System Pics 2018

That is a nice conservatory, Tricky! I still dream of such an extention to my house. And, the Bose loudspeakers are also used in the way they should I think.

trickydickie posted:

Ardbeg10y posted:

Tricky, used outdoor?

No, in a conservatory which we have just had replaced (like for like).

It's an old Bose Lifestyle system and I changed to the little jewel cube speakers from the slightly larger ones as the grills had faded badly.  The jewel ones have painted metal grills so won't suffer from this.

I feed it with a Yamaha MusicCast Smart Sound Adapter which is a bit like a Sonos connect but cheaper.  The Bose has a few line out options which feed a couple of Muso QB's in our kitchen and office which are adjacent to the conservatory which gives a simple multiroom arrangement at the back of the house.

There is a sub woofer behind the sofa against the house wall so all you see are the little jewel speakers and a remote control which is RF so doesn't need any line of sight.

Whilst not high end it does sound rather pleasant and stretching out on the lovely new sofa with a kindle looking out onto the garden is a very pleasant experience with some background music.  Whilst fully glazed the room no longer overheats as the glass is high performing, keeping the room relatively cool even on hot sunny days.

It would be a difficult room to put a decent system into and what I have does fill the room nicely with some tunes!

 

A lovely conservatory. It's a bit of a challenge keeping a stereo system in one due to the inevitable swings in temperature. Ours gets bloody hot in the summer, even with the heat-reflecting glass and blinds. I now use a Muso in ours, which so far has withstood the rigours for maybe a couple of years. I do tend to move it out when there's a real heatwave on though.

tonym posted:

Sorry folks, as most of you spotted it's just a bit of Photoshopping jiggery-pokery.

Yes, I very much doubt that you'd have left the 'new' two Fraims vertically misaligned with the last three, as they appear to be in the photo. Good job, anyway. This opens up a whole new panorama of photoshopped pictures just to show off mega-systems. Luckily, safe for a few sane people, many here are too megalomaniac not to post real mega-systems pics.

tonym posted:

A lovely conservatory. It's a bit of a challenge keeping a stereo system in one due to the inevitable swings in temperature. Ours gets bloody hot in the summer, even with the heat-reflecting glass and blinds. I now use a Muso in ours, which so far has withstood the rigours for maybe a couple of years. I do tend to move it out when there's a real heatwave on though.

We've only had the new one since March, the old one would warm up rapidly and be unbearable in hot weather, it would regularly get to over 50c!  

On the weekend we managed to keep ours cooler than outside, and that was without opening all the windows.

We have 2 roof vents that are electrically operated and open automatically when it gets too warm and close when it rains.  This helps enormously with keeping the room cool.

When we are not sitting in the conservatory the tunes sound somewhat better!

trickydickie posted:

When we are not sitting in the conservatory the tunes sound somewhat better!

A very nice and neat setup Richard.

trickydickie posted:

tonym posted:

A lovely conservatory. It's a bit of a challenge keeping a stereo system in one due to the inevitable swings in temperature. Ours gets bloody hot in the summer, even with the heat-reflecting glass and blinds. I now use a Muso in ours, which so far has withstood the rigours for maybe a couple of years. I do tend to move it out when there's a real heatwave on though.

We've only had the new one since March, the old one would warm up rapidly and be unbearable in hot weather, it would regularly get to over 50c!  

On the weekend we managed to keep ours cooler than outside, and that was without opening all the windows.

We have 2 roof vents that are electrically operated and open automatically when it gets too warm and close when it rains.  This helps enormously with keeping the room cool.

Roof vents would have been a good idea in ours. We've side-opening vents, but if they're open we tend to get inundated with bees and other buzzy insects which are almost impossible to catch. A roof vent would allow the beasties to escape up there.

Richard Dane posted:

ahem...  anybody have a picture of a hifi system that they would like to post on this thread?

A minimal contribution to the reprise of the proper topic (not exactly HiFi..).

In our renovated kitchen:

I substituted a used (but unused) Squeezebox Touch for the dead Pinnacle Soundbridge:

for Internet Radio while having breakfast (or meals).

While I'm at it, let me introduce to you Rosi und Resi, the two portrayed cows I bought in an Austrian B&B a couple of years ago. The artist (Walter) is the owner's brother. I paid €40 for them and they never ceased to cheer me up ever since.

Richard, if you think that this is Children's Corner stuff, move it, but it contains no tips or hints or small great ideas. Just breakfast music and two splendid Austrian cows.

tonym posted:

trickydickie posted:

Ardbeg10y posted:

Tricky, used outdoor?

No, in a conservatory which we have just had replaced (like for like).

It's an old Bose Lifestyle system and I changed to the little jewel cube speakers from the slightly larger ones as the grills had faded badly.  The jewel ones have painted metal grills so won't suffer from this.

I feed it with a Yamaha MusicCast Smart Sound Adapter which is a bit like a Sonos connect but cheaper.  The Bose has a few line out options which feed a couple of Muso QB's in our kitchen and office which are adjacent to the conservatory which gives a simple multiroom arrangement at the back of the house.

There is a sub woofer behind the sofa against the house wall so all you see are the little jewel speakers and a remote control which is RF so doesn't need any line of sight.

Whilst not high end it does sound rather pleasant and stretching out on the lovely new sofa with a kindle looking out onto the garden is a very pleasant experience with some background music.  Whilst fully glazed the room no longer overheats as the glass is high performing, keeping the room relatively cool even on hot sunny days.

It would be a difficult room to put a decent system into and what I have does fill the room nicely with some tunes!

 

A lovely conservatory. It's a bit of a challenge keeping a stereo system in one due to the inevitable swings in temperature. Ours gets bloody hot in the summer, even with the heat-reflecting glass and blinds. I now use a Muso in ours, which so far has withstood the rigours for maybe a couple of years. I do tend to move it out when there's a real heatwave on though.

Bet an active 500 or statement setup could be crammed in there

trickydickie posted:

Great-looking Xerxes Tricky - is it original spec, and how do they sound these days? Classic design, visually lasted better than many.

Salmon Dave posted:

Great-looking Xerxes Tricky - is it original spec, and how do they sound these days? Classic design, visually lasted better than many.

Thanks for the complement.

It's quite an early model from 1985 but it was upgraded to the better bearing and platter.  The platter is much more shiny than the original which was a dull aluminium colour.

It's got a Rega arm and a Corus Black which I changed to from an AT-OC9 which I found a bit bright.

It still sounds excellent but it does need a bit of TLC as the belt falls off sometimes when starting up.  I really must see to it.

A few years ago we fitted a shim kit to it as there was a little plinth sag.  I say we as my (long since retired) dealer helped with this as he is a personal friend.  I did feel rather guilty as we had a makeshift table and he was on his back on the floor adjusting it!  He's in his 80's but very capable having been taught the skills of Xerxes setup by Touraj.  

It's in remarkably good condition, I've owned it since new.  Here's a closer picture.

Love the Rosksy Tricky. I recently moved my 1988 one on. Good looking system, room and conservatory.

Stu

Franz K posted:

Gavin L posted:

...

Hi Gavin,

Thank you for sharing some pictures of your marvelous active 500DBL system. A few points come to my mind. I am sure you thought to move the PSUS to the right hand stack and the 500s to the left? But I also see your wall ourtlet is far on the left so it may not be possible due power cable length. As source you have the CD555 and a Nat02? Is there another source as you show three intputs in your pre? What is the smal box on top of the left stack, is this a headphone amp?  You have 6 SL XLRs..WOOOW!  What I probably would try is to free the SNAXO and the Pre on the right stack from the 555 head above, not only because this stack is really really heavy.  Maybe an intermediate fraim might be advantageous to separate the Pre and the Snaxo from the boxes below.  

I am actually surpised to find that displaying 500 active DBL systems creates some "heat" here on the forum , but am quite happy to see more of these fabulous "old school" top naim systems.

Enjoy your system I know how sublime this sounds, also congrats to your third 500!

Cheers, F

Not wanting to re-open the last thread entirely (sorry folks )

But Franz,  I tried to implement your suggestion of freeing the SNAXO, by siting it at the top of the “brain” stack and moving the CD555 to the top to the power supply stack.  Unfortunately the SL XLR leads are too short!  The SNAXO can sit above the 3x500, or the shelf above that, but not two shelves above.

In any case, I have kept the CD555 on top of the power and will give that a try.  Results will be posted in a new thread.

Sorry again!

Gavin 

Gavin L posted:

Franz K posted:

Gavin L posted:

...

Hi Gavin,

Thank you for sharing some pictures of your marvelous active 500DBL system. A few points come to my mind. I am sure you thought to move the PSUS to the right hand stack and the 500s to the left? But I also see your wall ourtlet is far on the left so it may not be possible due power cable length. As source you have the CD555 and a Nat02? Is there another source as you show three intputs in your pre? What is the smal box on top of the left stack, is this a headphone amp?  You have 6 SL XLRs..WOOOW!  What I probably would try is to free the SNAXO and the Pre on the right stack from the 555 head above, not only because this stack is really really heavy.  Maybe an intermediate fraim might be advantageous to separate the Pre and the Snaxo from the boxes below.  

I am actually surpised to find that displaying 500 active DBL systems creates some "heat" here on the forum , but am quite happy to see more of these fabulous "old school" top naim systems.

Enjoy your system I know how sublime this sounds, also congrats to your third 500!

Cheers, F

Not wanting to re-open the last thread entirely (sorry folks )

But Franz,  I tried to implement your suggestion of freeing the SNAXO, by siting it at the top of the “brain” stack and moving the CD555 to the top to the power supply stack.  Unfortunately the SL XLR leads are too short!  The SNAXO can sit above the 3x500, or the shelf above that, but not two shelves above.

In any case, I have kept the CD555 on top of the power and will give that a try.  Results will be posted in a new thread.

Sorry again!

Gavin 

The very short standard Naim DIN - XLR cables are a real curse if you've got the rear heatsinks of multiple 500s to get around, aren't they Gavin? It's a real problem because in most domestically acceptable rack arrangements they prevent good siting of the very sensitive SNAXO. I'm convinced the considerable improvement I got from my longer DIY cabling was partly down to being able to put the little devil in a much more advantageous position.

Gavin

Do you have one fraim with high legs?  You could use that above the top 500 for the snaxo and separate it that way a little further from the amps. The xlrs should be just long enough for such an arrangement .

Franz 

Moderated Post:  Franz, very kind, but please respect forum rules, thanks.

trickydickie posted:

When we are not sitting in the conservatory the tunes sound somewhat better!

Tch! Nowhere NEAR enough boxes!! ????

Playing a few tunes to warm up the new addition to my system a 250DR I thought I would take a quick picture 

HiFiman posted:

Playing a few tunes to warm up the new addition to my system a 250DR I thought I would take a quick picture 

???? HiFiman,....Lovely,clean and beautiful. ????????

If I get to be so brazen,and give a advice (that's probably why we have a Forum????),....see that you have Linn Skeet under your Fraim rack.

Replace these,and buy 3 Naim Frame Chips instead....it plays better.

/Peder ????

HiFiman posted:

Playing a few tunes to warm up the new addition to my system a 250DR I thought I would take a quick picture 

It will sound lovely, chips or no chips.

Classic system !

G

I should have dusted a bit better, anyway thanks for the kind comments guys early hours yet (only switched on 2hr ago) but the 250dr has widened the sound stage compared to the old 250 and an extra layer of detail on tracks I'm familiar with.

The 250dr shouldn't take too long to come on song though as its not new and from late 2015 but it's mint.

Happy days.

One other thing when I opened the 250dr box to my surprise PowerLine Lite presented itself, is this the norm now?

Not complaining 

HiFiman posted:

One other thing when I opened the 250dr box to my surprise PowerLine Lite presented itself, is this the norm now?

Not complaining 

Yep, PLLs are now standard with Unitis, Classics and the integrated separates.

Eoink posted:

HiFiman posted:

One other thing when I opened the 250dr box to my surprise PowerLine Lite presented itself, is this the norm now?

Not complaining 

Yep, PLLs are now standard with Unitis, Classics and the integrated separates.

Thanks for confirming, I didn't receive a PL Lite with my 272 just the traditional IEC

To rejuvenate System Pics I thought I’d post a picture taken with my new camera - you can take pictures and transfer them over wireless to the iPhone. And then to Imgur. A modern miracle. 

Looking good as always HH great system, also nice mood lighting