Though my favourite is this one
https://youtu.be/MOwGBzbXb8k?si=OrCaw8pUw44osUlE
Printable View
Though my favourite is this one
https://youtu.be/MOwGBzbXb8k?si=OrCaw8pUw44osUlE
Here's a thought, Gaz. This stuff did improve the sonics in my room a lot.
You could hide cables in the grooves, too.
Just food for thought. Dunno if you like the looks of it.
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...c845ce80d3.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...6e7007b535.jpg
Yeah,
like that Justin, very cool.
Neutral colour scheme too, kinda my thing.
The Company that did my installation this morning offers “feature walls” like that?
Had considered going down that road but few other things on the go at the moment, after the telly I’m back on the toast ‘n beans for a wee while. :)
Holiday in June to make happen too.
Think next time I’m redecorating I’ll get a wall like that fitted.
:thumbsup:
Have been thinking of getting that for the ceiling in my man cave.
Yes, I'm planning to use that stuff myself. But just about a metre wide, running up from behind the cabinet, up behind the TV, and on up to the ceiling. This will conceal all the cables, and I will run a string of LEDs behind the edges for some ambient lighting. I already have the LEDs there, set on red. Because I like a bit of bling, me :)
It will be so glamorous, visitors will think they are in Las Vegas.
I bet it could give you a degree of 'room treatment', though what happens may depend on which way you run the 'slats'.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ali Tait
Looks like a Kill Bill moment! That final fight between "The Bride" and O-Ren Ishii would be epic on your new screen :)Quote:
Originally Posted by Gazjam
Looks small [emoji1787]
Yeah that was my thought. Room’s a decent size but the ceiling is low.Quote:
Originally Posted by Pigmy Pony
No, it's just that you are far away :)Quote:
Originally Posted by mikeyb
https://youtu.be/dwajb0Zgt_g?t=7
Kudos for the Robocop poster too.
Just noticed it :)
Quote:
Originally Posted by User211
REALLY enjoying putting the system back together after taking it apart to clear the front wall..
(Sarcasm)
WORRA BALLACHE https://theartofsound.net/images/smilies/1502.gif
Sure this lot was a good idea at the time... (It was... but was supposed to be fit 'n forget!)
https://i.imgur.com/rNIko4k.jpeg
Coming together though.
All contact pins cleaned n deoxit'd, might as well when it's all stripped.
I NEVER want to see these ever again :lol:
https://i.imgur.com/BcmHZEm.jpeg
Fire up the Jumbotron tonight.
First up on the Jumbotron... Kill Bill Volume 1
Tokyo scenes at night really popped.
https://i.imgur.com/gBVfeci.jpeg
Absolutely loved it, been 10ish years since I watched it.
Posties been...
https://i.imgur.com/o3EqdKG.jpeg
https://i.imgur.com/vtFphLk.jpeg
Ran out of space for the black boxes that sat on top of the rack after plumbing in the new telly.
got a smaller "matching" Stands Unique glass rack (or so I thought :rolleyes:) to sit to the side to hold the bits of kit.
Ebay Seller insisted it was "Cherry" wood colour to match my AV rack, double checked and sent him pictures before buying....
Arguing the toss over messeges now, insisting he's right.
Its really heavy and fragile, so was collection only from south of England?
He was good enough to pack it all up and post it whan I asked, which would have been a ballache.
So cant fault him for that.
Think his Feedback is dropping by the minute though...
Ah well.
No big deal, it'll be just fine.
First world problem.
Hey, it matches the sofa, problem sorted. :)
I'm no style guru but unless the camera is playing up that's nothing like the colour of your existing rack. Is he really insisting that it is? That defies belief.
Yeah,
and he's doubling down too.
He's being a little Tinker.
Its night and day different, suspect he knew what he was doing when he sold it.
Not worth arguing with the guy, fair play to him on the packing and shipping it up, would have cost me fuel and an overnight stay otherwise.
Imagine that, and me turning up to see its the wrong colour.... :lol:
Oh well - maybe when you got it all set up the two colours will compliment? Or something.
Yeah.
Autumn woods or summit... :)
All about how you look at things really?
Set it up tonight.
Just looking around my room now I see 6 different colours of wood. Never occurred to me before.
Although I have been meaning to paint all the built-in wooden stuff gloss white - for about the last 28 years....
It's mahogany stained right now - it was the Seventies (Buckaroo!).
Suppose I could make a start on that now I have the time.
The wood in my room is quite varied both in source and colour, though most of it is mid-tone in shade.
https://i.imgur.com/xa6Y3q3.gifQuote:
Originally Posted by Macca
@User211 what effect does the paneling have on your sound? I see it for sale in Spain and I like the look of it although if I used it for one wall in my living room I would have to smooth plaster the other three - rough Spanish walls. It is marketed as "acoustic panelling" but it doesn't look that effective?
It is very effective basically because it covers the entire front wall. Apogees are dipoles and generate sound in both directions.Quote:
Originally Posted by rednose66
Essentially it calms the sound down quite a lot. There's noticeably less echo in the room, too, post install. That's probably the main effect that cleans up the sound. Less echo.
So essentially the sound becomes more relaxed and refined with better imaging. That said, it's a 35 foot long room and what you hear depends very much on were you sit. At 12 foot the system just provides incredible resolution beyond what most people are accustomed to dealing with. Information overload, in other words. At 20 foot things are appreciably more normal and homogenised, if you like. I choose one of those two locations depending on mood. That's just a product of insane speakers, really, more than anything else.
I can't claim it would be as effective if not using dipoles and TBH I suspect not. But if your room has appreciable echo and not much in the way of soft furnishings it's probably worth it.
I had a couple of carpenters put it in and it took them a day.
https://www.thewoodveneerhub.co.uk/?...EaAmQ7EALw_wcB
Good info Justin. :thumbsup:
Putting up the Turntable wall shelf and getting everything put back together today.
Its just finding the time.
https://i.imgur.com/VBaqPk1.jpeg
https://i.imgur.com/2TTLVWo.jpeg
4 M8 concrete anchor bolts into a solid wall, turntable setups a heavy thing at about 21KG, so taking no chances!
With the extra rack in the system I'm taking the opportunity to rejig where everything is, tidy up cables at the back, that kinda stuff.
Also,
My Preamps been out of use for an few weeks now?
One of the 2 valve input stage boards had had gotten noisy and one channel was very hissy.
Think something on it had drifted out of spec in the 8 years Ive had the amp.
PS Audio to the rescue,
Contacted Customer Support and they shipped a replacement board to the UK Dealer for me to swap out.
Its a daughter board that slots into the main PCB, a 5 minute job.
https://i.imgur.com/3quQPfw.jpeg
£50 delivered from the US, Im happy with that.
Happy to get my Preamp back, the dac sounds great direct to my power amp, but the seperate Pre adds the special sauce.
That said,
Been lazy casual listening to music through the new soundbar, it's pretty great.
Having 'ambience' added from the back speakers seems to just open up the soundstsge and that sense of being 'in' the music?
I dial the rear speakers back using the app when listening to music, but back to normal for movies.
It really works well, can tweak the levels from your seat.
Bob on :thumbsup:
Happy with that.
https://i.imgur.com/u3xk4IN.jpeg
https://i.imgur.com/uT7aaUK.jpeg
Those levels can't be trusted 100% - play something by Level 42, that'll tell you whether everything's right :) Don't bother with The Levellers, their music always sounds a bit wonky.
Wonky when Orbital is on, obviously.Quote:
Originally Posted by Pigmy Pony
Gave up trying to delete a double post.
As long as there's no Jah Wobble it'll be fine.
BA DUM.. TISH!
:lol:
Everything’s back together, happy THAT hassles over.
Actually like the contrast between the two wooden racks, a happy accident, I’ll take it.
Not much space on the wall anymore, but that’s fine.
Works for me… Jobs a good ‘un.
https://i.imgur.com/CFSkZzE.jpeg
https://i.imgur.com/3VbsVQ0.jpeg
Looks great!
Rubber ring fetish channel? :D
Fine looking set up
Otherwise known as Channel 4.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ali Tait
LOL
Don’t knock it till ye’ve tried it… :eyebrows:Quote:
Originally Posted by Ali Tait
Think I was listening to THIS banger of a Tune when I took the pic.
Great track for the Summer, makes me think of my holidays as a Kid.
https://youtu.be/Bhk7cjjLVXI?si=EGSxQuYd1T42RBrR
Who says I haven't? :lol:
Set up's looking great mate.
A few changes Ali since that first time you were over a lifetime ago when I had the Cambridge Audio kit!Quote:
Originally Posted by Ali Tait
Time flies my Friend.
Aye that’s for sure, same with my setup. :-)
Incoming...
New dac and (probably temporary, but maybe not if it sounds good enough) preamp.
Calling digital done after this one.
Though may dive into the HQ Player upsampling rabbithole at some point.
Come on then, what are you getting? Topping E30? :DQuote:
Originally Posted by Gazjam
Weirdly,Quote:
Originally Posted by Macca
the Preamp IS a Topping!
:eek:
Audio Science Review's measurebator special, the Pre90.
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/topping-pre90-review-preamplifier.18283/
https://www.electromod.co.uk/storage...77fcb64aa2.jpg
Gets great reviews online?
"Straight wire with gain" transparent, massive dynamic range, goes head to head (and subjectively betters) some high end Pre's, and has fully balanced Inputs and Output.
So it ticks all my boxes.
More affordable than a lot of options out there, which is great, including the one Im (probably?) still set on getting.
But want to hear the Topping first, it just might be what I need.
So I'll give it some time and make the call.
The new Dac doesn't have a lossless volume control like the PS Audio, and as I'm looking for a change from my PS Audio pre (up for sale soon), I just need a clean transparent volume control with balanced XLR ins and outs.
The Topping does that.
Only one balanced XLR input though, so not enough inputs to run the vinyl at the same time...
Depending if its all its cracked up to be, I might actually keep it and pick up the handy extension unit, which adds more XLR inputs.
I like the half width form factor too.
The Dac however,
ISN'T a Topping.
Was always a Speakers first guy?
But that changed over time when I realised a better source can make a massive difference, IF your speakers are sorted and the rest of your chain is transparent enough to let the Source do its thing.
Happy with my Wharfie speakers, work well in my room and always step up whenever I improve something.
Like the Chrod Dave and DCS dacs,
my Directstream dac runs on an FPGA, and I've enjoyed several software upgrades over the years to improve it.
That, along with the hardware mods Ive done I've had some pretty great sound upgrades over the years, and sounds a heap better over the stock Dac.
My PS Audio Directstream Dac is now discontinued, there's a Mark II out now, but given the mods I've done I suspect it will be only incrementally better, with the same sound signature.
Folks over on PS Audio forums who've compared both bear this out.
So looking for a Dac to improve my digital which goes in a completely different direction.
I've taken this (great) dac as far as it can go, so whats the next step?
Back in the day I built music servers, so was very into stuff like Jitter reduction, SNR power filtering and the like. Digital Audio theory stuff.
Kinda miss all that stuff, software upgrades and the like, so drifting back into that area nowadays.
My Vinyl setup is locked in, so looking at upping the Digital and decided improving my Dac is the way forward.
I can get that upgradeability I miss with this new Dac?
Upsampling NOS digital files with HQ Player and I get to tinker again with audiophile PC hardware builds and software tweaks.
But getting ahead of myself,
The Dac running unaltered digital files in NOS mode will be a great start and again, might be all I need.
Maybe no need for a beefy music server build and HQ Player running through Roon.
But going forward I have the option though, which I like.
I've taken my current Dac as far as I can.
Shout out to Elise Audio in London, after checking they had one in stock I ordered it and an hour later got an email from UPS saying its getting delivered tommorow! :eek:
*EDIT*
Was going to put a second "uneccessarily wordy" :) post up talking specifically about the Dac, but pictures speak louder than words, so I'll keep the suspense up a while longer.
I'll post some pictures tommorow when the Posties been.
Wont be able to hear the Dac until the new Pre comes in (UK Retailer out of stock sadly, so a couple of weeks from Chinashire) but will leave the Dac on and get some burn in time under its belt while I wait.
* Found another UK Source for the Topping Pre90, so getting the Preamp delivered tommorow as well. https://theartofsound.net/images/smilies/thumbs-up.gif
Happy Days.
Thats me done for a bit.
Good pre-amp. I looked at that when I was looking for an active pre, along with the Rotel Michi, Parasound JC2BP and Benchmark LA4.
Ruled it out on looks in the end, same with the Michi and the Benchmark. Probably would have got the Parasound but then had a punt on the Sony which ended up surprising me - and saving me about three grand!
For me it's got to look old school.
We have very different approaches to digital sources. I don't go with spending large amounts of money there, I just don't hear any benefit, or see that there can be any when I look at the measurements either. Yes I did drop two grand on the CD transport but that was just bought for the looks as well. If there'd been anything cheaper that looked as good and wasn't slot loading I'd have gone for that instead.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Macca
Slot loaders are the work of Beelzibub.
Just Say... NO.
As you say though,
It's funny how folks can hear things differently?
For me,
even changing out digital cables I've heard a difference?
Ferrinstance the new HDMI i2s cable I'm running between the CD Transport and Dac sounds VERY different now to how it did when I first plugged it in a few weeks ago.
1's and 0's right?... Go figure.
My take on things is that theres too many assumptions being made and we just dont know enough about how it all works... yet.
Example:
With my current Dac you can run it in two modes, High volume or Low volume.
The choice being there to tailor the Dacs sound to the particular gain structure of your pre/power amp?
The low setting reduces the noisefloor by -20dB, and is meant for high gain systems where the DSD upsampling nature of the Dac may produce slightly audible background noise.
A decision made by the Dac Designer at the time..
Love Audio folks that look that far into their designs, can totally get behind that.
Those are the products you want to spend money on, not the flavour of the week stuff.
Bought a few things over the years based on that.
I compared both settings and volume matched, and they sounded slightly different, with the Low setting having slightly reduced dynamics and narrower soundstage width.
So not even two different bits of digital gear, but the same Dac with different settings sent to the analogue output stage applied!
:stalks:
Hear you Martin on the gear having to look the part as well?
Feel the same.
You gotta stare at it and if it looks terrible or if it's not your Thing... thats never great.
Each to their own of course, but like yourself wouldn't give gear like that houseroom, unless it was hidden out of sight.
That Parasound looks the Business, hadn't seen it before?
Has an old school Electrocompaniet/ Audio Note vibe about it, you cant beat a bit of Black and Gold with hifi Gear.
My first Valve amp was a chinese cheapie, which sounded MEH... and eventually blew up :D but boy did it look good with all that black brushed aluminium and gold valve cages!
Really enjoyed my time with it.
My next foray into valves was a custom build 300B power amp, that one looked amazing AND sounded wonderful.
https://i.imgur.com/3FDRO4x.jpeg
It had a black case with a copper top plate.
Loved how that thing looked, especially with the big Western Electric 300B valves at night.
Real "serious amp" vibe about it.
Miss this amp, thanks to Nick Gorham and Colin Topps (RIP)
Some things really are worth spending your hard earned on, the Amp yes, but not Premium unobtanium 300B power valves at THAT price.
Only reason I still dont have it.
Always liked the copper contrasting with the black though?
Guess it kinda stuck with me, the new Dacs the same
https://cdn.head-fi.org/a/11744533.jpg
Ah, that looks like Kitsune. HoloAudio DAC coming' up?
YeahQuote:
Originally Posted by Riislingen
Good spot :)
Holo Audio May
Level 3 KTE
Posties bringing it tommorow!
Bit of a gamechanger this one by all accounts. Shall see.
Two box Dac, seperate Power Supply, its a big beastie... need to rearrange the rack.
https://youtu.be/Wa3sOSRa-U0?si=hzcvb-S4_agieM2O
Subjective Spolier:
This guy prefers it to the Chord Dave with MScaler.
Good enough for me!
Was going to get the matching Serene KTE preamp by default, but want to see if the Topping gets me there first.
Hope so.
Couple of other takes:
https://youtu.be/7JEKgiXm7ZI?si=rWvkQPh9sz_2DE6n
https://youtu.be/HPtsWvhjLxA?si=q_CdJfVBeESnnwr5
Congrats on the new gear, Gary! Been eyeballing the Topping P90 as well for some time. We'll see what happens.
Thanks Mikkel! :)