Hi Fi and Home theater set ups

[hobbes2702 12951]

[ohchaucer 1443]

Wow. Nice setup. And great story. And what is that turntable on top?

[jimmyjazz 45630]

Nice get.  Nautilus 802 are very, very popular in the mastering world.

At one point I believe the store you're referencing on Burnet was called Modia, up the strip mall from that expensive furniture store called Primitives which must be a drug front because nobody ever seems to shop there.

[Pescado_Rojo 19346]

1 hour ago, jimmyjazz said:

Nice get.  Nautilus 802 are very, very popular in the mastering world.

At one point I believe the store you're referencing on Burnet was called Modia, up the strip mall from that expensive furniture store called Primitives which must be a drug front because nobody ever seems to shop there.

Yep, it was Modia. A guy I worked with in the Car Audio business went over there as a sales guy for a while, then ended up at the short lived Bang & Olufsen store in the Arboretum. 

[Sam Lin 3544]

Hell yes.

It's almost criminal, this pair hasn't been played in probably 5-10 years. Bought them new, picked them over Dynaudio because of their looks - honestly the Dynaudio sounded better. Don't regret the decision - as furniture they're still gorgeous. Kids have since made one set of grills disappear, the tweeter housings have been broken on at least one, and someday I'll need to find someone who can check them over and make them sing again.

[dcbc 14443]

3 hours ago, Sam Lin said:

Hell yes.

It's almost criminal, this pair hasn't been played in probably 5-10 years. Bought them new, picked them over Dynaudio because of their looks - honestly the Dynaudio sounded better. Don't regret the decision - as furniture they're still gorgeous. Kids have since made one set of grills disappear, the tweeter housings have been broken on at least one, and someday I'll need to find someone who can check them over and make them sing again.

 

They appear to have an unmentioned feature that people cannot set drinks on them.

[TexPx 2321]

I came close to getting some 801 s2 a couple of years ago but they were just too rough.
Found these on a local garage sale app for 150 bucks. Use them in my second system in the den.

[ohchaucer 1443]

Hell yes.
It's almost criminal, this pair hasn't been played in probably 5-10 years. Bought them new, picked them over Dynaudio because of their looks - honestly the Dynaudio sounded better. Don't regret the decision - as furniture they're still gorgeous. Kids have since made one set of grills disappear, the tweeter housings have been broken on at least one, and someday I'll need to find someone who can check them over and make them sing again.

Who are those little blondies behind the 802s?

And I’m a pretty solid Dynaudio guy (two sets of bookshelves) but those BWs look great. And I know they sound amazing.

[Sam Lin 3544]

Little blondies are Quad 22L, I used them in a rental house at a job for a few years, couldn't afford the Quad electrostats I actually wanted. Have tried halfheartedly to sell them a couple times, they haven't played in 10+ years.

Have a set of Contour 1.4 that I absolutely love. Would love to hear a set of the Sapphires now, they were just a dream back when they came out.

And while we're on bookshelves, this set of Sonus Faber in graphite may be the best looking bookshelf I've found. Unfortunately I've never made them sound good. They're just unengaging and boring sounding. I think it's a matter of the electronics and the room, and I haven't been in one place enough to experiment. Thinking it was a sensitivity/oomph issue, I've paired them with Krell and now Musical Fidelity, and neither one does much.

(amusing tangent: house got broken into, they pretty well cleaned it out, but they left the Sonus Fabers. Guess they had zero clue what they were - they were easily the single most valuable item in the house. Took the Krell though, assholes.)

[jimmyjazz 45630]

Yeah, I've never found Sonus Faber products all that interesting.

I owned a set of those Quad 22L for a while.  Good speaker.  Nice looking, too -- mine were cherry.

[ohchaucer 1443]

Thirded on the Sonus Fabers but they are great looking.

Those quads (and JJ mentioning them in cherry) remind me of some old Allison Acoustics (RIP) my dad had 30 years ago. Just killer speakers.

[ohchaucer 1443]

These were the Allison:Sevens. Would love to find some now…

[troph 24679]

1 hour ago, jimmyjazz said:

Yeah, I've never found Sonus Faber products all that interesting.

I owned a set of those Quad 22L for a while.  Good speaker.  Nice looking, too -- mine were cherry.

weren't the quad 22Ls you owned the ones I now own?  they still sing and wow the tingle they produce is still paying dividends.  just the other night I was rocking Ryan Adams on those suckers.  so good.

*nevermind, mine are the birdseye (blonde) too, so you must have only helped me source them.  they are absolutely gorgeous lookers.

Edited December 9, 2022 by troph

[hobbes2702 12951]

I wanted a pair of the Sonus Faber reference for years until I got to demo them side by side. They didn’t sound any better than the DefTech ST-L that I have now. Neither was anywhere near the sound from the Bowers or the Mc. That’s fine for the DefTechs since they are many thousands less. Didn’t make sense for the Sonus to sound that bad in comparison 

[jimmyjazz 45630]

3 minutes ago, troph said:

weren't the quad 22Ls you owned the ones I now own?  they still sing and wow the tingle they produce is still paying dividends.  just the other night I was rocking Ryan Adams on those suckers.  so good.

*nevermind, mine are the birdseye (blonde) too, so you must have only helped me source them.  they are absolutely gorgeous lookers.

Yeah, I thought I just connected you to the dealer.  #trenchcoat

[ohchaucer 1443]

Furk. Now I want sim floorstanding speakers.

What should I get?

[jimmyjazz 45630]

4 minutes ago, ohchaucer said:

Furk. Now I want sim floorstanding speakers.

What should I get?

Obviously there are a billion options, but I STRONGLY suggest you consider those with good ribbon tweeters.  In my view, they sound much more like "music" (i.e., the instruments in the room).  Night and day.  I've been running a fairly inexpensive set of GoldenEar floorstanders for many years and I am completely content.  (Full disclosure:  "completely content" is not a phrase I have used prior with hifi gear.)

[Pescado_Rojo 19346]

27 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

Obviously there are a billion options, but I STRONGLY suggest you consider those with good ribbon tweeters.  In my view, they sound much more like "music" (i.e., the instruments in the room).  Night and day.  I've been running a fairly inexpensive set of GoldenEar floorstanders for many years and I am completely content.  (Full disclosure:  "completely content" is not a phrase I have used prior with hifi gear.)

I've been eye-fucking a pair of MartinLogan Motion 60XTis for a while now. Crutchfield is kind enough to email me and remind me they are on sale almost every day for the past week. . 

[hobbes2702 12951]

36 minutes ago, ohchaucer said:

Furk. Now I want sim floorstanding speakers.

What should I get?

GoldenEar I think would be my rec. Not too expensive, great sound for both movies and music. It’s my general rec for most people.

3 minutes ago, Pescado_Rojo said:

I've been eye-fucking a pair of MartinLogan Motion 60XTis for a while now. Crutchfield is kind enough to email me and remind me they are on sale almost every day for the past week. . 

Are those electrostats or are they regular towers?

[Pescado_Rojo 19346]

1 minute ago, hobbes2702 said:

GoldenEar I think would be my rec. Not too expensive, great sound for both movies and music. It’s my general rec for most people.

Are those electrostats or are they regular towers?

Regular towers with ribbon tweeters. 

2x 8" woofers

1x 5 1/4" mid

Ribbon Tweeter

[VABuckeye 2472]

On 11/29/2022 at 5:09 PM, Bogeywon said:

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 

Audiogon and don't get a changer.  Yopu can only play one disc at a time.  It's just more parts to break.

[VABuckeye 2472]

On 12/8/2022 at 5:02 AM, Sam Lin said:

Hell yes.

It's almost criminal, this pair hasn't been played in probably 5-10 years. Bought them new, picked them over Dynaudio because of their looks - honestly the Dynaudio sounded better. Don't regret the decision - as furniture they're still gorgeous. Kids have since made one set of grills disappear, the tweeter housings have been broken on at least one, and someday I'll need to find someone who can check them over and make them sing again.

I have Dynaudio speakers and LOVE them.

[hobbes2702 12951]

1 hour ago, Pescado_Rojo said:

Regular towers with ribbon tweeters. 

2x 8" woofers

1x 5 1/4" mid

Ribbon Tweeter

I’ve been a fan of almost every speaker they’ve put out with the ribbons. I love the electrostats too but they are so damn directional it seems impractical. They used to have a pair when I first started in high end audio sales called the Preface I think. Had the ribbon and similar driver setup. They had an awesome teakwood finish.

 

[VABuckeye 2472]

These in this finish.

 

Driven by this.  Only piece of gear in my rack other than the turntable.

 

[hobbes2702 12951]

4 minutes ago, VABuckeye said:

These in this finish.

 

Driven by this.  Only piece of gear in my rack other than the turntable.

 

 

This is the best thread on Surly

[VABuckeye 2472]

As an aside I made a couple of suggestions to NAD for funtionality upgrades to the firmware and they took the suggestions to heart and made the changes.

[jimmyjazz 45630]

Although I haven't heard Martin Logan's ribbon tweeter products, I did own a pair of Aerius electrostats for a while.  (Electrostatic panel for treble & midrange, conventional dynamic woofer for bass.)

They never floated my boat.  I would say the meat of the music (say 400 Hz and above) out of the Golden Ears is considerably better.  At one point I owned a pair of Eminent Technology planar magnetic loudspeakers (similar to Magnepan) and they were vastly superior to the Martin Logans.

[Bogeywon 2518]

1 hour ago, VABuckeye said:

Audiogon and don't get a changer.  Yopu can only play one disc at a time.  It's just more parts to break.

Once my denon I just bought fails I’m in. I only paid $80 for it so I’m not excepting much 

[VABuckeye 2472]

Gotcha.  IMO a changer is just more mechanical parts to break.

[tbone_ 14041]

Although I haven't heard Martin Logan's ribbon tweeter products, I did own a pair of Aerius electrostats for a while.  (Electrostatic panel for treble & midrange, conventional dynamic woofer for bass.)
They never floated my boat.  I would say the meat of the music (say 400 Hz and above) out of the Golden Ears is considerably better.  At one point I owned a pair of Eminent Technology planar magnetic loudspeakers (similar to Magnepan) and they were vastly superior to the Martin Logans.

Which golden ears do you have?

[jimmyjazz 45630]

3 minutes ago, tbone_ said:

Which golden ears do you have?

I had some big ones -- 2? -- but we built a new house and my listening room got "downsized".  They were too big.  I ended up buying a passive pair, maybe 7?

[ohchaucer 1443]

These in this finish.

 
Driven by this.  Only piece of gear in my rack other than the turntable.
 

I have two pair of Dynaudio bookshelf speakers in two rooms. Both powered by NAD. But not that badass one! I like!

One of the pairs is supported by a REL mkiii sub.

[Sam Lin 3544]

I don't have a pic, but those 802s above have a REL Brittania sub, for "sub-bass." Honestly I can barely tell a difference when I turn it on and off, but we very rarely listen at any real volume levels. Would probably be more noticable playing a movie at theater volume levels. Maybe? Not sure the 802 needs any assistance. In hindsight I think this was more the sales guy padding his commission.

Amp is a Proceed AMP-5. I've wanted to upgrade to a Parasound A51 for years to have more power/control, never did it. Also have been curious about the Emotiva amps mentioned upthread.

Signal was an Onkyo Integra pre/pro that finally crapped out, and is why those speakers haven't sung for years. I was rarely home, no one else really listened, and I didn't have the attention to find a replacement. Did look at Emotiva at the time. I wanted Audyssey self EQ capability and would like Atmos now (my last real involvement was 5.1 pre-Atmos so I don't even know what it needs for speakers and speaker placement.)

 

3 hours ago, VABuckeye said:

Driven by this.  Only piece of gear in my rack other than the turntable.

 

Why hello there. My current rig overseas:

Bought the NAD because it was the easiest brand I recognized to find locally and had Bluetooth. The BT execution leaves...a bit to be desired, it's just clunky. All the menus are clunky. First NAD I've owned, I haven't done any critical listening to say how it sounds. Have wondered if a firmware update would improve the clunky interface, but haven't cared enough to actually look into it.

Driving a pair of these:

Shoved up out of the way above some cabinets in a corner, that's the wifi router in front of it. Zero attention to speaker placement on this one, it's mostly used for muzak at the dining table. I have another pair of LS50 in the US and like them a lot (black color, also used mostly for background muzak, also horrible speaker placement). More satisfying and easier to drive than the Sonus, for much less money! Would have been easier to just buy the powered bluetooth version LS50 and skip the NAD, but I'm still a bit old fashioned.

[Earl Haffler 589]

McIntosh C2200 preamp

Mac MC501 monoblocks

Rose RS150 streamer

Nakamichi BX1

Rega P3 turntable/Dynavector DV10X5 cartridge

B&W N803 speakers

Esoteric DV50s CD/SACD (not shown)

 

[Sam Lin 3544]

You forgot to list:

Toes (shown)

[hobbes2702 12951]

7 minutes ago, Earl Haffler said:

McIntosh C2200 preamp

Mac MC501 monoblocks

Rose RS150 streamer

Nakamichi BX1

Rega P3 turntable/Dynavector DV10X5 cartridge

B&W N803 speakers

Esoteric DV50s CD/SACD (not shown)

 

Oh fuck you.

My drool reaction is for the toes not the speakers… wait wut

Edited December 10, 2022 by hobbes2702

[Sam Lin 3544]

5 hours ago, VABuckeye said:

Audiogon and don't get a changer.  Yopu can only play one disc at a time.  It's just more parts to break.

This. I've owned multiple changers and broken every one eventually. Some flagship single disc transports are dirt cheap now, from a quick Audiogon browse.

And if you want to listen to more than one in a long session, rip all your stuff to FLAC and use a digital media streamer (or an integrated streamer like that sweet NAD above). I used Logitech Squeezebox feeding from my NAS for years.

[Pescado_Rojo 19346]

12 hours ago, hobbes2702 said:

Oh fuck you.

My drool reaction is for the toes not the speakers… wait wut

I’m trying to figure out how to pos rep and neg rep the same post

[dcbc 14443]

15 hours ago, Sam Lin said:

You forgot to list:

Toes (shown)

Looks like he has a little coup d'e-toe going on too.

 

Nice setup, all the same!

[Tonesky 922]

I am looking to add 5.1 sound to the kids' game room for under $1K.  I have a Marantz NR1608 AVR available, which is rated at 50 W for two channels driven at 8 ohms, so I need relatively efficient speakers.  This will be overwhelmingly for movies and gaming; not so much for music.  Thanks for any suggestions (other than Cerwin Vegas from the white van at Home Depot).

[jimmyjazz 45630]

6 minutes ago, Tonesky said:

I am looking to add 5.1 sound to the kids' game room for under $1K.  I have a Marantz NR1608 AVR available, which is rated at 50 W for two channels driven at 8 ohms, so I need relatively efficient speakers.  This will be overwhelmingly for movies and gaming; not so much for music.  Thanks for any suggestions (other than Cerwin Vegas from the white van at Home Depot).

You need 5 speakers?  3?  2?

[dcbc 14443]

4 hours ago, Tonesky said:

I am looking to add 5.1 sound to the kids' game room for under $1K.  I have a Marantz NR1608 AVR available, which is rated at 50 W for two channels driven at 8 ohms, so I need relatively efficient speakers.  This will be overwhelmingly for movies and gaming; not so much for music.  Thanks for any suggestions (other than Cerwin Vegas from the white van at Home Depot).

 

Is this for them, or for you?  If for them, they come in packs and are going for a lot more than $1k.  If for you, and you already have the receiver and just need speakers, I have had good luck with the Klipsch reference series speakers in that duty (at least for the front 3).  I tend to skimp a bit on surrounds.  For a sub, you could do a lot worse than a 12" Dayton from Parts Express.  If you have a bit leftover, you can get an amp upgrade that is an improvement  In all seriousness, those subs are a great bang for the buck.

[VABuckeye 2472]

If it's for a kids room I'd get a 5.1 complete setup.  Klipsch and Energy among others make them and they're budget friendly.  Then you get a matched set of speakers.

Edited December 11, 2022 by VABuckeye

[Tonesky 922]

18 hours ago, jimmyjazz said:

You need 5 speakers?  3?  2?

 

13 hours ago, dcbc said:

 

Is this for them, or for you?

This is a secondary setup for the kids, for whom I have only the AVR; no speakers. 
 

The primary setup is a Cambridge Audio AVR and Usher speakers. In moving from 5.1 to 7.1, I recently upgraded the mains and am thinking of upgrading the center. If so, the current center (Usher S-525) would be available for the game room. 

[Sam Lin 3544]

On 12/9/2022 at 6:10 PM, Sam Lin said:

Bought the NAD because it was the easiest brand I recognized to find locally and had Bluetooth. The BT execution leaves...a bit to be desired, it's just clunky. All the menus are clunky. Have wondered if a firmware update would improve the clunky interface, but haven't cared enough to actually look into it.

Spurred by this thread, I went ahead and did the NAD firmware upgrade. Menus didn't change, but BT actually automatically connects on power-on now! That's a huge convenience improvement. (Previously I'd listen on my UE Ears Boom BT speaker 90% the time just because it'd auto-connect to my device. Now, after the firmware update, even if I'm playing on the UE Ears, the NAD will take the signal over when turned on. Nice!)

[Not that Bob 735]

I am moving in to a new, to me, house and the previous owner had a rather spectacular system set up. Wall/ceiling mounted speakers in at least 4 rooms. All controlled from one of two media closets. When he moved he took all the equipment, but obviously (I guess obvious) he left all the speakers and wires in the walls. I haven't been paying attention for several years and every thing seems to  have changed to wireless now, or at least most things. 

Is it worth it for me to have someone come trace and label all these wires? I don't have the time or patience to do it myself. If it's worth it who in Austin would do such a thing?

My first reaction is to just say fuck it and go with Sonos  or whatever is the flavor of the week. I no longer need T-Rex to shake the house, but don't want to just use the speakers in the TV. 

[BoomMF 1398]

14 minutes ago, Not that Bob said:

I am moving in to a new, to me, house and the previous owner had a rather spectacular system set up. Wall/ceiling mounted speakers in at least 4 rooms. All controlled from one of two media closets. When he moved he took all the equipment, but obviously (I guess obvious) he left all the speakers and wires in the walls. I haven't been paying attention for several years and every thing seems to  have changed to wireless now, or at least most things. 

Is it worth it for me to have someone come trace and label all these wires? I don't have the time or patience to do it myself. If it's worth it who in Austin would do such a thing?

My first reaction is to just say fuck it and go with Sonos  or whatever is the flavor of the week. I no longer need T-Rex to shake the house, but don't want to just use the speakers in the TV. 

I had a similar situation with the house I'm in now. I had a rat's nest of wires without labeling and they were bundled runs which included many colors other than red and white. I had to reverse engineer the whole layout to find out what colors went together and then to which of the 9 locations the pairs went. To wrangle it all I went with a Monoprice SS-Pro and it's worked wonderfully. It was worth it to me to keep using the in-walls over Sonos'ing the whole house. If your wires are all red/white pairs I imagine it would be even easier to do it yourself. (Brother, have you tried to get a contractor out to do anything is this day and age?)

[Not that Bob 735]

I should have been more clear. I don't care if I can play music in every room. I don't want to play music in every room. It's just me and the spouse and resale value is not important to me. I will die in this house. The new owner can figure it out if they need music in every room. I just don't want to go through the time and expense of removing all this wire if I don't need to. I guess I have answered my own question. Just stuff the wire ends back into the wall and patch the sheetrock. Guess I just needed to talk it through. 

[Not that Bob 735]

Just got KEF LS50 II Meta Wireless with KEF LC 62 sub. Small potatoes to much of the stuff above but I gotta say my horizons have expanded. I called this a “transistor radio “ before I heard it but I am now a true believer. It won’t get rock concert loud, but that’s out of my system. As is often said, “I never heard that in that song”.  Songs I’ve listened to for 40 years are brand new. 

Edited February 9, 2023 by Not that Bob
Meta

[jimmyjazz 45630]

I'm sure I said it before, but by all accounts those KEFs are terrific small speakers.  I really want to get a pair at some point.