Hi Fi and Home theater set ups

[jimmyjazz 46,000]

There is a lot to be said for 3-ways over 2-ways (hey-o).  Mostly, the midrange unit doesn't have to handle such a wide frequency band.  I don't know the Lintons, but I used to own some Wharfdale Diamonds and they were legit.

If you're into British speakers, I suggest you look at the Quad (non-electrostatic) line.  Also across the pond, Q Acoustics gets rave reviews, but I have yet to pick up a pair.  Personally I am a huge fan of ribbon tweeters, and may never go back, so I dig my GoldenEars.  The musicality of that type of tweeter cannot be matched in my experience.  It sounds like the real instruments.

[nedtugent 28]

linkwitz riley and 4th order mrs butterworths slope and all that techno-jazz...................

 

- the erstwhile audiophile

[Pescado_Rojo 19,427]

Now that I've moved into my bachelor pad, I've decided I'm going to set up a system just for music. I went with a 65" TV and a nice sound bar and sub rather than set up my 5.1 surround system in this smaller place. I pulled my old NAD 3155 Integrated Amp out of attic storage and realized I no longer have a source to test it. A buddy is going to loan me a CD player so I can see if this thing still works or not. I figure best case, I'm going to have a scratchy volume knob and some popping when changing sources. This thing was built in the 80s, and has all mechanical switches and knobs. Worst case, I've got caps leaking everywhere and it doesn't work at all. If that's the case I"ll probably look for a new integrated amp...Likely another NAD, Cambridge, Rotel or the like. I've got a pair of MB Quart C604 towers I won in a sales contest back when I worked in car audio in the 90s that I will use, then I"m planning to pick up a good but not necessarily great turntable. (honestly, my tinnitus is so bad now, anything really high end would be a waste of money) Budget will depend on whether or not I can use my existing NAD amp. 

Part of me wants to just buy a new amp anyway so I can get built in Bluetooth for streaming music, but I'll make do with my 3155 for a while if it works, and just add a bluetooth receiver. 

[ohchaucer 1,443]

Awesome - keep us posted. I’m just now relocating all of mine from one room to another and kinda getting an itchy trigger finger.

I’m the Amp, if it were me I’d upgrade/update. You can get a lot of amp for not a lot of money now. I have two NADs and while I know I could go way up in hi-fi, they are both great sound wise. I would also stick with component blue tooth vs integrated but that’s just because one of my NAD I got just for that and it’s pretty mediocre. It’s just hard to get good sound over blue tooth period.

[locodos 5,387]

Still have the same rig I got when I bought my first house.  We had nothing but the keys and an older house that needed a lot of work.  First thing I bought was the stereo.  I figured we would be listening to music a lot while we painted and did other house projects.  Then I bought some plastic stacking chairs and a mattress.

Klipsch KG5.5s

Yamaha Natural Sound Receiver RX-v670

Yamaha CD player

My taste in music and the ways I listen has changed but they still sound good (not audionerd amazing) but still damned good.

Years later I added a sub, center and surrounds and now it's what I use for home theatre.

At some point, if they ever falter, I'll upgrade the tweeters and crossovers to Crites and do some internal bracing.  I suspect one of my kids will end up with them when they get a place of their own if they want them.

Replacements will be B&W805s or handed down Klipsch Cornwalls & some earplugs

[Bogeywon 2,519]

[ohchaucer 1,443]

Needs double tape decks and a plywood rack and that was definitely 5th or 6th grade Christmas for me!

[Bogeywon 2,519]

33 minutes ago, ohchaucer said:

Needs double tape decks and a plywood rack and that was definitely 5th or 6th grade Christmas for me!

I remember mine having the glass magnified door. But as I got older I remember these without the wood and like a silver particle board to make it look more modern.
speaking of dual tape deck. Can someone send a link for one I need to add it to my system. Used and old is fine too. I don’t know much about them and just got a home theater for the basement. I mean like ceiling speakers not a movie theater  

[BoomMF 1,399]

I've had the home theater wired and speakered for Atmos almost since I moved into this house about 5 years ago but only just these past few days have I had a processor installed that can handle it. Decided to swap out the Marantz for an Emotiva RMC-1 pre/pro and XPA-9 amp. My biggest problem was deciding how to fit everything into a room that was designed and built before "home theater" was even a thought experiment. And what little extra space I had has been quickly consumed by physical media. I thought racking everything might be a good solution but have you seen what quality carpet-lined studio racks are going for these days?! Scrounging around my storage I found an old slanted rack that I used in my music room's previous life and it should do nicely until I find one that's more visually appealing or until I find that the cabinet's rake is giving the mounted optical drives fits, forcing me to swap it out. So far everything's copacetic.

This also allows me to dedicated the top of the unit to the record player, which I'v wanted to do for a while anyway. The Turntable and acrylic base weigh about 70lbs, so this meant I had to brace it. I cheated by using the center channel speaker, but since the processor plays the record player's input in reference stereo this shouldn't be a problem as the center channel will never be active while records are being played.

Since the Nvidia Shield is controlled via bluetooth I'll probably hide it in the back to further unclutter the area.

The RMC-1 (running v2.5 firmware) has been amazing so far. It's room-corrected with DIRAC Live and the sound in this space has never been better. I feed it SACDs via a Sony UBP-X800 (which by default is set to downmix audio by default, so tracking down why it wasn't passing Atmos info was a goddamn pain. What kind of psycho engineer makes THAT the default and calls it something vague like "BD Audio mix." ffs) and I can tell that's going to be my next addiction (collecting SACDs). With the XPA-9 I now have the power to fully realize the speakers' capabilities. I hear it time and again and it's true, clean excess power does the most, pound for pound, towards improving speaker performance. I went from a "rated" 125W (8 Ohm) a channel, and a low volume ceiling, to 300W @ 8 Ohm across the front line. (490W @ 4 Ohm, while these are upper-to-moderately sensitive 6 Ohm speakers). Suffice it so say, this has breathed new life into these towers. And it does it all while being cooler, which is a concern since I do not intend to use the rack fan I purchased just yet.

I saved a couple of 2U spaces (covered with blanks for now) for Emotiva's ERC-4 reference CD player and an Xbox One X, but I'm lagging on the latter because I think I might just upgrade to a Series X in here too (rack kit for the One X is inbound though), but that's gonna be 4U and a whole other world of problems. The former is a differential CD player with DACs to die for (and USB in to leverage those DACs across any number of other sources), but more importantly will complete a sexy unified hardware asthetic. And when it's all said and done looking cool is probably more important. The rack is getting there.

I have space to push the wall currently hanging the red black-out drapes several feet, and one day I might do that. I dream of having a dedicated stereo speaker setup to compliment the current, cinema focused speaker setup. (This is why I went with the XPA-9 as it has two extra full power modules/channels which would be great for a Zone 2 stereo setup. But Emotiva also make a 2-channel differential XPA amp that might be all the endgame power I need and would slot in perfectly into the rack and would look killer.)

tbc

[Chad Fuck 17,698]

14 minutes ago, BoomMF said:

I've had the home theater wired and speakered for Atmos almost since I moved into this house about 5 years ago but only just these past few days have I had a processor installed that can handle it. Decided to swap out the Marantz for an Emotiva RMC-1 pre/pro and XPA-9 amp. My biggest problem was deciding how to fit everything into a room that was designed and built before "home theater" was even a thought experiment. And what little extra space I had has been quickly consumed by physical media. I thought racking everything might be a good solution but have you seen what quality carpet-lined studio racks are going for these days?! Scrounging around my storage I found an old slanted rack that I used in my music room's previous life and it should do nicely until I find one that's more visually appealing or until I find that the cabinet's rake is giving the mounted optical drives fits, forcing me to swap it out. So far everything's copacetic.

This also allows me to dedicated the top of the unit to the record player, which I'v wanted to do for a while anyway. The Turntable and acrylic base weigh about 70lbs, so this meant I had to brace it. I cheated by using the center channel speaker, but since the processor plays the record player's input in reference stereo this shouldn't be a problem as the center channel will never be active while records are being played.

Since the Nvidia Shield is controlled via bluetooth I'll probably hide it in the back to further unclutter the area.

The RMC-1 (running v2.5 firmware) has been amazing so far. It's room-corrected with DIRAC Live and the sound in this space has never been better. I feed it SACDs via a Sony UBP-X800 (which by default is set to downmix audio by default, so tracking down why it wasn't passing Atmos info was a goddamn pain. What kind of psycho engineer makes THAT the default and calls it something vague like "BD Audio mix." ffs) and I can tell that's going to be my next addiction (collecting SACDs). With the XPA-9 I now have the power to fully realize the speakers' capabilities. I hear it time and again and it's true, clean excess power does the most, pound for pound, towards improving speaker performance. I went from a "rated" 125W (8 Ohm) a channel, and a low volume ceiling, to 300W @ 8 Ohm across the front line. (490W @ 4 Ohm, while these are upper-to-moderately sensitive 6 Ohm speakers). Suffice it so say, this has breathed new life into these towers. And it does it all while being cooler, which is a concern since I do not intend to use the rack fan I purchased just yet.

I saved a couple of 2U spaces (covered with blanks for now) for Emotiva's ERC-4 reference CD player and an Xbox One X, but I'm lagging on the latter because I think I might just upgrade to a Series X in here too (rack kit for the One X is inbound though), but that's gonna be 4U and a whole other world of problems. The former is a differential CD player with DACs to die for (and USB in to leverage those DACs across any number of other sources), but more importantly will complete a sexy unified hardware asthetic. And when it's all said and done looking cool is probably more important. The rack is getting there.

I have space to push the wall currently hanging the red black-out drapes several feet, and one day I might do that. I dream of having a dedicated stereo speaker setup to compliment the current, cinema focused speaker setup. (This is why I went with the XPA-9 as it has two extra full power modules/channels which would be great for a Zone 2 stereo setup. But Emotiva also make a 2-channel differential XPA amp that might be all the endgame power I need and would slot in perfectly into the rack and would look killer.)

tbc

Goddam man.  Save some pussy for the rest of us. 

[jimmyjazz 46,000]

I've owned some Emotiva gear.  It's pretty good stuff, but as I see in your photos, they haven't seemed to figure out that they don't need to set the blue LEDs on "stun".

[BoomMF 1,399]

They have a switch on the back labeled off and surface of the sun.

[Pescado_Rojo 19,427]

Glad to hear the good reviews for Emotiva gear. I discovered them recently through a Facebook ad, which is always a little sus to me. I haven't been able to find many independent online reviews, but really like the specs on their XPA-2 amp and BasX PT2 Preamp, and they can be had for about what I'd probably spend for some of the Integrated amps I was looking at. 

[jimmyjazz 46,000]

The unit I spent the most time with was a preamp.  I couldn't really tell much difference between it and most other solid state preamps I've owned, many pretty high-end.

[hobbes2702 13,049]

I’ve been interested in doing a 3 channel emotiva and using my Marantz as just the pre amp. Good to hear their reviews are good

[BoomMF 1,399]

4 hours ago, Pescado_Rojo said:

Glad to hear the good reviews for Emotiva gear. I discovered them recently through a Facebook ad, which is always a little sus to me. I haven't been able to find many independent online reviews, but really like the specs on their XPA-2 amp and BasX PT2 Preamp, and they can be had for about what I'd probably spend for some of the Integrated amps I was looking at. 

Finding relevant reviews of boutique hardware years after launch from any brand is, I find, harder than it should be. Emotiva's processors are like a lot of products at this level - when they launch, their hardware far outpaces the state of the software. The hardware has a lot of untapped horsepower and over the course of its life the product will have most of its rough edges polished smooth. Most of the reviews of the Emotiva RMC-1 still available online by reputable reviewers, for example, are deep dives into a product whose name still exists but the processor is in a very different form today. The processor as reviewed no longer exists. And by the time we're several generations of software revisions into the life cycle, you're hard pressed to find a professional reviewer willing to give the product another exhaustive battery of tests - the machine is old, unsexy news.

That's where the user base comes in. It's like buying any other niche product - You might want to take into account the company's history of software updates and, perhaps just as importantly, how active the users are. You know how buying a 3D printer, it's probably more important to see how active and numerous the users/owners are than any tech specs (which in 3D printings case, are usually just the product of off-the-shelf parts anyway, so specs between companies don't vary all too much anyway.). Boutique home theater electronics are the same. The health of the culture around a product will tell you everything you need to know and can't find in stale reviews.

Long story short, Emotiva make rock solid amps (arguably in the conversation for the standard here, when all is said and done), processors that need a touch of massaging but yield industry leading results and well worth the effort, and an installed user base, with a knowledge base that that implies, that can see you through just about any unique use case you can come up with. You might get better performance (and I mean might) out of a Trinnov, but have fun tracking down someone that can answer a question when things go sideways.

There are other companies that produce quality processors and amps that the above applies equally to. Anthem comes to mind.

jmho

Edited November 11, 2022 by BoomMF

[jimmyjazz 46,000]

13 hours ago, BoomMF said:

Long story short, Emotiva make rock solid amps (arguably in the conversation for the standard here, when all is said and done),

Team Bryston here.  Not to argue, just an aside.

[Pescado_Rojo 19,427]

Well, this old NAD sounds like shit. My buddy loaned me a nice older Sony ES CD player as a test source, and I hooked everything up this morning. The volume knob is noisy, which I expected but even worse the right channel shuts down at about 25% volume, then comes back up with a lot of distortion for a minute, then clips off again. I assume bad caps, but I don't feel like fucking with it or paying more than it's worth to have it recapped. Looks like I'm going shopping. 

[hobbes2702 13,049]

1 hour ago, Pescado_Rojo said:

Well, this old NAD sounds like shit. My buddy loaned me a nice older Sony ES CD player as a test source, and I hooked everything up this morning. The volume knob is noisy, which I expected but even worse the right channel shuts down at about 25% volume, then comes back up with a lot of distortion for a minute, then clips off again. I assume bad caps, but I don't feel like fucking with it or paying more than it's worth to have it recapped. Looks like I'm going shopping. 

[Deej 76,858]

On 11/8/2022 at 7:55 PM, Bogeywon said:

I remember mine having the glass magnified door. But as I got older I remember these without the wood and like a silver particle board to make it look more modern.
speaking of dual tape deck. Can someone send a link for one I need to add it to my system. Used and old is fine too. I don’t know much about them and just got a home theater for the basement. I mean like ceiling speakers not a movie theater  

I've got a functioning one from 1987 I never use.

Edited November 12, 2022 by Deej

[After irth 1,243]

On 11/8/2022 at 7:01 PM, Bogeywon said:

I still have that CD player. Since 1991. Use it every day. 

[jimmyjazz 46,000]

On 11/10/2022 at 2:15 PM, BoomMF said:

The Turntable and acrylic base weigh about 70lbs, so this meant I had to brace it.

I might have missed it, or asked you before . . . what's the brand/model of that turntable?  Reminds me of the old Oracle decks.

[BoomMF 1,399]

7 hours ago, jimmyjazz said:

I might have missed it, or asked you before . . . what's the brand/model of that turntable?  Reminds me of the old Oracle decks.

Transrotor Zet 1

[Pescado_Rojo 19,427]

Well, I did some shopping today. Gear should start arriving as soon as this Friday. 

Emotiva BasX PT1 Preamp

Emotiva BasX A2 Amplifier

Audio Technica LPW40WN Turntable

[jimmyjazz 46,000]

4 minutes ago, Pescado_Rojo said:

Well, I did some shopping today. Gear should start arriving as soon as this Friday. 

Emotiva BasX PT1 Preamp

Emotiva BasX A2 Amplifier

Audio Technica LPW40WN Turntable

Looks like the basis for a solid stereo rig.  Since the turntable and the preamp both have phono preamps on board, you should take some time to figure out which one sounds better.  (LINE out of the turntable into a line input on the preamp, or PHONO out of the turntable into the phono input on the preamp.)

[Pescado_Rojo 19,427]

Santa came on Saturday. Wall mounted my 65” TV and sound bar to free the top of my entertainment center for the turntable. I have a mild depth issue, but it’s not terrible. If it bothers me, I’ll cut out the backing so the plugs and ports stick out the back. That would buy me a few inches, which is all I need. (TWSS). 
 

it sounds great, even with my shitty, scratched up 30+ year old vinyl. I’ll probably add a sub sooner or later. The phono preamp in the Preamp sounds better than the one in the turntable. 

[tbone_ 14,134]

What kinda speakers are those?

[Pescado_Rojo 19,427]

56 minutes ago, tbone_ said:

What kinda speakers are those?

MB Quart QLC 604s. Circa 1998ish. 
2x6” woofers

1x5.25” mid

1x 1” titanium dome tweeter

[BoomMF 1,399]

On 11/21/2022 at 2:06 PM, Pescado_Rojo said:

Santa came on Saturday. Wall mounted my 65” TV and sound bar to free the top of my entertainment center for the turntable. I have a mild depth issue, but it’s not terrible. If it bothers me, I’ll cut out the backing so the plugs and ports stick out the back. That would buy me a few inches, which is all I need. (TWSS). 
 

it sounds great, even with my shitty, scratched up 30+ year old vinyl. I’ll probably add a sub sooner or later. The phono preamp in the Preamp sounds better than the one in the turntable. 

Fuck and yeah.

[Bogeywon 2,519]

Hey everyone. I have a denon receiver brand new and want to pair a 5 disc cd changer to it as well as a dual cassette player. What are good brands. I’ll buy used on some recommendations tbh not trying to spend like $400 on one Ike $100-200 each unit.  Any help I’d appreciate 

Edited November 29, 2022 by Bogeywon
More specific

[tbone_ 14,134]

You can get shit like that on Reverb fwiw

[Bogeywon 2,519]

7 hours ago, tbone_ said:

You can get shit like that on Reverb fwiw

I looked I just don’t know which to buy

[tbone_ 14,134]

I used to buy Technics or Teac back in the day for tape decks. I’m sure there’s plenty of Sony 5 disc players around.

[dcbc 14,496]

1 hour ago, tbone_ said:

I used to buy Technics or Teac back in the day for tape decks. I’m sure there’s plenty of Sony 5 disc players around.

I've got a Sony double cassette deck from the 90s that I assume still is functional.  As far as CD players go, I'd just grab a $35 DVD player and roll with it.  Anything vintage 80s probably doesn't have much of a DAC in it and the components may be getting on in age.

 

That said, this is what I want to hook up to our old hifi.  It will rip all of my CDs as lossless FLAC files and play them too.  Runs off an app.

 

https://thebrennan.com/

 

But for the money, I'll probably just rip them to a hard drive and play them with PLEX.

[stc 1,462]

Have my dad's old cassette deck hooked up to my system. Doesn't get much use these days but I like to give it a workout every now and then.

[Rip76 4,946]

This may be a touch off topic, but what are some good (over the ear), Bluetooth headphones for an iPhone, etc?

Clear, good quality bass tone.

[hobbes2702 13,049]

40 minutes ago, Rip76 said:

This may be a touch off topic, but what are some good (over the ear), Bluetooth headphones for an iPhone, etc?

Clear, good quality bass tone.

I have had the B&W Px7 which were pretty great but didn’t play nice with my PC so I couldn’t use them for work. I have the Sony WH-1000XM5 now and have been really happy with them.    Bass is good, noise cancelling is great, battery life is good (lasts me two or three days at work with them on for probably 3-4 hours), great mics.

No Bluetooth headphone is really going to be able to recreate the kind of sound you get from great speakers so it’s really about the features you need. I needed mic, noise cancelling, and sound quality.

[dcbc 14,496]

Okay, I've got a somewhat vague, possibly with an obvious answer, question for the Surly HiFi crew.  It's longwinded, and I'm sorry about that.

 

I've previously posted a picture of my hifi console, which is in our living room.  The console is 9.5 feet wide with a pair of McIntosh XR3 speakers occupying the outer parts of the cabinet (4-way speakers with 10" woofers).  They are about 6" off the ground inside the cabinet.  The back of the cabinet is made of pegboard; so it's not exactly sealed, but it isn't open either.  The cabinet is, for all intents and purposes, up  against the opposite wall from my listening position.  The edges of the cabinet are roughly 2 feet from the left and right corners of the room.  The right side of the room has a largish opening to the entryway and stairs as well as an entry to the kitchen closer to the preferred listening position.  There is a fireplace opening on the left side of the room. 

Obviously, changing speaker placement isn't an option.  But the good news is that McIntosh recommended for these speakers (and I snagged) a bass correction EQ, which will allow the speakers to get down to a flat response of 20hz (no sub required) and will allow me to correct (boost) the bass frequencies independently for each channel to correct for the room.

So, my question:  based on this paint shame drawing of my listening space (and ignoring that I have omitted the chairs that partially block the cabinet from the listening position (they aren't going anywhere), I presume I will have more loss of bass frequency on the right side due to the openings to the rest of the house, and thus, more than likely would need to boost the bass frequencies on the right side more than the left, correct?

 

I know the answer is to listen to it and see what I think.  But when I did that on initial setup, it was pretty subtle and I just left both of them with 6 db boost of bass frequencies.  It's a moderate pain in the ass to get into the console and twiddle the knobs, but I'll probably break down and do it soon. 

 

For reference, there are 5 settings per channel.  0 db, 6 db, 10 db, 14 db, and 17 db.  The speakers have been serviced and the woofers have been refoamed.  But, obviously, I'm going to be cautious throwing too much boost at them.  My main question is whether it is likely that I might want to throw a little more at the right speaker in light of the room.

 

 

[jimmyjazz 46,000]

If I'm reading you right, both woofers are essentially in 1/8 space (1/8 of a sphere), so they should be getting a decent bass boost already.  Those openings don't really exist at 20 Hz.  Look at the wavelengths involved -- the wavelength of a 20 Hz signal is roughly 17 m (55 feet).  You're not gonna lose much low bass through those "small" openings, and your listening experience confirms this.

[dcbc 14,496]

If I'm reading you right, both woofers are essentially in 1/8 space (1/8 of a sphere), so they should be getting a decent bass boost already.  Those openings don't really exist at 20 Hz.  Look at the wavelengths involved -- the wavelength of a 20 Hz signal is roughly 17 m (55 feet).  You're not gonna lose much low bass through those "small" openings, and your listening experience confirms this.

I was really talking more about the right side being unbalanced with the left because of the openings to the entryway and kitchen along that wall.

[jimmyjazz 46,000]

Just now, dcbc said:

6 hours ago, jimmyjazz said:

If I'm reading you right, both woofers are essentially in 1/8 space (1/8 of a sphere), so they should be getting a decent bass boost already.  Those openings don't really exist at 20 Hz.  Look at the wavelengths involved -- the wavelength of a 20 Hz signal is roughly 17 m (55 feet).  You're not gonna lose much low bass through those "small" openings, and your listening experience confirms this.

I was really talking more about the right side being unbalanced with the left because of the openings to the entryway and kitchen along that wall.

That's exactly what I'm talking about.  You're not losing sound through those openings, at least low bass.  The wavelengths are too long to "fit" through them.

I wouldn't be surprised if there is a little left/right imbalance in the low mids and higher, simply because those wavelengths are smaller and those openings now come into play.

Look at it this way -- would you expect much sound to leak out of a pinhole?  No?  Why not?  Because it might as well not be there for audible frequencies.

[dcbc 14,496]

19 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

That's exactly what I'm talking about.  You're not losing sound through those openings, at least low bass.  The wavelengths are too long to "fit" through them.

I wouldn't be surprised if there is a little left/right imbalance in the low mids and higher, simply because those wavelengths are smaller and those openings now come into play.

Look at it this way -- would you expect much sound to leak out of a pinhole?  No?  Why not?  Because it might as well not be there for audible frequencies.

Okay, I get it.  I mean, 20 hz is the inaudible lowest of the low end.  I need to dig up a manual online and see what range of bass frequencies are  boosted.  I'll probably just leave it as is and run my bass test track (Bella Fleck Flight of the Cosmic Hippo) again.  Thanks.

 

On the good side of things, these speakers are impressive for being nearly 50 years old.  Very articulate.

Edited December 3, 2022 by dcbc

[jimmyjazz 46,000]

I seriously doubt those openings are acoustically visible below 100 Hz.  That's still "bass", no doubt, but it's more than a full octave above the low E string on a standard bass guitar.  It's inching into the low-midrange.

[dcbc 14,496]

4 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

I seriously doubt those openings are acoustically visible below 100 Hz.  That's still "bass", no doubt, but it's more than a full octave above the low E string on a standard bass guitar.  It's inching into the low-midrange.

The bass doesn't seem to be getting lost as is.  Being fairly close to the corners probably helps too.

[ohchaucer 1,443]

Also, because of the long wavelengths, aren’t bass frequencies essentially omnidirectional? Meaning boosting left vs right wont make much difference?

When I was buying my setup a few years ago I seem to remember that being why you only need one sub if you have one. And placement impact is minimal.

But I’m curious if that’s right.

[dcbc 14,496]

Also, because of the long wavelengths, aren’t bass frequencies essentially omnidirectional? Meaning boosting left vs right wont make much difference?

When I was buying my setup a few years ago I seem to remember that being why you only need one sub if you have one. And placement impact is minimal.

But I’m curious if that’s right.

I think the EQ mostly is important to let the speakers get low as they were designed. Why this had to be purchased separately is a mystery to me.

[ohchaucer 1,443]

I think the EQ mostly is important to let the speakers get low as they were designed. Why this had to be purchased separately is a mystery to me.

It sounds like you might be talking about crossover via an eq but that makes sense.

[dcbc 14,496]

Good grief.


Maybe it's the beer talking, but I'm not sure why I thought I needed to change anything.

[dcbc 14,496]

Cancel all questions above. It's perfect.

[BoomMF 1,399]

There's been a development.

Back when I was in college there was a home theater/hifi store on Burnet, just north of Anderson, whose name I can't recall, but I vividly remember the first time I saw Bowers and Wilkins 800 Series speakers. They had a pair hooked up to a small fortune worth of Mcintosh gear, including a pair of monoblocks the size of a Corolla. They demoed the setup with SACDs and the one I remember most was Kind of Blue (it made such an impression that I've used KoB as a favorite to demo gear since). But it was those gorgeous B+W Nautilus speakers that stole the show. They sounded so clean, so vibrant, so full, and most of all so sharp. I've since come to find out that the reason I liked the punchy treble of B+Ws is because that's how my brain discerns clarity, it's that top-end polish you get by boosted highs that conveys precision to me, but whatevs. 

We're talking about the speakers they use in Abbey Road and Skywalker Sound. There are pics of John Williams sitting in front of 800s, mixing. I mean, come on.

I didn't really consider ever having any - they were ridiculous for a college student then and time doesn't really do much to devalue Bowers & Wilkins speakers compared to other brands, but I've always thought 800s to be the pinnacle of design, both looks and performance so have wanted them since I first saw them decades ago.

Anyway, I bought a pair.

Minty Nautilus 802's with brand new tweeters. (The tweeters are notoriously fragile.)

I'm looking at them now and I still barely believe it.

They're hooked up on the second zone of the pre/pro being served by about 400Wx2 carried by wire as thick as my wrist. I can't set them in the room in an ideal way, but I've pulled them forward to remove as much obstruction from the bass ports, but in a room that dictates so many compromises, this is another. Regardless, they sound sublime.

In preparation, I had to redo the rack, eliminating the slanted rack posted earlier. I busted out the table saw and made a console, installed rack rails, and moved everything to the center of the wall leaving the speakers as much room as I possibly could. I'm not going to be mistaken for a Mennonite, but the gear is secure and organized.

My biggest issue is that I had to take the door off the hinges to make room enough to walk in. I'll flip the hinges and have it open outward.

I might just eliminate the Atlantic Technology speakers and make the front line all Bowers & Wilkins with a new center, but I like the idea of having dedicated HT speakers and a dedicated stereo setup for critical listening.

Living the dream.

Here's a cool factory tour. Really brings home what it takes to make 800s.

Now I need to finish putting up acoustic treatments.

Edited December 6, 2022 by BoomMF