Bob's Office System

[morris_minor]

Every so often I have a change round of my office, and this latest one was prompted by an eBay purchase of a pair of Harbeth Xpression! DPM1 active monitors. Though not totally ideal, these are mounted on small shelves above the main desk.

As my living room system has gradually morphed into an AV system (albeit with a nice little "stereo subsystem" of turntable/Squeezebox Transporter/Sugden Headmaster), my office system has grown into a "proper" stereo system to compensate . I admit the wiring could be neater - but you should have seen it before .

Comments, where needed, are along with the pictures below:
(please excuse rubbish pictures . . .)



Below: Printer and Windows 7 PC on the left.


Below: Clearaudio Smart Matrix record cleaning machine, a couple of NAS drives, and an Acer box running Windows Home Server - serving up audio from Squeezecenter to six players around the house, and DVD rips to Boxee running on a Mac Mini in the living room.




Below: Mac Mini with SSD (best upgrade EVER!), Iomega firewire drive, and DVD writer (a fraction of the cost of replacing the Mini's defunct drive). Audio out from the Mac (and the PC) goes to the pre-amp.


Below: The TT is a Technics SL-QL1 - an eBay purchase a short while ago. Fully serviced by Richard at Vantage Audio, it'll be returned to him when he brings up my SL7 (which is for the living room) and given a thorough upgrade with external PS, improved bearing, copper-bonded platter and additional damping. (New feet are already fitted). A Jico SAS stylus arrived for my P22 recently, so I'm hoping for good results to get even better.
Behind the TT:

• Graham Slee Solo SRGII headphone amp
• Pro-ject Pre Box SE
• M-Audio Transit USB (a 96/24 ADC for digitising vinyl)
• Logitech Squeezebox Receiver, on top of
• Sonifex Redbook DAC1
• Graham Slee Era V Gold phono amp

Below: also seen, a Magic Eraser pad, an antistatic brush and an original Zerostat (at least 25 years old . . .)


Below: Harbeth Xpression! DPM1 active studio monitors




While I was setting this up a couple of days ago, a nice little parcel arrived from Metrum in the Netherlands - which I hoped was the NOS MiniDac Octave bought to replace the Sonifex RB-DAC1. Unfortunately the parcel just contained the circuit board for the DAC - no casework, no power supply. A quick exchange of emails with Cees Ruijtenberg who runs Metrum uncovered a switch of orders. So I'm sending this back (they've already refunded my costs) and waiting for my unit to arrive. What is interesting about this little tale, is that my order was mixed up with an OEM. Which prompts the question: which manufacturer is fitting Octave DAC boards into their products??

[Tim]

Very nice Bob and thanks for sharing . . . question is, how much work do you get done in there with all those toys!

[morris_minor]

Very nice Bob and thanks for sharing . . . question is, how much work do you get done in there with all those toys!

Er - not a lot, truth be told Though I do try, honest

BTW the Sennheiser 595s that are in one of the pics are going back to Sennheiser after you kindly tipped us off about their out of warranty repair. One side has cracked right through. I'd be happy just to get them repaired, but after your experience being sent a new set of 650s, I'm hoping for a new pair of something similar (595s maybe in cream and wood) .

[Tim]

Er - not a lot, truth be told Though I do try, honest

BTW the Sennheiser 595s that are in one of the pics are going back to Sennheiser after you kindly tipped us off about their out of warranty repair. One side has cracked right through. I'd be happy just to get them repaired, but after your experience being sent a new set of 650s, I'm hoping for a new pair of something similar (595s maybe in cream and wood) .

Well I hope so, but don't hold me to ransom if you just get a repair. I think the fact I have quite a lot of their headphones already and sent a covering letter may have tipped the balance, but hopefully you will get just as good service I have heard previous good reports about their customer service too, part of the reason I remain loyal to them and I like the 'house' sound of Sennheiser too.

[morris_minor]

Well I hope so, but don't hold me to ransom if you just get a repair. I think the fact I have quite a lot of their headphones already and sent a covering letter may have tipped the balance, but hopefully you will get just as good service I have heard previous good reports about their customer service too, part of the reason I remain loyal to them and I like the 'house' sound of Sennheiser too.

Well I've got three other Sennheiser pairs in the house, including a 650, and have had Sennys since the original 414 back in 1980. So you can imagine my covering letter.

But, no, I won't hold you to ransome, don't worry!

[jason]

Nice office set up Bob....

[morris_minor]

Nice office set up Bob....

Thanks Jason

[Reid Malenfant]

Nice office set up Bob....

Nice? How about exceptional I have never in my life seen an office with an RCM


Oh man, I'd love to work where you do The Harbeth actives look very interesting to, they'll probably sound it as well


Lovely stuff Bob, bests to you & yours for 2012 chap. I'm sure you'll have a good time at work though

[morris_minor]

Nice? How about exceptional I have never in my life seen an office with an RCM


Oh man, I'd love to work where you do The Harbeth actives look very interesting to, they'll probably sound it as well


Lovely stuff Bob, bests to you & yours for 2012 chap. I'm sure you'll have a good time at work though

Thanks! Got to put the RCM somewhere . The Harbeths are very neutral and just seem to take on the character of what's playing (as I suppose studio monitors should), but it's very early days for me with them. Wind the volume up and they really sing

Happy New Year to all

[DSJR]

I believe the speakers were HHB models made for them by Harbeth and short-lived I think because they didn't go loud enough for bedroom DJ's/muzik makers... I'm told by those that know that they sounded very good.