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HighFidelityGuy
23-06-2009, 20:25
Hi,

I decided that 2009 would be upgrade year seen as there were lots of good deals around and I wouldn't earn any interest if I kept my money in the bank anyway. So here's my progress so far:

As and when I get any new gear I'll try to take photos and post them here.

This is what my system looked like in Feb this year:

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y48/DTM2000/Hi-Fi/th_CIMG2010.jpg (http://s2.photobucket.com/albums/y48/DTM2000/Hi-Fi/?action=view&current=CIMG2010.jpg)

Speakers are Eltax LR6.5. I got them about 8 years ago from
Richer Sounds for £200. They've been good speakers and have seen several different amps and source units over the years.

At the bottom of the rack is my new Arcam AVR300 7.1 amp. I got this in Feb to replace my Yamaha AV amp. I've still not actually upgraded to surround sound yet, I'm concentrating on stereo for now.

The little black box near the top of the rack is my Beresford TC-7520 DAC. It has it's lid off in the photo as I've been experimenting with different opamps. Technically I got this in March but you get the idea.

My source is my media centre PC which is in the next room to the right of the rack. At this stage I'm using a Mark Grant digital coax between the PC and DAC. A Cambridge Audio Pacific interconnect between the DAC and amp and some Gale speaker cable I got at the same time as the speakers.

I was bi-amping the speakers using the front channel outputs and two of the unused rear outputs on the amp. This is a useful feature of this amp.

That's about all I can say about the system as it was at this point.

HighFidelityGuy
23-06-2009, 20:52
Upgrading my amp to the Arcam improved the sound of my system much more than I was expecting. The clarity improved a great deal, especially the mid-range. I also got punchier deeper bass. This got me excited about upgrading other parts of my system. So I started looking into changing my speakers.

After trying out several different models at my local dealer, I had my heart set on a pair of Monitor Audio RS8's as they ticked all my boxes and were in my sub £1000 price range. I was almost ready to order these but I decided to get some advice about what else was available by starting a post in this forum. I received some good advice and some offers of second hand speakers. Off the back of that I travelled down to London to see forum member John and listen to his Wharfedale Opus 3's. After an impressive demo I decided these awesome speakers were the right ones for me, so I bought them. They seemed to have a similar sound characteristic to the RS8's but with just more of everything, plus they were slightly cheaper.

So after squeezing them into my little car and driving home, I got them setup:

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y48/DTM2000/Hi-Fi/th_CIMG2011.jpg (http://s2.photobucket.com/albums/y48/DTM2000/Hi-Fi/?action=view&current=CIMG2011.jpg)

Everything else was left the same but the improvement in sound quality was huge. More clarity, a wider, higher and deeper stereo image and much deeper and punchier bass. Plus they look awesome, well I think so anyway. My wife took a bit of convincing but I think she's got used to them now. :lol:

That's it for now.

Beechwoods
23-06-2009, 21:08
Wow. They look fantastic! I never knew John had a set of those hidden away. You did well. I'll bet he was sad to see them go. But at least they have an appreciative audience now!

HighFidelityGuy
23-06-2009, 21:14
John was sad to see them go but I promised to give them a good home.
I'm really enjoying them and expect to carrying on enjoying them for many years to come.

Once I've had a tidy up I'll post a photo of my new amps and speaker cable that have really made the Wharfedales sing.

HighFidelityGuy
19-07-2009, 19:54
More things have changed.
I never got round to taking a photo since I got my new power amps but since then I've also had a major re-shuffle due to me finally getting a new TV. So I thought I better post an update and explain the changes I've made.

Here's how everything looks now (click to make bigger):

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y48/DTM2000/Hi-Fi/th_TVandamps.jpg (http://s2.photobucket.com/albums/y48/DTM2000/Hi-Fi/?action=view&current=TVandamps.jpg)

You can see the power amps on the floor next to each speaker.
They are Musical Fidelity 550K Superchargers. These are monoblock amps that can produce 500W each. They can either be connected between the speaker outputs of a smaller amp and the speakers, or can be used as conventional power amps using a line level input. I use them as standard power amps as I read that they sounded best when used like this. They have really helped to inject more dynamics and produce a bigger soundstage than using my AV amp on it's own. My AV amp now acts as a pre-amp for the main speakers but still powers the rears.

When I installed the power amps I also performed a small modification to my speakers to simplify the wiring. The speakers originally had tri-wire binding posts but as I wasn't going to be tri-amping them, I decided to re-wire the terminals internally so that all three sets of wires connected to the bottom binding posts. This allowed me to do away with annoying jumper cables that I feel just add more unnecessary connections for the signal to go through.

The speaker cable I'm currently using is NVA LS5 in a 1m length per side. I found this aided the amps in allowing more dynamics to come through along with greater detail over the cheap cable I was using before.

The most noticeable change is my new TV. I've gone from a 28" Philips flat screen 100Hz CRT to a Hitachi 37" UT37MX70 100Hz 1080p LCD. I got a fantastic deal on this at Richer Sounds for £450. I did want to get the 42" version which was £500 but they were out of stock everywhere. The reason for the low price is that this range doesn't have any internal TV tuner, only 1 HDMI input and that's about it. It's an ultra stripped down monitor. Saying that they still retail at significantly more than that everywhere else. They are Hitachi's top end ultra slim range. The lack of bells and whistles is not a problem to me as I use my PC as a media centre which acts like Sky Plus but with more features.

I was planning on getting a new TV stand at the same time but I recently changed my mind about which one I wanted and the one I want now is quite a bit more expensive, so I'm going to get that later in the year. To tide me over in the mean time I decided to just use my existing Hi-Fi rack. It's a bit tall for a TV stand in my opinion but it will do for now.

That's it for now.
The next toy to come will hopefully be my valve pre-amp once I've got it sorted out. After that it'll be the new TV stand/Hi-Fi stand, EQ/RTA, room treatment and cable upgrades etc.
It never ends. :doh:

HighFidelityGuy
27-07-2009, 20:23
I have already posted this in another thread but I thought it would be good to keep all my upgrade info together in this thread too:

A few days ago I noticed that NVA had a traded in 1M set of their Super Sound Pipe (SSP for short) interconnects for sale at half the usual price. I couldn't resist as I've been wondering what they were like foe months. Luckily I won the auction and they arrived today.
I installed them today between my lightly modified Beresford 7520 DAC and my AV amp which is currently acting as a pre-amp for my mono-blocks.

Despite the fact that they've only been installed for about 10 minutes the difference in quality over my old cables is amazing. My old cables were Cambridge Audio Pacific that I had to start using again after getting my mono-blocks. Between the AV amp and mono-blocks I have a 1M set of Mark Grant Canare cables.

The SSP are allowing much more detail and subtlety to come through. They also give a more airy sound which I think is due to greater separation between beats/notes that helps to make everything sound less cluttered. Vocals are also noticeably clearer and easy to understand.

Granted I am comparing £200 cables to £30 cables but the Pacific's were seen as being extremely good value in their day.

I seriously recommend that anyone who can, tries a set of these SSP's as they are brilliant and I'm sure they'll get better as they bed in. They should be run in already as they are 2nd hand but there are no signal direction markings on the cables, so I don't know if I have them connected the same way round as the original owner.

Here's a photo of the cables (click to make bigger):

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y48/DTM2000/Hi-Fi/th_SSP.jpg (http://s2.photobucket.com/albums/y48/DTM2000/Hi-Fi/?action=view&current=SSP.jpg)

The SSP's are the black braided cables on the left and the yellow cables are the old Cambridge audio Pacific. The Pacific's look more bling and shiny but their performance is very dull compared to the SSP's. :)
You get a bit of an idea from the photo of just how stiff the SSP's are. They took some careful shaping to get them connected up and they really do feel like pipes, not cables. Running them through the cable management hole in the shelf would have been even more tricky so I didn't bother as I'll only be disconnecting it all again when I get my new rack, which won't suffer from the same problems.

John
27-07-2009, 20:40
Hi Dave
Good to hear you are still loving those speakers they are really underrated and the bass bust sound awesome with those super chargers

HighFidelityGuy
27-07-2009, 20:54
Hi John, nice to hear from you again.
I'm really enjoying them and they're really starting to sing now that the rest of my system is coming up to scratch. The bass is awesome now and everything else is quickly catching up as I upgrade bits here and there. I think my main problem now is room acoustics, so I'll hopefully get round to improving that soon. :)

John
28-07-2009, 04:17
Yes that echos my experience of the Opus3 as the equipment gets better the speakers just allows more through
I would also think about the preamp Dave a dedicated pre should sound better

HighFidelityGuy
28-07-2009, 08:46
Yes that echos my experience of the Opus3 as the equipment gets better the speakers just allows more through
I would also think about the preamp Dave a dedicated pre should sound better

The pre-amp is something else I'm going to experiment with. I've bought a valve pre-amp off ebay that I'm going to have modified by Tube Distinctions to make it fit my requirements. That should allow me to have the stereo and AV stuff separate but still both able to run through the Opus 3's at the flick of a switch.

You can see the pre-amp HERE (http://theartofsound.net/forum/showthread.php?t=3179).

It's a bit of an experiment/learning experience to allow me to try out a pre-amp and play with some valve equipment, as I've never used valves before. If that doesn't work I'll sell it and get something higher end later in the year.

John
28-07-2009, 13:10
Yes think you will have a bargin and it will make a big difference
Its great that you will be able to get it to also intergrate with your AV system

DSJR
28-07-2009, 13:35
Wharfedale were all but ignored in the last twenty years or so (apart from the Diamond) but some of their mid-sized speakers can work really well indeed, lacking the razor sharp tizzzzz that seems to affect budget (and not so budget) KEFs and some B&W's too...

Have you tried bringing the speakers a little further forward and speading them further apart? I know all the arguments about equilateral triangles, but if room acoustics allow, you can slightly over-do the distance apart to very good effect I've found. It obviously depends on room and personal tastes, but those speakers look as if they're demanding to be a bit further apart to me.....

You're obviously having great fun and without spending a small fortune. Good on you sir! I hope you'll have many good years with your music system..

Now to get involved in playing those sh*tty old black plastic things with grooves on :D ;)

HighFidelityGuy
28-07-2009, 14:48
Hi Dave,

Unfortunately I can't really move the speakers any further apart or into the room. There is a sofa just to the right of the right hand speaker, so moving that speaker more to the right would put it partially behind the sofa arm and moving it further into the room mould put it partially in front of the sofa. :(
Due to the shape and size of the room there's no other way I could arrange it that would be any better than what I've got now. I constantly complain that the sofa is in the way and the wife constantly complains that the Hi-Fi is in the way, so we're both compromising. :lol: The thing that bugs me is that the sofa in question is just for when we have guests round and that doesn't happen very often. To be fair it would be a bit rude to expect our friends to sit on the floor but I'm sure you can understand my frustration. :(

One day I'll get a house with a dedicated listening room but until then I'll have to make the best of what I've got.

It's funny you should mention those funny black discs, I keep seeing people raving about them on this forum. :lolsign:
I will look into getting a TT at some point but I'm a bit limited on space and budget at the moment and being a perfectionist I don't like to start doing something unless I can do it properly, so I think that will be something I'll do in a year or two. For now I'm going to concentrate on getting the rest of my system sounding right.

DSJR
28-07-2009, 15:47
Fair enough, I'm in a similar situation although this has eased somewhat in the last year or so and I've had no complaints about the BC2's not looking "as new."

Regarding turntables, you can still get some bargains on the used market (good working SL1200 ancestors from the SL1200 - 1800 models haven't yet been fully "discovered" and I still rate a good old Thorens 150, whatever some on here say about springy belt drives ;))

amandela
29-07-2009, 00:52
Nice system. Upgrading, if done carefully, can yield huge benefits, but it is a major pain in the ass...

Terry
05-08-2009, 07:57
Hi,

I decided that 2009 would be upgrade year seen as there were lots of good deals around and I wouldn't earn any interest if I kept my money in the bank anyway. So here's my progress so far:

As and when I get any new gear I'll try to take photos and post them here.

This is what my system looked like in Feb this year:

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y48/DTM2000/Hi-Fi/th_CIMG2010.jpg (http://s2.photobucket.com/albums/y48/DTM2000/Hi-Fi/?action=view&current=CIMG2010.jpg)

Speakers are Eltax LR6.5. I got them about 8 years ago from
Richer Sounds for £200. They've been good speakers and have seen several different amps and source units over the years.

At the bottom of the rack is my new Arcam AVR300 7.1 amp. I got this in Feb to replace my Yamaha AV amp. I've still not actually upgraded to surround sound yet, I'm concentrating on stereo for now.

The little black box near the top of the rack is my Beresford TC-7520 DAC. It has it's lid off in the photo as I've been experimenting with different opamps. Technically I got this in March but you get the idea.

My source is my media centre PC which is in the next room to the right of the rack. At this stage I'm using a Mark Grant digital coax between the PC and DAC. A Cambridge Audio Pacific interconnect between the DAC and amp and some Gale speaker cable I got at the same time as the speakers.

I was bi-amping the speakers using the front channel outputs and two of the unused rear outputs on the amp. This is a useful feature of this amp.

That's about all I can say about the system as it was at this point.

Hi Dave

In your above post you say that you have - The little black box near the top of the rack is my Beresford TC-7520 DAC.
My source is my media centre PC which is in the next room to the right of the rack. At this stage I'm using a Mark Grant digital coax between the PC and DAC.

As you have the Beresford TC-7520 DAC with the USB wouldn't it be better to connect the USB rather than the digital coax as i believe you will be then bypassing your PC's soundcard ?!

Regards

Terry

ps - What are your thoughts on the Beresford TC-7520, this is the one i have had my eye on too !!!

HighFidelityGuy
05-08-2009, 09:46
Hi Terry,

That's a good question.
The main reason I decided to use a coax connection was that it's seen as been the highest quality digital connection available before you get to AES or I2S or other more advanced methods that the 7520 and most other consumer level equipment doesn't support. The other reason was that it allowed me to use the EQ on my soundcard to tweak the sound, which USB wouldn't have allowed.

The general consensus is that SPDIF coax is best, with Toslink optical next and then USB last in order of quality. The reasoning behind this is that SPDIF coax carries the signal electrically just like the circuit boards at either end, so no conversion is required. With optical, the signal has to be changed from electrical to optical and then back again. It's this conversion that can damage the signal as optical emitters and receivers in most consumer level equipment are fairly poor quality, as good ones a very expensive.

USB was designed to carry computer data and not high quality audio. It breaks down the data into packets which have to be reassembled at the other end. It theory the data should be reassembled perfectly but that's unlikely to happen all the time. That is a bit of an over simplification but you get the idea. The 7520 has probably the best quality USB connection available from an audio point of view, so it probably will sound almost as good as the coax or optical inputs, but Stan Beresford himself rates the USB connection as being the worst out of the three on the 7520.

That's the theory anyway. As with many things in Hi-Fi the theory on paper may not translate into an audible difference to the listener, so it's always best to try all the methods available and see what sounds best to you.
I'll be completely honest and say that I've not tried the optical input on the 7520 at all and only briefly tried the USB but didn't have a proper listen. So I'm just going on what Stan recommends. The reason I've not tried the other connections is that I wanted to get the rest of my system up to scratch first as I didn't think I'd be able to tell much difference otherwise. So I will be trying the other connections soon.

I'm also going to try out using a Behringer DEQ2496 (http://www.behringer.com/EN/Products/DEQ2496.aspx) RTA/EQ instead of the EQ on my soundcard. This allows you to meaure the frequency response of your system/room using a calibrated microphone and apply EQ accordingly.
From what I've read this unit sounds best when used with it's digital connections. So I need to use either coax or optical between my PC and DAC to be able to use this. The reason for me wanting to try this is that my room shape and size causes a lot of notches in the frequency response that causes a lot of bass boom. So I'm hoping this will allow me to cure this more accurately.

Just remember that every one's system and rooms are a bit different so what works for one person might not work for another. It's just a case of trying different things until you find something that suits your ears.

Another thing I'd mention is that the new 7520 Caiman special edition is now available. It's a bit more expensive than the standard 7520 but extracts more detail from the recording thanks to some upgraded components. I'll leave it up to you to decide whether you think it's worth paying the extra. I now use a Caimen and find it suits my system better than the standard 7520. That reminds me, I need to update this thread with a photo of the Caiman, I'll hopefully do that soon.

Sorry this got a bit long winded, I tend to waffle on a bit when I'm talking about stuff that interests me :). Anyway, I hope some of that was useful. :)

Terry
05-08-2009, 10:26
Not long winded at all Dave but very informative !!!
Thanks !!! I see what you mean by the EQ thing but i just use the one inbuilt in the players software (winamp) for now. I will have to use the USB from the Beresford 7520 as the laptop i use doesn't have any other digital outputs.
One thing i would like to be able to get around though, is when using the laptop as a music server there is no way of being able to go to the next track without getting up and pressing the keys on the keyboard, now me being of a 'certain age' and getting lazy with it do miss a remote !! I guess the only way around such a problem is changing from a laptop to some other type of music server, any ideas ?
All the best
Terry

HighFidelityGuy
05-08-2009, 11:43
Hi Terry, I'm glad I could be of help.

There are some options open to you for possibly increasing your sound quality and remote control. I've recently been tinkering with these areas my self.

The options available to you will partly depend on what operating system you use on your laptop but the basic idea is the same regardless. The simplest option I've found so far is to use a piece of software called Foobar (http://www.foobar2000.org/). This is similar to Winamp but has some additional features that may be of use to you.
Foobar has an in built uPnP (Universal Plug and Play) server and renderer built into it. This allows you to share your music over a network (wired or wireless), that's the server bit. You can then either stream the music from your laptop to another uPnP renderer like Foobar, Winamp, Media Player, Linn DS etc. Or you can use an external piece of software to view and control the media library on your Foobar server and "render" (play) the tracks on your Foobar server (laptop). It's a slightly odd concept to grasp at first.

One way to do this is to setup Foobar with a library and set it up to share this using uPnP. You then need an iPhone, iPod Touch or some other similar smart phone or PDA, preferably with Wi-Fi that's setup on your home network. You then need some software installed on this. I use PlugPlayer on my iPhone. This software is a bit temperamental but it's cheap. You then setup PlugPlayer (or similar software) to use your Foobar server as it's media server and media renderer. When you then load up a play list and press play on the phone, the music plays back on Foobar and through your Hi-Fi. If you don't choose Foobar as the renderer, the music will play on the phone. Other iPhone apps do the same thing and are probably more feature rich and reliable but they can be expensive. For example, I think SongBook is supposed to be good but it's £50. :(

So using this method no streaming is actually taking place, you're just using the phone/PDA as a remote control. So with the iPhone for example you now have a colour touch-screen interactive remote or your Hi-Fi that even lets you see tack listings and cover art. :smoking:

The other option you have with Foobar is that you can theoretically get higher sound quality by bypassing the Windows mixer sub-system that can mangle the sound. You have three choices for this, Kernal Streaming, ASIO or WASAPI. The methods available to you will depend on the OS you use. WASAPI is only available in Vista and is an equivalent to the other two.
ASIO is only really available on professional soundcards, although you can use ASIO4All to get round that but I found this rather un-user-friendly and unreliable. So I'd stick to either Kernal Streaming or ASIO. To get either of these to work you simply install the relevant Foobar Plugin from HERE (http://www.foobar2000.org/components/author/Peter) and then swap the audio output to the new output in the Foobar preferences. This should then make the audio go directly from Foobar to the USB soundcard on the 7520 without being mangled by Windows. The only slight down side to this is that the Windows mixer won't effect the volume any more, so you will have to use the Foobar volume instead if you need to reduce the PC output volume.

Other options are available but this is my personal favourite so far. I hope that helps. :)

Terry
05-08-2009, 12:50
Wow - You know your stuff Dave, some great info there !!!!
One problem i haven't got an iphone or ipod touch or PDA :(
I guess another way would be to go the squeezebox route ?

HighFidelityGuy
05-08-2009, 13:29
Yep, something like a squeezebox would allow you to control the music on your laptop remotely in a quick and simple way. I know several AOS members do this with their 7520's with good results. I'm afraid this is something I've never done though so I can't help much with that.

I guess it depends on how much you want to spend and what your level of competency is with computers and netorking etc. Often the simple, elegant and tidy options can be rather expensive and the cheap diy options can be rather complex to setup and unsightly.

If you wanted maximum flexibility you could buy/build a cheap PC to use as a media server and connect this to your DAC. Or you could get a cheap netbook like an Asus eeePC to control your laptop. Either of these could be done for about £200-300 (maybe less) which isn't too much more than a squeezebox.

If you want elegant, simple, great sound quality and looks, you could get a Linn Sneaky DS instead of a DAC. That would stream music from your laptop and play it through your Hi-Fi. Unfortunately they're about £950 and I don't think they really sound any better than the 7520.

If you want more info on the media server stuff just drop me a PM. :)

HighFidelityGuy
13-02-2010, 23:59
Wow, how time flies. I can't believe it's been about 6 months since my last proper update on my system upgrade progress. Quite a lot has changed since then:

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y48/DTM2000/Hi-Fi/th_CIMG2286.jpg (http://s2.photobucket.com/albums/y48/DTM2000/Hi-Fi/?action=view&current=CIMG2286.jpg)
(click to make bigger)

In the last few months I've tried to finish off as many parts of my system as I could. I've now finally got my 5.1 system fully up and running and I've succeeded in separating my surround sound and stereo systems into two optimised halves while still keeping them integrated to prevent the need for two pairs of front speakers. More on this later.

The other big change has been my new Hi-Fi supports which have allowed me to house all my current equipment with space left over for the last couple of additions I have planned. I've also added an Xbox 360 for a bit of added entertainment.

The Hi-Fi supports were a tricky one to get right as despite extensive research I couldn't find anything in my price range that fulfilled all my requirements. I wanted something oak coloured with isolated and hight adjustable shelves. They also had to be very specific dimensions as I had very little flexibility on how I could position them due to a lack of space. These were the closest things I could find to what I was imagining in my head:

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y48/DTM2000/Hi-Fi/th_IMG_50361.jpg (http://s2.photobucket.com/albums/y48/DTM2000/Hi-Fi/?action=view&current=IMG_50361.jpg)

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y48/DTM2000/Hi-Fi/th_IMG_49372.jpg (http://s2.photobucket.com/albums/y48/DTM2000/Hi-Fi/?action=view&current=IMG_49372.jpg)

They're available from hifiracks.co.uk and are hand made from solid oak. The top one is about £480 and the bottom one about £810 in the sizes shown. Although I loved the look of them and they are no doubt fantastic products, I just couldn't bring myself to spend that much at the moment. So I started to wonder if I would be able to make something similar myself for a lot less money. That's when I remembered that Ikea make these coffee tables in various sizes:

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y48/DTM2000/Hi-Fi/th_64054_PE172512_S4.jpg (http://s2.photobucket.com/albums/y48/DTM2000/Hi-Fi/?action=view&current=64054_PE172512_S4.jpg)

So I purchased three of the size above and three of the largest size, some speaker spikes off ebay and a few other bits and got stuck in.
I made the smallest one first which you can see in the corner of the first photo. This was the prototype and helped my to figure out what problems I'd run into when building it's bigger brother. The small one is destined to support a turntable and a couple of light things on the bottom like a phono preamp etc, so it didn't need to be super strong. The big one was an entirely different story. For this one I had to make aluminium plates and other strengthening additions to make sure it could cope with my heavy amps etc. I'm very happy with the end results as they look exactly how I imagined and only cost £168.17! They can both cope with high vertical stresses but due to the spikes between each layer they won't respond well to being pushed horizontally but that would be the same with the expensive oak ones. Overall they are no doubt not as solid/dense as the oak ones as they're made from chip board and laminate but they seem to be quite dead from a resonant point of view, so acoustically they should be quite good.

The other main addition has been my CI Audio PLC1 MkII (http://www.ciaudio.com/plc1.html) preamp. I purchased this from Mayflower Sounds (http://www.mayflowersounds.co.uk/) near Doncaster. Pete and Rachel the owners were very helpful and very hospitable. I spent most of the afternoon listening to his main system and talking about music. Their house is their shop and every room is crammed with high end gear. It has to be seen to be believed. I'm fairly sure that if they turned on all their valve amps they wouldn't need central heating. :lol:

The preamp allowed me to stop using my AV amp as the centre of my system by allowing me to connect my stereo equipment directly to the PLC1. I can then also connect the front channel output from my AV amp into the PLC1's special home theatre bypass input which bypasses the preamp's volume control. The PLC1 is also fully remote controlled for ease of use but the audio circuitry is still fully passive which enables it to have a completely neutral sound. It's a lovely bit of kit and really made an improvement to the sound quality. I now have a much lower noise floor and can hear more detail coming through. Overall it's one of the best purchases I've made so far.

I've also started dabbling with EQ in the form of a Behringer DEQ2496 which I got 2nd hand off ebay. I also picked up a calibrated RTA mic and mic stand to go with this but I've not bothered actually applying any EQ yet other that when learning how to use it. This is something I'm going to experiment with soon. If it makes an improvement I'll keep it, if it doesn't I'll get rid of it. I figured it was worth a try though.

They're the only changes to my stereo system other than a couple of modifications I've done to my Beresford Caiman DAC, more of which will be getting dome very soon. The other changes have been surround sound related.

First of these was my subs. After reading lots of articles on subwoofer setup and positioning etc I decided I wanted to get a pair of subs to give me extra flexibility. After looking at a few different choices I decided to go for Wharfedale SW250's:

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y48/DTM2000/Hi-Fi/th_SW250-1000x1298.jpg (http://s2.photobucket.com/albums/y48/DTM2000/Hi-Fi/?action=view&current=SW250-1000x1298.jpg)

The reason for this was that I read some favourable reviews, they were cosmetically based on my main speakers and were available in the same colour and the price was good as they were end of line.

I currently have these wired up to my preamp's 2nd pair of outputs with one sub per channel. So they are basically acting as bass units for my main speakers. So when playing music I can choose to have them working or not depending on whether I'm in the mood for serious bass or not. To make this work with surround sound I've turned off the sub output on my AV amp so it sends the sub channel to the main speakers and therefore my subs as well. I did have an issue with phase problems at first but I found this was due to me having some EQ still turned on after I tested that. Once the EQ was put into bypass mode the subs integrated better.

The subs are positioned directly behind my main speakers. This was the closest I could get them to the speakers to minimise phasing issues. I really like the flexibility of this setup as I essentially have 4 different setups available depending on whether I want pure stereo, stereo plus bowel loosening bass, 5 channel surround sound with subtle bass or full 5.1 trouser flapping action movie goodness!

My next addition was my centre speaker. For this I wanted something that would integrate well with my main speakers. As these have large soft dome mid drivers, I wanted a centre speaker that had the same. I found a few but in the end decided to go for the Wharfedale Diamond 10 CM as it ticked all the sonic boxes and like the subs was available in the same colour as my main speakers:

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y48/DTM2000/Hi-Fi/th_Wharfedale_D10-CM_ch_1200.jpg (http://s2.photobucket.com/albums/y48/DTM2000/Hi-Fi/?action=view&current=Wharfedale_D10-CM_ch_1200.jpg)

This is my latest addition and I've not had much chance to try it out yet. So I can't really comment much on how it sounds but it seems pretty good so far. I'm hoping to run a few movies through the system this month to run it in.

I think they're all the main changes. Other than that I've made a DIY isolation platform for my Blu-Ray player out of an Ikea wooden chopping board and some squash balls. I don't know whether it's made an improvement but it only cost a few quid and was worth a try. :eyebrows:

The next things on my list are to experiment with my EQ, build a DIY phono preamp, repair my turntable and repair my dodgy Chinese valve preamp. The latter of these is progressing well and I'm hoping to have it finished soon so I can try it out. After that I have a few tweaks I want to try with the system setup but other than that it will be finished, I think.

That's it for now although I'll try to post some more detailed photos of the Hi-Fi supports and the subs as they're difficult to see in the current photo.

Time for bed now. :)

Terry
14-02-2010, 10:32
Looking nice Dave ! I like the look of those speakers too.

John
14-02-2010, 11:17
Your system must be really sounding pretty good now Dave. Do you still use those MF amps as well

HighFidelityGuy
14-02-2010, 11:55
Looking nice Dave ! I like the look of those speakers too.

Cheers. :)


Your system must be really sounding pretty good now Dave. Do you still use those MF amps as well

Hi John,

Yep, still using the MF's, you can see them just poking out from either side of the TV. They fit nicely up there and I'm much happier now they're not down on the floor. Only problem is my speaker cable is now only just long enough, so I need to sort that out soon. :doh:

I'm very happy with the overall sound now but I think there's room for a little more improvement yet. I still want to improve the room acoustics a little which I'm hoping will improve the imaging and mid-range clarity a bit. I just feel like I'm lacking a little "emotion" in the mid-range a bit, if that makes sense. If some subtle room treatment and a bit of EQ doesn't help then I may look to valves. Either way I still fancy trying out some valve amps. Pete from Mayflower has offered to bring round some valve amps for us to experiment with. My current cunning idea is I'd like to try a nice SET amp and use my MF's to supercharge it. :eyebrows: The idea is that the SET amp will make the mid-range shine and the MF's will add the balls that the Opus' need. It might not work but it will be an interesting experiment. I thought I may as well give it a try seen as the MF's have the supercharger feature and there's spare space behind the TV..
It seems silly not to try it.

That will all happen after I've sorted out the other things on my list. :)

John
14-02-2010, 12:16
Well those Wharfedale work really well with valves but they need a good bit of grip to get the bass to sing. I really enjoyed the mids with a decent valve amp and think a home demo is the only way to see if it is right for you, those speakers are not so easy to lug around!
I like the idea of the SEt and supercharger now if that works you could have something very special