Do I need equalizer for my setup?

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lukas2204

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Hi all,
I'm pretty much newbie in the hifi world. Recently I bought the whole setup - B&W 603 s3 speakers along with Rotel RB-1070 amp, Rotel RC-06 pre-amp and my Rotel RCD-1070 CDP is due to come in 2 days.
As I was really eager to hear how my B&W will play once pre-amp + amp are in action, for now I connected my MP3 player to pre-amp. I was really disappointed by the sound - almost no bass even though amplifier was in action. Now I'm wondering once my cd player is here how the sound will be? On my mp3 player I have a possibility to adjust the equalizer and even though bass was totally lacking so how it will be once I connect my Rotel RCD-1070 cd player? Will I need to buy separate equalizer for my setup as pre-amp doesn't allow me to fine-tune bass and trebles?
Just for comparison, I connected my Bowers to very old Aiwa system (all in one - radio, cd-player and 2 cassette-deck) and sound is much much better then the one coming out of the amplifier.
Your suggestions and ideas are much apreciated so please feel free to have your say (even one sentence might be helpful and could bring more light to my yet poor knowledge of hifi world)

many thanks

lukas
 
Wait until you get the CD player before doing anything else.

I don't know which MP3 player you have but it's entirely possible that the device will have rolled-down bass because it will be designed to drive earbuds. Such things typically have no low bass therefore the player doesn't need to produce it. It makes what little power these things produce go further. Some are better than others.
 
I agree with Rob, that you need to wait for your pucker CD player.

However, it is also my limited experience that Rotel amps (at least the lower end ones) are thin sounding in the extreme, so if the problem persists try to borrow another amp. If you only just bought the system, I would think you can swap the amp for something else at the shop, especially if you spend a little more ;)
 
RobHolt said:
Wait until you get the CD player before doing anything else.

I don't know which MP3 player you have but it's entirely possible that the device will have rolled-down bass because it will be designed to drive earbuds. Such things typically have no low bass therefore the player doesn't need to produce it. It makes what little power these things produce go further. Some are better than others.
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Tenson said:
I agree with Rob, that you need to wait for your pucker CD player.

However, it is also my limited experience that Rotel amps (at least the lower end ones) are thin sounding in the extreme, so if the problem persists try to borrow another amp. If you only just bought the system, I would think you can swap the amp for something else at the shop, especially if you spend a little more ;)
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Rob and Tenson,
many thanks for giving me the hope.
Of course I'll wait for my CDP first and will give it a try.
Unfortunatelly I bought all my parts as second-hand items so I cannot exchange them so easily.
BTW. I have iRiver MP3 player which I use with Koss Porta Pro headphones. I've never had any real hifi parts but I was trying to buy the best sonically possible mp3 player that time when I bought it and iRiver has really great sound. But of course it's mp3 which cuts down the quality so I hope it was the source of poor sound in my case.

Just for clarification,
should pre-amp + power amp even without a choice of tuning trebles and bass be sufficient for decent sound? To be honest I was totally sure that it should be totally sufficient but friend of mine told me today that most likely I'll need to buy some equalizer which of course I didn't want to believe in.

many thanks guys
 
if you need an equaliser, then it just means something is seriously wrong with the system :)

ive heard some rotel amps sounds pretty good, so get your player and experiment with positioning.

remember your room has a huge influence on the sound of a system, so its worth experimenting with not only speaker positioning, but also your seating distance from them, and the wall behind you
 
I'd also give everything a chance to run in - you might find that the bass improves markedly with a few 10s of hours use. Plug your mp3 in and leave it on random shuffle for a couple of days. If you invert the phase of one speaker (swap black and red speaker connections on one speaker only) and place both speakers fairly close together and firing directly at each other, you can run at a fair volume overnight without intrusive noise.

Edit - just read that the items are s/h, in which case, running in will not be an issue.

In answer to your point of clarification, it should certainly be possible to achieve good sound without the use of equalisation. I'd go so far as to say that you are more likely to do harm than good by adding an EQ into the equation.
 
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I'd echo Shrink's advice regarding speaker and seat positioning. As a rule of thumb, the closer the speakers are to the rear wall, the more bass.
 
lukas2204 said:
Rob and Tenson,
many thanks for giving me the hope.
Of course I'll wait for my CDP first and will give it a try.
Unfortunatelly I bought all my parts as second-hand items so I cannot exchange them so easily.
BTW. I have iRiver MP3 player which I use with Koss Porta Pro headphones. I've never had any real hifi parts but I was trying to buy the best sonically possible mp3 player that time when I bought it and iRiver has really great sound. But of course it's mp3 which cuts down the quality so I hope it was the source of poor sound in my case.

Just for clarification,
should pre-amp + power amp even without a choice of tuning trebles and bass be sufficient for decent sound? To be honest I was totally sure that it should be totally sufficient but friend of mine told me today that most likely I'll need to buy some equalizer which of course I didn't want to believe in.

many thanks guys
Click to expand...

Those are quite nice Rotel components and you should have no problem. The power amp and CD player in particular are well regarded bits of kit.
 
Thank you very much to all of you. It was really helpful. I'll wait for my cd player and I will give it a try and will keep you updated.
If I could ask for one more advice, which interconnect cables would you recommend to me (my budget is around 40 per cable - I don't need long cable - or is my budget to low to get decent cable?)
If you think that also speaker cable could noticably improve my sound, please recommend that one as well.
I was just wondering why my Bowers sound much better on my very old Aiwa using the same cheap cable.

once again many thanks guys
 
probably not better, probably just because the aiwa is doing all kinds of horrible bass boost nonsense.

sort out the positioning and the rotel/B&W setup will reward you with ambience, space, soundstaging and punch that the aiwa system can only dream of.
 
The replies in this thread are a bit misleading regarding adding an equalizer. It all depends how you use it, and what sort you are talking about. I wouldn't have a system without a good EQ.

In good systems, the function of an EQ is not to tune the balance of the sound to your taste. It is to correct for room induced frequency response variations, so that the sound in your room is closer to what is on the disc. Its corrective EQ.

It doesn't sound like what you need in this case because the main symptom of room problems where an EQ can help is bass boom, too much bass. If you have a thin sound, its probably not something an EQ will cure properly.

Do play with speaker and listening positions in the room. It makes a huge difference.
 
if you can get hold of an xlo burnin disc [once you have your cd] this will help speed up the process ...

speakers need several hundred hours playing time at reasonable volume to loosen up .....mine took six months to produce any worth while bass ....and my diy speakers took a week ....

so I'm agreeing with all thats been said ....and second tenson when he says its for getting rid of your room nasties rather than lifting bass or treble of the system.
 
zanash said:
if you can get hold of an xlo burnin disc [once you have your cd] this will help speed up the process ...

speakers need several hundred hours playing time at reasonable volume to loosen up .....mine took six months to produce any worth while bass ....and my diy speakers took a week ....

so I'm agreeing with all thats been said ....and second tenson when he says its for getting rid of your room nasties rather than lifting bass or treble of the system.
Click to expand...

Thank you. I'll definitely give it some time.

I have one question - what's xlo burnin disc?

thanks

lukas
 
OK guys,
my CD player (Rotel RCD-1070) arrived today.
I didn't have much time for listening and specially louder listening as we live in block of flats but for comparison with my previous experience with mp3 player it was more than enough.
The bass isn't though too deep but it sounds much better comparing to mp3. I think I have to give it more time and as suggested by many of you, I'll have to find the best position for my speakers which will make the sound even better. I would expect just slightly crisper trebles but it's OK. As I always used to have 2 way speakers I have an impression that middle tones are little bit overwhelming now but I assume that's the way it should be as I was listening to Coldplay Live concert where vocals clearly belong to middle tones and that's why are kind of visible.

As I bought just for testing purposes really crappy cheap interconnect cables I would be very pleased if you could recommend me some decent interconnects (around 40 pounds each + some good speakers cable). I have also one question - can interconnect + speaker cables significantly influence bass range?
many thanks for suggestions and help

lukas
 
Hi Lukas

Thats a whole can of worms.

Some will reccomend cables to make changes, others will say just use cheap ones, that its a waste of your money.

The one thing everyone agrees on, is that you should make your own mind up disregarding magazine reviews on the topic.

On your stuff, if it doesnt cut it for you ebay it and get something else..if you bought it second hand hopefully you'll do ok. Nothing wrong with trying stuff that way.
 
Playing with speaker position will make a large change to the bass, so do play around. Rooms support some frequencies more than others as some will 'fit' in the distance between parallel walls and build up on each other... and some cancel out. Changing the speaker (and your) position in the room can change this interaction with the room massively.

If you want more bass, try moving the speakers closer to the room corners, or your listening position towards the back wall.

Do you have much option of speaker placement? If you tell me the exact dimensions of the room, some suggestions may be possible.
 

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