Super high end sound system...sounds bad?

[spitter]

If you have a Proceed mono amp you have mono not stereo. You need 2 mono amps to give you stereo. You stated you have speakers connected to main amp. What model Proceed amp do you have ? I am very much an audiophile and would like to help. Looks like you have the start of a great system just needs some tweeking.:cool2::drink:

 

[N80]

If you have a Proceed mono amp you have mono not stereo. You need 2 mono amps to give you stereo. You stated you have speakers connected to main amp. What model Proceed amp do you have ? I am very much an audiophile and would like to help. Looks like you have the start of a great system just needs some tweeking.:cool2::drink:

spitter, I do need help here. Let me preface this conversation by saying that there are only three reasons I carried this system over to my cabin was that #1: my old low end system is failing, #2: this system was free, #3: curiosity.

I do appreciate quality sound and I listen to music all the time. I like sitting down and listening to good music. But, I'm not an audiophile, I do not have a media room for this purpose at home or at my cabin, my friends and family are usually not interested in sitting down and listening to music outside of a casual social situation.

All of this is to say that as much as I'd like an awesome stereo system I do not have much reason to spending a lot of money to get this system up to top audiophile performance.

So, as to the amp: It is a Proceed HPA2 "dual monaural amplifier". I only found the one unit and only found one set of output cables to go to it. It was used in my cousin's media room/home theater. My quick research shows it to be between 12-19 years old. It looks new. I could swear I was getting stereo sound through it listening to Pink Floyd's Animals last night. It has "left" and "right" marked speaker outputs on the back. I'll look in the basement where I got it again to see if there is another one but I'm 99% sure there isn't one. And to be honest I'm not sure I would be willing to shoe horn another one of those monsters in my little cabin. It produces a lot of heat.

The pre-amp is an Audio Research LS16. It has tubes. It takes 45 seconds to start up. Its output cables are large 3 pin (?) deals that match up with the Proceed amp. There are no speaker outputs on the pre-amp.

If I can make this system work with what I have I'd probably do it. I might even be willing to put a couple of hundred bucks into. At normal and low casual listening volumes it is very clean and crisp to listen to so other than the space it takes up and the complicated start up there isn't a huge downside. And even with whatever flaws there are with how I have it set up, even my wife can notice a distinct quality improvement over the Bose bookshelf speakers driven by a 40 year old Toshiba 25 watt tuner/receiver.

I guess a big question is this: If I can't get this amp/pre-amp combo to work properly and in stereo there is no need for me to keep them and so what wattage basic receiver/amp combo would I need to purchase to drive these speakers and get reasonable sound quality?

Thanks for your help.

 

[sd455dan]

spitter, I do need help here. Let me preface this conversation by saying that there are only three reasons I carried this system over to my cabin was that #1: my old low end system is failing, #2: this system was free, #3: curiosity.

I do appreciate quality sound and I listen to music all the time. I like sitting down and listening to good music. But, I'm not an audiophile, I do not have a media room for this purpose at home or at my cabin, my friends and family are usually not interested in sitting down and listening to music outside of a casual social situation.

All of this is to say that as much as I'd like an awesome stereo system I do not have much reason to spending a lot of money to get this system up to top audiophile performance.

So, as to the amp: It is a Proceed HPA2 "dual monaural amplifier". I only found the one unit and only found one set of output cables to go to it. It was used in my cousin's media room/home theater. My quick research shows it to be between 12-19 years old. It looks new. I could swear I was getting stereo sound through it listening to Pink Floyd's Animals last night. It has "left" and "right" marked speaker outputs on the back. I'll look in the basement where I got it again to see if there is another one but I'm 99% sure there isn't one. And to be honest I'm not sure I would be willing to shoe horn another one of those monsters in my little cabin. It produces a lot of heat.

The pre-amp is an Audio Research LS16. It has tubes. It takes 45 seconds to start up. Its output cables are large 3 pin (?) deals that match up with the Proceed amp. There are no speaker outputs on the pre-amp.

If I can make this system work with what I have I'd probably do it. I might even be willing to put a couple of hundred bucks into. At normal and low casual listening volumes it is very clean and crisp to listen to so other than the space it takes up and the complicated start up there isn't a huge downside. And even with whatever flaws there are with how I have it set up, even my wife can notice a distinct quality improvement over the Bose bookshelf speakers driven by a 40 year old Toshiba 25 watt tuner/receiver.

I guess a big question is this: If I can't get this amp/pre-amp combo to work properly and in stereo there is no need for me to keep them and so what wattage basic receiver/amp combo would I need to purchase to drive these speakers and get reasonable sound quality?

Thanks for your help.

Did a little looking and the Proceed amp IS a stereo amplifier- it can accept XLR inputs or the more common RCA style -from your description the AR tube Pre-amp is wired with XLR (balanced) interconnects which should be better quality sound.


I think you are Good to go with what you have now and it all is Very high end equipment.
The Proceed dual mono amp is a very capable 250 watt for Each of the 2 channels which should power Any speakers you may want to drive now or in the future.

found an ebay listing for a used AR LS-16 that sold in 2016 for $1250

Quality Vintage stereo equipment holds its value very well and is prized.






A thought on input sources- for some music i use a little mp3 player as an input source.
many people also use their phones and stream pandora or other music sources.
to adapt to your AR LS16 preamp to these you just need a 1/8" stereo phono plug to RCA stereo connectors.

Connect new source to the RCA AUX inputs on the back of the pre amp set to AUX on the front panel of AR LS-16 and enjoy.

ps. most mp3 players have selectable modes that can add some bass if needed to

 

[N80]

Did a little looking and the Proceed amp IS a stereo amplifier- it can accept XLR inputs or the more common RCA style -from your description the AR tube Pre-amp is wired with XLR (balanced) interconnects which should be better quality sound.


I think you are Good to go with what you have now and it all is Very high end equipment.

found an ebay listing for the AR LS-16 that sold in 2016 selling price $1250

Quality Vintage stereo equipment holds its value very well and is prized by some.




A thought on input sources- for some music i use a little mp3 player as an input source.
many people also use their phones and stream pandora or other music sources.
to adapt to your AR LS16 preamp to these you just need a 1/8" stereo phono plug to RCA stereo connectors.

Connect new source to the RCA AUX inputs on the back of the pre amp set to AUX on the front panel of AR LS-16 and enjoy.

Thank you very much for doing that research! That is a big help. Right now I'm inclined to keep it all.....just so I won't have to take it back to my brother-in-laws basement! ;-).

And now that I have an idea that I have it all basically hooked up right....and the sound quality I was hearing last night was actually good....it is really nice to listen too. It will be like having a Porsche 911 for getting groceries in (which it will do just fine) 99% of the time and taking it to the track once a year. There will be times at the cabin when my wife isn't there and I'm in the mood to listen and those will be nice...and all for free.

The Onkyo home entertainment unit is big, very complicated and difficult to use (unless you have a bunch of pre-sets done) and its remote is missing. I might ditch it and get a simpler Onkyo tuner/receiver (about $200) with Bluetooth and USB which has output ports which can be run to the pre-amp. I realize quality input = quality output but I think for my purposes for the unit (iTunes and local FM station) it will be fine.

Thanks again!

 

[N80]

I can just about guarantee you adding a Linn Sondek turntable on the front side would change things drastically providing two things are available. One - a good quality album and Two - possibly enough time to get used to hearing something different. It may take a little while, but you値l soon notice that the speakers may seem to disappear and you can actually place each person and instrument.

My roommate in college (1980s) was wealthy (it was great having a rich roommate!). He had a really nice B&O turntable (it had its own suspension), Dahlquist speakers, Nakamichi tape deck and a Carver receiver/amp combo. It was amazing.

Anyway, this system has a Sony turntable. Direct drive for whatever that is worth (I thought that was worse). Hooked it up to my old system at home today and got out some old albums. Some of them seem worn and the sound quality is dull and flat but I found a copy of Reggatta de Blanc by the Police. It looked brand new and it sounded amazing. Can't wait to listen to it on the big system at the cabin.

 

[N80]

I looked up Linn turntables. $4000.

 

[om21braz]

I looked up Linn turntables. $4000.

Wow! At one time many moons ago I had a Linn Axis - $500 then, the LP12 was about $1000.

 

[spitter]

Like sd455dan said Proceed dual mono amp is stereo. Doesn't make any sense that they call it that because every other stereo amp is just that takes line level voltage and boost it to speaker level voltage. So u do have stereo.:thumbsup: If you brother in law spent that kind of money to bi - wire [not bi -amp]He probally has some good interconnects [RCA wires] no need to change these. You can't hook up a intergrated receiver into a preamp. Think of the preamp as a traffic cop it takes the sorce signal [tuner,cd player,] and routes it to the amp . To use a phono u must have a phono stage .I was looking up your ls 16 and some have a phono some don't .Is it a mark 1 or mk2 . Just make shure it's pluged into a input that says phono. If u want fm/am just by a tuner . Us audio mart has some nice vintage tuners for $50.If u like animals do u get into their older stuff like Meddle ,Works,Uma guma?Happy listening!:cool2::drink:

 

[N80]

Like sd455dan said Proceed dual mono amp is stereo. Doesn't make any sense that they call it that because every other stereo amp is just that takes line level voltage and boost it to speaker level voltage. So u do have stereo.:thumbsup: If you brother in law spent that kind of money to bi - wire [not bi -amp]He probally has some good interconnects [RCA wires] no need to change these. You can't hook up a intergrated receiver into a preamp. Think of the preamp as a traffic cop it takes the sorce signal [tuner,cd player,] and routes it to the amp . To use a phono u must have a phono stage .I was looking up your ls 16 and some have a phono some don't .Is it a mark 1 or mk2 . Just make shure it's pluged into a input that says phono. If u want fm/am just by a tuner . Us audio mart has some nice vintage tuners for $50.If u like animals do u get into their older stuff like Meddle ,Works,Uma guma?Happy listening!:cool2::drink:

The LS16 has a "Processor" RCA inputs and a "Processor" switch that allows you to hook up AV surround sound units like the Onkyo that came with this system. With that selected the volume control on the LS16 is disabled and you use the volume control on the surround sound unit according to the owners manual. This is how I was running the Onkyo and the sound was good (to me).

According to the manual the one I have is the MKII.

I used to own Meddle and Works. On cassette tape probably. They are long gone.

 

[spitter]

Sounds like u got it licked. I've Been buying a lot of CD's on amazon 4 short money, $5-$6 a piece no tax no shipping maybe time to refresh old stock:drink: