Likes Likes:  370
Page 3 of 53 FirstFirst 1234513 ... LastLast
Results 21 to 30 of 524

Thread: The HiFi and Home Theater thread...what gear are you listening to?

  1. #21
    Member wschofield3's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2014
    Location
    Boston, MA
    Posts
    4,484
    Quote Originally Posted by Chicolabronse View Post
    What a great thread, i used to be heavily into the Hi-Fi scene back in the day and managed to build a pretty good 2/ch system consisting of -

    Audiolab 8000A cd & amp
    Rega planer 2 turntable
    B&W DM-603 floorstanders

    Due to family and financial constraints i had to sell my beloved system so now i have a more modest (but still awesome sounding) system

    TEAC H500i reference cd & amp
    Q acoustics 1030i floorstanders
    QED cabling

    Attachment 2592
    Attachment 2594
    Attachment 2595


    hope to add the apple airport and beresford TC-7510 dac for streaming lossy files from my laptop.
    I used to have an Audiolab 8000 integrated as well. Great amp. Audiolab is now owned by IAG who makes Wharfedale, Quad, Castle Acoustics and Luxman among others. The Rega table and B&W's must have made great sound. I'm familiar with the Teac gear and QED cables, but know nothing about Q-Sound speakers but I bet it sounds beautiful!

    Quote Originally Posted by Der Amf View Post
    Pioneer A-300X amplifier, Castle Durham speakers.

    I don't know anything about equipment but the shop took my budget, lined up a few amps and sets of speakers and let me play around until I found the combination that made me happy.

    I like a good fat slug of sound and this gives me it.
    They did you well, sir! The Castle Durhams are outrageously good speakers. I have a pair of Castle Avon 1 bookshelves downstairs now and whoa...I coupled them with a REL sub I have hanging around and it blew my mind. The Pioneer amp I'm not intimately familiar with but if it's the one from about twenty years ago, it was glorious sounding as I recall. I seem to remember a pal of mine having one that was modified by a guy named Tom Evans?

    Quote Originally Posted by tribe125 View Post
    The FLAC files are 16/44k. Most of them are rips from CDs (about a thousand) which are stored out of sight in our box room. I'm lucky, in that jazz and classical CDs can be picked up really cheaply on Amazon. I check my wish-list once a month or so, and usually find something I want for less than £2.

    The sound I get, using the Naim or Cambridge, is full and natural at lower levels, but when my wife is out I can get the full slam by turning up the wick.

    It suits me, and in late middle-age the set-up will probably see me out.

    I said the Naim was 'broken', but I'm not 100% sure it is. I only noticed the hum after moving house, so thought it might be a ground-loop issue. I fitted a professional-grade isolator, expecting to fix it, but it didn't - and I've tried different sockets.

    My hesitancy is based on something that I half-remember reading about Naim - which was essentially that they had an idiosyncratic approach to earthing. For all I know, they might test the amp and say, 'Nope - running to spec. That'll be £300'.
    Glad to hear you are enjoying the system and yes, the star grounding scheme of Naim has posed some problems. I've heard of this being solved by removing the PC board to chassis ground and plugging the RCA's, but I'd recommend you call Naim before doing so as I have not done it myself.

    Also, and this is a very common one so sorry if you already tried...did you have a cable tv connection going into the Naim? With the Naim grounding scheme, a ground issue via cable/sat may not be exacerbated by the Cambridge.
    Last edited by wschofield3; Nov 30, 2014 at 10:05 PM.

  2. Likes Chicolabronse liked this post
  3. #22
    Yeah the Pioneer and Castle Durhams were twenty years ago. I think I took Bartok Concerto for Orchestra and Nirvana In Utero as my CDs for testing their systems, so you can see why I ended up with this kind of pairing Big fat sound to hit you in the heart

  4. Likes wschofield3 liked this post
  5. #23
    Quote Originally Posted by wschofield3 View Post
    I used to have an Audiolab 8000 integrated as well. Great amp. Audiolab is now owned by IAG who makes Wharfedale, Quad, Castle Acoustics and Luxman among others. The Rega table and B&W's must have made great sound. I'm familiar with the Teac gear and QED cables, but know nothing about Q-Sound speakers but I bet it sounds beautiful!
    Yeah it sounds fantastic, nice wide soundstage and great dynamics, the teac's punch way above their price and the fit and finish is top notch, Q-acoustics were formed in 2006 and make a range of highly recommended hi-fi/AV speakers

    http://www.qacoustics.co.uk/

    The audiolab/b&w set up was an amazing piece of kit, no matter what you threw at them they would blow you away, but you needed a big room for they b&w's, that was part of the reason i had to get rid of it.

    god i miss that system!!

  6. Likes wschofield3 liked this post
  7. #24
    Moderator gnuyork's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2014
    Location
    Marietta, GA
    Posts
    7,255
    Loving this thread!!

  8. #25
    Quote Originally Posted by gnuyork View Post
    So how do those NS 10s sound in a home application?

    I have a nice pair of powered studio monitors hooked up to my computer rig. One of my hobbies is recording and mixing music, but purely on an amateur level. I have the Neumann monitors, and they are pretty much updated rebranded Klein and Hummel monitors. I like them a lot.
    I think the conventional wisdom would be they sound like crap but I am using them just beyond what would be considered nearfield so in that respect they aren't being used in what would be considered a "home" environment. I could write a book on the sound of the NS10's but suffice it to say they are best at exposing poor mixing. They have a big bump in the midrange that just puts a lot of trouble spots in your face particularly the upper range of the female voice. While the old Pioneer receiver is great compared to 99% of receivers today they still need better amplification. I should note mine are the NS10M version so they do have the better crossover and are designed to be laid on their side so in that configuration they aren't as harsh as the earlier version that you used to see tissue paper taped over the tweeters.

  9. #26
    Quote Originally Posted by wschofield3 View Post
    Sold the Krell/Totem system to design your own speakers....that's ballsy! If you use anything that powerful with the Kliopsch speakers, and I know what you mean by "real" ones as I had Cornwalls and a pair of K Horns way back when, you are going to need a new home! The power and neutralness of the Krell combined with the warmth of the Totem's must have resulted in a very smooth pleasing sound with great imaging.

    Good luck with the speaker project! Regarding the NS-10's, yeah, always sitting right beside the Auratones.
    I have built quite a few mini-monitors over the years and the DIY speaker participation on the internet is great so I am not out on a limb as much as it might seem. Where my "prototype" failed was in the bass integration. The design theory was a mini-monitor on top of a TL bass cabinet and while the monitor portion turned out great I just couldn't get the bass prtion of the passive X-over quite right despite numerous changes. My plan now is when I get my woodworking shop back up and running (I am building a new 30X40 shop designed ground up to be a woodworking heaven) I am going to rebuild the TL cabinet with a few changes and also build a prototype ported cabinet. Then I am dumping the passive crossover and going full active on the bass driver. Basically coming back to my roots and just building a pair of mini-monitors designed to sit on (and visually integrate with) two "subwoofers". Part of my problem is also expectations, given my drivers are used in plenty of mid-five figure speaker systems I expect a lot. My aim is the holographic imaging of Totem speakers with more sparkle in the high end and a very forward soundstage.

  10. Likes wschofield3 liked this post
  11. #27
    Member wschofield3's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2014
    Location
    Boston, MA
    Posts
    4,484
    Quote Originally Posted by ilitig8 View Post
    I have built quite a few mini-monitors over the years and the DIY speaker participation on the internet is great so I am not out on a limb as much as it might seem. Where my "prototype" failed was in the bass integration. The design theory was a mini-monitor on top of a TL bass cabinet and while the monitor portion turned out great I just couldn't get the bass prtion of the passive X-over quite right despite numerous changes. My plan now is when I get my woodworking shop back up and running (I am building a new 30X40 shop designed ground up to be a woodworking heaven) I am going to rebuild the TL cabinet with a few changes and also build a prototype ported cabinet. Then I am dumping the passive crossover and going full active on the bass driver. Basically coming back to my roots and just building a pair of mini-monitors designed to sit on (and visually integrate with) two "subwoofers". Part of my problem is also expectations, given my drivers are used in plenty of mid-five figure speaker systems I expect a lot. My aim is the holographic imaging of Totem speakers with more sparkle in the high end and a very forward soundstage.
    Crossover slope not steep enough to the bass? What order?

    Is it sucking the bass out or is it fat, and at what frequency/range of?
    Last edited by wschofield3; Nov 30, 2014 at 10:11 PM.

  12. #28
    Quote Originally Posted by wschofield3 View Post
    Crossover slope not steep enough to the bass? What order?

    Is it sucking the bass out or is it fat, and at what frequency/range of?
    While the general topology of the crossover is LR-2 the bass high/low pass section is a little different. The Mid high pass is a essentially a 1st order filter giving a second order roll off with the crossover point being 200hz which "should" work well with the Scanspeak 26W/8861. My problem seems to center around the 100hz peak that I am getting due to the rising impedance caused by the cabinet tuning, so I am using a notch filter to tame that. So what I am left with is a really strange frequency trace from 50hz to about 300hz looking like a really nasty roller coaster (all obviously nearfield measured). I don't want to change the topology of the mid-woof crossover since by itself the 2 way speaker is sublime. My biggest issue at this point is the mid to bass integration is just not matching the modelling. In the end the quality (and size) of the parts for the bass high pass filter make it really expensive to continue to experiment when the modelling is failing. So an active crossover seems the way to go, I can try limitless crossover arrangements and have the flexibility to tune to the room as well. I am currently on the steep uphill section of the active crossover learning curve and while I have used rudimentary active bass management for years the "full control" is going to be interesting. As I mentioned I am going to prototype a ported cabinet as well since part of the problem may be that I am over my head with the transmission line tuning as my experience is limited and the material and "stuffing level" is somewhat of a black art.

  13. #29
    Member wschofield3's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2014
    Location
    Boston, MA
    Posts
    4,484
    Quote Originally Posted by ilitig8 View Post
    While the general topology of the crossover is LR-2 the bass high/low pass section is a little different. The Mid high pass is a essentially a 1st order filter giving a second order roll off with the crossover point being 200hz which "should" work well with the Scanspeak 26W/8861. My problem seems to center around the 100hz peak that I am getting due to the rising impedance caused by the cabinet tuning, so I am using a notch filter to tame that. So what I am left with is a really strange frequency trace from 50hz to about 300hz looking like a really nasty roller coaster (all obviously nearfield measured). I don't want to change the topology of the mid-woof crossover since by itself the 2 way speaker is sublime. My biggest issue at this point is the mid to bass integration is just not matching the modelling. In the end the quality (and size) of the parts for the bass high pass filter make it really expensive to continue to experiment when the modelling is failing. So an active crossover seems the way to go, I can try limitless crossover arrangements and have the flexibility to tune to the room as well. I am currently on the steep uphill section of the active crossover learning curve and while I have used rudimentary active bass management for years the "full control" is going to be interesting. As I mentioned I am going to prototype a ported cabinet as well since part of the problem may be that I am over my head with the transmission line tuning as my experience is limited and the material and "stuffing level" is somewhat of a black art.
    Phase cancellation due to cabinet modal emanation could play into it as I'm sure you already realized, however, if your slope is at 2nd order, that is usually 12 db per octave and could be compounding the panel resonance issue. A 24db slope or better is usually best for integration as I have found. 2nd order harmonics/reflections would bring it into the room at the 300hz region you're describing as well.

    The impedance of the cabinet tuning may just be adding to the issue. It's a perfect storm.

    If you go active, go at least 24db per and cross and corner brace the cab. If you haven't already, don't use MDF. It was only brought into play for convenience and is horrible acoustically. Use plywood or real wood for a 1" thick cab and at least a 1.5 baffle if at a 10" driver or above.
    Last edited by wschofield3; Dec 1, 2014 at 01:01 AM.

  14. #30
    Moderator - Central tribe125's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2014
    Location
    Kent - UK
    Posts
    18,856
    Quote Originally Posted by wschofield3 View Post
    Glad to hear you are enjoying the system and yes, the star grounding scheme of Naim has posed some problems. I've heard of this being solved by removing the PC board to chassis ground and plugging the RCA's, but I'd recommend you call Naim before doing so as I have not done it myself.

    Also, and this is a very common one so sorry if you already tried...did you have a cable tv connection going into the Naim? With the Naim grounding scheme, a ground issue via cable/sat may not be exacerbated by the Cambridge.
    Thanks, some useful information there. I'll come back and remind myself of it if I ever get round to taking the amp for repair.

    There was no TV running through the amp, but it's possible that the laptop power supply is a problem with the Naim but not the Cambridge.

    Dunno. It's all too technical for me.

  15. Likes wschofield3 liked this post

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •  
About Us
We are an independent and wide-ranging forum for watch enthusiasts. From mainspring to microchip, from Europe to Asia, from micro-brand to boutique - we cover it all. Novice or expert, we want you to feel at home. Whether it's asking a simple question or contributing to the fund of horological knowledge, it's all the same hobby. Or, if you like, you can just show us a picture of your new watch. We'll provide the welcoming and courteous environment, the rest is up to you!
Join us