Rega Speaker Recommendations

Discussion in 'Audio Hardware' started by timnor, Jul 14, 2017.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. timnor

    timnor Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Germany
    Well I learnt my lesson the hard way. In August I arranged for my speakers to be transported from northern Germany to my home in the south. According to the previous owner they were picked up. The transport company then claimed they hadn't been. Disappeared. Gone. I had to report the issue to the Police, send endless emails and finally, after I'd more or less given up a further threatening letter for some reason resulted in them being delivered today. 6 months after purchase. They were only wrapped in two layers of bubble wrap. I was worried that they'd be seriously damaged but the speaker units all seem to be fine and all I see is corner bumps. I have set them up and they sound fine. I have a few questions:

    • Considering they have been laid down in a dusty van and warehouse for months is there anything I should do other than clean and dust them ?
    • I have wooden floorboards with a cavity underneath. Are spikes necessary for the sound ?
    • Bass units facing inward or outward. How is this expected to effect the sound ? I have the impression the bass is louder and more balanced when facing outward.

    Just so glad to have received these.
     
  2. Morbius

    Morbius Forum Resident

    Location:
    Brookline, MA
    Its a matter of what position works best. Facing in our out does more to curtail boom or deal with room modes than making it louder. Personally I have mine facing in because it eliminates that slight bit of overhand I was getting with them facing out. Its what works best in my room.
     
  3. timnor

    timnor Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Germany

    Thanks for the reply. Anyone know if I should purchase spikes ?
     
  4. Bert Oz

    Bert Oz Forum Resident

    Location:
    London
    I have a similar floor and have spikes to couple the speakers to the floor. I use pucks to prevent marks. There are quite a few disagreements on-line about the impact of using spikes on sound quality but for me it was about ensuring the speakers are stable. I also quite like how they look. The speakers also came with soft feet and I tried both them and the spikes. To be honest I couldn't hear any difference in sound quality so I went with spikes because I liked the look and they increased the height slightly. Just my opinion and others may have different experiences. Why not see if you can borrow some and experiment.
     
  5. vinylvin

    vinylvin Forum Resident

    Location:
    MA
    I use Morrow Audio SP-3 for RS-7s with great results. 35% off right now. The only problem
    is it takes along time for them to make them.

    As far as spikes, for the RS-7s they sound a lot better (to me) with the spikes. With my Polk
    LSi 15s they sound worse with spikes.

    SP3 Reference (24 runs of Morrow SSI wire)
     
  6. timnor

    timnor Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Germany
    Thanks for the replies. I wonder if other RS3 owners can confirm my impressions because I am still worried that the speakers have
    been damaged in transport.

    Compared to my old B&W these speakers sound like the music is less ballsy, more air, more detail. Sometimes I feel the bass is lacking
    but then when I focus on the bass I feel any more would be too much. The bass side speakers are facing outwards. When I lean in to hear
    the bass speakers it's sometimes hard to tell if they are working. I can feel the vibrations when placing my hand in front of the side speaker.
    When I remove the cover and lightly touch them I can feel them vibrating but this is not really visible.
    There is no distortion. Sometimes though I feel the sound is "overloaded". Hard to describe. No distortion but I feel I need to turn the music
    down. Does this all sound normal ? I listened to Scott 4 on CD and the bass in the left speaker was fantastic really mind blowing.
    Floyd Wish You Were Here sounds like the guitar is being played in the room.
     
  7. KT88

    KT88 Senior Member

    I doubt anything inside the speakers were damaged. Bummer that the cabinet edges were. You are probably just hearing the differences between the brands and models of speakers. To determine if one of the speakers is performing better or worse than the other, you need to do some simple listening tests. Speakers need to be in a fairly close to mirror image position relationship to room boundaries. With a mono recording as source, you can just use a balance control to left, then right and listen for any major differences. If you don't have a balance control, you can carefully disconnect a speaker lead from one and listen, then reattach and do the same with the other. This will isolate the speakers with the same signal and should readily reveal any differences. If you can't tell if there is a difference, then all is well.
    -Bill
     
    timnor likes this.
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.

Share This Page

molar-endocrine