Charles' Little 2-ch Hi-Fi System...

Chops

Well-Known Member
Apr 27, 2016
876
850
230
Central Florida
Swapped out a power cable this morning...




 
  • Like
Reactions: Addicted to hifi

Chops

Well-Known Member
Apr 27, 2016
876
850
230
Central Florida
JL subs pulled out of the system and going on the market soon...













 
  • Like
Reactions: Addicted to hifi

Chops

Well-Known Member
Apr 27, 2016
876
850
230
Central Florida
Added some more Tara Labs cables today.





 
  • Like
Reactions: Mikem53

Chops

Well-Known Member
Apr 27, 2016
876
850
230
Central Florida


 

Chops

Well-Known Member
Apr 27, 2016
876
850
230
Central Florida
Now running Monitor Audio Bronze 500's...









 

Chops

Well-Known Member
Apr 27, 2016
876
850
230
Central Florida
Nice speakers.. how do they sound ?
So far, pretty darn good. And they still need time to run in. One thing to note, they're every bit as dynamic as the Klipsch, and bass extension is deeper as well.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Mikem53

Chops

Well-Known Member
Apr 27, 2016
876
850
230
Central Florida
Back to the Klipsch RP-8000F's... As good as the MA's are, they just don't cut it.



 

Mikem53

Well-Known Member
Oct 1, 2020
662
581
105
Back to the Klipsch RP-8000F's... As good as the MA's are, they just don't cut it.



That was fast !! They didn’t have time to get dust on them ! What’s up next..
 

Chops

Well-Known Member
Apr 27, 2016
876
850
230
Central Florida
That was fast !! They didn’t have time to get dust on them ! What’s up next..
Well, if they're not going to work, they're not going to stick around for long. I think I'm going to be hanging on to the Klipsch for a while. They do a lot of things right.

Here's a little "review" I wrote in another forum about the Monitor Audio's and Klipsch's...

"The Klipsch’s tonality remains the same no matter how quiet or loud you play them. With the MA’s, you have to turn them up a fair bit for them to open up and start sounding good. To “wake them up” so to speak.

The Klipsch’s treble is more refined. They easily reproduce those airy, light, delicate cues in music that the MA’s just completely mask over. I mean, you hear them from the MA’s, but it’s like they are trying to do something they aren’t capable of doing. Hard to explain.

Vocals and midrange in general is more open and natural through the Klipsch. They produce more space, width and depth with really good layering, detail retrieval and a super solid phantom center image and pin-point stage imaging.

With the Klipsch, there’s more texture and energy in the upper bass, lower mid-bass region, giving you solid impact from drums, piano and the like. Low-end bass extension may seem greater with the MA’s, but I’m beginning to think it only “seems” that way because there’s simply more energy above that low bass with the Klipsch as I just mentioned, which slightly makes that low bass a bit more subdued.

The things that stand out with the MA’s is that upper bass/lower mid-bass is a bit too soft around the leading edges, the midrange/vocal region seems congested a lot of the times, the treble is a little too etchy/unrefined, and the only way to get a solid center image in my room is to have them placed about one foot closer together and toed in almost directly at my ears, which doesn’t guarantee that it remains anchored to the center all the time, and absolutely kills stage width and depth."
 
  • Like
Reactions: Al M. and Mikem53

Chops

Well-Known Member
Apr 27, 2016
876
850
230
Central Florida
Back to the Monitor Audio Bronze 500's again... Giving them another shot.

 

dcathro

Well-Known Member
Sep 16, 2016
587
744
228
Melbourne, Australia
  • Like
Reactions: Chops

Al M.

VIP/Donor
Sep 10, 2013
8,799
4,550
1,213
Greater Boston
Well, if they're not going to work, they're not going to stick around for long. I think I'm going to be hanging on to the Klipsch for a while. They do a lot of things right.

Here's a little "review" I wrote in another forum about the Monitor Audio's and Klipsch's...

"The Klipsch’s tonality remains the same no matter how quiet or loud you play them. With the MA’s, you have to turn them up a fair bit for them to open up and start sounding good. To “wake them up” so to speak.

The Klipsch’s treble is more refined. They easily reproduce those airy, light, delicate cues in music that the MA’s just completely mask over. I mean, you hear them from the MA’s, but it’s like they are trying to do something they aren’t capable of doing. Hard to explain.

Vocals and midrange in general is more open and natural through the Klipsch. They produce more space, width and depth with really good layering, detail retrieval and a super solid phantom center image and pin-point stage imaging.

With the Klipsch, there’s more texture and energy in the upper bass, lower mid-bass region, giving you solid impact from drums, piano and the like. Low-end bass extension may seem greater with the MA’s, but I’m beginning to think it only “seems” that way because there’s simply more energy above that low bass with the Klipsch as I just mentioned, which slightly makes that low bass a bit more subdued.

The things that stand out with the MA’s is that upper bass/lower mid-bass is a bit too soft around the leading edges, the midrange/vocal region seems congested a lot of the times, the treble is a little too etchy/unrefined, and the only way to get a solid center image in my room is to have them placed about one foot closer together and toed in almost directly at my ears, which doesn’t guarantee that it remains anchored to the center all the time, and absolutely kills stage width and depth."

Charles, your writing is very good and informative! I'd like to see more of it.
Thanks
Al
 
  • Like
Reactions: Chops

Chops

Well-Known Member
Apr 27, 2016
876
850
230
Central Florida
Charles, your writing is very good and informative! I'd like to see more of it.
Thanks
Al

Thank you, Al. I really appreciate that.

I won't go into great detail about it now, but these speakers are a bit more sensitive to placement than others claim. At least in this room they are. This time around, being placed a few inches closer together, a couple inches closer to the front (further away from the listening seat), and toed out a little more seem to make a drastic improvement in their sound.

I'm not going to go into all of the details now because I don't know if this house is going to remaining in the next month or so, being that the owner that we're renting from is now selling it. We're wanting to buy it, but he's being a schmuck about it and asking way too much for it. He's looking to get $100k + over its market value, and that's just not going to happen. It's not worth it, everyone knows he (including him probably), but he's a greedy, "sneaky" kind of person we've found out lately.

Anyway, point being, we may be moving soon, which neither of us want to do. A nice little house, nice neighborhood and neighbors, and close to everything in town. Luckily, we're already approved for a loan, so it'll just be a matter of finding a house, packing and moving. All within a months time. Yuck.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Al M.

Al M.

VIP/Donor
Sep 10, 2013
8,799
4,550
1,213
Greater Boston
Thank you, Al. I really appreciate that.

I won't go into great detail about it now, but these speakers are a bit more sensitive to placement than others claim. At least in this room they are. This time around, being placed a few inches closer together, a couple inches closer to the front (further away from the listening seat), and toed out a little more seem to make a drastic improvement in their sound.

I'm not going to go into all of the details now because I don't know if this house is going to remaining in the next month or so, being that the owner that we're renting from is now selling it. We're wanting to buy it, but he's being a schmuck about it and asking way too much for it. He's looking to get $100k + over its market value, and that's just not going to happen. It's not worth it, everyone knows he (including him probably), but he's a greedy, "sneaky" kind of person we've found out lately.

Anyway, point being, we may be moving soon, which neither of us want to do. A nice little house, nice neighborhood and neighbors, and close to everything in town. Luckily, we're already approved for a loan, so it'll just be a matter of finding a house, packing and moving. All within a months time. Yuck.

Good luck with finding a house! But perhaps you can stay a little longer if the owner is asking too much for the house where you are now renting and nobody wants to buy it, at least for a while.

Thanks for the update on speaker positioning.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Chops

Chops

Well-Known Member
Apr 27, 2016
876
850
230
Central Florida
Well, some big changes coming soon!

We just closed on a house, so in a month or so, things are going to be stirred up a bit. We're excited about it as well as dreading it all at the same time. I don't think anyone likes moving, but it will be for the last time for an extremely long time!
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Al M.

Andrew S.

Well-Known Member
Mar 20, 2021
278
369
70
Hobart, Tasmania
We just closed an a house, so in a month or so, things are going to be stirred up a bit. We're excited about it as well as dreading it all at the same time. I don't think anyone likes moving, but it will be for the last time for an extremely long time!

Congratulations. Nothing like your own home....I hope you have a glass of bubbly when you pick up the keys.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Chops and Al M.

Chops

Well-Known Member
Apr 27, 2016
876
850
230
Central Florida
Congratulations. Nothing like your own home....I hope you have a glass of bubbly when you pick up the keys.
Thank you. A huge sigh of relief more than anything else. I can't wait to have those keys in my hands and have the move done.

Being stressed for 3 weeks straight, near constant headaches every day, and only getting between three to four hours of sleep a day, it's definitely had its toll on me. Having our landlord, and now ex-friend of 13 years (long story) saying we need to be out in an unrealistic amount of time, and being out-bid on every house we put an offer on, we finally "won" on the house we liked the most out of all of the places we looked at.

It has everything we want and then some. It's just about the perfect house for us. It even has a 4.5m x 6.4m concrete work shop out back with electric and water installed.

Needless to say, we're exhausted and excited all at the same time. LOL
 

Chops

Well-Known Member
Apr 27, 2016
876
850
230
Central Florida
Here's the system in our (new to us) home that we just purchased. I changed things up a bit with the system, pulling the Emotiva XPA-2 Gen 2 amp out and bringing back these little NuPrime STA-9 amps. Also brought back the Polk Audio PSW-505 subs. It's hard to tell from the pics, but the main speakers are pulled 5' out from the wall, and they can come out further if need be. So far, so good, for only living in the house for a week.







 

Addicted to hifi

VIP/Donor
Sep 8, 2020
4,610
2,039
265
52
Australia
Here's the system in our (new to us) home that we just purchased. I changed things up a bit with the system, pulling the Emotiva XPA-2 Gen 2 amp out and bringing back these little NuPrime STA-9 amps. Also brought back the Polk Audio PSW-505 subs. It's hard to tell from the pics, but the main speakers are pulled 5' out from the wall, and they can come out further if need be. So far, so good, for only living in the house for a week.







Very nice.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Chops

About us

  • What’s Best Forum is THE forum for high end audio, product reviews, advice and sharing experiences on the best of everything else. This is THE place where audiophiles and audio companies discuss vintage, contemporary and new audio products, music servers, music streamers, computer audio, digital-to-analog converters, turntables, phono stages, cartridges, reel-to-reel tape machines, speakers, headphones and tube and solid-state amplification. Founded in 2010 What’s Best Forum invites intelligent and courteous people of all interests and backgrounds to describe and discuss the best of everything. From beginners to life-long hobbyists to industry professionals, we enjoy learning about new things and meeting new people, and participating in spirited debates.

Quick Navigation

User Menu

Steve Williams
Site Founder | Site Owner | Administrator
Ron Resnick
Site Co-Owner | Administrator
Julian (The Fixer)
Website Build | Marketing Managersing