Yamaha insanity!

I am but a Yamaha Grasshopper compared to you!

Too bad you have to get so many of them speakers to get it to sound good.

You know, that is a good question. When my buddies are over, I like to start with one speaker on and progressively turn on more. This is a great demonstration of sound re-inforcement. While one pair is very nice, I'm willing to bet once you hear the added fullness and body, you will not go back.

I think it depends on what you enjoy. For some people imaging, sound stage, and time coherence are critical for their enjoyment. With multiple pairs of speakers those aspects of a recording will suffer. What you gain from multiple pairs of speakers is a wall of sound that is very dynamic at any level due to the speakers reinforcing each other. I imagine your system sounds very seductive.

Going mutli, I was concerned cohesion would suffer because of phase differences between the speakers and amps. The speakers are very accurate and as it turns out, the amps have very good damping and slew performance so cohesion is not an issue.

My audio buddy and I did some critical listening over the weekend and we both agreed that the sound re-inforcement was successful. However, we both thought there was something extraneous in the lower registers from what we guessed were room effects and maybe standing waves.

I don't like the prospect of installing sound absorbing insulation or hanging wave deflecting structures. After all, my L.R. is not a sound stage. It turns out the speakers sitting on the oak tables were causing secondary vibration because gravity alone was not coupling the speaker to the floor. The solution was relatively simple. I installed half inch rubber feet with two sided tape.

The new sound is much improved with greater balance and resolution. I've lost a little overall bass but the good bass remains. Next time my buddy is over for a listen, it will be interesting if he has the same impression.

how high of SPL's can you get out of that, say, with the amps all running full output into the speakers?

That's a good question. Next time I have the audio buddies over, I'll have to get my meter out and try. For now, I'm guessing at 10 watts per speaker, the sound is probably close to 110. I've seen 50 watt peaks on my meters but by then it is painfully loud, maybe pushing close to 120 dB. Going full power isn't going to give much more dB's.

BTW, the balance stays good even at these elevated levels. While the high spl is causing pain, it is not the fatiguing type of pain I get from listening to HPM-100's at 90 dB.

It took a couple of weeks of speaker placement tweaking to get the soundstage just right. At first, the image was too centered so I pushed the centers back. This resulted in boomy bass from being too close to the back wall and for having too much table in from of the speaker. The reflections amplified the bass. So, I positioned all the speakers forward and then staggered them so that they were more or less equal distant to my listening chair. All of the cones point directly to my chair. It's just right now.

The main system has changed drastically since my last report. I'm still running NS-1000M's but only one pair now. The amp is a McIntosh MC275V, the preamp is a MAC C2300, and the CDP is a Luxman D-109 used as a transport with a Aragaon D2A DAC.

Great system you got there, but Sam what happen to Classé preamp?
Can you post some pics of your new setup?

The Classé is on the sideline with the PC2002M's.

Here is a pic. Note the old stock smooth plate 12AX7 Telefunkens in the black tray.

Smashing system Sam. Those Mac's are just incredible. I'm also a big Telefunken fan. Fat sound with lots of detail.
Congrats.

I have enough Tele's to do both my amps and the C2300 mains. I'll need to find a local tubie who can test them so I match.