took some time today to try a few things. Keep in mind my main concern right now is two channel music.
First thing I did was hook my old Carver tfm-15 poweramp, and CT17 pre-amp back up and start comparing back and forth. Absolutely no contest. I could care less if the sub was on at all with the Carvers powering the M80's. There's more bass with just the 80's on, then the nad with the 80's/sub together without turning the sub to insane levels of course. even at low volumes I can watch the 80's woofers bounce around easily with the bass cranked. not to mention every picture on my wall hanging on for dear life. With the NAD, I can turn it to insane volumes and there will be min movement on the woofers and my pictures are very safe. Honestly, anyone running the t773 on the m80's, you have no idea what your 80's are capable of.
That being said, I presisted to find out if it was indeed the Carver amp, or the preamp making the difference. I expected that the ct-17 preamp was just better. So, I used the NAD as the preamp, and used the Carver tfm-15 to power the m80's. Low and behold, very similar sound to using just the NAD for everything, but the mids were a little less pronounced, and highs a little different, but the bass was similar. Very hard to describe, bottom line was, very little difference and not enough for me to warrent using the Carver power amp all the time. So the NAD power amps are quite fine.
So, it's the NAD's preamp that's the pos. Little harsh I know, but for 2 grand, I expected a lot more and feel let down. Honestly, I don't think I'd even would have bought the 80's if I already had the NAD before hand. You just aren't getting the sound they are capable of. You end up relying on sub to do all of the work.
I tried playing with crossover settings. Little to no difference. Turning the speakers to large/small....same thing, no difference. There's just no bass to be found in the 80's using the nad.
So, i get to pay to send this thing back I guess. But where do i go from here? This is a pita. The room will be done in a weeks time, ready to mount screen and everything after it all sitting packed away for months. And now, I still have no amp.
My qs8's will be here Monday, as will the vp-150. I get to try everything again with those.
I have no idea what to do now...none.
