres of speaker cable shouldn't be an issue, in case you were thinking that.

 

is it the dual psu unit or the single psu? we had two versions.

 

Good call - easy mistake to make.

 

Hello all & thanks for everyone's input.
I've checked everything over inc. speakers cables etc. and it turns out it was indeed positioning.
I've moved the room around so I could get some distance between the speakers & tv as well as the rear wall & things are much better now.
Much clearer sound & much better separation.
Clarity still isn't as good as I would like but I'm putting that down to the cabling all coiled up behind the new speaker positions & a poor source unit.
I'm still amazed that the amps need to be turned down so low all the time but I guess they were intended to be hooked up to some good old hard to drive esoteric units.
So save up & get some better (shorter) cables & a new CD player.
Anyone got a matching cd player going cheap??
Thanks all
Jon

 

Coiled cable can potentially act as an inductor which is why it is not recommended - of course it depends on how much is coiled up and how tightly they are coiled.

 

The BR5s may benefit from one of their foam port bungs being fitted (normally in the rear port), they are a fairly ripe sounding speaker so either need a bit of space behind/around them or the bungs fitted (or a combination of both).
I don't recommend using both bungs (front and rear) as the bass wont seem to 'breathe' as well.

The speakers are the weaker link in my experience (they're not bad, just what you expect for a budget floorstander). I too have a soft spot for the Kraken amps and feel they will really come to life with a speaker upgrade.

 

Hi Peter,
I've got the speakers well out from the wall now (18"ish) & they're sounding quite nice. I went for those speakers as they gave the best result in the price range I could afford and they gave nice clear results at low volumes, which is what I need living in a first floor flat with a wooden floor.
I'm going to audition some cd players next, see if the results are worth the spend or just improve cabling.

 

Sorry if I came across as a bit anti the BR5, not my intention, I've been selling these speakers for a few years so do like them, they're the best i've found at their price/size range.

 

Sorry for reviving an old thread but seemed a good place to start.
So a few years down the line and setup/rooms have changed again.
I eventually managed to find a second matching power amp and was blown away by the difference a pair of mono blocks can make, it just the extra punch but every note delivered SO much more cleary.
At the same time I was also offered a matching Kraken cd player and it seemed a shame not to complete "the set".
So back to speakers again, again due to room constraints they need to be wall mounted, there is zero floor space not even for stands. So I'm on the look out for a recomendation for something that can cope with being up close to a wall in a corner, not too big and that is going to play nicely with my beautiful amps.
Def not looking for anything that is base heavy, low end needs to be well controlled.
So over to you guys, what do you think anyone with personal experience?
Cheers all.
Jon

 

high recomend them, a wonderfull speaker. imo