I'm going to say, first of all, that this thread is only going to be dealing with the system in my room which I listen to 30-40% of the time, although the listening I do during this post is on the main system.
The first part talks about my reactions to certain songs.
The second part talks about what my plans are and what I'm hoping you might help me with.
It's time for some serious upgrades, no doubt about that.
What I need to do, though, is figure out what exactly it is I'm trying to do.
Here's the first song I'll be working with.
John Mayer - Gravity
I was listening to it and thought it would be a good song to describe the qualities I'm trying to achieve.
The way those chords sound, the accents the bass drum puts on the music, it's all good.
The qualities I feel are missing here would include warmth of sound, impact, and the way you're captured in the music.
I think the impact of the bass is part of that, especially bass with definition.
Flyleaf - I'm So Sick
Here we're missing impact, yet again. It needs more clarity in the midrange as well. The realism is missing, but I'm not quite sure what would account for that.
Nas - Hip-Hop Is Dead
This is mostly a bass test. More impact...That is yet again what seems to be missing. Bass?
Alicia Keys - Karma
Again, a bass test. It needs more output and would sound great with super-high definition (low distortion) bass with impact on it.
Toadies - Possum Kingdom
Bass definition...at least that's what I think I'm missing.
Overall
What I've noted from the listening is that I like impact and depth in the sound that brings you in and forces you to listen to the music instead of the speakers.
It's hard to describe what I actually like..except what I've tried to describe.
-Part Two-
So far, I've decided that for the bass I can either buy a MartinLogan Descent i or...
I can go my own route with the same design elements (partly) with four twelve-inch Aurasound NS drivers in a specially-designed optimized box. The amplification would supply 2000w RMS to the system, just to have the supply there (and for distortion reasons), although maybe 100w will be used when it's turned up loud.
Here's where I need your help.
What I need pretty much is to convert an electrical signal into an acoustic one, of course.