System Pics 2016

MDFdude posted:

joerand posted:

MDFdude posted:

joerand posted:

MDFdude posted:

All coming together nicely. It seems the Statement do undergo high changes with further break-in. No more headaches (see old thread) even with the power factor correction devices in place. The V2 update of the Vivaldi DAC was a revelation. Pretty happy camper at the moment.

I'm always intrigued to see these top-end systems set up at home as well as at trade shows with the gear situated between the speakers. Not the optimal gear placement in my experience with lower end gear. I suspect the cabling cost comes into play and maybe the speakers are far enough forward to reduce sonic impacts to the gear?

For the longest time, I only had 1 row of racks with components stacked much higher. In this configuration, I have lowered the components to leave the front wall more exposed but needed 2 rows of racks to accommodate everything. With this, I plan to put up more diffusers at the front wall. I seem to prefer diffusion over absorption for some reason.

MDFdude,

Obviously I can't speak to your room sonics or how or with whom you are approaching your acoustic room treatments, but I see from the photo you have several absorptive panels behind your speakers. Also looks like your speakers are bottom ported. Diffusion panels seem typically useful on rear walls while corner bass traps are often functional on the front wall. There is a link here that graphically describes the radiation of various frequencies from loudspeakers; bass more omnidirectional while higher frequencies are increasingly directed more towards the listener and likely to be reflected off of side and rear walls. It is an empirical approach to room treatment, but one I've found useful. If you happen to peruse the link, I'd be interested to hear what you think of the utility of that information and your experience using acoustic panels.

Yes, when i started out, I had huge corner realtrap bass traps at all 4 corners of the room & absorption panels in built in fibreglass batting all over the room. I had the local dealer import direct from the states. I suffered from lack of bass for years. A couple of years ago, I tore out all the fireglass & when mostly bare walled. Right now, I have realtraps diffusion panel lining the rear wall. Diffusion panels at the side walls for the first & second reflection points. The rest you can see the picture. Oh and the big basstraps still at the rear walls. Ancient mini bass traps at the corners of the front wall.

 

This still not perfect yet. I am getting a boom at probably around 60-80 hz. Perhaps I will put in bigger traps at the front wall. In the meantime, a whole bunch of Vicoutic diffusers are arriving by bus as I type this.

I will mount them at the front wall for a combination of diffusion & absorption.

 Your comment on the bottom porting of my ProAcs is useful information. Thanks.

You could always get a home dem of a nice streamer that will deal with room nodes for you...

MDFdude posted:

All coming together nicely. It seems the Statement do undergo high changes with further break-in. No more headaches (see old thread) even with the power factor correction devices in place. The V2 update of the Vivaldi DAC was a revelation. Pretty happy camper at the moment.

My compliments nice system, it almost looks like a demo room during a hifi show...

Bert Schurink posted:

MDFdude posted:

All coming together nicely. 

My compliments nice system, it almost looks like a demo room during a hifi show...

Recently had the opportunity to listen to David Wilson's new kid on the Block, the $109K Alex.

Seminar A displayed Alex, whilst Seminar B showed off the $15K Sabrina.

 Neither Room could compete, with this display!

Allante93!

MDFdude posted:

Got off my lazy bum to shoot a better quality photo of the setup :

Nice bomb shelter, just curious, do you prefer the Hummer or the Ferrari?

Nice, enjoy the fruits of your labour!

Allante93!

Hungryhalibut posted:

Bert Schurink posted:

MDFdude posted:

All coming together nicely. It seems the Statement do undergo high changes with further break-in. No more headaches (see old thread) even with the power factor correction devices in place. The V2 update of the Vivaldi DAC was a revelation. Pretty happy camper at the moment.

My compliments nice system, it almost looks like a demo room during a hifi show...

It does indeed, but it's not something I could live with. It's almost like looking at a pile of money. Two nice speakers in front of you, with everything else off to the side out of the line of sight, would be entirely different. Each to their own of course, but to me, this sort of system and layout are somehow obscene. If people can afford it I have no problem whatsoever, but whatever happened to understatement and discretion? Of course, MDF Dude is not UK based, and the culture may be different there. 

Everyone is entitled to his or her opinion and often those opinions are useful to others on here. There are occasions however when I believe it is worth keeping the odd opinion to oneself. You know, discretion and all that.

Allante93 posted:

MDFdude posted:

Got off my lazy bum to shoot a better quality photo of the setup :

Nice bomb shelter, just curious, do you prefer the Hummer or the Ferrari?

Nice, enjoy the fruits of your labour!

Allante93!

Unfortunately where I am, all of these would buy me neither . In any case, I get better mileage out of them . If I am home, I listen at least 2 hours a day to relieve stress from work.

For now, I am getting enjoyment out of both amps. Mind you, all these new found contentment are only a few days old with on set of a singular event - updating the firmware of the DCS Vivaldi to V2. Suddenly many things clicked into place & after some swapping some bits here & there, the result is what is shown in the picture. Pretty contented until I become not contented again.

Making measurement to mount the diffusers.

Took me 2 hours to mount them. However, the vertical patterns made me giddy after a while. So, ended up like this. More listening to gauge their effect later.

Nothing much changed to my humble system. Only recently added a s/h Sonos Connect, for Spotify duties.

Alco posted:

Nothing much changed to my humble system. Only recently added a s/h Sonos Connect, for Spotify duties.

Hi,

What a lovely room! Are you not able to have Spotify thru UQ?

"What a lovely room! Are you not able to have Spotify thru UQ?"

Thank you, Artferg20.  Unfortunately not. It's a UQ1. (works and sounds fine this way though.

Alco posted:

Nothing much changed to my humble system. Only recently added a s/h Sonos Connect, for Spotify duties.

I've still got an old pair of Partington Dreadnaught stands in my loft that I used to use with Heybrook HB2s. They've clearly come on it bit in the intervening years and now really look the business. Lovely.   

Alco, a lovey modest system in as running room

Are those wall shelves original 1960's Dutch Tomado units? They look very similar. I'm a fan of them and have several sets of the multi coloured units!

Alco posted:

Nothing much changed to my humble system. Only recently added a s/h Sonos Connect, for Spotify duties.

If I may say that room and system look absolutely right - if you know what I mean. Very nice.

(I can't seem to get the quote-thing working, so excuse me for doing it this way)

"Alco, a lovey modest system in as running room

Are those wall shelves original 1960's Dutch Tomado units? They look very similar. I'm a fan of them and have several sets of the multi coloured units!"

Thank you Yetizone.  They are indeed Dutch Tomado shelf units, but I bought them new, a few months ago.
(at a local interior store. € 25-,- for a 3 shelves unit. They were sold out pretty quickly. I got the last one)

"If I may say that room and system look absolutely right - if you know what I mean. Very nice."

Thank you for your kind words Nigel.

MDFdude posted:

Yes, when i started out, I had huge corner realtrap bass traps at all 4 corners of the room & absorption panels in built in fibreglass batting all over the room. I had the local dealer import direct from the states. I suffered from lack of bass for years. A couple of years ago, I tore out all the fireglass & when mostly bare walled. Right now, I have realtraps diffusion panel lining the rear wall. Diffusion panels at the side walls for the first & second reflection points. The rest you can see the picture. Oh and the big basstraps still at the rear walls. Ancient mini bass traps at the corners of the front wall.

This still not perfect yet. I am getting a boom at probably around 60-80 hz. Perhaps I will put in bigger traps at the front wall. In the meantime, a whole bunch of Vicoutic diffusers are arriving by bus as I type this.

I will mount them at the front wall for a combination of diffusion & absorption.

 Your comment on the bottom porting of my ProAcs is useful information. Thanks.

MDFdude, thanks for the reply. Sounds as if you're on top of things. I have some Vicoustic Wavewoods in my room. Nice panels though I haven't committed to a permanent position for them yet. I also have a 4-ft tall corner bass trap on the rear wall - cheap stackable foam but it's been a big improvement. I recently experimented with some temporary ceiling absorption between the speakers and listening position - 3-ft deep and as wide as the distance between the speakers. Positive results there as well. Now to build some permanent panels and get them mounted on the ceiling .

The thing that's nice with incremental, experimental panel additions is that the other points of attention become more apparent as the room gets "cleaned up". Best wishes on your venture and I'd be interested to hear anything more you find regarding panel placement.

New for 2016: an LP12/Aro/Armageddon/Kore with (for now) a Rega Exact cartridge. I also added a Dyna P75 phono stage for my Rega P5/DV 10x5, which is serving commendably on 45rpm duty.

Joe - nice set up! Nice view from the window

One quesiton: why do you keep books on your NAIM components?

Another vote for the view Joe. Fab. Where are you?

I see that your LP12 is on a massy support. I think I can see a standard baseboard and feet. The Trampolin 2 base would give you a great performance boost at sensible money. 

Apologies if your LP12 does have a Tramp 2.

Good listening. 

John. 

Thanks, Adam and John! I'm on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, NYC. You can see the Williamsburg Bridge in the second photo. It links the LES and Williamsburg -- the hipster highway!

Adam: I put the books there purely for the looks! They also help disguise all the cables dangling behind the boxes, and haven't seemed to make much difference, sonically.

John: I don't have a Trampolin, but I'll look to get one the next time I take 'er in for a service. The only reason I didn't have one installed from the get-go is that I had intended to use an Ikea Lack table -- but when I set everything up, I felt all the hifi furniture (the green tables you see are the sadly-discontinued Ikea Corras) was dominating the room.

Wow, that's an amazing  view indeed Joe. I also like the 2 Ikea Corras cabinet's as a system support.

Their neutral, no-nonsense looks and almost cubic dimensions make them ideal for supporting a (Naim) system.
(the fact that they were cheap as chips was another bonus!) Too bad Ikea don't make 'em anymore.

Joe

Try putting some glass shelves under the NAIM's and setting those on VibraPods. Have a look at one of the pics in my profile to see what I mean. 

Sometimes a full hifi rack is not an option - like in my library's case. I came up with this solution and whoaaaa! What an improvement. Glass - was made to measure - exact same dimensions as on Fraim and thoughened. 

The whole thing costed me $150.

Adam

Thanks for the kind words, gents. It's pretty tough to get a good shot of both the view outside and the kit inside -- I haven't really succeeded with the photo above, which is quite grainy, I think.

So here's one of just the view, at sunrise:

To quote from a classic sitcom: absolutely fabulous!!!

Thanks Joe. I assumed it was one of the Manhattan bridges. Beautiful and evocative. 

Have you had the Aro for some time or just acquired it? I am a fellow devotee of the wonderfully wobbly tonearm on an LP12.

Enjoy.

John.

Hi John,

The Aro and LP12 are new to me -- I bought the Aro this summer after looking for one for quite a while. I cobbled together some of the pieces to build an LP12, then a couple months ago I had the wonderful folks at Accent on Music add a Kore and cartridge and set it up. I decided to spend the bulk of my remaining budget on the Kore and got the (relatively) less-expensive Exact cartridge. It all sounds great -- much more open and dramatic than my Rega P5, which sounds a bit dark and distant, by comparison. (Though still quite good!)

At some point, I'm going to put BNC connectors on my Dyna phono stage and on the Rega tonearm (the Aro armlead has BNCs) so I can mix and match cartridges between the two tables.

It took a few tries to get the hang of cueing the Aro by hand -- but it quickly became second nature. Funnily enough, I felt that the arm wobbled even more once I had the azimuth set up within an arm-wave of the ideal...

--Joe