Whats Your Audio / Home Cinema Setup?

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@Sprite how do you find the Pure Audio Blu Ray?
Do you have any experience with SACD and if so how does it compare?

I was in my local music store today but their selection was very limited and they didn't stock anything I really wanted.
Still, I was tempted to buy one just to try it out. I may have a look around the web and find/order something I would be more interested in.

Edit: After a very quick search I notice Never Mind The Bollocks is in the catalogue, seems like an odd title to be available.
 
@Shaun I personally love the sound the Blu-ray audio produces. I actually don't own any SACD as the ones I want are hard to find and demand silly prices, even when secondhand.

I do own a few BR audio though, and the 2ch versions of Dark Side Of The Moon and Wish You Were Here sound outstanding and are like night and day compared to the standard CD. Once I've got a deck set up I'm going to compare against vinyl.

I've read a lot of articles debunking HD audio proving that high bit rates etc can actually do harm to the sound and hinder its reproduction.

Sound like other art forms is so subjective that no two people will hear the same things. I'd recommend trying it out and seeing if you like the sound. I'd also recommend ripping a CD to FLAC or ALAC and if your amp can play that file format do it via USB in Pure Direct mode.

Compared to CD it's very different, some can sound too clinical others benefit from the untouched (to a point) sound and really open them up.
 
@Shaun I actually don't own any SACD as the ones I want are hard to find and demand silly prices, even when secondhand.

Tell me about it, the prices can be crazy if you can find what you want that is.
I only have a few myself, with my favourite being Dark Side Of The Moon. As you say with the BR version the SACD is chalk and cheese to the regular CD.

I do own a few BR audio though, and the 2ch versions of Dark Side Of The Moon and Wish You Were Here sound outstanding and are like night and day compared to the standard CD. Once I've got a deck set up I'm going to compare against vinyl.

I'm interested in hearing your thoughts when you get it up and running. 👍

Sound like other art forms is so subjective that no two people will hear the same things. I'd recommend trying it out and seeing if you like the sound. I'd also recommend ripping a CD to FLAC or ALAC and if your amp can play that file format do it via USB in Pure Direct mode.

Looks like it will be a trip back into town then to pick one up and test.
As for ripping CD's to FLAC, I done that a while ago (long process for a couple hundred CD's) and have them stored on the PC. They are then played through my stereo setup in the lounge via a Squeezebox Touch. Quite a handy little device really, connect via the digital output and the DAC in the Amp does the work. Basically it becomes a pathway from the PC to Amp which is very wife friendly, ie easy to use.
Coupled with a harmony remote all she has to do is press play music and all the equipment required starts up and the amp switches to direct.
 
Ahh sounds like you sussed out how to make it easy for the other half. I have that trouble with some things but as my partner is a technical expert for our digital team at work she doesn't have too many issues and learns quickly.

Harmony remotes are god-sent. Couldn't be without one. I use an Apple TV for my iTunes library but a USB HDD for the FLAC. I feel your pain when converting large CD libraries.

I'm in the middle at the moment of about 300 CD's and XLC on the Mac can be slow as it checks bit for bit against a database to make sure your rip is spot on.
 
I bought a High Fidelity Bluray of Queen and I must say it is very very sharp.

Having said that I have not experienced SACD or even a really good record player, but still, I thought it was worth it if you really enjoy the music.

Im half tempted to throw on the Bluray of Pink Floyd Pulse haha.
 
@Sprite how do you find the Pure Audio Blu Ray?
Do you have any experience with SACD and if so how does it compare?

I was in my local music store today but their selection was very limited and they didn't stock anything I really wanted.
Still, I was tempted to buy one just to try it out. I may have a look around the web and find/order something I would be more interested in.

Edit: After a very quick search I notice Never Mind The Bollocks is in the catalogue, seems like an odd title to be available.

I have the SACD of Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon. It sounds much richer & fuller than the CD. Even friends who are not audiophiles in any way, have noticed how good it sounds. You could try Amazon for SACD discs. Yes, there are specialty sites, but they tend to be (in some cases) much more expensive.
 
You could try Amazon for SACD discs.

To be totally honest I'm not sure if Amazon posts to Australia. I think they do but only certain products. I'll check it out. 👍

Normally I just scrounge around eBay for them but it's very hit and miss as to what's available.
 
Well I've been eyeing up new cables for when I get my deck (saving isn't going too well as I keep buying new music). Anyway I love Chord cables so I'm going to try and get a Pair of:

Chord Anthem Reference RCA
chord_RCA.jpg

Along with new speaker cables.

These would be Chord Epic Reference

chord_speaker_01.jpg
chord_speaker_02.jpg

does anyone here have any dealing with these particular cables, I run Chord Silver Screen speaker cable now and a Chord Crimson RCA from the Marantz for 2ch playback unless BD/DVD audio.
 
I always wanted to try SACD seeing as my PS3 plays them and I now have a decient audio setup. Are most SACD's in 5.1 as well as 2ch? and are some in 7.1?

I would love a sample file or something recorded in 7.1 just to see what it sounds like.
 
@Sprite nice choice on the cables. 👍
As I have chord carnival silver screen bi-wire I'm interested to hear your thoughts on the new cables if you get them.
To be honest though I'm not sure if 685's are high end enough to notice the difference.

@Robin. As far as I know all sacd's are 5.1, to get 7.1 music I think you would have to go the Blu-ray audio route. Sprite may be able to help you here.
 
@Shaun that was my thinking too, I measured the runs of speaker cable and I'd need 2m per side and that would cost £1000!!!! Plus £660 for interconnects. I think these upgrade would be wasted on my current setup, I may borrow them from my local HiFi shop and see what (if any) benefit.

@Robin

As far as I can remember bluray audio only does 5.1 and 2ch streams like SACD and DVD audio. I'll have a look at the ones I own and let you know as maybe mistaken.
 
@TB your a genius. It's still the same price as Chord themselves but I made the mistake of doubling up on runs of cable as I was looking at Bi-amping.

It's £500.00 for 2m per side. I feel a total numpty. Such a schoolboy error. When looking on the site you linked I realised what I did. :D
 
If you're looking to bi-amp you would need 4 sets, unless I'm not following something, which is likely. :lol:
 
TB
If you're looking to bi-amp you would need 4 sets, unless I'm not following something, which is likely. :lol:

According to that website 1 set includes the + and - sides of the speaker but 1 speaker only. It recommends you order 2 so you get both runs for each speaker so 4 cables in total.

Yesterday I was adding things up incorrectly.

I had:

Left speaker
+ & - high
+ & - mid /bass

Right speaker
+ & - high
+ & - mid /bass

But that totals 8 separate cables and £1000 price tag. I'd only need this if I was Bi-amping or Bi-wiring but I actually only need:

Left speaker
+ & - mid / bass with bridge to highs

Right speaker
+ & - mid / bass with bridge to highs

So only 4 separate cables and a £500 cost.
 
@Shaun I may borrow them from my local HiFi shop and see what (if any) benefit.

Good idea. 👍
One of the benefits of a good bricks and mortar store over shopping exclusively on the net.
The shop I go to is a small family run business, when buying my speakers they didn't have any in stock so they gave me the floor models to play with until mine turned up. They're normally pretty good on price too so if they are close enough I'm happy to pay a little bit more than online to support them as the service is so great.
 
@Shaun I'm the same with a lot of stores I go to. I don't mind helping a local business stay open.
 
@Shaun @Robin. Sorry for getting back to you late with the answer to 5.1 vs 7.1

I've checked my Bluray audio discs and whether they be studio or concert recordings they are all 5.1 and 2ch with the exception of Dark Side Of The Moon and Wish You Were Here as they also contain the original 4ch quad audio recordings in PCM.

Also I've concluded for 2ch I get a better reproduction from letting the Marantz feed the amp by RCA rather than having the amp decode the HDMI signal. Also I can then run both in Pure Direct mode and cut out as much electrical interference as possible. It's a much sweeter and deeper sound.
 
Early 2000's Bose surround speakers [5.1 setup] (not sure model)
Insignia reciever
HDMI cables for PS3
Monster cable for PS2 sound

I obviously know my setup :P (not) :lol:

I do have a close to me setup. My rig bumps right up to the TV stand so I have the front and center speakers on that. And surround next to my rig.
image.jpg


image.jpg
 
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@Shaun

As promised I've been using the remote for the past few days and so far it's been ok. There are a few things which have spoilt the remote. For simplicity I've decided to do the good, bad & ugly.

Good

The remote is very easy to handle and sits snugly in the hand, its got a nice bottom heavy feel so it doesn't want to lurch forward while holding it. The bottom is covered in a felt like material and is soft to the touch. I like this as it doesn't slip out of your hand. The screen is easy to read and bright enough to view in the day time.

I like the auto lock feature of the screen too, my old H1 could have the screen pressed at any time, this resulted in putting your hand out to find it in the dark and pressing an option of the screen which was frustrating. The remote also seems a lot quicker to respond to my button and screen presses.



Bad

The front is again made from ultra shiny plastic which picks up finger prints and dust like crazy, resulting in a very grubby looking device after an evenings use. If like me who hates smudges etc you'll be cleaning the remote after every use. The dock is a bad design, in that with my old H1 I could just lean over in bed and pretty much plonk the remote onto its dock, due to the shape etc it just fell snugly back into place and started charging again. This is a lot more difficult if your half asleep and lean over. (it maybe something I get used to over time.)

The battery is built into the device. Unlike the H1 which was removable. I guess it means a tricky fix if the battery goes outside the warranty.



Ugly

While the screen is easy to read, the buttons I've found to be a little too small for my chubby man fingers. For the price you pay for the device (RRP was £150 I got it for £96) I'd have expected a larger screen with higher resolution etc. The overall feel is of solid build but again for such a premium device the materials are not, although slightly better than my old H1.

The IR transmitter is on the upper back part of the device and not at the front like most clickers are. This has resulted in me having to lift the remote ever so slightly into an awkward position that isn't indicative of using a remote. I don't think you could use this on a chair arm and just press buttons without lifting it and exposing the IR transmitter.

The USB connection on the remote and dock are tight and I nearly trashed it when trying to plug it in.

There is a lack of physical buttons on the remote leading to some creative thinking on the owners part if they want to utilise certain functions without having to rely on the touch screen. For example my Marantz UD7007 has its eject button set to the screen by default when you first set it up. However I don't want to sroll through options just to eject. The remote has a distinct lack of (E) button unlike my H1 so I had to use (DVR) button as an alternative.

Also while on the subject of buttons the layout is lacking, and having the essential buttons located at the top of the remote can be fiddly with one handed operation. Trying to reach them to press play or pause is a pain in the backside.

Software is a big horrid mess and I'm glad I don't have to use it more than a few times to get the remote set up.



Round up

The remote does what I need and has plenty of expandability later if needed. If you can live without a touch screen (I can but the wife can't as she would get confused by what is what) then other and cheaper Harmony remotes would suffice. Sadly Logitech seem to have the market for high end remotes to themselves and as such has lead to very lazy industrial design. I'll keep on with this remote as its the best solution for what I need, its just a shame the solution is badly designed.
 
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@Sprite
Thank you very much for the write up. 👍

Hmm it seems to have a few shortcomings that will likely steer me away from one.
Now while I'm pretty sure I could live with it I'm not so sure about my wife.
For example the position of the IR transmitter would drive her nuts, well more likely me trying to explain to her how it works.
The lack of physical buttons would put her off also as touch screens aren't her strong point.

I've finally got her well versed in the use of the 650 so as it works perfectly well will now most likely stay.
I had planned on relegating the 650 to the bedroom and upgrading it for the lounge.
Now I think I'll just get a 200 for the bedroom which only cost $30 and will do what's needed in the bedroom and keep the 650 for the lounge.

Oh and don't get me started on Harmony software, had a few issues also getting 650 sorted.

Thanks again mate. 👍
 
@Sprite
Thank you very much for the write up. 👍

Hmm it seems to have a few shortcomings that will likely steer me away from one.
Now while I'm pretty sure I could live with it I'm not so sure about my wife.
For example the position of the IR transmitter would drive her nuts, well more likely me trying to explain to her how it works.
The lack of physical buttons would put her off also as touch screens aren't her strong point.

I've finally got her well versed in the use of the 650 so as it works perfectly well will now most likely stay.
I had planned on relegating the 650 to the bedroom and upgrading it for the lounge.
Now I think I'll just get a 200 for the bedroom which only cost $30 and will do what's needed in the bedroom and keep the 650 for the lounge.

Oh and don't get me started on Harmony software, had a few issues also getting 650 sorted.

Thanks again mate. 👍

No problem. My wife is ok with touch screens (uses an iPhone) so to keep it as simple to use for her I decided on this. Once we move I may look into a better solution but for now it controls the whole room down to the Dyson.
 
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Ok to add a little bit from here and here.

New subwoofer arrived a week or so ago and after testing it out in various positions I was happy that it produced good results in a space that I had hoped for due to aesthetic reasons.
During the test process while watching the beach landing scene on Saving Private Ryan my son came running out of his room and said. "Don't you think it's a bit loud dad?" When asking him why he replied that the walls in his bedroom were shaking. Yep passed that test.

However the sub was primarily bought for listening to music and it passes that test also with flying colours freeing up my speakers a bit and also playing the frequencies lower than the speakers can go. Over the next week or so I'll continue to tweak it until I'm as happy as can be.

Anyway a pic of it.
Bowers and Wilkins ASW 610.

IMG_20140921_203308.jpg


Overall pic of the setup at the front.

IMG_20140921_203208.jpg


Also additional to my original posts are the Squeezebox Touch (next to centre speaker) for streaming my music collection from the PC and the PS4 on top of the cabinet. The PS3 will stay even if the PS4 ever catches up feature wise to the PS3 as that's what plays my limited SACD collection.
Once I'm finally happy with the positioning of everything I'll finish off tidying up all the cables. Speaking of which I purchased some new speaker cable also.
While demoing the sub my local shop used this with my model speakers and these just to rub it in. I was impressed enough with it and also with it being a lot smaller than my outgoing Chord Silver Screen cables thought I'd give it a go as hiding it will be so much easier. So far I'm happy with it and it will stay.

Rear speakers are still the Canton satellites but I have my eye on some B&W in-wall speakers to take over there as they will also look nicer in the room along with having a greater frequency range.
 
@Shaun how has the sub been? I was listening to Von by Sigur Rós the other day and the deep rich bass at the beginning of that album would sound sweet coming from a nice separate sub unit.
 
TB
The theater is now enjoying the company of a pair of Cerwin Vega DX5s sporting a 12" woofer, 6" mid and 1" tweeter.
After buying the CVs in April, I went in and changed the speaker setting from "small" (as my Sony L&R were, effectively, bookshelf speakers) to "large" due to the Cerwins sporting the 12" woofer. Ever since, I haven't been happy with the sound. This weekend I did some searching and came across this article. After changing the setting back to small and adjusting the crossover, it is absolutely amazing the sound difference.

Some might have already known that but just in case you hadn't, I wanted to pass it on. :)
 
@Sprite the sub is going great thanks mate, couldn't be happier with the purchase. 👍

I will however admit that it required a bit more tweaking than I had anticipated. During the initial setup process I set my speakers to small, the crossover to 80hz and volume knob to twelve o'clock. Audyssey set the sub to -12db during it's setup (the limit of my receivers correction ability) so for all I knew it could have needed to be at -20db. A bit of tweaking with the volume knob and some re-tests I got it to 0db.

With movies it was fantastic but upon a fair bit of auditioning I came to the conclusion that the bass was just a little over the top for music for my liking, my primary reason for buying it in the first place. Back to a bit more tweaking and some playing around with the Low Pass filter selection switch on the rear (marked A,B,C) and I found a happy medium.

Coincidentally I've renamed them.
Annoy the neighbours.
Balanced.
Crap. (It's not really just needed something easy to remember :lol:)

It now stays mostly in position B, always for music and when I want some earth shaking stuff for movies I'll flip it to A.
Sounds sweet for music and fills the gaps that my speakers can't provide, not that the 685's aren't very good for bass they are and punch well above their weight in that respect. Just that extra the sub provides along with freeing up the speakers does make a difference.

@TB yep that's a common mistake made when one has Large (physically) speakers. Unless you're running uber speakers always, I find anyway set them to small. 80hz is about the spot you want to set the crossover at to start with and take it from there. More often than not that seems to be the sweet spot.
 
@TB yep that's a common mistake made when one has Large (physically) speakers. Unless you're running uber speakers always, I find anyway set them to small.
My parents came over last night so I showed my dad the new(ish) CVs while watching a bit of The Avengers. It is absolutely incredible just how much difference that one little setting makes!
80hz is about the spot you want to set the crossover at to start with and take it from there.
After I bout them, I tried finding specs on the frequency response but never came across anything definitive. I'm assuming they bottom out at about 35hz, which is about what my sub does. Quiet. :lol: I have the crossover currently set at 40hz and, as stated above, the sound field during The Avengers was spectacular. :)
 
TB
After I bout them, I tried finding specs on the frequency response but never came across anything definitive. I'm assuming they bottom out at about 35hz, which is about what my sub does. Quiet. :lol: I have the crossover currently set at 40hz and, as stated above, the sound field during The Avengers was spectacular. :)

Have you tried the crossover at various frequencies also. 40hz does seem a bit low which will be leaving the sub out in the cold a bit and the fronts still doing a lot of the low frequency hitting.
Having said that though without knowing the full specs of your sub and speakers that's only a guess from me anyway.

Thing is though ultimately all the technical jargon can be thrown out the window when the most important factor is that YOU like the sound.

Glad you've got it sounding better either way. 👍
 
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