My system - upgrade progress

[HighFidelityGuy]

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]

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:


(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:





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:



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 preamp. I purchased this from Mayflower Sounds 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.

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:



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:



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.

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]

Looking nice Dave ! I like the look of those speakers too.

[John]

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

[HighFidelityGuy]

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.

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. 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]

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