Changes to the system lately have concentrated on placement and wiring.

The power and data cables for the TV have been routed through the roof space and tidied up with conduit. The power cable is a DIY effort constructed with 2 x 1.5mm CY cable (shield connected at plug only), MK ToughPlug, Silver plated figure 8, all cleaned and treated with DeOxit. The HDMI cable is an 8m AudioQuest Pearl, which was a significant improvement over the cheap 5m HDMI cable I had temporarily hooked the TV up with. I also have the TV plugged in through a mains filter which provides a significant improvement, mains filtering is something I will be looking into in the future.



As the advice I received on OB's was that what I was trying to achieve would be unlikely to work in the room I have turned my attention back to the Celestions. I have moved the 44's further apart and closer to the rear wall which in itself made the speakers integrate better into the room, however changing the stands has been a revelation. I was using Atacama SL400i stands 2/3 filled with kiln dried sand but having picked up a few pairs of stands over the last few months I gave them all a go to see what difference, if any they would make. I've settled on a pair of "Foundation" branded stands, they're 600mm and constructed from thick walled box section. The difference from lifting the 44's 200mm took me very much by surprise, the sound from the speakers is far less in your face and the integration is so much better resulting in a better centre image and a bigger soundstage. There has been a huge improvement in the bass (which I put down to the construction of the stands?), it is far less bloated, has a lot more detail and subsequently allowed me to move the speakers closer to the rear wall and further utilise the reinforcement. As testament to my ignorance I really didn't expect stands to make such a big difference, to think I've been tripping over these stands for the last couple of months .

I now have a pair of Beovox 5700's in place as surround speakers. These use the Celestion MD500 and HF2000 drivers with a Phillips 10" bass and ABR and are suitable for horizontal mounting (stock image, mine are nowhere near as pretty):



I plan on bastardising these, removing the MD500 and swapping it for the D5 mid range in the 44's and replacing the HF2000's with SEAS 19TFF1, then they will be mounted horizontally either on the wall above the door way or ceiling mounted, I'm waiting on new inductors to arrive then I can begin work on this. The 5700 along with the rear mounted Ditton 11's integrate very well and the 5700 go down to ~50Hz which is where I cross them over to the sub. Talking about the sub, it is now behind the seating:



To do this I knocked up a 20m lead made from Van Damme XKE, this has worked very well. There is far less room interaction in the bass, the room is now less "flooded" with bass which actually helps the surround illusion, more lower volume detail can be heard from the other speakers which really improves the sound stage. Lower frequencies also have far more impact and are more felt than heard. The downside, is that at times it is obvious that the sub's behind you. This only happens occasionally when watching a film but is far more detectable when listening to 2 channel music. I no longer use the sub when listening to music so this is a compromise I'm happy to make.

Things are moving forward, just slowly. Once I have the new cross over components I'll be able to work on and mount the 5700's which will mean I'll be able to redecorate and put the rest of the furniture back in the lounge.