Disappointed with new amp
blueisthecolour
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Years ago I bought a hi-fi system from Richer Sounds which consisted of a Cambridge Audio A5 amp and a pair of Mordaunt-Short speakers. I absolutely loved it, the sound I got out was amazing and it used it as my home sound system for everything. However last year the A5 packed up so I borrowed a amp of my uncle (which by coincidence was was an older version of the same model (CA A500)) and surprising the sound quality wasn't much different.
Nevertheless, I decided it was about time I bought a new amp so I went back down Richer Sounds last week and ended up getting the Cambridge Audio Topaz A10. I wanted to get the A5 again but the sales assistant convinced me that if I had the money I was better off with the A10. So I set it all up and i've got to say that i'm pretty disappointed with the sound. Everything just sounds flat - I mean there's obviously decent bass but I'm not getting anywhere near as full a sound as before.
I was wondering if it has anything to do with the fact that the A10 doesn't have bi-wire output like my others did? I read online before buying that bi-wiring is basically a '£100 scart lead' scam and the assistant said the same, so I wasn't bothered about it. I've still go bi-wire coming out of the outputs into the speakers though in case they needed it.
I'm not sure what advice i'm after here, just hoped people could give me some tips or reassurance.
Nevertheless, I decided it was about time I bought a new amp so I went back down Richer Sounds last week and ended up getting the Cambridge Audio Topaz A10. I wanted to get the A5 again but the sales assistant convinced me that if I had the money I was better off with the A10. So I set it all up and i've got to say that i'm pretty disappointed with the sound. Everything just sounds flat - I mean there's obviously decent bass but I'm not getting anywhere near as full a sound as before.
I was wondering if it has anything to do with the fact that the A10 doesn't have bi-wire output like my others did? I read online before buying that bi-wiring is basically a '£100 scart lead' scam and the assistant said the same, so I wasn't bothered about it. I've still go bi-wire coming out of the outputs into the speakers though in case they needed it.
I'm not sure what advice i'm after here, just hoped people could give me some tips or reassurance.
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If you don't have both sets of speaker terminals connected to the amp then you will only be driving either the bass or treble speaker depending on which speaker terminals you were using.
That would certainly be the first thing to check.
Yes, I bought some more bi-wire cable and wired up both sets of points on each speaker to the output on the amp.
It's a pity that the sales advisor didn't recommend something like the Denon PMA-720AE over the AM10, there's only £20 difference.
Par for the course though, as Richer Sounds are the only retailer that sell Cambridge Audio. I'm not knocking Cambridge Audio as a brand, they make some good kit.
But as they sell the Denon for almost half retail price at £189, it has bugger all margin in it for them. The AM10 makes them a few quid - lots more margin.
If you're sure everything is working as it should and you're not happy and you've not had it for 7 working days (returns policy) then change it for something else.
Hi. What does that mean?
Basically, I twisted together the two ends on each bi-wire and then connected them to the amp. I then bi-wired the speakers as normal.
In crude terms the noise is made by the speaker cone moving in and out. If the speakers are in phase the cones move in and out together in synch. if they are out of phase one moves out while the other moves in.
What this does is cause sounds to partially cancel each other out and leads to a poorly defined stereo image.
So it is important that the +ve terminals on the amp are wired to the +ve terminals on the speakers and -ve to -ve. Having speaker cables with different wire colours helps but I have used cables where the only way to tell which wire is which is a ridge in the insulation down one of the pair. In that instance it is all too easy to get them wrong.
So worth double checking you've got the wiring all correct.
Ah, no that was the first thing I checked.
One thing I did notice was that when I took the wiring out of the 'HF' points on my speakers it appeared to make no difference (whilst removing the 'LF' ones completely removed all bass').
That is not at all unusual. The tweeters are the most likely units to go, had to replace more than a few over the years.
Thanks for the tip,
There was some noise coming out with only the HF section connected but it was distorted and extremely 'tinny'. Do you think it's possible that I could have damaged the tweeters when I connected the new unit? I did accidentally set my cd player up to the 'Phono' output when i first tested it.
Being extremely tinny is normal for tweeters. They tend to only put out the very highest frequencies. So that isn't necessarily a fault. But distortion is potentially a fault, assuming it isn't present in the feed from the amp.