mapmustang
Well-known member
Well, my system got hit by lightning Saturday morning, and even though I had power conditioners on everything, my Sunfire amp and Velodyne sub got hit. Called Belkin and they said to send them to service to get estimates so I thought it would be a good time to audition some new equipment. I called around and there is only one Tweeter in Houston that has the Summits on display, so I went there to hopefully partake in some audio nirvana.
I got there and told the guy I'd like to listen to the Summits and the Krell amps they got to replace the B&K. First they couldn't get the system to work and it took them a few minutes to figure out what was wrong. After they cleared that up, the demo the sales guy brought in was scratched, but luckily I had brought some music of my own.
The system they had set up was the Summits in black with the aluminum trim (which was awesome looking), the Krell KAV280p preamp ($3500), the Krell KAV2250 amp ($4500), and the Krell SACD Standard($4000). Compared to my Ascent i's, B&K, and Sunfire, a much pricier system. Initially I noticed the transparency of the sound was much better than what I have. After a few seconds though I could tell that the soundstage was very poor, there was almost zero bass response, and effects seemed exaggurated to the point that it cluttered the music.
Based on people's stories of Summits on these forums and also of their Krell equipment, I'm guessing they had that system set up as poorly as possible. I sat about a foot left of center and only heard the left channel. When I sat dead center it cleared up somewhat but still lacked focus. One thing I noticed was that the panels seemed to be leaning back a good bit, like the rear feet were set too low. I looked at the Vantages and they seemed to have the panels more upright. I'm guessing the poor imaging could be due to them toeing the speakers too wide as they sat at least 10-12 feet apart and were barely toed in.
I hope the speakers are more forgiving than the tiny sweet spot I heard today, as I should be getting accomodation at work on Logans in the next few months and hoped to replace my Ascents with Summits. I guess it goes to show you can have a bunch of expensive gear and still have it sound bad if not set up properly. And my listening area at home is very far from ideal, so I don't have a warped reference point. If you guys have any words of wisdom regarding setup or have had any similar audition experiences, they would be appreciated. Since I have no Logans for the next few days, thought I'd post a complaint.
I got there and told the guy I'd like to listen to the Summits and the Krell amps they got to replace the B&K. First they couldn't get the system to work and it took them a few minutes to figure out what was wrong. After they cleared that up, the demo the sales guy brought in was scratched, but luckily I had brought some music of my own.
The system they had set up was the Summits in black with the aluminum trim (which was awesome looking), the Krell KAV280p preamp ($3500), the Krell KAV2250 amp ($4500), and the Krell SACD Standard($4000). Compared to my Ascent i's, B&K, and Sunfire, a much pricier system. Initially I noticed the transparency of the sound was much better than what I have. After a few seconds though I could tell that the soundstage was very poor, there was almost zero bass response, and effects seemed exaggurated to the point that it cluttered the music.
Based on people's stories of Summits on these forums and also of their Krell equipment, I'm guessing they had that system set up as poorly as possible. I sat about a foot left of center and only heard the left channel. When I sat dead center it cleared up somewhat but still lacked focus. One thing I noticed was that the panels seemed to be leaning back a good bit, like the rear feet were set too low. I looked at the Vantages and they seemed to have the panels more upright. I'm guessing the poor imaging could be due to them toeing the speakers too wide as they sat at least 10-12 feet apart and were barely toed in.
I hope the speakers are more forgiving than the tiny sweet spot I heard today, as I should be getting accomodation at work on Logans in the next few months and hoped to replace my Ascents with Summits. I guess it goes to show you can have a bunch of expensive gear and still have it sound bad if not set up properly. And my listening area at home is very far from ideal, so I don't have a warped reference point. If you guys have any words of wisdom regarding setup or have had any similar audition experiences, they would be appreciated. Since I have no Logans for the next few days, thought I'd post a complaint.
