Sorry for the almost three weeks of disappearence. The past two weeks have been very busy; either fall-out late, or I was busy playing LaTale or surfing forums for an amp, or both.
LaTale, great game, rushed to level 19 on the first day as bowman. This game is about skill, there are lots of newbs who don't know how to train fast, seldom see those in JP/KR servers. But wtf they are going to do a character wipe again, what the hell are they thinking? Character wipe aftre OBT.
But enough about this game. I finally got a Yulong 2nd-hand after a guy offered one at $120.
So I fixed it up hoping for some magic. It is, after all, one of the best entry-level amps out there, capable of beating few-hundred dollars receivers. I also expected some loss in bass power since my JBLs are only 3-inch, but this amp should have enough power for the Paradigm Atoms (v1) that have been lying useless on my table all this while, and those are 5.5-inchers, so bass is no problem.
Fixed it up, well, the sound is much clearer, but,
Where's the bass?
I'd expect the bass to be a little bit greater. Although they aren't as big as monitors at least they are at least a few times bigger than multimedia speakers. Or maybe I've grown to like the Sony SRS-D4 active sub too much.
And the next thing, this amp revealed that my JBL CS100 are not just bad, they are faulty - they whine and one of them sounds different from the other; previously I blamed the SRS-D4, but looks like it's alright.
And the worst thing is:
So I fixed up the Paradigm Atoms thinking I'll get some nice stopping point in upgrade. But no, it just confirmed my Atoms are faulty with a great loss of power at the lower frequencies plus lots of distortion. Time to get rid of them.
That time somebody was talking about component synergy on VRZ, now I totally agree. The 3-inch drivers of the CS100 are not designed to be full-range, they need a subwoofer with them, and with the right one they really shine. No wonder they are labelled "surrounds". Interesting, because all this while I have been getting very good sound signature out of this $45 setup, but the moment I have them alone they sound like crap. Looks like my SRS-D4 isn't simple either - somehow in this setup, the CS100 sound totally nice and punchy and the bass feels like it's coming from there. What is happening? Perhaps one day I'll get the power button repaired also.
I also found out that "boomy bass that feels like it has a lot of space" is due to feeding too much bass into a driver that cannot handle it, NOT a good effect or strong bass. So stop it Bose owners, your speakers sux, it's not a good sound.
With nothing to lose, I also took apart the Paradigm Atoms, only to find that the foam on the cones are gone, deed, deadmeat. Probably the reason why they sounded so sux. Maybe I should get it repaired, as long as it doesn't cost over a hundred.
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