v4lve

3 hours ago, Dick Dastardly said:

again, my whole point that started this is:

HiFi is the only hobby that uses dollar amounts as a descriptor. 

and it's silly. Pricing is, at a point, arbitrary at best.

 

Just like anything else the perceived correlation between the performance of higher $$ items and cheap ones ends up with people quantifying price for quality. Naturally it's all subjective but, at least in this instance, it's a simple generalization.

 

Also, dropped of some Kimber Bifocal's for a client today. Got a phone call saying he injured himself installing

5 hours ago, mattsk8 said:

Sony does something like that ($27k pair of speakers) to sell their regular product. But, I will say those are some of the best speakers I've ever heard.

Totally get that, their push (return?) into personal audio is largely predicated on the perceived performance of the flagship stuff. The PH3 portable headphone amp, the HAPS1 desktop amp w/ built in nas, and MDRz7 headphones all seem to be fairly well received. They also have a turntable that, with software, can rip your vinyl to dad lol.  

8 hours ago, mattsk8 said:

I could ramble about Axpona for a while but I'll try to keep it short and sweet. Show was awesome, hard to beat going from room to room listening to $500k systems all day long. And they're getting a lot better with the music too, this time every room wasn't playing Nora Jones or some variation of crap like that. Nothing against Nora Jones, but small doses. Sorry for the picture quality, I used my cell phone.

My favorite room was the MBL room. I think this room had close to $1,000,000.00 in equipment. Just the crazy looking pair of speakers were $262k, then there were 6 subs, 4 amplifiers that were each about 4 ft deep, and all kinds of other crazy equipment. These things absolutely cranked, the sound coming from them literally pressurized the whole room.

So sexy. If I ever win the lotto, I'll have these in my living room. It's not just the sound from them, it's the crazy design. each of those big aluminum domes is a midrange, then there are 2 tweeters under that, that are the same design.

 

2nd favorites are the Sony SSAR1. Absolutely amazing sounding, but they should be at $27k for the pair...

3rd would be these Volti speakers. I love the "off the beaten path" design, they sound amazing, and the go insanely loud...

 

One more "wow" moment were these little white speakers. I actually know the designer, Jim Salk, he's a super sharp and down to earth guy. These are active, so they have their own internal amplifier and DAC. These sounded amazing, so good I had to think about which I liked more between them and the big floor standers next them...

 

Aside from all those^^, honorable mentions would be the Focals, those sounded very good. They weren't the gigantic ones, I'm actually not a fan of those. These had a pair of 7" woofers, a 7" mid, and tweeter... ATC's active speakers were really good... Tidal speakers were amazing (not to be confused with the Tidal music app, totally different)... Raidho speakers were incredible... and the list goes on.

All looks phenomenal, I'd love to hear the Sony's at some point. As a brand they seem to be in a tight spot but they're making some interesting (maybe not totally sellable) product.   

On April 14, 2016 at 3:17 PM, Dick Dastardly said:

All the old McIntosh guys drive SAABS back in the 70s and 80s. 

Didn't know, was there a reason for this or just coincidence??

2 hours ago, Dick Dastardly said:

did you buy a SAAB 900 to go with all that?

Had to trade in the c30 for one to afford it all 

Not as bad as walking into Magnolia and walking out with big boxes as I'm a dealer for Mc. I haven't had any honest time with either of the units and I've been tinkering with "personal audio" more so wanted to give it a go. Initial impression is that I'll be holding onto the amp longer than the headphones. 

I've done something unwise but hopefully enjoyable

 

it was much easier to kill time in there while in school, this whole job thing is a killer 

23 hours ago, Kevin. said:

chat is always dead....

Sounds like it was somewhat active last night? I didn't make it for most of the reminiscing bit. 

Finished these up last night. Subs for our church, it's considered a ABC cabinet (kind of like a bandpass). I worked with the guy at Eminence to design them and went this route because these supposedly give close to horn loaded subwoofer output in a smaller cabinet. Finished them late last night so I haven't had a chance to test them, that'll be tonight. Hoping to do damage to my house's foundation with these monsters.

Speaking of interconnects... I've never been a money spender when it comes to wire. Make sure the gauge is good, and the ends are terminated well and that's all that matters IMO. I make my own RCAs and speaker wire, if it's a digital cable I buy the cheapest option available. This is some speaker wire I made for these subs, soldered to the Speakon connector. I braided it because I like the way it looks, plus I didn't have any 12 gauge wire around so I used 2 strands of 14 gauge (which gives me ~11 gauge), braiding doesn't give any acoustic rewards whatsoever.

but...but...kimber kable

Any suggestions for a short center channel speaker stand??

Also, this

http://imgur.com/aujaJme

Bought a 6+, no deep regrets to this point. Admittedly purchased as a result of complacency more than anything else, plug into computer and i have a mirror of old phone

The biggest differences in sound can be made with room acoustics and proper speaker placement. So many people get caught up in tweaks and cables and have horrible speaker placement.. (and I don't think used Kimber 8 is caught up in cables or tweaks. It's The $35k power cable guys that are the idiots)

or have a light dimmer switch on the same circuit as their turntable and buy a $1000 cartridge because "it sounds better" and all you can hear is 60cycle hum from the dimmer

1000x yes. I've referred the book "get better sound" on numerous occasions just to get entangled with someone who will spend big to get nothing in return.

Can't tell if sarcasm, but it seems to me speaker wire / ICs / power cables to audio people seem to be what oil is to car people - a never ending, nowhere debate lol

Sarcasm, mostly. It can be a lot of snake oil like you said and people sometime hear what they spend and it makes them happy. Some of my exposure to this realm makes me seem that the people who do spend on cabling do so reluctantly because they acknowledge the former. Or on the other side of the spectrum - to show off and dick measure.

I did recently add a giant power conditioner to a system and it made a world of difference in low-end.

Oh but sometimes there's trace elements of other metals and let's not forget the quantum difference in micro dynamics, rhythm, pace and inner detail.

Mostly kimber, couple audio quest Rca

Something like this?

I want a mini one as it's for a very small component setup I'm using in my living room. I've had plenty of big old school component stuff, but I'm over that right now. My old Carver stuff sounds great with the big tower speakers I have, but it all takes up so much room.

A few months ago I picked up a teeny Topping digital class T amp and a pair of Dayton audio bookshelf speakers to run with my Audio Technica turntable. For what it is, it really sounds incredible. Very crisp clear sound. Considering the price point of each too, it's downright phenomenal (amp was $90, speaker pair was $40 and turntable was $85). It won't shake the house and it's not meant for loud. But at regular listening levels it's surprisingly good. I also really like how small and compact it all is. I have a couple thousand CDs too though that I'd like to listen to through the same system and it seems exceedingly silly to plug in a giant black boring box to it all. There's where something small and good looking like the Tivoli comes in.

I don't have a great picture of the stuff, but in this pic you can see the stuff. That small silver box to the left of the turntable is the amp. See why I don't want a big ol' CD player with that stuff?

Totally undershot, my mistake - I was under the impression you wanted a compact system for another room not just as a source. I've always like the NAD disc players but while slim is still a full sized component.

Anyone have any recommendations for compact/mini CD players? I want a small package component CD player that's not the old school huge style. Right now I'm thinking the Tivoli CD player since it's about exactly what I want, however I'm not thrilled about the $300 price tag. Anyone have any ideas on something similar but not quite as spendy?

Here's the Tivoli for reference:

And that's $300 before speakers.

This little Sony could be worth looking into:

That invisible hand is ever-strong

That happens a lot. Remember phase can be off in the amp too. put the wires where it sounds best and the loudest at the same volume setting

I have set up HT systems with phase software and it points out the speakers that are out of phase so you can correct them.

Phase can also change throughout the frequency spectrum as well

Yep, well aware. No Audyssey here but easy enough to test anyway. I am just disappointed that, should this be the issue, it's on a pair of speakers that rivals some whole home installs. I had another pair of speakers on loan that were incredibly accurate so I am inclined to go with the new tower before digging into other equipment but I see your point. Without that contrast I'd be starting at source -> pre -> room corrector -> amp -> speaker and killing a whole day, may end up that way anyway but we'll see.

My reference tracks in this instance were selected movements from sinfonietta by janacek conducted by antoni wit (all around awesome recording), modest mouse - broke (personal reference), rage - take the power back (everything hits so hard and is so impressive sonically). Didn't have much time aside from that.

Be great to hear what you guys use when testing equip for the first time.

Edit: Glad to head you got it going Mike, enjoy!

on another note, made some mass loaded speaker stands on sunday.

They weigh about 30# each and look good.

They cost about $40 including foot spikes

I used a stair tread from Lowes and 4" DWV pipe. Some All-Thread and play sand. Feet are Sewell brass floor spikes

Looks good man. I need to get around to making a base for my Concertinos, but then that would involve actually fixing them

Speaking of phase though, those $18,000 KEFs? Left speaker seems to be crossed internally; permanently out of phase. Hook it up appropriately and the sound stage is scattered, reverse connections and the imaging is spot on. Sounds spectacular as is but there's no way something like that should slip through QC.

I mean yes but the odds of them splitting 16-4 someplace to join it with other 16-4 before the equip closet are ao incredibly minute.

The testing wouldn't really be capacitance but rather tone generator to locate speaker physically

So, typically

Red - Right Positive

Black - Right Negative

White - Left Positive

Green - Left Negative

This is how it was done in your house as well, according to your connectors.

So go from "Main A" into the Hub, hopefully you have the phoenix clip. If not use one of the ones still attached. Speakers should all be connected in that middle portion of the hub while amp input is labeled off to the right.

Airport Express into CD input.

Before firing it all up, turn all of your volume controls to the left (off). Put your airplay device at ~%50 as well then adjust the amp volume about %50.

Go room by room bringing the volume up on your device to test and hopefully by the end of your walk you'll have a working stereo.

Do you even lift bro ?

Korean Jesus don't got time for your shit

I was so bummed when I heard about this. I was not aware that he had Alzheimers either. I too grew up listening to them. It was my families Sunday routine to make french toast and listen to Car Talk. We would even make wagers with each other on who could answer each weeks puzzler.

Me either, but I guess that's why the new episodes had come to a stop.

I didn't have as much of a ritual around the show, but could always count on it to lighten up just about any mood.