DaveStL

That's imaging! On a good recording, you can close your eyes and point to each voice or instrument across the stage, know how wide it is and how far away.

Can't believe I haven't suggested this--Alison Kraus and Union Station, New Favorite (pretty much the entire CD). Well recorded, both male and female vocals, small group w/ well-defined 3-D soundstage. On a good system, they are in the room with you. Great for hearing strings attack and decay. Plus (on a couple tracks) you get to hear her doing something she really likes--singing songs that make you feel like crap.

Criticssssss' Choicssssse, firsssssst Cut on Chicago VI. And there'ssss sssssome other weird ssssstuff goin on w/ that recording. Both vinyl and CD.

Welcome! I got into Carver gear later in life, too. Beware, there is no known cure for OCCD (obsessive-compulsive Carver disease).

Welcome! I'm an odd duck when it comes to sources. I like physical media--books, records, CD's, and DVD's. Beyond issues w/ compression, there's just something more when I physically, rather than virtually, manipulate them. Glad to have you aboard.

For jazz guys, either the Kenton or Ferguson version of the Chick Corea tune: La Fiesta It appears no one has mentioned: Head East--Never Been Any Reason AC/DC--Back in Black Van Halen--Jump And, dare I say it: Rick James--Superfreak

I was always partial to Russ Kunkel. Maybe not the virtuoso, but he could play with anyone, and did play with practically everyone.

Adjusting toe-in might help imaging, and might allow you to bring the speakers a little forward of the monitors. Try getting perpendiculars from the speaker faces to cross somewhere between the tip of your nose and just behind your ears; from the picture it looks like they cross several feet behind you. Could cause head-in-a-vise effect, but it doesn't seem worse than what you describe now IDK if putting the speakers a little lower and forward (almost on the desk) might give some boundary reinforcement for the bass--it works for farfield/floorstanders. Or you could try making side-baffles to simulate a wall. Or could you put the speakers on the back wall, esp. close to the corners, w/ appropriate toe? You wouldn't be facing the soundstage, though--kind of like car audio. Tough nut to crack! edits--I see Dom and Jim have beaten me to some of these ideas.

I still play w/ position of the IIIa's, depending on the recording. A couple inches spread and a couple degrees toe make big differences. Assuming you're not trying near-field. Pull 'em out as far as you can, but balance that w/ sitting far enough away. Also, a big TV/entertainment center in between will push the stage forward. When messing w/ tweeters in vs. out, a good starting point is equal tweeter spacing. Mine are in. This might be obvious: the 1.6's will lobe a little (is that the right word?), and the 3.x's do to a lesser extent. Try sitting down vs. standing at the listening position--when positioning, don't trust what they sound like till you sit. Line-level biamping helps the (my) bass more than you might think based on just power/headroom. Great catch. Let us know what you determine is optimal.

Talk about a frightening visual.

Saw a few of your posts on CarverAudio. Nice sense of humor. Welcome!

+1 on DSOTM. This one is up there:

Welcome, kcetp. Nice rig--I will look up those speakers. BTW, there are a number of folks here w/ dipoles (I have Maggies).

Welcome! I doubt you'll be bored on this board. (Did I really type that? ) You love them to pieces, but somettimes they turn out untrainable. My wife and I are both ChE's and our son is in college studying philosophy. At least he likes music. What do you hear that's different? My 1.5 t's seem to have tighter bass than the 4.0t, but the 4.0t is smoother in the mids and highs.

When I had my Advents done, the repair guy had an electronic way of measuring them for center, and didn't have to remove the dust caps. I have heard (but not experienced) that that's the only other option to "perfectly" center them.

I wonder if the Kappas' point-source drivers in a vertical stack make them better perpendicular to the wall. My Maggies like a little toe-in. The Amazings have the tall ribbon, so if you're trying to optimize them for a center seat (which the OP is not), they might do better toed-in. Distance from the front wall also affects my optimal toe-in; the tweeters are currently 3'10" out, although there's a big entertainment center between them and 1'8" behind them. I suspect that's why my soundstage extends in front of the speakers, and probably also affects the toe-in. I should really post pics, but I'm embarrassed about the center channel (still an Advent 1 sitting on the floor).

Congratulations, Gene, and thank you, Daddyjt.

Really nice--thank you for doing this. In, please!

What he said. Good folks here. You might check out "What are you listening to right now?"--it's exposed me to stuff I wouldn't have otherwise seen. Welcome!

I think you are refering to locking an amp on the high rail. Here are a few quotes about the phenomenon: That's it! Obviously not an issue here.

Yeah, calling them woofers is probably more accurate, although 25 Hz is low for a full-range speaker. A la zumbini, I pulled up the receiver manual: http://data.manualslib.com/pdf/4/383/38289-denon/avr3600.pdf?3838aa56eab23eb7c66cbaf025c0141b The AVR-3600 has a fixed crossover frequency for small speakers to a sub, at 80 Hz. The manual mentions that Dolby AC-3 contains information in the LFE (the ".1") below 120 Hz, but that's not the most important thing here, esp. for stereo music. If you run the fronts as small and split the the sub output to another amp and then to the two woofers, you'll be sending the mid/tweet a signal down to 80 Hz; the speakers' internal high pass will block some of that, so you'll lose a lot between 80 Hz and 125 Hz. If you want to biamp, the easiest solution is to run the fronts as large, split the front pre outs to separate power amps, and run a power amp channel to each of the speaker sections (a total of four), with the speaker jumpers removed. This is called passive biamping (don't be confused by the reference in the NHT manual about making the sub active). Then you would need a dedicated sub for the home-theater rumble. If you don't use a separate sub, set Subwoofer to "No"; I think in 5.1 mode this receiver will reroute the LFE to large fronts. Actively biamping as zumbini describes (as I do) often gives a big improvement in detail. You would need active line-level crossovers and would have to get into the speakers and bypass the woofer low-pass, and ideally part of the mid-tweet XO. The mid-tweet could have been built a couple different ways, so that would require talking w/ NHT or figuring out the circuit. I agree, it's probably better (and far easier) not to mess w/ the mid-tweet crossover. Even if the receiver crossover frequency could be adjusted to 125 Hz, I think you'd still have a response dip because the crossovers aren't perfectly sharp--they have slopes, and you'd be stacking them. The receiver XO could also cause more phase shift, which is beyond the scope of this discussion. There can be an issue running certain amps over a limited range. There is a thread here somewhere on that; maybe someone else will chime in if it's going to be a problem w/ your amps. I ran a pair of M1.5ts, and later a 1.5t and a 4.0t, in an active biamp configuration w/o any problems before moving to the Sunfire. Stereo is so much simpler! Unless we make it complicated....

From reading the manual, it appears that you can't defeat the crossover w/o opening up the speakers. When you remove the jumper, the bass amp will be going through the low-pass filter to the subwoofer, and the mid-tweet amp will be going through the high pass. The manual tells you to send an identical signal to both, because the internal crossover and drivers are matched for that. So use amps w/ the same sensitivity on highs and lows, or you'll need to level-match w/ a volume control. Somebody should have specs on the Carver amp sensitivities--they might well be the same. The Sunfire theater amp channels all have the same sensitivity. You can run the VT-2s full-range (on my Pioneer, I tell the receiver my front L/R are "Large") or you can unload some of the bass from your VT-2 by telling the receiver to cross over at whatever frequency it allows and send information below that to another sub on the LFE output. If you do that, the power requirements of the VT-2 bass will be lower.

Welcome, Hibernator! Although YMMV, I have found that OCCD is like a fever that breaks for a while and then spikes. Best palliative care is to listen to the music.

I'm not sure congratulations is in order, but THANK YOU certainly is.... (Just kidding about the first part!)

Now that you mention it, these are on ebay right now: Dominator plate amp Dominator driver