What, Lex reverting back to his roots?

[Lex]

No, not the Alex Haley kind of Roots, but rather my 2 channel roots.

I am considering a new short/long term plan consisting of:

1. eliminating Mini-disk, multiplayer CD from rack.

2. Removing 2 channel Proceed and moving it to an amplifier stand right smack dab in front of my TV.

3. Adding a tube or hybrid tube based music only pre-pro, also positioned right in front of RPTV. (low).

4. For now, source S7000 CD source would stay in the rack and be connected to the 2 channel pre-pro with a Twisted Kitty or Albino Twist Digital Interconnect.

5. Lexicon would be connected via a pair of 3 meter Silvercats.

6. New 2 channel pre-pro would be connected to the Proceed HPA-2 via either balanced Silvercat, hybrid RCA to balanced if no balanced on the 2 channel pre-pro.

7. Considering building a Stryke HE15, still powered by the Parasound 1500A. Shivas are out.

Sonus fabers remain, as does the Lexicon MC-1. That's right, no MC-12 in my future. Simply, I am reverting back to my roots. It seems my love for Jazz, has renewed my interest in stereo playback.

Due to many considerations, I cannot pursue this all at once, even as modest as it sounds. (yeah right) But as a 2 channel advocate from way back when, I wanted to let you guys know what I am up to!

This plan gets my overflowing rack back into the rack, and well, into the floor on an amp rack. Movies remain an important part of my system, but 2 channel powers its way in, and takes control of the music side. Of course, the 7 speaker Sonus faber collection can still sing in 5.1. EX Discrete, and ES Super 12.1 ++ AV quad supreme, will be well, next door at a neighbors house. In other words, DPL II, DTS ES Discrete, beyond the standard 5.1 DD and DTS mixes, this just doesn't mean that much to me at present.

Lex




Cable Guy DVD Collection

[John Holmes]

Sounds like you are about to have some fun!

Oneday when my oldest two children are on their own, I'll work on a dedicated 2ch set-up. That and that Corvette!

Seems you are off to a great start.




"I came here, to chew bubble gum and kickass. And I'm all out of bubble gum!!!" My DVD's

[GregoriusM]

If you're really going to get "audiophile-ish" for 2 channel, you need a separate room. Proper size.

Speakers one third out from front wall. Sweet spot one third out from back wall. Nice open air all around the speakers. No big TV between.

Room to play with exact speaker positioning, including sub - if equipped.

That's when you get really into 2-channel.

[Andrew Pratt]

gregg thats why I was trying to convice doug to give up the RPTV and go FP...get rid of the bix box b/t the speakers.

[ThomasW]

You're too young to grow roots




theAudioWorx
Klone-Audio

[JonMarsh]

I'm "rooting" for GregoriusM's approach, also. However, I don't think we're off the hook for those considerations just becuase we're doing HT in a room. What is so often missed in HT setups I've heard is proper speaker positioning and room acoustics. There's just no point at all spending kilobucks on speakers if you're going to put them up on the wall, set a big TV between them, and in general plan the room around every thing but the acoustics. (I can really get to be a pain in the a$$ once I get on a roll, huh?)

The simplest eye openers I can suggest are the following. One is virtually free, the other requires a PC and a modest (under $100) software investment).

First, the "expensive" one. Get a copy of RPG Room Acoustics Software. It's available from a variety of places, including Audio Advisor. $99, and worth 5-10 times that. It allows you to simulate your room and speaker setup, use an optimization search function, and seek out the best speaker and listener positions for your room, within designated boundaries or search areas. Comples systems with multiple low freuqency sources can be modelled, including subwoofers, speakers with more than 1 driver output between 20Hz and 300 Hz, 5.1 surround, etc. For a multichannel system, fronts and rears should be optimized seperately.

For those of you with more time than money on your hands, try this.

1. Using some masking tape or other easily removed tape, mark the position of your favorite listening chair.

2. Move the chair out of the way, probably into another room.

3. Move one of your mains to where your chair was, and point it back towards where your speakers usually are.

4. If you have mono capability with your preamp, use it, otherwise, use a y adapter to sum the output of a stereo source such as your CD player.

5. Play a mono signal through the speaker at your former seating position. Walk around the room and listen to it from a variety of positions. Walk outside the room and listen to it from an adjacent room. Then walk back into the listenting room, and listen to it from where your speaker was originally positioned. Note the differences in sound. Which sounds the most like listening from the other room? Which sounds smoothest and flattest? Try moving around the area where your speakers were, and out from the wall up to 0.447 X the width of the room, and a little less than 1/3 out from the wall. What does it sound like there?

If the latter experiment has gotten you thinking, go check out some of the topics at this place:

http://www.cardas.com/insights/index.html

Try those ideas out. Then, go back to my first suggestion, and try that out if you didn't yet. It's well worth the money, compared with everything else we spend on our systems.

Regards,

Jon




Earth First!
_______________________________
We'll screw up the other planets later....

[John Holmes]

Jon is dead on. While I did not use the PC, I did place my speakers (mains and rears) as well as my listening postion at the thirds in my room.

The result was incredible. Though I x-over at 80hz, the soundstage now has true depth, and imaging is to die for.




"I came here, to chew bubble gum and kickass. And I'm all out of bubble gum!!!" My DVD's

[pf]

Very interesting approach indeed Jon. Too bad my room is so cramped I don't think there's room for anything to be moved and that's why I am planning on opening up an upstair room for an addtional music system. May be by then I can try it out.

Doug, welcome back to your roots. I also have my two channel preamp on the top shelf of a low boy rack with the Brystons on the bottom shelf and the whole rack sitting smack in front of my RPTV. Ever wonder why I need those 10 footers? They are to connect things from those on a tall rack (CD, TT, DAC, pre/pro, etc) along the side wall to the low boy's components. Talking about horrible acoustics & soundfield depth.

Any chance you may eventually go vinyl?

PF

[MichaelW]

Just thought I would stop in and say hello to all.

Lex,

I think you won't regret adding a dedicated 2 channel tube preamp for music duites. Sounds like a very good start.

[Lex]

John, thanks. Many of the pieces are here already, and with my cable making capabilities, well, let's just say cabling is handled. So it really comes down to two purchased items. 2 channel pre-pro, and a stand for the amp and processor.

Greg and Andrew, the bad thing is, I really don't have that option available at this time. Additionally, that creates a void in both amplifiers and speakers, of which I already have almost 8K worth at my beckon call in the great room. I just can't bypass that. Of course, I do have Concertos as well for sides, so if I went back to straight 5.1 I could sacrifice the Concertos for 2 channel. or the GPs and move the concertos to the front of the HT. The amp, I could put the Parasound to work in the HT and pull my Proceed. So, if I was really committed to it, I could do it, if I had the room for it. But as a multi-tasking individual who only get's a bit of time each day to really focus on my music as I am listening to it, well, it just doesn't make sense to isolate it from my computer, which is where I spend and abundance of time, obviously!

Andrew, FP is out due to cost at present, and my room doesn't set up very well for it.

As far as 1/3ds, I think except for the RPTV, my room is almost there.

Jon, your well, exausting as usual, lol. You wear me out with your knowledge base. Well, you would wear me out if I started all that moving. But the sad fact is, I do so much with this room that's 18 X 20 with not 1 but 3 open doorways, a wall of window, a bedroom door, and a firplace and cubby hole all representing obsticles to room layout modifications. (not to mention a full day for moving. Originally, I set this room up for the TV in a corner. Sofa was out in the middle of the room facing the corner. But my theater grew to the point, well, the corner just didn't make sense anymore, nore did my speaker alignment.

But the fact is, short of moving, there's not a lot I can do. If I get rid of a bunch of jumk, I could convert my spare bedroom to a listening room, but then, being off isolated only doing one thing, just isn't my thing so much. Just to busy with first this, then that...

Po-ming, yes, now your need does make perfect sense. As to vinyl? Ha! Well, I suppose anything is possible. I do have a some LPs, but none are my current music style so much, mostly old rock. Now jazz is my thing.

Michael, good to see you chime in for a change.
Lex




Cable Guy DVD Collection

[pf]

Doug:

When there's a will there's a way. You can always do what I do that is put the computer stuff on wheels - I mean a desk with casters, and no I don't wheel them around the house. BTW there is always something call laptop.

Which preamp do you have in mind?

PF

[Lex]

Po-ming, I haven't a clue. I suppose if I found a great used value, I might consider that. But the sad fact is, I won't be considering anything for a while, as I have all I can say grace over with my major cable purchase and prior commitments. Heck, more than that even really. Bottom line, I need to do some selling man, not buying, lol.

As to the laptop, I can't do that anymore, it just can't keep up, plus my cable modem is a monster of a thing to connect and disconnect, since it's a hybrid modem that uses half phone line and half cable modem. I have an old laptop, but as I said, for development, it's just to old and to slow. My computing setup is anything but portable too, lol.

Thanks for the ideas though

Lex