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

[Chops]

Been playing with speaker/sub placement a lot more lately, as well as crossover and gain settings on the subs. The speakers front baffles are now just over 6 feet from the front wall, the subs are about an additional 8 inches further out than in these pictures. Tweaking width spacing and toe in about 1/4 inch intervals, this system is finally creating an extremely realistic, holographic sound stage with great depth, width and pretty decent height. With the right recordings, the speakers completely disappear as well as the subs.

I'm really enjoying the system in this new, larger room/house.

 

[Addicted to hifi]

Been playing with speaker/sub placement a lot more lately, as well as crossover and gain settings on the subs. The speakers front baffles are now just over 6 feet from the front wall, the subs are about an additional 8 inches further out than in these pictures. Tweaking width spacing and toe in about 1/4 inch intervals, this system is finally creating an extremely realistic, holographic sound stage with great depth, width and pretty decent height. With the right recordings, the speakers completely disappear as well as the subs.

I'm really enjoying the system in this new, larger room/house.

Very nice system and setup.

 

[Chops]

I brought out my custom white quartz slabs that I had made several years back, and put them under the NuPrime amps. And of course, some of the kitties laying around enjoying the system with me.

 

[Chops]

The AV123 (GR Research) X-Statik's are back in play!

 

[DasguteOhr]

Been playing with speaker/sub placement a lot more lately, as well as crossover and gain settings on the subs. The speakers front baffles are now just over 6 feet from the front wall, the subs are about an additional 8 inches further out than in these pictures. Tweaking width spacing and toe in about 1/4 inch intervals, this system is finally creating an extremely realistic, holographic sound stage with great depth, width and pretty decent height. With the right recordings, the speakers completely disappear as well as the subs.

I'm really enjoying the system in this new, larger room/house.

nice system, cool cat ... pets only lie between the speakers if it sounds good that's how I know cats and dogs.

 

[Chops]

A few more new pics with better lighting...

 

[Chops]

I did a thing...

I've been wanting to put some gear on the side wall (if not all of it at some point minus the amp and TV). When we first moved in to the new house, I tried this setup but kept getting a bunch of buzzing coming through the speakers clearly heard at the listening seat even though I'm running fully balanced, using two pairs of pro-grade Pig Hog 30 ft XLR cables. Not being able to solve the issue, I just put everything on the front wall using standard 1 meter Nordost and Wireworld XLRS. Even then, when getting up close to the tweeters, you could still a very slight buzzing coming through.

Well yesterday, I tried moving things around again and stripped the system down to only the preamp, amps and speakers. Again, I had the buzz. I tried different wall outlets, and even lifted the ground on one end or both ends with no effect.

I swapped the Schiit Freya+ for my Topping A90 headphone amp which is also fully balanced and can be switched over to preamp only mode. Tried that and I still had the buzz coming through the system, so moved the Freya+ back into the system. As a last ditch effort, I pulled the NuPrime STA-9 amps and put my Emotiva XPA-2 Gen 2 amp into the mix. The result?... Pure silence! I mean pure silence as in I had to double check to make sure I actually had the speakers connected to the amp! No buzz, no hum, no hiss, no nothing! And that's with my ears right up against the tweeters practically!

I connected the Bifrost 2 DAC with another pair of Pig Hog 30 ft XLR's, still no noise. Connected the Sony Blu-ray, the Raspberry Pi4, the Roku Ultra, the TV, powered everything up... Still completely silent!

So it seems that either the balanced inputs on the NuPrime amps aren't wired correctly, or they are not differential inputs, OR they are not true balanced inputs at all. Either way, they are out of the system, the Emotiva is back in the system. And being able to hear both amps in the same room and system configuration, surprisingly the Emotiva has more and tighter bass (had to turn the gains down a touch on the subs), a more refined top end while remaining airy and spacious, and an ever so slightly fuller midrange. Imaging seems to be about the same, though stage depth and width is a little better. BTW, the Emotiva amp does in fact utilize true balanced differential inputs.

Who knew that Emotiva was able to create an amplifier (a massive 75 pound amplifier I might add) that is capable of exceeding the performance of a pair of amplifiers at double to price (two amps). The NuPrime STA-9's were $900 each new, the Emotiva XPA-2 Gen 2 was also $900 new.

Anywho, on with some pics...

 

[Al M.]

I did a thing...

I've been wanting to put some gear on the side wall (if not all of it at some point minus the amp and TV). When we first moved in to the new house, I tried this setup but kept getting a bunch of buzzing coming through the speakers clearly heard at the listening seat even though I'm running fully balanced, using two pairs of pro-grade Pig Hog 30 ft XLR cables. Not being able to solve the issue, I just put everything on the front wall using standard 1 meter Nordost and Wireworld XLRS. Even then, when getting up close to the tweeters, you could still a very slight buzzing coming through.

Well yesterday, I tried moving things around again and stripped the system down to only the preamp, amps and speakers. Again, I had the buzz. I tried different wall outlets, and even lifted the ground on one end or both ends with no effect.

I swapped the Schiit Freya+ for my Topping A90 headphone amp which is also fully balanced and can be switched over to preamp only mode. Tried that and I still had the buzz coming through the system, so moved the Freya+ back into the system. As a last ditch effort, I pulled the NuPrime STA-9 amps and put my Emotiva XPA-2 Gen 2 amp into the mix. The result?... Pure silence! I mean pure silence as in I had to double check to make sure I actually had the speakers connected to the amp! No buzz, no hum, no hiss, no nothing! And that's with my ears right up against the tweeters practically!

I connected the Bifrost 2 DAC with another pair of Pig Hog 30 ft XLR's, still no noise. Connected the Sony Blu-ray, the Raspberry Pi4, the Roku Ultra, the TV, powered everything up... Still completely silent!

So it seems that either the balanced inputs on the NuPrime amps aren't wired correctly, or they are not differential inputs, OR they are not true balanced inputs at all. Either way, they are out of the system, the Emotiva is back in the system. And being able to hear both amps in the same room and system configuration, surprisingly the Emotiva has more and tighter bass (had to turn the gains down a touch on the subs), a more refined top end while remaining airy and spacious, and an ever so slightly fuller midrange. Imaging seems to be about the same, though stage depth and width is a little better. BTW, the Emotiva amp does in fact utilize true balanced differential inputs.

Who knew that Emotiva was able to create an amplifier (a massive 75 pound amplifier I might add) that is capable of exceeding the performance of a pair of amplifiers at double to price (two amps). The NuPrime STA-9's were $900 each new, the Emotiva XPA-2 Gen 2 was also $900 new.

Anywho, on with some pics...

Wow, nice room!!

 

[Chops]

Wow, nice room!!

Thank you, sir! I appreciate that!

 

[Chops]

A few more pics from this morning...

 

[Chops]

Don't mind the mess. We had family over last night. On that note, the Christmas Tree does in fact good ole' fashion bubble lights on it!

 

[Chops]

Made a "pair" of upgrades in the way of a couple SVS PB-1000 Pro subs. Haven't really had any time to dial them in yet. Just plopped them in, made preliminary adjustments, and let them go. I'll really dig into the settings and DSP tomorrow hopefully.

 

[Mr Rickz]

Things are looking good.

I recently picked up a pair of SVS SB 2000 ( Non-Pro ) to augment my KEF LS50s, Harbeth 30.2 40th Anniversary, and Magnapan .7s. I never knew what I was missing below 80 hertz, but now I don't think I could live without them.

 

[Chops]

Things are looking good.

I recently picked up a pair of SVS SB 2000 ( Non-Pro ) to augment my KEF LS50s, Harbeth 30.2 40th Anniversary, and Magnapan .7s. I never knew what I was missing below 80 hertz, but now I don't think I could live without them.

Thank you!

I have always been a strong supporter of using subwoofers, almost always a stereo pair. And it has always bugged me that a lot of people say that there's "no bass below 40 Hz in most music", and that's simply not true, nor is it always about the bass coming from the instruments.

There's a lot more to recordings , especially acoustic recordings, than just the instruments in the recording that makes the listening experience exciting and enjoyable.

I'm also a firm believer in using subs with ALL loudspeakers, no matter how big and expensive they are and no matter of how low they truly extend.

 

[Mr Rickz]

That is funny. I was told essentially the same thing: "No bass below 40." Then I got the RME ADI DAC/Preamp. It has a very resolving graphical frequency display. With it, I could actually see what I was missing, especially on Jazz recordings. And, of course, a heavy bass line is prevalent on much of contemporary music.

Even old dogs, ( Me ) can learn new tricks.

Cheers

 

[Chops]

That is funny. I was told essentially the same thing: "No bass below 40." Then I got the RME ADI DAC/Preamp. It has a very resolving graphical frequency display. With it, I could actually see what I was missing, especially on Jazz recordings. And, of course, a heavy bass line is prevalent on much of contemporary music.

Even old dogs, ( Me ) can learn new tricks.

Cheers

Yeah, I have no idea where these people dream up such false "facts" about subjects like this. It makes no sense at all. And subwoofers being one of if not the most misunderstood piece of equipment in the hifi world. Most don't understand them, have no clue on how to set them up properly, and what they are truly meant for in a system.

 

[Chops]

I moved some of my gear further down the side wall, as in all the way to the back of the wall. The dust hasn't settled yet and the speakers/subs may end up moving some more (maybe moving the subs inboard to see how that deals with room modes and such). Now that the front of the room is a lot more symmetrical, there's a definite improvement in stage width and imaging which I knew would happen. It's just that when we moved in, I just kind of threw things in the room and went with it for a while.

However, now that the front of the room is sorted so to speak, there's a lot more flexibility in playing with speaker/sub placement to get things really dialed in. Not to mention that this also prepares the room better for some room acoustic treatments a little later down the road.

I have to say, SVS has come a long, long, LONG way in the musicality department since the days of my old PB12-ISD/2 and PB12-Plus/2 subs. They were great for movies, but for music?... Forget it. Slow, sluggish, heavy sounding with music. Definitely not so with these new PB-1000 Pro's. Tight, agile, crisp!

Anywho, on with a few pics. And yes, that one of the audio rack and timer, that's 4:50am! Sucks when you can't sleep half the time.

 

[Chops]

Spent the past five plus hours playing around with REW and my new Dayton Audio UMM-6 mic, attempting to dial in my system. I'll be the first to admit this room is in need of some major help.

The GR-Research X-Statik's create a huge peak at 74Hz. Keep in mind, these are sealed loudspeakers, and positioned 6' in front of the front wall and just over 3' from the side walls. Even when just by themselves, there's a huge hole that shows up between 35Hz to 50Hz! In any of the other rooms I've had these speakers in over the past 13 years, I've never seem huge peaks and dips like this before.

With the subs active, there's still a huge hole at 43Hz. Also, to help reduce that hole, I had to move the subs back towards the front wall. They are only about 1.5' away from the wall now, instead of the near 6' they were previously when positioned along side the mains. To get a smoother, cleaner transition from the subs to the mains, I had to cross the subs over at 72Hz with a 24dB slope, then dial them in with phase adjustments.

Whenever I get more time, I'll set everything up again and do some more measurements and tuning. It certainly doesn't look good on paper, but there is a vast improvement in overall sound quality over just the "throw them in and tune by ear" method I did when I got these subs. Which is also how I've been listening to them for the past couple months that I've owned them now.

Anyway, a few graphs to chat over...

Mains by themselves...

With subs...

The two above combined, and limited to 200Hz...

 

[Chops]

Changed things up once again... Now running a pair of Revel Concerta2 M16's and my old AudioQuest CV-8 speaker cables.

 

[Chops]

Don't even know why I'm posting this here...