Which speakers did you have before the D2R? In my opinion “thin and harsh” will never turn into a pleasurable experience. Speaker drivers do brake in but i’d rather say that the speakers should be to your liking out of the box with the possibility to improve with further brake-in.
500 hours is too long anyway, you will already have forgotten how they sounded at the beginning…
I’d say that using them for 2-3 weeks on an everday basis without too much critical listening is the way to go to make a final assessement.
My previous speakers were Spendor Classic SP2/3R2. LOVED the mids, but I found the bottom end loose and boomy in my room and they were a little too polite when listening to rock music.
Sorry to hear this. Very surprising. Harsh and thin are not how I’d describe mine. (my room, system ears etc). 150hrs should be more than enough time IMHO. Granted I’m not familiar with your other components just the speakers. If it helps, mine are 2 feet from the back wall and a little over 7 feet apart. I have plenty of toe-in based upon what ProAc recommends I barely see the inner side walls of the speakers. My seating area is about 9-10 feet away from the speakers. I do seem to recall after 6 months or so they seemed to have a SQ improvement but my memory is shaky at best.
Another thing, I’m using those IsoAcoustics pucks between my stands and the speakers and without a doubt it’s lifting the SQ.
Reading through enough threads and conversations with my hi-fi dealer, one customers combination of source, pre and power amps with speakers is a treasure while another customer enjoys another brand. I have been fortunate that I have a dealer close by where I have been able to demo speakers in his demo room and at home prior to final purchase. My experience with ProAc D2 speakers was positive but not everyone enjoys them.
I am not familiar with the gear that you use so it is hard to comment on what will work. Hopefully if the new pair of D2’s don’t work out you can demo some other speakers with your system prior to purchase.
I’m not quite sure what bi-wired means in this context but for mine I have a single run of cable and they both go to the top binding post. I’ve replaced my “jumpers” but honestly I can’t hear much of a difference.
Don’t be quick to rule them out that fast, I had similar experience with my Tablette 10 Sigs. I moved from super bass heavy Dali Rubicon 2’s, which are great speakers btw, but I had to move to a smaller room, 13m2 approximately, and the Dali’s did not work at all close to a wall and in such a tight space, they need lots of air to be able to show full potential. During the first week or so I thought I had made a big mistake with the small Tab’s, they were very thin, flat with no bass at all compared to the bigger Rubicons, so I needed time to accommodate to the new sound.
Now like 2 years later I am so glad I kept them - they will never have the deep bass of your previous speaker, but is not that the reason you moved on from them? Now as far as harshness is concerned, I cannot comment, as the tweeter is different in both D2R’s and Tabs, but I have read quite a lot reviews praising the ribbon tweeter and there is not a single one describing it as bright, it most certainly is very revealing, as is the dome, bad mastering is showcased immediately, but that’s not a speaker’s fault. I don’t know what speaker cable do you use, but I would try to avoid silver, in the interconnects as well. I have Nac A5 and Morgana DINs IC and these work a treat with the Tabs at the end of a SN2.
I think you should be fine once they settle and you get used to the sound, hope you do start enjoying them.
Scotty2 I have ATC Scm 40 speakers (perhaps not relevant to your query) I bought new and have about 50 hours on them now they are changing. I’m still experimenting with position etc ( I did home demo same ones from my dealer) From the start I used jumper leads using nac 5 and nakamichi plugs bought from a well known site.
They sounded ok but not what I remember from home demo. Took jumpers off and replaced with original metal links.
Unbelievable total transformation I was taken aback everything snapped into focus.
Manufacturers of speakers know exactly what they are doing to tune and voice their speakers and these were designed to use link plates.
ATC have been in the game for over 40 years along with other well established speaker manufacturers.
I agree in part, in some circumstances jumpers may enhance sound quality, ultimately they know what their products sound like after years of research and development. Maybe replacing links might help however you should not need 500 hours burn in time I would say around 150 hrs
I will give them some more time and there are things I can tinker with: proximity to rear wall, stand mass (maybe more fill required), reinstall jumper pins, different speaker wire, power cables, interconnects, etc… Maybe some of these things will make more than subtle changes? I had contemplated a Pass Labs or Luxman class A amp, but I don’t want to make any major component changes till I settle on the speakers.
I have had a pair of Proac 1SCs for over 20 years. They took a few months, from memory, to free up.
I still found them a bit bright so I went to work on the Amps/Cables.
They sound brilliant but I ended up giving the LF a bit more amp ( bi amping) and the HF a slightly different speaker cable. A bit of work but worth it to me.
Hi there, sorry to hear about this. I own the Harbeth which I suppose is quite similar in sound signature to the Spendors, and I have owned a Proac bookshelf before. Perhaps you need some time to acclimatise to the sound of the Proacs. If you still find difficulty to adapt to the sound and continue to find the D2R thin and harsh, all the solutions you brought up (jumper pins, different speaker cables, power cables, interconnects etc.) will change/improve the sound. However, the difference may not be significant enough to transform the presentation to your liking. A different amp such as Pass Labs or Luxman may provide a larger difference by “warming up” the sound but if the Proac still retains its strong sonic signature, all attempts may prove to be futile.
I seriously hope you could make the Proacs work in your system. Your case reminded me of the Harbeth SHL5 which I bought more than 10 years ago. I was in a similar situation and tried 6 or 7 amp combinations within a year in an attempt to salvage the speakers. Fortunately the Naim 202/200 worked for me and I stayed with this system for 7 years before the upgrade bug hit.
FWIW the Proac Tab 50 Sigs which I owned sound very different from the Harbeth. The sound was lean and thin without much bass going on but I appreciate that the D2Rs are a completely different animal.
Kimber is not a great match for ProAc. I’d also suggest not biwiring. I’ve found a single run of cable with either the ProAc jumper Bars or Jumpers made from matching speaker cable works best. I’ve had good luck on ProAc’s with Wireworld Eclipse, Cardas Clear (expensive) Audioquest Oak, and I currently use on my D20R’s , Audience AU24SX
Ok in re reading the speaker cable is problematic basically your are running 4TC (bright and a bit grainy) to the tweeter and 8TC to the woofer. I’d try combining the speaker end into a non biwire. Use the ProAc jumpers. Try using tweeter posts first. Next at 6 ft apart and 6ft away that’s really a near field setup and the drivers that close may not be integrating as well as they could. Speakers should be toed in so very little of the inside edge shows from seated.
Im not a fan of hard stuff to dampen stands. Fill half way with sand or I like kitty liter. The non scented non clumping plain clay stuff. That was a recommendation from Skylands stands.
Last measure the height of the tweeters from the floor to middle of the tweeter. Then measure the height of your ears when seated. Your ears should be at the middle of the tweeter or a bit below. Certainly not above the tweeters
Thanks for the suggestions! I returned my blemished pair of D2R today and picked up the new ones, the break in process begins again…My dealer agreed that the 12tc were not a good match.
I’ll try different speaker cable and report my findings. So I should use the OEM jumpers pins, just wondering before I order cables?