asents
Novice Member
I recently became the very happy owner of a pair of KEF LS50s. I can truly say that all the superlatives lavished on these speakers are absolutely warranted. I have had them for more than 3 months and can't wait to luxuriate in the sound when i come back from work.
I am having a bit of an issue though, and wanted to see whether anyone can enlighten me on what I could be doing wrong.
Whenever I turn up the volume at approx 100% source (iTunes) and 60-70% amplifier, I get an exceptionally nasty distortion of the bass - most pronounced with hip hop music - in particularly the Roots, who have IMHO a very well produced, albeit bass heavy sound. I have read left right and centre and have not been able to come across anyone who has had the same issue. This is my first 'serious' system - prior to this i had a Denon 720/Tannoy Mercury set up i was quite pleased with, and didn't have such issues.
Hypotheses I have ruled out:
- aggressive amplification/distortion at source - my pre-amp in iTunes is one tick above -12db, and i maintain iTunes volume at approx 75% at all times. For no reason other than it seems right
- quality of production - have tried with other music, and bit rates - the issue persists, but manifests at different volume levels
Hypotheses I haven't ruled out but seem plausible:
- Amp too powerful - max output is 160W per channel, whereas the KEFLS50s are recommended to pair with 25 - 100W; likewise, stated max output for the speakers is 106db - i have no indication of what the amp outputs but, non-scientifically speaking, it does very regularly go over the 100db mark/ Surely an amp that's too powerful shouldn't have this effect on the speakers, plus my prior experience with Denon 720/tannoys seemed a more 'even' pairing and could explain why this is happening in my case.
Set up:
KEF LS50 > Chord Epic Cables (6m each) > Yamaha AS 2100 > Airport Express > iTunes - largely 320 kbps and on rare occasions 192 kbps MP3s
Thank you and sorry for the lengthy post
I am having a bit of an issue though, and wanted to see whether anyone can enlighten me on what I could be doing wrong.
Whenever I turn up the volume at approx 100% source (iTunes) and 60-70% amplifier, I get an exceptionally nasty distortion of the bass - most pronounced with hip hop music - in particularly the Roots, who have IMHO a very well produced, albeit bass heavy sound. I have read left right and centre and have not been able to come across anyone who has had the same issue. This is my first 'serious' system - prior to this i had a Denon 720/Tannoy Mercury set up i was quite pleased with, and didn't have such issues.
Hypotheses I have ruled out:
- aggressive amplification/distortion at source - my pre-amp in iTunes is one tick above -12db, and i maintain iTunes volume at approx 75% at all times. For no reason other than it seems right
- quality of production - have tried with other music, and bit rates - the issue persists, but manifests at different volume levels
Hypotheses I haven't ruled out but seem plausible:
- Amp too powerful - max output is 160W per channel, whereas the KEFLS50s are recommended to pair with 25 - 100W; likewise, stated max output for the speakers is 106db - i have no indication of what the amp outputs but, non-scientifically speaking, it does very regularly go over the 100db mark/ Surely an amp that's too powerful shouldn't have this effect on the speakers, plus my prior experience with Denon 720/tannoys seemed a more 'even' pairing and could explain why this is happening in my case.
Set up:
KEF LS50 > Chord Epic Cables (6m each) > Yamaha AS 2100 > Airport Express > iTunes - largely 320 kbps and on rare occasions 192 kbps MP3s
Thank you and sorry for the lengthy post