Sweeet! Nice gear and photo.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mika K
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Sweeet! Nice gear and photo.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mika K
Thanks! Some progress happening with the shelves.. :)
https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5789/2...28fb7d4d_b.jpg
Lovely cosy vibe in that room as normal, Mika - such a great space in which to relax and enjoy some fab choons! :)
Marco.
Thanks Marco. I'm trying very hard to keep things like home here and not as some man cave by too serious audio engineer :cool:
How do you approach vinyls? In the photo area behind the system looks quite tight.
Otherwise wonderful ...:stalks:
There is approx 40cm space between the vinyls and the system plus it can be reached easily from the side of the speaker. So it's bit tight but still manageable despite not being the smallest bloke around. And the classical section of about 400 LPs is separated from the others the behind the rack and those are used less, so.. :D
Mika, out of interest, how many LP's do you have?
Hmmm, i didn't even see that you had rearranged your vinyl collection until now! ;)
I looked and looked for the changes in shelving... in your equipment stand...
Haha!
Anyway, Hyvää Joulua!
Thanks Mike! Merry Christmas to you also!
I would estimate something like 2300-2500 LP's including the classical section. Then around 100 LP's of some rubbish like top of the pops etc are stored to closet upstairs. So the most can be seen at the pic above..Quote:
Originally Posted by The Black Adder
WOW! - lol - that's pretty amazing, Mika.
I'm still wondering about the Vicoustic panels actually... I think that would be a new years project.
Merry Christmas. :)
Very nice. Like it. As many LP's I am happier.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mika K
Merry Christmas everyone!
Old salt makes you thirsty I guess :D
Few weeks ago saw local sale add for Yamaha NS-1000M's in good condition and with very attractive price, so just had to salvage them. This way could use the one set of upgrade binding posts for these had had in my storage for years. Well after listening these some time now have to say they do not sound not bad at all being pretty transparent and accurate despite little harsh and lacking some of sheer power I'm used to have with the JBLs.
https://c2.staticflickr.com/2/1530/2...788c0f64_c.jpg
Now have three pairs of very different speakers at my room, so I guess have to do some decisions before Mrs gives me the_eye for using our Aalto stools from kitchen.. :scratch:
Very nice Mika!
I keep eyeballing your JBL's on every new piccie here, they are so impressive looking and iconic! The NS-1000M are of course just as iconic, but a little less imposing. And you know i love them as they are my preferred choice in my own den.
You used to have NS-1000 domestic speakers too, are they gone?
And you mention a third set of speakers which i must have forgotten/missed?
I can understand that you're missing some grunt with the Yamahas visavi the JBL's but the harshness is unfamiliar to me.
Anyway, you have a very inviting listening space and i enjoy your musings as much as the beautiful pictures!
Atb Mike
Thanks Mike!
The domestic NS-1000 speakers I sold about year ago as they were too pretty to keep at storage somewhere. Planned to find minty pair of M-variants, so here we are. At the corners of the room there are some small upgraded Audio Note AN-J's. Despite they're trying to hide the best as they can, you can see glimpse of them also at the pic above.. :)
https://c2.staticflickr.com/2/1681/2...f4e58b7f_c.jpg
Yes Bravo :cool: I own a pair superb indeed enjoy let us know you listening experience....:eyebrows:Quote:
Originally Posted by Mika K
Hi Mika
I am quite new to AoS and came across your comments re the NS1000 Tweaks thread in Past Masters, and now i have enjoyed going thru this thread of the evolution of your home system(s)
Amazing!
You started off on a high note already with Shindo amps that had us drooling, those cool Altecs with horns and supertweeters and your lovely Lorricraft 401.
I followed the thread as u switched to the McIntosh tube integrated, domestic NS1000, then the JBL monitors.
Now i note u have a pair of NS1000M, having sold the minty domestic monitors, and also the AN speakers in the corners!
Obviously u are very happy with the McIntosh and the way they drive the JBLs
I love my NS1000Ms and I was on that thread as I toy with the idea of driving them actively, but I am in no hurry.
They sound pretty good driven by any of my old Sansuis.
Just a comment about the AN speakers - one of the best systems i ever heard was a full ANUK system at a hifi show in KL here in Malaysia.
AN CD player into one of their integrated SETs (not the Ongaku, but a 'lesser' one with copper and silver internals) driving AN E s in the corners
They would play any type of music anyone wished - everyone was awestruck.
Anyways keep up this super thread Mika !
Oh i love your TU9500
I had a set of AN-Js for a few years and really regret selling them. Not because they were better than my current speakers, just because for something so unassuming looking, they were always a joy to listen too. Also a tad less imposing than 7ft high horns:-)
AN-J's sure are very enjoyable speakers to listen to!
Unfortunately it seems I cannot find that proper balance at my room as too near the corners things get immediately boomy and mess up the sound. then away from the walls the speakers seem not to be able to fill the room properly leaving many things to desire for. It might be that from AN lineup the AN-E would be the one to be demoed as despite the modest size my room seems to be capable of handling pretty big speakers as the house is wooden without any hard concrete walls etc. to give support to the smaller speakers plus the acoustic treatment etc. Have to still try few things before any actions to one way or the other..
In a way would like also to find some smallish solution less imposing than the JBLs but still sounding big and have everything the JBLs have. However, I know the quest might be doomed right from the start.. :D :D :D
Hi Mika, find it strange the AN-Js go boomy. My room is small, well treated acoustically and this was never a problem.I'd suggest the wooden stands are doing them no favours, mines were on replicas of the AN stands but welded from plate about 4x times as thick! A two man lift but made a huge difference to the sound.
I concur the stands are very important and especially the correct height that does not happen now in my setup.
Several weeks going back and forth with the speakers. Last weekend decided to stop and gave the Yamaha NS-1000M's to a fired for long term loan and also removed the AN-J's from the listening room for some time. Now it's all about reality check and just listening some music. Todays menu few albums of lovely PJ Harvey.
To celebrate this move here's a little cell phone pic for you. And yes, there is some dust at the deck.. :kiss:
https://c2.staticflickr.com/2/1515/2...f1b674df_c.jpg
I nearly bought the Zu myself Mika but decided that the Denon 301 Mk2 would be more compatible with my tonearm and system. Happily it has worked out very well but still deciding on wether to use a head amp or SUT.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mika K
I have no experience of the 301 variants but for the 103 I would choose the quality SUT any given day. There is just something ..hmm.. right at that combination.
Yep, agreed ... for the music I play, I have yet to hear a better vfm combination.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mika K
Will probably end up with a 103 + A23 SUT for my second system (Analogueworks Zero deck + Jelco 750D), in combo with a nice, heavy headshell I have waiting.
BTW, if anyone has an Auditorium23 'denon' SUT they want to sell, please pm me :D
PJ Harvey, great choice. She's superb. :)
Despite of the cold weather outside - judging from the natural light flooding inside from the house windows the spring is coming and t's coming fast. Few days ago also Mrs. changed the curtains to the lighter green bamboo ones and have to say like these much more than the ones have for the winter and christmas.
To celebrate the event just had to take few pics. Only problem with the natural light is the urgent need to start dusting the system soon.. :)
https://c2.staticflickr.com/2/1593/2...6bb29fe6_c.jpg
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Like those big JBL's Mika. Bet they sound great with Jazz! :)
Looks nice Mika, are those GIK panels, how are they performing mate?
Thanks! I removed the GIK tritraps I had when added the shelves to the front wall. The hybrid panels on the wall are from Vicoustic.
http://www.vicoustic.com/product/wavewood
interesting, aren't you creating an asymetric acoustic in the room, given a huge glass surface on the left, opposite of the panels?
Those panels will only help with first reflections, mainly helping with treble and as you say Gordon totally non symmetrical.
The glass on the other side will do the opposite.
I would have thought bass traps would be needed more with those speakers in that size room?
True, the room and its acoustics are not symmetrical regarding the first reflection points. Luckily this is not a problem at normal to moderate listening levels as the JBLs being designed as mid-field monitors are more directional than boxes usually due to large front baffle and the acoustic lenses at the horns, also the tweeters are positioned in the inner edges to eliminate the early reflections.
The house is wooden and there are open walls to the kitchen and the hall, so despite of the small size of the room it could still take bigger speakers in terms of energy transfer, more critical issue would be the sound integration as the listening distance is only about 3 metres and this might occur etc with the larger horn designs e.g. Acapella or avantgarde speakers. in addition of the visible ones, behind the curtains and sofa etc there are significant number of sound absorbing panels hidden. Also there are no opposite walls left bare as that might result to the issues with the echo/noise and the room has pretty much stuff there balancing it nicely. Naturally the current end result is not pinpoint accurate, but serves the purpose pretty well as it measures pretty good and haven't heard any complaints from visitors :D
I have few different sound absorbing and diffusing panels already at storage and have already made some plans to improve the room still a bit based on some guides and my experience of the earlier listening rooms I have had. Most likely will do some minor adjustments still to the room e.g. for the ceiling to kill the reflections and make the bit better. Oh yes, and have been planning to get new bit bigger and thicker woolen carpet also.. :D
Are the JBL's designed to be used at floor level? I would image that you would have no problems with imaging and high frequencies in that room. Too much acoustic absorption can kill the sound so it is a happy balance.
I think bass is a bigger problem to control and get right, not sure how much your JBL kick out?
I have a friend who has taken room acoustics to the extreme where he has built two rooms entirely from scratch in an industrial unit and incorporated an unbelievable amount of acoustic panelling and enormous bass traps. All of the acoustic material is constructed from rock wool battens. He uses KEF Blades driven to the max and the sound is stunning especially with some extreme recordings. Amazing how the bass is controlled so well which allows you to hear perfect imaging and detail in the recording you would never know was there.
Very different from my own system which is a little more organic.:)
JBLs kick out pretty much bass and also go pretty low but the nature of the sound is still tight, punchy and controlled. Especially for being a reflex enclosure. As stated earlier the room could cope with even bigger speakers regarding that area. I also prefer organic and natural presentation over clinical and clean "hifi" sound and JBLs suite that preference really well.
Yesterday visited a local friend who has impressive system with Oracle Paris TT, Burmeister cd player, ASR amp and Penaudio Sinfonia loudspeakers. He listens mostly classical and orchestral music, and the system excels with that. The presentation of this system is neutral and clean with tons of resolution. Little bass heavy thou especially with pop and rock music. I'm still bit undecided do I actually like it or not but despite well spent afternoon with friends interested of the audio and music.. :cool:
https://c2.staticflickr.com/2/1641/2...9737c625_c.jpg
For the past few months I've been making myself familiar with the Audio Note sound as a final "test" being a loaner OTO SE driving my updated AN-J speakers with AN-L speaker cables. Well in short, I understand the pros for the system and being fed with quality source it actually does some things that my McIntosh/JBL system cannot perhaps do so well. There certain openness and musical coherence that my main rig cannot perform so well being more ..hmm.. neutral and monitor like. That being said my McIntosh/JBL system still is superior in many ways and also more balanced system as a whole. It might be that in my room should actually be looking AN-E's as despite the moderate size the wooden house and the acoustics do not supper smaller speaker in a manner that it might be needed.
Well, still like the Audio Note sound a lot but at the moment leaving that a side for a while returning the OTO SE loaner to its legimite owner :) Other news is that I've recently bought back the Audio Zone AMP-1 that used four years ago with my Altec horns and NS-1000 speakers. Really lovely minimalistic amp I've should have never sold.
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8023/6...404a5745_c.jpg
If interested of this one please check some online reviews available at web. Have just made some initial listening how it behaves with JBLs and have very positive feeling about this.. :)
Different type of chillin.. :)
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Nice Mika, she looks like a model from a 70s broschure of good HiFi! :)
And, i see you have let a pair of NS-1000Ms in the house too. Are there any differences from the domestic version you had before?
Atb Mike
Thanks Mike! ;)
This is my 4th pair of the M-variants during a long period of time, so not exactly anything new. Its been a while since the domestic ones were here, so direct comparison is not easy. I did that back in the days and felt that domestic ones were little more open and coherent sounding, which might have also been my imagination..
Not much happening here. New woolen carpet and few bonsai trees in da house but nothing really happening in terms of equipment, which is kind of a nice situation. Have been concentrating more to bike trips, swimming and saunas during my four week summer holiday. Also visited few festivals and live gigs during the summer.
Few smartphone pics as the battery of my DSLR was dead :)
https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8751/2...4ef91e46_c.jpg
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During the hot summer season used mostly the wee Audiozone AMP-1 chipamp but have now returned to the old reliable Mcintosh again as autumn nights are getting colder and extra heating is not that bad thing anymore. Have lately used both of my speakers and like them both really a lot, so feeling lucky there is no need for decision between them. Now listening Kamasi Washington's The Epic and the system really sings..
The pics may no be your usual stratospheric quality but more than good enough! :)
I have objections though. both the Mac and Mic(ro) deserve a better spot! ;) Im pretty sure you had a proper stand previously?
I had pretty big massive stand earlier but wanted to have more space and lighter feeling to room, so the stand is now located at my friends residence for undecided period :)
The floor is pretty straight and solid plus the Mac has stone base under, so no problem there. MS does not have anything there yet but that may be fixed during time. Or not as it has pretty nice mechanics already included for getting it leveled up and damping the vibrations etc. Taken elsewhere: "The suspension system is a combination of highly viscous oil, an air chamber, heavy duty tapered metal coils and compressed rubber insulators. This allows the SX turntables to be placed on a live loudspeaker and not suffer any kind of feedback - or so the literature says. This system was patented by Micro."
Yeah, i spotted the Solidtech rack on one of the previous pics afterwards. I can understand what you want to accomplish to.
I was mostly concerned about kneeling to put a record on, or adjust some dippedutt's on the Mac.
How about a Hifi Racks bench? A friend of mine has got one of them and its very "light" on the interior, and low for best acoustics.
Now thats something Mika!! Amazing shots :) I owned a pair of great sounding NS-500Ma's w. Beryllium tweeters..fantastic speakers..and I regret letting them go. Based on that I believe the NS-1000 can get the job done pretty well too?
Thanks for the compliments!
In my view the beryllium drivers and especially the dome midrange unit is one of the cornerstones for the NS-1000Ms. Have been quite a long time tempted to try the big brothers of these, the mighty http://www.thevintageknob.org/yamaha-FX-3.html despite the ported design. This might combine the strengths of NS-1000Ms and my JBLs but so far have not had the courage to go for it but never say never.. :D
Do you find having the kit lower than the line of the mid/tweeter any better, Mika? I must admit with my set up that's certainly the case but just not viable with two 5 year olds running around.
Have to admit that at the time when took away the massive stand from between the speakers noticed positive impact at the presentation.
Shock Therapy! :eek:
After bought the Shindo Monbrison from Peter few months ago, I have made a lot of self study especially regarding my interest to the hifi and music. So far I have build my system by trial and error according my lust for specific type of gear. I have been pretty successful in many respects and received praise of the sound from my systems. However the path has been long and restless. The end result for me was that I'm at least for the time being bit tired of this and made a plan. A plan that would not have any extra sidesteps and would eventually take me to the full Shindo system.
As Shindo systems are rare and expensive planned to stay more or less foot with my current system. Then the faith stepped in and by some familiar contacts to the factory received very good deal of the last ever pair of Genelec 1038B active speakers leaving the factory soon. The deal included taking my Macintosh as a partial payment for the trade. As I needed anyway to update my McIntosh integrated to some poweramp decided to go for it. So, now I have stored the JBLs to storage for some time, rearranged my system a bit and I'm driving these active monster with the Shindo preamp.
They sound marvellous but perhaps bit different that I'm used to. This is not a surprise as have even some years ago auditioned these speakers at several places while considering to buy them. This is a clear sidestep (of course it is!) but I reason this to myself by having a simple and good enough system to listen music while figuring out how to get there to full Shindo system. Or then something else if that seems to be the case. So, interested to see how this evolves but in the meantime few pics.. :D
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Duplicate due to broken trackpad :)
Well, I certainly wasn't expecting that! :lol:
Actually, I once partnered an EAR 864 valve pre with some ATC actives, which turned out to be a surprisingly fine combination.
A fine idea. I have a full Shindo system. Once you get there you won't want anything else that's for sure!