Sistem pics 2003

Going to attempt to post a picture of my sistem. Could go badly wrong but hear goes (if this does work my mantlepiece doesn't realy bow in the middle, i have been playing with the panorama option on my camera).

Thomas - I think your room and system looks excellent - clean lines, contemporary, uncluttered. Well done.

Tom,

You're brighter than me. How did you do that??

Here's another

And one more for the cartridge fans

Now I'm getting carried away.

Electronics

Vienna Acoustic Hayden

Zoom from listening chair

Richard,

I'm just trying to guess what some of those boxes are.

CDX - that's obvious.

The preamp in isolation could be a 282 or a 252, in which case, is the box under the CDX a Supercap or an XPS? I guess it could be a 250 or 180 because there is a Hi-cap - which would be redundant if that big Olive box were a Supercap, or is that Olive half-width a 140?

One of the boxes must be a new Hi-cap.

I'll hazard a a guess:

CDX

250 or 180

282

Two Hi-caps, one old, and one new feeding the 282 with a Napsc between.

A Pioneer tuner.

Some Arcam boxes beneath - probably DVD player and processor.

Those Naim boxes are very expensive and thus they should be placed in a different order on the rack in order to optimise their performance for the expenditure if you don't mind me saying so.

Stack the Pioneer and Arcam boxes on the floor (I know it'll look messy but your system will go up in performance stakes to the equivalent of about 4k GBP in expenditure if you do, imho.)

Place the preamp on the top shelf.

Leave a gap, with the CDX underneath. (I know that you can adjust the spacing between shelves with your Ash Designs rack.)

Then leave an even bigger gap, and place your two Hi-caps on the next shelf with a space between them, and the power amp on the shelf immediately underneath.

Now you've got your Brain components (CDX, pre) separated from your Brawn ones (Hi-caps and power amp) so that they don't interact.

And place that NAPSC on the floor as far away from the rack as its leads will allow.

It sounds radical I know, but just try it and hear the difference. If you want to reassemble the system as it is above afterwards, then fair enough, but I doubt you will...

Cable dressing will be trivial in comparison.



Regards,

Steve.

Post script

Richard,

I've just read your 282 thread and it answers my questions.

My above advice costs nothing (and is only worth about 2 new pence. )

You think your 282 sounds great now! Just experiment at least with what I suggest and I'm certain in the knowledge that you'll be grinning from ear to ear... until you possibly have to put it all back together again as shown by your above pic.

The Ash Designs rack is rather good - someone I know in Paris uses one, and he got his system to sound more than a little bit better by repositioning things upon it after a few throwaway comments/suggestions I made before retiring to bed when I stayed at his place.

The next morning, he'd already experimented as a result of my pre-sleep mumblings before I'd even awaken... to my suprise actually.

I was happy simply because he was happy.



Regards,

Steve.

Steve

I see the logic of your stacking. It's the way I have mine sort of:

GEOFFP

Now the important bits without the Home Theatre

Damn refused the file too big. here we go again

The "older stuff" (relative)

The new toys. I am a happy man.

NOW which order should they go in if I add an XPS2?

Geoff,

Move your pre and CDX2 up one shelf.



Regards,

Steve.

Geoff,

I once had a rack by Optimum that was a dead ringer for yours (pun intended, but never mind...)

When I had it I found that the preamp sounded a lot clearer, freer, more open and fluid on the very top shelf that you're not currently using.

If you move the CDX2 up to where the pre once sat, you leave a nice gap above the brawn box beneath.

The top shelf is the best one, so use it even if you have to occasionally dust the preamp sat upon it.

If I'm wrong, just restore the setup as in the pic above - it'll cost you nothing.

Chances are you'll get a free upgrade.



Regards,

Steve.

Look at you, Toy, you're a regular rack n' relationship rescuing superhero! You deserve some sort of Naim Forum Good Samaritan badge. Where's Richard...?

Geoff, nice setup, but does your neck hurt from staring up at the screen? How high is it?

Forgot these: , .

"Where's Richard...?"

Perhaps he's reordering the equipment on his rack and enjoying the results.

Heck, if he doesn't/isn't, then my own kit aint going to sound any better so why should I give a...?



Regards,

Steve.

Jeff A,

You've certainly taken the term 'book shelf speaker' very literally.

Alex

Here one of my latest sistem-pics:
(hope I'm not getting banned from the forum, now that there are 2 Naim boxes less on my Quadraspire support )



regards,
Alco

More pic's can be found here

All I am going to say is it looks very cute.

And the lower shelf is crying out for a s/h XPS.

Herman

Mr Toy - You seem to be the self appointed expert on placing of components in racks, and I for one would really welcome your comments on my arrangement. Having been fiddling with my speaker supports, I am becoming increasingly convinced that this sort of attention to detail can make huge improvements on the scale of expensive upgrades.
You can find my system on page 35. CD3.5, 32.5, empty shelf, Flatcap, HiCap, 135, 135. Rack is 7 shelf AudioTech.