System Pics 2015

I recall active ATCs in Spacey's lounge a while back.......

Cheers Guys, :-)

There was indeed active ATC's, I've kinda been around the houses of late. Had SCM50, SCM25As, Meridian DSP6000s and various high-end dacs. Became bored of kit and developed new hobbies etc so sold everything and laid low for a while.

But now I'm back with a decent and modest system, just need to finish things off with perhaps a better pair of speaker, but for now quite happy with the RX2s until something special take my fancy.

With regards to stands and placement, there's no issues with L/R or soundstage etc and the cabs they sit on are fairly heavily loaded. The room itself is very good acoustically so this maybe helping a fair bit too. I'll see when some new speakers take me in the near future.

With the vinyl, I'm not using any of it as I currently don't have a TT, but this will be the final part of the jigsaw 

The fire and TV work well together, has done for the last 4 years, so no issue there. What isn't apparent from the photo is the depth of the fire/place (about 500mm internally) there's about 100mm behind the cabinets which line up with the front of the fireplace and hides all the cabling; NAS drive/switch and power etc.

Here is hopefully a series of pictures taken last Friday after the arrival of 2 large boxes from somewhere near Leicester.

Boxes arrived.

Unpacking begins

Fraim reconstruction and finally dusting the shelves.

Not easy to place on the glass shelf but a solid foundation.

Slow work swapping 2 medium legs for one tall and one regular.

552 ready to go – nearly there.

Final check of those willful cables.

Powered
up and Houston we have lift off

90 minutes of labour and all good in the end. New 500 joined with his buddy 552 who arrived a few months ago.

Dave

Liking the room Dave, I take it you've just moved house?

dave, congratulations!!! looking fab!

no doubt sounding fab too...

enjoy

ken

Nice Dave...especially the IKEA rug.  It looks just like ours.

Now if only I had the matching kit!

G

Just finished coiling all the NACA5 and testing it...if you look real close you can see my Hugo.

I wondered what happened to the wall of sound after the Dead decided they couldn't afford to transport it around any more. They used McIntosh hifi amps to power it.

Clive

I have moved the big rig out of the living room and have got a beautiful Mu-so. Sounds great in the 4x4m room The rest of the system in front room 20m of Cat-6 cable away.

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spacey,

I'll be sure not to show my wife that comment. We have been in this house for over 2 years! I guess it looks at bit that way with all the packing and Naim boxes. It was certainly tidier about 30 mins later when the Missus got home.

In needing to change the Fraim around, I was amazed how loose the legs were. Strange how just sitting there allows the leg spikes to back off over time.

Dave

ps apologies for posting the same picture twice.

Now the painting is finished, the pictures are up and the final piece of the rack arrived today, I thought I'd post a picture of the whole system. It's coming on song really nicely now, and the new colour scheme is far more relaxing. It's been a hard slog to get it all done, but it's been very worthwhile. And before anyone says 'there's room for an XPS at the bottom', I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I'll be able to get one next year. 

Looks stunning, sure it sounds like too, I can imagine our dearest queen sitting on your blue chair commenting - " oh this is my favourite Smiths song, turn it up"

HH, I'm looking into Quadraspire as well. Sonic improvement over the previous?. Looks like slotted shelving?

I've always found the basic Q4 to be ok, but nothing more, giving an energetic but slightly muddled sound. I've got the larger SVT version, with solid bamboo shelves, and the bronze upgrade to isolate the 272. In terms of whether it's better than Hutter, I'd say probably. The Hutter just didn't go with the new colours, or with the maple speakers. But the bamboo, which is completely different, looks very nice with the maple. And the black columns go with the grilles and stands of the speakers. I've seen pictures where the bronze spikes are added to the columns themselves, which looks clumsy to me, whereas if they are sitting on a shelf they look better. You need to order special long tops to go through the shelf, which is what I've been waiting for. 

My 2nd system in the living room.. just added Dynaudio DM2/6 for the Qute...

Snap!  I'm pondering an XPS.  When I bought the NDX and DAC in Jan 14 I was crticised by some but I've loved the sound and am now looking at the next step.  As I'm unlikely to buy two XPSs, I shall have to decide which of the existing boxes to power ...

... and I'm thinking I might move the old CD5x to the bottom shelf rather than lose it (and the FC2X) completely.  Not very satisfactory but needs must and I do use the CD player once or so each month ...

These ESLs:

The Leak Trough Line 3, DAC V1, NAP 100 and MAC Mini:

And my own version of a VHF aerial, precisely tuned to BBC Radio Three.

Not the most spectacular looking replay, but not bad!

Good enough for me for the duration!

ATB from George

Love the simplicity, and the old+new concept!

Fred

Very nice, Nigel.  Very nice indeed.  The SVT is the icing on the cake.

Mike

Oh, okay then...

The best that I can manage with a smart phone Minh.  Hope it is okay.

A note of thanks to several members who kindly suggested tweaks to improve the system set up.

With a fair degree of trepidation and fear over moving Burndys, we now have a more conventional set up of Brain (left) and Brawn (right).

Raising the CDS3 and the 135s by a shelf has lifted several interconnects off the carpet.  The new set up has also moved the sensitive electronics further away from all the transformers & mains leads.

After a somewhat bumpy run-in period, music is calmer, clearer and images even better - classic signs of what happens when the noise floor is lowered further.

Vertere, Naim and ART.  A combination that I could live with for a very long time...

Best regards, FT

Great looking setup FT!  Olive has some great qualities not heard in the black boxes, and that is a sexy TT and speaker combo to go with it!

The room looks very nice Nigel - the new colour scheme really works. Loving the Poole pottery too

It's good to hear your new rack is playing playing it's part. If you doubt the upgrade of the spikes, try removing the top shelf for a few minutes.

Mike, when are we going to read about your bamboo shelves, or did I miss your review?

Keith

No, Keith. You haven't missed anything.  My two bamboo SVT shelves must be due any day now. However I recently sent my SuperCap off to Salisbury for a service and DR upgrade and I want to get that back and nicely settled into my system before installing the bamboo shelves so I can fully appreciate what they bring to the party.   I'm currently using a loaned Flatcap in place of my SC. And while the Flatcap has impressed me with the quality of its performance I don't want that to cloud the  picture.

Mike

To which - in the interest of simplicity and even finer musical communication - can be added this reduced speaker array!

The KISS mantra at work - keep it simple!

ATB from George