Hi! I am publishing my review again as the new version contains many corrections and links to various products discussed.
Thanks for the invaluable feedback which has helped. <Snip> The following is a review of my new sound system, it was delivered yesterday and I’ve just spent an enjoyable time both setting it things up and listening to the result. I decided to review my system not through sheer vanity but in the hope that my review may help some people, I know that the list often gets asked about accessible sound systems, computer speakers, amplifiers and associated equipment so perhaps I can deal with all these topics in the 1 review. The system I set up is cheap by professional audiophile standards but nevertheless its certainly not the worst system out there and the system does your ears justice without a doubt. The system isn’t complete yet by a long shot but the basics are in place and that’s what I’ll be focusing on. My interest in building a new-hi-fi system was rekindled due to 2 factors, the first being the very poor quality of computer speaker systems around, there’s no doubt that if you’re prepared to pay you can get some wonderful! computer speaker systems but by the time you’ve paid? Well you may as well have gone 1 better in a complete Hi-Fi system and take advantage of all the extra benefits that brings, - excellent sound, your choice of custom components and the thrill of letting your imagination do the talking when it comes to building and trying it out. - The second factor was a well known quality Hi-fi shop several miles out from Melbourne’s City Centre, they’ve been in business now for 60 years and should know there stuff, they certainly have many of the big well known high end brands on sale such as Denon, Rotel, Audio Research, B & W etc, it so happened that the store - Encel Stereo - were having a big sale, I just happened to be following Encel Stereo on Twitter thus could see the many items on offer. So when going through my Tweets one morning I noticed that Encel Stereo had a 40 watt per channel continuous power integrated Rotel amplifier for sale for under $400.00, I jokingly replied “So what speakers could you sell me for this amp” and I got the suggestion back of some Polk Audio bookshelf speakers for around the same price. At the same time I was becoming more and more annoyed at computer speakers, I had purchased the Harman Karden Sound Sticks and was extremely disappointed at the cheap construction, - non replaceable cable between speakers etc - so I began thinking about Amp, Speakers and associated topics. The usual arguments filtered through my head, “I already have a good surround-sound setup in the lounge, what do I really need another Hi-Fi system before? Its a good amount of money I’ll be spending, will it all be worth the while? Don’t want to waste money on Hi-fi like I’ve done with computer speakers” and on it went. So time to use my friend “Google” and do some research into Rotel amplifiers and Polk Audio speakers and all reviews and associated articles spoke of Polk Audio and Rotel in a positive light. The fact of customisation and all replaceable components drew my attention even more so a fortnight ago I went to the Encel Stereo web site and made my purchase, I also bought some screened speaker cable with the thought that, “If a job’s worth doing then its worth doing well’, after the purchase including shipping I had change from $1,000.00 Australian so bare in mind if you’re living in the U.S. that prices are bound to be cheaper than here. Now for the juicy bits and I’ll start with the Amplifier which actually resembles a slim line tuner more than an amp given its thickness which is more thin than thick. When Rotel said they’d gone “Back To Basics” with the design then they weren’t kidding in the slightest, this amp is indeed a very basic amp with most of the features you’ll ever need. All the controls on the front of the unit are rotary controls accept the “Bypass” and “Power” buttons. The amp has the usual volume, balance, Bass and Treble pots along with a couple of surprises. There are 2 3.5MM jacks to the right of the power button, at first I thought these were both headphone jacks but no, 1 is a “Music Port” so you can plug your music player directly into this and the other is the headphones jack, first time I’ve seen a 3.5MM headphones jack on an amp but I guess it makes all the sense in the world. The amp has 4 sets of line in sockets, tape in and out, a set of fono sockets for a turntable and preamp out sockets, quite a good collection of connections by anyone’s standardds. The speaker output connectors are your usual A/B configuration of binding posts. The Polk Audio bookshelf speakers are smaller than what I expected, actually they’re not all that much bigger than some of the computer speakers I’ve seen but when connected? Well there’s no doubt about it, the sound produced from those puts most computer speakers to absolute shame, a little of the bottom is missing but its hardly worth worrying about and we are talking about bookshelf speakers and not floor standing models. The speaker cable was the cheapest Encel Stereo offered at $12.00 per metre and I can assure you that proper speaker cable makes all the difference to the output sound however I do think that the more expensive cable I was recommend at $360.00 per metre is overkill <smile>. The system isn’t complete and I’ll be adding to it in the next few months, I intend to purchase the Rotel DAC - Digital To Analogue Converter - which will provide me with both digital inputs and a direct digital bridge between the system and the computer. The idea of dedicated subwoofers for each channel is appealing though it will be a while before I tackle that challenge as a pair of subwoofers would cost me well into the mid thousand dollar mark, the subwoofers are easily connected through the “Preamp Out” sockets of the amplifier. I’m also looking at “Stand-Alone” CD players and there are some real rippers around now from such brands as Rotel, Cambridge Audio, Onkyo etc. I have the Yamaha TD500 tuner I’ve spoken about in previous eMail connected and it too sounds utterly brilliant. <snip> ********** Dane Trethowan Skype: grtdane12 Phone US (213) 438-9741 Phone U.K. 01245 79 0598 Phone Australia (03) 9005 8589 Mobile: +61400494862 Fax +61397437954 To unsubscribe from this list, send a blank email to: pc-audio-unsubscr...@pc-audio.org
