Re: System Balancing � - your thoughts please
Heard a Transporter at the Sound Vision show back in February... Awesome. Sounded better than a NAIM CD player on the same system. Problem is, I can't justify spending £1,200 on one. My current setup, sources first: Arcam DV-79 CD/DVD-Audio player Rega Planar 3 turntable, Ortofon 510 cart, Pro-Ject Phono Box II Technics RS-BX606 cassette deck Sony RCD-W100 CD recorder Sony MDS-JB980 minidisc deck Turtle Beach Audiotron Pinnacle ShowCenter Arcam AVR-250 AV receiver Mordaunt-Short Avant 908 front, 905C centre, 2x 903S surrounds BW ASW-1000 subwoofer Chord Cobra 3 interconnects between DVD and amp Cambridge Atlantic interconnects between everything else and amp Chord Rumour 4 speaker cable for front and centre Gale XL-105 for rears (buried into plaster) At present I use the Audiotron as a network media source as it fits nicely in the kit rack. Granted, a Transporter would be better for this (FLAC support anyone?) but as mentioned above I can't justify spending this kind of money. What I'd really love is a standard SB3 mounted in a hi-fi component size case with front panel buttons, but without the fancy DACs of the Transporter. Probably be happy without the dual displays as well... just a SB that will sit in the kit rack and look right - and be operable without the remote. I've had an SB3 hooked up to an offboard DAC (Arcam Black Box 50) and the results have been superb. -- Squirrel Squirrel's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=5785 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=34849 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
[SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Re: A photo of your Squeezebox setup (please)
A poll associated with this post was created, to vote and see the results, please visit http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=19817 Question: Should there be a new forum for photos? - yes - no - maybe In the meantime... here's the temporary setup in the room at my friend's that I've taken over as an office until my house is ready... SB3, Arcam Black Box 50, Yamaha DSP-A592 (running in straight stereo), Chord Cobra II interconnect, Audio Innovations Silver Bi-Wire speaker cable. +---+ |Filename: IMG_0416.jpg | |Download: http://forums.slimdevices.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=2046| +---+ -- Squirrel Squirrel's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=5785 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=19817 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
[SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Re: A photo of your Squeezebox setup (please)
A poll associated with this post was created, to vote and see the results, please visit http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=19817 Question: Should there be a new forum for photos? - yes - no - maybe Haven't got any pics at present, my house is undergoing refurbishment so I'm staying at a friend's for the time being... Anyway, the system(s): Living room: Arcam AVR250 AV receiver Arcam DV79 DVD Audio player Rega Planar 3 turntable with RB300 tonearm and Ortofon 510 cart Pro-Ject Phono Box II Sony RCD-W100 CD recorder Sony MDS-JB980 minidisc deck Technics RS-BX606 cassette deck Media centre PC Turtle Beach Audiotron Pinnacle ShowCenter Sky+ PVR Philips VR-1000 SVHS VCR Panasonic TX32PM1 32 widescreen CRT TV Mordaunt Short Avant 908 (main), 905C (centre) 2x 903S bipolar (surround) BW ASW-1000 sub Chord Cobra III for DVD to amp, Cambridge Audio Tape Solution for MD and cassette deck, Cambridge Atlantic for VCR audio, Profigold S-video interconnect (VCR to amp), home-made SCART-RGB component cables. 908 and 905C speakers connected with Chord Rumour 4 cable, rears connected with 105-strand OFC (basically Gale XL-105 but bought on a 100m roll). Also have Isotek power cables on amp and DVD player, all plugged in to a surge and RFI filtered 4 way block (amp, DVD, sub and phono pre-amp are on RFI filtered block). All the rear speaker cables (along with line level feed for Zone 2) are buried in the wall, so high WAF when needed. I'm single at present... but when I'm not I won't have to rearrange everything! Ok, no SB in that setup, but... Zone 2 feed from amp feeds a Kenwood KA-3020SE driving a pair of APart 8 coaxial ceiling speakers in the kitchen. Feed goes through a small relay box driven from geek port on SB3 in kitchen, when SB3 switched on the kitchen speakers are supplied by the Squeezebox, when off they're fed from Zone 2 on the Arcam. Not exactly audiophile, but fed through a 5-band EQ to compensate for room acoustics. Zone 3 (office/dining room) currently runs from SPDIF output on USB sound card (Creative MP3 Blaster). Tend to use WinAmp for this, but no reason why I couldn't use SoftSqueeze if I wanted to sync stuff. Zone 4 (Bathroom) - SB3 sits in custom enclosure in false wall, feeding an old Technics SU-VX500 amplifier. This drives another pair of APart 8 ceiling speakers. Considering using software room correction on this, but currently runs through a 10-band EQ to take out some of the peaks (tiled walls etc). Zone 5 (master bedroom) - Yamaha DSP-AX620 amp, Toshiba SD-530 DVD-Audio player, Sony RDR-HXD710 DVD/HD recorder with Freeview, Sky+, Grundig 32 widescreen TV, Audiotron, Showcenter, Gale 4/Centre 2/2i speakers, Paradigm PS-1000 subwoofer. Zone 6 (spare bedroom) - haven't decided yet, but all the wiring's in for multiroom. Zone 7 (box room) - same as zone 6. Zone 8 (Garden) - slaved from zone 3 at present, but may well buy another SB3 and install in utility room. 2 pairs of weatherproof rock effect speakers (one set wired for L-R difference signal for surround effect) running from an old Sony mini system with 6 band EQ (some heavy EQ needed to get speakers to sound decent). Will post pics as soon as the building work gets completed in various rooms! -- Squirrel Squirrel's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=5785 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=19817 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
[SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Re: Transporter review
Now, here's an interesting comparison: Transporter analogue outputs SB3 feeding Arcam Black Box 50 (via co-ax SPDIF) Which one will sound better? (Currently got the second one set up in my temporary office.) -- Squirrel Squirrel's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=5785 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=29450 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
[SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Re: Music in your car
I'm somewhat of an audiophile myself, but here's something interesting I've noticed. Using the latest version of LAME to rip a CD with options -b32 -mj -q1 -V0 it's almost impossible to tell the difference between FLAC and MP3 versions of the same track. Squeezebox 3 analogue output - no audible difference. Squeezebox 3 digital output via Arcam Black Box 50, Yamaha DSP-A592, Eltax Symphony 6 (system in dining room) - no audible difference. Squeezebox 3 digital output via Arcam AVR250, Mordaunt-Short Avant 908/905C/903S speakers, BW ASW-1000, Chord Rumour 4 speaker cable - very very slight apparent increase in detail on FLAC, although this might have been down to slightly different playback levels (FLAC using ReplayGain adjustment, MP3 using MP3Gain). Also tried ripping to a WAV file, encoding an MP3 using the above options without running MP3Gain then burning both versions to a blank CD (track 1 MP3, track 2 WAV) using Nero (so MP3 version decoded and burnt as an audio track). Tried playing this on a number of different systems and again could only hear a minute difference on the Arcam/Mordaunt-Short setup (using a DV79 as the CD player or transport). The result was the same regardless of whether I used the DAC in the DV79 or in the AVR250. For in-car use... my new car (Audi A4 2.0 TDI Quattro) actually came with an iPod adaptor built in to the glove compartment. The factory fit head unit sounded really tinny though, so I've replaced this with a Sony MEX-BT5000 and iPod adaptor, JBL GTO-4000 amplifier driving the front speakers and a pair of 10 subs in the boot, rears running off the Audi Active system. I have a 60GB iPod Video, and it really does sound good. Better than most people's home hi-fi actually. I'm still wondering whether the apparent difference I heard on the Arcam test (or the 2 track CD test) was because I knew which track was sourced from WAV and which was from MP3. Might try burning another CD with the tracks the other way around and get a friend to swap the discs over so I don't know which one's playing so it's a proper blind test. I reckon on most processed music (pop, rock, country etc) it would be pretty well impossible to tell on a well encoded MP3. Classical might be different though. -- Squirrel Squirrel's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=5785 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=29925 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
[SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Re: Slim Devices Transporter?
Just popped on to the Slim Devices website this morning to be greeted with the new Transporter. Looks a fairly amazing bit of kit. Imagine plugging that into a few grand's worth of glowing bottles. ;-) Unfortunately not quite what I'm looking for... but then it's always best to start with the flagship model and start lopping stuff off. Now all I want is a cut down version of the Transporter without the uber-DACs that will hook up to my Arcam AVR-250 via SPDIF but still retain the dual displays and front panel control options. Then I'll finally have something to replace the Audiotron if it ever pops its clogs. Nice one Slim... might be seeing you at the What Hi-Fi Sound Vision show in Bristol next February then? -- Squirrel Squirrel's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=5785 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=25773 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
[SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Re: Help...not enjoying my SB3
Just to add my UKP0.02 worth... I'd moved my entire system from the dining room recently (SB3, Arcam Black Box 50, Yamaha DSP-A592, Eltax Symphony 6) as I needed to use it elsewhere (and took the opportunity to have a tidy-up). When I reconnected I just did a minimal setup as I'm moving house in a couple of weeks, so just ran the analogue outs from the SB straight into the amp... Compared to what I had before it sounded harsh and fatiguing. (I plugged in my old Technics SL-PG590 CD player to compare, in fact it sounds slightly better than this, but I guess I got too used to the Arcam DAC.) And I found myself not bothering to play music in the dining room. So I've just plugged in a spare DAC I had kicking around (Audio Alchemy DAC-in-the-box) between the SB and amp using the co-ax output. Result - it sounds far smoother, much more musical and doesn't make me want to turn it off after a couple of tracks. The DAC in the SB3 is probably comparable with that in an £80 CD player however. But then these tend to sound fatiguing after a while. -- Squirrel Squirrel's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=5785 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=24613 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
