You know, the funny thing is the entire time I was in Santa Monica I was thinking, "Hmmm. Okay...larger room, hardwood instead of carpet..." and running through a dozen different concerns in my mind. How do I minimize reflections? Do I need to scrape for a set of M60s or 80s? Is my receiver up to the job? What about a BFD? Do I need a separate amp? I bet I could swing a Rotel or maybe a used Parasound...
And I came back to Nashville Friday night and hooked up the M22s and the subs and didn't worry about calibrating. I poured a drink or three, popped in some CDs, and you couldn't have ripped me from the couch with pepper spray and a tazer. It really sounded
that good. Saturday was spent doing more mundane things like buying a lawnmower (there goes my ICBM) and a washer & dryer (my M60s).
Sunday finally rolled around and by the end of the afternoon everything was in place and the Avia disc was in the DVD player. It turned out that my Friday night guesstimate on the subs wasn't too far off -- I'd set them 2-3db too high. But after everything was measured and dialed in correctly -- wow.
The question about spending more on equipment to achieve a similar result is certainly valid. I can think of dozens of times at my old apartment when I gave serious thought to what would be the biggest bang for the buck impovement. But what I've come to realize is:
- You really don't need as much speaker as you think you do.
- 90wpc is plenty for my room (25 X 14.5).
- A little extra volume goes a long way -- this starts to slide into the "loudness = improved sound" illusion, but we can tackle that in another post.
- The room itself makes a HUGE difference.
I still want a pair of M60s, but that's a mixture of upgradeitis and the desire for a slightly "fuller" sound that only large cabinets are capable of delivering. In the meantime, though, I couldn't be more thrilled with the performace I've discovered in my M22s. Cheers to Ian and company!
