My very modest system

[Steve Toy]

Actually, they're not as bad as you might imagine but only if you are right in the "sweet spot". But, for proper listening, (i.e. when I'm on my own and the rugrat is in bed!) I just pull them out into the room and toe them out (still sligt toe in) which gets them into free space (they have a rear port at the bottom too, so like a bit of air around them).

The picture is of them in their park position.

Can we see a pic of them in drive position?

I know of another Alex who did the same as you, pulling his speakers into the room for music listening and putting them back for general living. I guess the logic is the same as that for sofa beds.

[Mike Reed]

My previous purchases have been from Sevenoaks - Bury St Edmunds, Ipswich and Norwich - I know the first 2 are long gone, not sure about Norwich. Martins in Norwich used to be pretty good but not been there in a decade.

Yup ! Both 7oaks and Martins fully functioning here in 'A Fine City' called Norwich.

[Alex_UK]

OK, I’ve got the desire to “fiddle” with my main system – I’m reasonably happy with all of the sources, the DAC and the cabling, so I’m looking at a bit more “oomph” – especially at low volumes, if that isn’t a contradiction?

1. Acoustic Energy have the matching Sub-Woofer to my speakers (Evo Subwoofer) on clearance as it is now end of line - £175 (Half price) I've never really liked the idea other than for movies, though. Any thoughts on a sub?

2. Use my Creek Evo as a pre-amp only, and add either a Behringer A500 (very keen to see if this would be the giant-killer suggested by some) or a second-hand power amp for under £200 – I loved my Audiolab 8000S, so an 8000P would be the obvious choice at that sort of money. (I did contemplate using the 8000S in Power-Only mode, but at 60W vs the Creek’s 85W I can’t see this would be an upgrade? Plus the 8000S is a bit tired now, after being left switched on virtually 24/7 for 13 years.)

3. Sell my current speakers on ebay, and go for a pair of clearance/2nd hand speakers at around £400 – been looking specifically at Dali Suite 2.8 (Sevenoaks Brighton have these at £400, RRP is around a grand) – they get good reviews – Shaun (Haselsh1) has a pair (and likes them), but also seen other options second-hand such as some of the Monitor Audio Silver floorstanders, (RS6/RS8) maybe even low range Focal JMLabs (816) Or I could try and stretch to the Heco Celan 700s I am still lusting after that Mr C has for sale at £625...

4. Any other suggestions?

5. None of the above, wait for the taxman to sort his act out, and then I might have a bit more to spend in the New Year – what path would you suggest with say £1,000?

Maybe I should just forget about system changes and just enjoy the music for a while!

[Primalsea]

Hi Alex,

Its a bit of a difficult one really but I would'nt write off your Audiolab just yet. Oddly the power supply capacitors are probably on tip top condition if the amp has been left on but not running too hot at idle.

IMHO opinion if you want speakers and amps get your speakers first, make sure they're keepers and then look into trying different amps to find one that really matches it.

Its just the way that I would do it these days but some might say otherwise.

[MartinT]

Hi Alex - you'll never get sound from SACDs running into the Caiman because it's a 1-bit format that doesn't fit down S/PDIF links like the optical and co-ax ports. Only a very few DACs in the world can decode SACD and your Marantz can't output the digital format anyway. That's why you need the analogue interconnect.

[The Vinyl Adventure]

i recon you might be able to get hold of some pmc fb1+'s like mine for £600 - £700 these days turns out they are keepers!!

[Themis]

Only a very few DACs in the world can decode SACD and your Marantz can't output the digital format anyway. That's why you need the analogue interconnect.

True. But your PS3 can output SACD as a multi-channel digital PCM, still, you need a recent A/V amp to decode multichannel PCM.

[Scorchin34]

Beautiful kit! I Considered the Creek integrated amp but found the smoothness of the Rega more relaxing to listen to so I went with it, unfortunately I didn't clue in on it not having remote control so I had to find a pre that will go passive to have remote control ability, it didn't affect the sound that I could detect so I'm still very pleased with Rega's very simple but very effective Integrated.
Enjoyed your show.

Peace,
Preston

[Alex_UK]

Well the arrival of the Belkin mains filter unit finally prompted me to have a bit of a tidy up, and as suggested by Dave DSJR following his visit a couple of weeks ago, move the coffee table between the speakers (I'd already moved them from the original pictures in this thread) - and also since the first pictures I've had my Garrad 401 in the main system, the Planar 3/R200 I picked up, and now the Technics SL-150 which was the reason for Dave's visit. Also, I've fitted a phono board to the Creek amp, removing the need for the separate Rotel phono stage. Pretty much all the cables have changed too, courtesy of Mark Grant for speaker cable and G1000HD between DAC and amp, and a Mike special digital cable from CD to Caiman. Here's a few pictures of the new setup:









It sounds much better with this speaker positioning, though obviously not ideal for AV use, but it is easy to move the right hand speaker back to its original position temporarily for when playing the TV/PS3 through the system.

Of course the only problem now is that I won't really know how much difference (if any) the power conditioner is making unless I go back to the Tacima at a later stage. Organising the cables may have helped a bit too.

I should also add that the SL-150 with SL-1500 arm, with Herbies mat and Sorbothane Foculpod feet sounds much better than my beaten up old 401/SME 3009 S2 improved, using the same Nagaoka MP-15 in Sumiko headshell. I suspect once I get the Garrard serviced, plinthed and possibly a new arm/cart the positions will reverse but for the moment the Techie is really doing the giant killing thing it has a reputation for.

The Caiman now has the passive output mod and I somehow managed to stuff the "big yellow Italian film caps" in the case! The bottom granite "place mat" has Sorbothane feet added, the one on top is there to add a bit of damping.

There you go - the bonus is that the room feels a lot bigger, and my wife much prefers this layout too. We're now debating whether or not to put the TV where the coffee table is, but probably won't I suspect. Just ordered another PF30 power unit for the AV kit though...

[kcc123]

Hi Alex,

It certainly looks more elegant than before. I also think it will be best for both of your AV and main systems if you put the TV between the speakers.