Just moved into a new music room where I can turn the wick up a tad without risking divorce
Ran a test disc to check out the frequency response of my trusty and beloved old Epos speakers, ES14s I think. Very noticeably weak on the two lowest test tones so I checked out subwoofers. Bought a secondhand Wharfdale via eBay for 70-odd quid by way of experiment, and oh the difference!
Early testing took me to the opening of Solti's Rheingold and it was quickly apparent that all I'd really been getting through the Eposes was upper partials of the bottom Eb on the double basses, little if any of the note itself. Similar transformation of the start of Reiner's Zarathustra. Yet it's not all hi-fi demo stuff, it's the ease of hearing detail in the bass lines of an awful lot of music. I've just tried a HIPP recording of the Trout quintet with a suddenly fully present db
I say 'fully present', which will probably get Jayne and other real audiophiles crying into their Chardonnay
But it is a big and very cheap upgrade for me. Strongly recommended to others with not-that-huge main speakers!
Ran a test disc to check out the frequency response of my trusty and beloved old Epos speakers, ES14s I think. Very noticeably weak on the two lowest test tones so I checked out subwoofers. Bought a secondhand Wharfdale via eBay for 70-odd quid by way of experiment, and oh the difference! Early testing took me to the opening of Solti's Rheingold and it was quickly apparent that all I'd really been getting through the Eposes was upper partials of the bottom Eb on the double basses, little if any of the note itself. Similar transformation of the start of Reiner's Zarathustra. Yet it's not all hi-fi demo stuff, it's the ease of hearing detail in the bass lines of an awful lot of music. I've just tried a HIPP recording of the Trout quintet with a suddenly fully present db
I say 'fully present', which will probably get Jayne and other real audiophiles crying into their Chardonnay
But it is a big and very cheap upgrade for me. Strongly recommended to others with not-that-huge main speakers!
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