Re: [SlimDevices: Audiophiles] New transport user queries

2009-12-14 Thread FARQ

kphinney;478506 Wrote: 
 
 
 Humor me and try this:  Go analog from your TP to your Rotel and from
 the Rotel ONLY to the 703's.   
 
 I understand that you probably want to have all of the speakers and
 gear and probably use it as a home theater, but this will give you an
 idea of what a simple and clean path can really do.  Then tweak
 accordingly from there.  I only mention this because I think once you
 hear what you've been missing you'll be shocked.

so I bit the bullet, swapped out the 4308  1080, for a Rotel RSP-1570
processor  RMB-1575 5ch poweramp... my sound guy did a pretty decent
trade in on the old amps too so was well happy with that

fired up the TP, ran the 1570 in 2ch bypass mode...

WOW

so this is what my 703s should have been sounding like all this time?
there's finally actual BASS coming from them heh

you're right, very shocked at what i've been missing... the difference
the new Class D amps have made is astounding... a more clinical sound
yes, but far more engaging, i'm hearing sounds never knew where there
before

before my system sounded pretty average at low volumes, and quite harsh
at very high volumes now it's crystal clear and smooth at any
volume, no brittle harshness even when I really belt it out

even playing CDs in the Beosound is infinitely better

plus the amps run so cool the TP doesn't overheat anything like it use
to

thanks for the advice, much appreciated! :)

now if I can just get the issue with Duet remote constantly going to
sleep and crashing every time i 'wake it up', and be able to fast-foward
when using .cue files for single mp3/flac mixed file, i'll be a right
happy camper :D


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Re: [SlimDevices: Audiophiles] New transport user queries

2009-11-03 Thread FARQ

there is nothing I can do with the layout of the room, the position of
the speakers, or re-arranging the position of the TP in my stack,
unfortunately... that level of my house is an open plan rectangle, with
the kitchen at one end  lounge/home av at the other... with where my
LCD is mounted and shelf/cabinets is for the equipment, the speakers can
only be in one position, but for what I had to work with it seems to
work ok.

I spent the weekend pulling everything out, re-configuring and
tweaking put the straps in to the 703s so not bi-amping, and powered
with only the Rotel RB-1080... little less bottom end through the 703s,
but does seem to be a much smoother sound  I'm happy with it thus far
:)

tried re-arranging the stack so both amps were on one side, and my
dvd/TP/beyonwiz on the other... amp stack won't fit, about 15mm too
high... so my only option is to keep the TP where it is, on top of the
rotel and under the beyonwiz... though after playing music for a few
hours the TP was so hot to the touch I couldn't put my hand on it... I
will however order in some of those black ravioli risers to give it more
space between the components, hopefully that will help.

put the old DAC8 in my bedroom with my SB Duet, it's just a small
system with a pair of mounted Minipods  the Bass Station,  for that
room sounds great... I know it's not high end but I was a fan of the
old Blueroom pods from way back

as a thought though, do you think replacing the Denon 4308, with say a
Rotel RSP-1570 surround sound processor,  a Rotel RMB-1575 250w 5ch
Power Amp, would make much difference? or is it going to be much the
same?

worked out I can get away with spending around $4,000 to get it done
with trading in the Denon, but obviously there's little point if it's
not going to make much difference


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Re: [SlimDevices: Audiophiles] New transport user queries

2009-11-03 Thread FARQ

cool thanks for the input, much appreciated

pretty much the same response as the guy who advised/sold/installed my
system... don't think I've ever had a sales guy advise me NOT to spend $
or buy more equipment heh.

said there would be an improvement, but probably not overly noticeable,
certainly not $4k worth of sound improvement... was rather impressed
with his honesty.

as for the positions of the equipment, it's a small cabinet, with the
denon on the bottom left  dvd sitting on top of it (neither get very
hot, slightly warm at best, even after hours of thrashing my system), 
on the right bottom is the rotel, TP on top of it, and Beyonwiz on top
of that... the rotel gets a bit warm, but not overly hot, the TP
absolutely cooks, which I find rather odd compared to the rest of the
components, and the Beyonwiz gets a bit hot but only at the back where
the hard drive is located, so maybe that's what's causing the TP to
overheat, more so than the rotel?

have considered putting some fans in there, that's my next step...
order in some black ravioli to give a bit of space in between the rotel
 beyonwiz, then see if I can mount some fans to the side of the cabinet
 get a bit of airflow through there there's glass doors on the
front of the cabinet, which I had custom made with three large cutouts
to allow airflow, so the cabinet's not totally enclosed

are there any sort of room treatments one could make, without changing
the look of my lounge room though?... it's very clean  minimal with a
few bits of art around the place, which is the way I like it :p


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Re: [SlimDevices: Audiophiles] New transport user queries

2009-11-03 Thread FARQ

hmmm thought that would be the case

1 side of the room is 3 double glazed sliding glass doors, the rear of
the room already has 2 large canvas pieces on the wall, and the other
side is open plan to the end of the kitchen

so not really much that can be done

might perhaps look at just upgrading the Rotel then if I'm still not
happy with the sound :)

thanks for the advice!


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Re: [SlimDevices: Audiophiles] New transport user queries

2009-10-27 Thread FARQ

Themis;478107 Wrote: 
 You should use the Rotel to bi-amp the front speakers. It is a better
 amp than the Denon's power section imho.
 Let the Denon power the surround and center speakers.

cool thanks for the tip

though pardon one's ignorance, if I use the straps that came with the
703s (as the Rotel only has 1 channel) then I wouldn't be bi-amping
them?


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Re: [SlimDevices: Audiophiles] New transport user queries

2009-10-27 Thread FARQ

thanks kphinney, appreciate the constructive response

I've always been a fan of rotel as well, and I quite like my RB-1080,
for the price point it suited the purpose fine

I guess I tried to go for a balance between raw power/aesthetics 
musical refinement when I listen to say some acoustic, jazz, or deep
house sounds, I want to hear perfect percussion  tight bass... when I
listen to something more uptempo say some deep tech, minimal, or
electro, I want raw power and deep bass, and when I watch movies I want
the high end surround sound all whilst looking good (hence the
Beosound) in my house

for the most part I think I achieved that somewhat, however wanted to
upgrade to a better DAC and have a transport for my digital music and
live sets/recordings, so the TP seemed like the perfect product

the more I play around with it and listen, the more I find myself
falling in love with it

unfortunately due to the layout of the room I was limited with my
speaker placement and they can't be moved... though obviously my system
could do with a bit of tweaking, so I'll give what you suggested a bell
over the w/end and see how she sounds :)


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Re: [SlimDevices: Audiophiles] New transport user queries

2009-10-26 Thread FARQ

Themis;476351 Wrote: 
 Well, I suppose that the Denon's preamp stage covers (and influences)
 most of the differences between your DAC8 and the Transporter analog
 output.
 On the other hand, if you consider that the highs do appear to be
 quite brittle and harsh, especially at loud volumes then, probably, the
 power amp has some difficulties with the 703's. Or your room has a
 problem regarding the mid-high frequencies.
 I would suggest two things :
 First, you should try putting +12dB level on the analog input of the
 TP.
 If you still have the harsh on high volumes problem, try placing your
 speakers differently, or try a different amp.

the rotel is only powering the drivers of the 703s, the denon is doing
the mid/hi

unfortunately I have limited space to work with as well, the speakers
can't be positioned any differently

earwaxer;477161 Wrote: 
 Dont put the DAC on the amp. Dont put anything on the amp.
 
 First of all - The Rotel is second rate. Sorry - I had a Proton back in
 the 80's. It was great so I thought. It's all relative. When you get
 into the real stuff you are going to put your Rotel up for sale
 lickety split!
 
 My bias is get the hell out of class A/B. Either go tubes, or class T,
 D or pure class A. I tried mosfets - no way - I'm into class T now and
 I'm not turning back. I though about tubes at one stage but cap tweaking
 has done the trick. 
 
 The Transport is one awesome sounding front end. Work on the other
 stuff and dont bitch about the Transport!

bitch about the Transport? I fail to see ANYWHERE that I was actually
bitching about the Transporter in the slightest.

I was surprised at my initial response and limited testing of the TP,
and the level to which it heats up compared to say my main amp, but
that's about it!

the Rotel isn't the best, but for the price point and sole purpose of
powering the drivers of the 703s, it does a decent job of it, and far
better than Bi-amping the 703s with the Denon... obviously the next bit
to upgrade in my setup would be the Denon, but that's quite a way off
yet.

after giving it a good decent thrashing over the w/end, I've actually
come to fall in love with the TP... I only had a chance to listen to
CD's through the TP initially and not any of my digital music yet as it
wasn't set up good god after firing up some of my digital music, I
was absolutely blown away... never has my system sounded so damn good!

playing CDs through the TP, whilst it still sounds good, seems to maybe
be a bit hit and miss depending what I'm playing, however that's
probably more to do with the Beosound not being all that flash quality
CD player... which I knew when I bought it, I bought it as a nice
functional 'looks good' piece for my house more than for high quality
audio, which is why it needs a good DAC.

all n all I'm extremely happy with the TP, just need to look at the
heat issues cos it's going to be a right bitch in summer, maybe try and
get some bigger feet in there to give it a bit more space


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Re: [SlimDevices: Audiophiles] New transport user queries

2009-10-26 Thread FARQ

Themis;477642 Wrote: 
 Are you telling me you're bi-amping the 703's with two different amps ?
 oO
 
 If it's the case (if I understood properly) I advise you to use only
 one amp. Amplifiers interact with speakers, two amplifiers interact
 differently (damping factors, etc) and they can rarely be used in
 conjunction for bi-amping. Use just the Rotel, for instance, even with
 straps. If you find it is not enough for amping your speakers, then you
 should consider getting another power amp.

hmmm maybe it's not setup in the best configuration then?

a number of places I went to who sell and consult on high end gear said
the best option would be to use the bi-amp feature of the Denon for the
703s, and if I found that didn't power the drivers of the 703s enough,
then get in a poweramp just for them

ran the system in for a few weeks, wasn't happy with it, place I bought
everything from and did the setup/cabling for me came out and put in the
rotel to power the drivers of the 703s

so the denon powers the DS7s, HTM7,  just the mid-hi on the 703s, with
the rotel powering the drivers on the 703s

when I listen to music it's either in pure direct or 5ch stereo mode, 
on the odd occasion I watch a dvd/movie I use the surround sound mode of
the denon

i definitely do get better bass response from the 703 with the rotel
powering the drivers than using the denon to bi-amp

dennis55;478011 Wrote: 
 Farq,my Transporter sits on the top shelf of my rack and always runs
 cool.
 i've been using a product called Black Ravioli for a number of years
 now,it was developed by a naval acoustics bod.
 i have each of my units supported by four of these pads and their
 isolation properties are pretty good.
 here's a link to the company and it's products.
 Cheers
 dennis
 
 http://www.blackravioli.co.uk/

great thanks for that dennis, will definitely check it out!


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Re: [SlimDevices: Audiophiles] New transport user queries

2009-10-22 Thread FARQ

SuperQ;475738 Wrote: 
 The front is one of the warmer parts due to the VFD display heaters.

makes sense I guess although when using the digital input from the
Beosound there's little going on on the display

SuperQ;475738 Wrote: 
 
 Back on the topic of audio quality, are you adjusting the volume on the
 transporter at all?  Do you notice it sounds louder or softer than the
 other transports you use?  A very small volume difference can mean a lot
 to your ears when it comes to audio quality.

volume is fixed at 100% in the settings, I use the Denon to control the
volume level

whilst I've been giving the system a bit of a belting testing it, these
days I listen to much lower volumes damn tinnitus heh

SuperQ;475738 Wrote: 
 
 It might be worth doing this:  Get a pink/white noise track and play it
 back on different sources.  You can measure the output to your speakers
 either with a SPL meter or by directly measuring the voltage across the
 speaker terminals with a good digital multi-meter.

don't have either, and getting to the back of equipment is a notorious
pain in the arse... all looks great with nought a cable in sight, but it
means it took me over an hour just to switch out the old DAC with the TP
hah! :D

Themis;475852 Wrote: 
 Do you listen to your setup through the PURE DIRECT mode or through the
 Audyssey EQ ?

I have all of the naff auto room EQ and Audyssey disabled on the Denon

When listening to music I only use either Pure Direct, or 5ch Stereo.

ghostrider;475938 Wrote: 
 My TP barely gets warm, something else is generating the excess heat.
 The VU meters are generated by SBS and are not available when using
 digital inputs.

hmmm strange, I can understand the TP getting a lot warmer than my old
DAC given what it does, but like I said in comparison to the Denon which
one would expect to get pretty toasty, the TP runs hotter after a good
few hours how it runs hotter than something like the Denon just
doesn't seem quite right to me?

I'm sure having it in between the Rotel and Beyonwiz isn't helping
matters and I expected it to get a bit warm in there, but no where near
as hot as it's getting!

Bugger that the VU meters aren't available using the digital inputs, is
there any kind of mod or hack to enable this? (wishful thinking I'm
sure!)

One last question, is anyone using the TP with a Logitech Harmony
universal remote? The setup software is highly annoying since it doesn't
let you manually set up the remote the way one wants, though for most of
my devices i've managed to get around the way it TELLS you how it should
be setup... i've tried assigning the 'favourites' button and then the
'play' button to select the digital input (it's the only thing i've
added to favourites), yet after the remote turns on the TP it doesn't do
it... one would have thought given they're both Logitceh they'd work in
harmony with each other


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Re: [SlimDevices: Audiophiles] New transport user queries

2009-10-21 Thread FARQ

SuperQ;475691 Wrote: 
 Not burnin, your ears are just used to the previous setup.  Give it
 time, your ears will adjust, not the equipment.

I've always been curious as to whether 'burn in time' makes any
difference or not... half of what I've read up on people swear it does,
the other half says it doesn't shrug

SuperQ;475691 Wrote: 
 
 I guess I don't know what you consider too hot to put your hand on. 
 Mine is warm, but never anything I would consider HOT.  However I don't
 put anything above or below mine without some space to allow it to get
 airflow.  I would either space out the gear, or move the TP to a
 different part of the stack.  It uses a bit more power than your average
 DAC unit due to the extra CPU electronics and VFD displays.

the Denon can get pretty toasty, especially during summer when my
system gets a thrashing, but nothing 'too hot to handle'.

the Transporter was pretty hot to the touch all over, even on the
front, and the top of the unit was getting close to too hot to put my
hand on, which just doesn't seem right in comparison to say the Denon.

yes ideally it would be sitting by itself, in all its glory, however
unfortunately there is nowhere else it can be placed... very limited
area where all the equipment is housed, 2 small stacks with 3 bits of
kit in each... might look in to getting some bigger feet to give it a
bit more breathing room though.


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