v4lve

Out of all the celebrity deaths lately, the passing of Tom Magliozzi is one of the saddest. I've spent hours upon hours, as have many others, enjoying the banter and tlight hearted conversations of Clik and Clak the Tappet Brothers. RIP.

http://www.npr.org/2014/11/03/357428287/tom-magliozzi-popular-co-host-of-nprs-car-talk-dies-at-77

I haven't played with anything short of Audyssey or Yamaha's YPAO. I have an Omnimic that works through my PC, that actually does a phenomenal job of taking measurements but obviously there's no auto correction or time delay; all I can do is measure, then adjust accordingly.

Tell me about it, there is some fun to be had breaking out the painters tape and a measuring tape and getting things all dialed in. With this thing I'll just measure of system center and off the wall, toe in a touch and let it go mostly.

As far as those speakers go:

Obligatory tubes

Right out of the box - the packaging was sufficient, not quite what I'd like to have seen but certainly good enough. Part of the reason I say this is that there was a ring around both speakers, top and bottom, from where the fabric that wrapped them for protection had rubbed into the finish. Thank god a little elbow grease had this removed - not what was expected in a speaker of this caliber. Once removing the blemishes I was finally able to enjoy the fit and finish of the speaker. The cabinet is a remarkably deep black and even while the face has this muted gleam that is really quite great - even if the picture makes them look kind of generic. Grills are not even an option as they do not ship with.

The base of these speakers are worth mentioning as they are incredibly dense with great carpet spikes. Plus there's a nifty little level built into them. Speaker looks thin but has a great amount of depth. Bass drivers surrounding KEF's uni-q driver is a, somewhat, unique appearance and the two bass ports in the rear have swappable baffles to help bring the low end to your liking and to your rooms acoustics.

Now, aside from whatever quality control these went through - and judging by production certificate - Mathew from KEF did spend some time making sure frequency response was up to par and within spec and we were even provided a graph for this pair.

Didn't get to really set them in, but powering on the speakers (Brahms: The Cello Sonatas performed by Rostropovich, Serkin) I continued to be impressed . I loved the Snells for their flowing, open sound that was still very articulate. The KEFs, however, make them a appear muddy and unrefined right out of the box - almost to a fault. The detail they present is beyond impressive. I am hoping that the break-in will open them up some and pick up on some the Snell's characteristics I was hoping to expand upon and bring some "emotion" forward. The lack of imaging at this point, I am imagining and hoping, comes from not being able to take the time to place them correctly. Again, the room corrector should work some magic here but I'd like to not rely on it completely.

All in all, if it were my money I'd likely be more critical but for now, and in this initial phase, I am excited and quite pleased. I am positive our guy will be running these non-stop until Tuesday, when I'll be configuring the corrector, so we should be approaching the break-in period fairly quickly. The pre and the amp are accumulating hours as well which is only going to benefit us come time to voice.

Edit: Had this guy going on today too -

How did I miss this?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/18/matthew-falkner-taco-id_n_1018230.html

Florida Man strikes again

http://www.reddit.com/r/FloridaMan

I may have one laying around. If I find it tonight I'll throw it in a box with a stereo to RCA plug and shoot you a pm.

Finance, go figure. Specific role I'm not sure of, only his firm. Good estimate - all in equip for that room is $65k, so $50k something for the audio equip - add in control, shiny cables, blu-ray, mac mini, and TV the price goes up a bit.

Out of everything, I am thrilled with the Mac mini and it's role in this system. Guy moved and liquidated a few thousand LP's so the idea was to bring him over to a totally new (to him) way of sourcing and listening to music without sacrifice. Between the monitor (75hu8550, 75" samsung 4k), on-board DAC of the c2500, and the pc it really does sound great (this is with old Snell C7s) while keeping everything SO accessible. Plus, with the blue-tooth keyboard/touch pad and beefy remote (RTi T2x) its incredibly easy to operate too.

Personally, I have never used that room corrector but it comes highly regarded. Getting that dialed in to this hard-to-voice room along with the KEFs breaking in the system should be at a different level very quickly.

Yes, as long as none of the wires were messed with (the wires in your house) you should just be able to plug it in. It'll def do everything that Niles amp they recommended will, plus you'll have a tuner. First turn all your wall volumes down, then plug that Denon in and set the Denon's volume somewhere that's the max you would like to be able to turn up the speakers. You could also get a good BT device to plug into the receiver and possibly be able to control what you listen to using your phone.

Old airport expresses are hard to beat if you're on iPhone

Some nice gear in this thread. Right now I'm running:

-Yamaha Natural Sound A-700 amp

-Yamaha T-1000 tuner

-Some Optiumus CD changer. It's not pretty but it gets the job done.

-Thorens TD160Mk.1 w/Shure V15 III cartridge

-Some big Sansui speakers from the 80s

Right now I'm happy with everything except the speakers. They work but they're nothing special.

Love that tt

What do you do?? Keep me posted on how they sound, I've never heard those KEFs before. Is it a music system or is he using them in a HT system? Or both music and HT? What's he driving them with??

PM/estimator for residential a/v company. I'll definetely give you some feedback, should be an interesting speaker. Doesn't look quite up to its price point on paper and there's been few reviews to go off of but I'm holding strong on it going well in this particular room and how this guy listens to music.

All Macintosh pretty much, sounds great so far with a pair of Snell C7's we put out on loan.

c2500 pre

mc452 amp

mcd 550 cd/sacd

men 220 room corrector (think audyssey on steroids)

Couple digital inputs -

mac mini

marantz ud7007 blu-ray

75" 4k panel/smart hub

laced together with mid-range kimber kable

You buy those?!! Very nice indeed!!

Someday, in a parallel universe - $18k a bit much lol

Stereo I have being installed for a client.

Playtime with these on Firday

I'll respond more in full in a bit but my initial impression.

You have a layup of sorts. Those phoenix connectors are from a speaker selector switch, specifically a Niles SS-4 which can split up to 4 pairs. The speakers are most likely Niles as well and those holes will likely be a similar cut-out to anything you may want to replace them with.

As for what you drive them with, that's your call. It's also important to figure out how much value you place on different music playing in different locations - if any. If it's all the same to you then you'll need and receiver pretty much and any source. Hell, even an airport express would suffice if you're a part of the Apple eco-system.

Something super cut and dry would be a Sonos connect + receiver + speaker selector in the closet and perhaps a sound bar and sub in the basement.

Edit: Didn't see the hub - don't worry about speaker selector, just use volume controls existing. Take output from amp/receiver and plug leakers back into hub and away you go. provided piece is good.

Yes, from what you've described some good pics would let us spec an audio system for you.

My father's setup that never gets used, unfortunately.

looks like a great vintage set-up, I don't quite have the eye to identify a lot of the equipment but looks pretty serious

Built this 2 years ago out of some thrift store parts (I do this a lot)

Both look great

I hate demo music.. It's always Dianna Krall.

I want to hear MY music before I make a decision..

I love the snide HiFi world.. Where performance is directly related to money.

"That $2300 CD player is great it sounds almost as good as a $3100 CD player"

"Those $75k speaker cables are not worth it, they sound like $62k speaker cables"

Old fucks

This, so much this.

One of the best things I ever read regarding this topic was "Get Better Sound" by Jim Smith. He goes pretty far into placement, materials, etc as opposed to trying to solve an issue, that may not even exist, with gear.

I don't think it lends much credibility but I PM/sell/"design" home systems so I come across a lot of random gear and have had some acquaintances with decent equip. Haven't been in the field THAT long so I try to listen more than anything else but I have developed a sense for what I like.

Trying to downsize though so everything I have is for sale and I'll probably consolidate into ???

two stereos currently,

Living room:

Revox 791 turntable

nak zx9 cassette

revox modded b225 CD

rotel ra1070 integrated

bluesound vault

airport express

kef q300 bookshelves

niles ssvc4 for dining, basement, and patio speakers (russound rsf64)

bedroom:

revox b285 receiver

airport express

vienna acoustics Haydn bookshelves

Which brand and model is that?

Samsung 65f9000 and niles Cynema soundbar.

Speaking of TV's, 65" 4k all nice and clean like.

When I enlisted, I REALLY wanted to serve aboard a battleship. All are now decommissioned, but there are several afloat as museums. The USS WIsconsin is open to visitors in Norfolk, and is a cool site to see.

dat butt & dat scowl

man MR needs to step away from the mic.

now, the number he threw out is tech. correct. but it includes elderly, military etc..

he is going to alienate himself out of the job.

not sure if i created this, or in the back of my head somewhere. lol

A DO NOTHING CONGRESS AND A SAY NOTHING PRES. candidate. lol

As bad as it seemed I don't think he had lost any ground. The people who like Romney support his sentiment, to some degree - might be some contest over his quips about The View. Seems very similar to 2008 when Obama was lamenting over how rural PA clung to their guns and religion. Poor hicks get a bad rap from everyone, freeloading, gun totin', ignant sonsbitches

Any recommendations for a good "commuter" bag?

Looking at this:

Came for the pictures, left with a headache

Anyone in NYC/CT do somewhat fine soldering?

"America is Broke." :lol:

The economy is going to suck regardless of who is in office. The system hasn't changed; presidents have just become a scapegoat

Scapegoats with ever expanding executive privileges and decreased accountability

(sig) We opened 2 months ago,

I manage the shop, repair mostly mobile devices, and buy/sell peoples broken and unwanted apple products (Justin )