Pictures of your B&W Set-up

[gross30]

I am using a Paradigm C3, FOR NOW !! I will replace the center and the rears (Monitor s9i) with the HTM 1 and N802's. Then the Krell 3 channel with a Mac 3x300. It is a work in progress. So far, very happy.

[mjb]

mjb, The apple express has a cool factor going for it, but I really need to pick up a mini toslink to toslink cable. Whatever DAC the express has in it really doesn't do the music justice (any idea what's in there? I haven't been able to find out what it is as of yet). Then again, most of the media I play over it is non-lossless so maybe I expect to much? FWIW I can hear the difference between a 384 kbps encoded mp3 played over the express and the same CD.

Yes, a TosLink cable makes a big difference (I think they use a TI PCM 2705 DAC in there). AAC (Advanced Audio Codec, not Apple Audio Codec) is a big improvement over MP3 at the same rate, but Apple Lossless will be bit perfect over toslink.

[btf1980]

KyaDawn, that room is beautiful. Well done!

[kmcheng]

So basically I don't feel a rush now to buy the HTM2Ds at the moment. No doubt it's a great speaker and would improve the multi-channel soundstage outside of the sweet spot, and I still might get it down the line, but as of right now, I'm not feeling a huge need for it.

KyaDawn,

Fantastic setup!! Many congratulations!!

I have to say though, your living room is as far away as possible from a "typical" Hong Kong condo. I am "disappointed" in the sense that I still haven't seen the 802D (or 803D) being cramped into a real, typical, smallish HK condo.

I too have been living with a phantom center channel (for almost one year now). My listening positions are always very close to the center axle of the sound stage. After spending too much time looking for a component rack to fit a center channel, I came to realize that I probably do not need one. I too "rediscovered" the joy of pure 2-channel stereo audio. Also, the HTM2D, as beautiful as it is, can be quite obtrusive in my living room in terms of aesthetics.

You mentioned using a rug as room treatment. I would highly recommend that you pursue it. I added a big, thick rug in my living room and was surprised at the difference it made. You may also consider getting some form of artwork with lots of textures for your back wall.

I would love to visit your 802D the next time I am in HK. Am I allowed? ;x(

[KyaDawn]

KyaDawn, that room is beautiful. Well done!

Thanks a lot, btf1980! :B

KyaDawn,

Fantastic setup!! Many congratulations!!

I have to say though, your living room is as far away as possible from a "typical" Hong Kong condo. I am "disappointed" in the sense that I still haven't seen the 802D (or 803D) being cramped into a real, typical, smallish HK condo.

I too have been living with a phantom center channel (for almost one year now). My listening positions are always very close to the center axle of the sound stage. After spending too much time looking for a component rack to fit a center channel, I came to realize that I probably do not need one. I too "rediscovered" the joy of pure 2-channel stereo audio. Also, the HTM2D, as beautiful as it is, can be quite obtrusive in my living room in terms of aesthetics.

You mentioned using a rug as room treatment. I would highly recommend that you pursue it. I added a big, thick rug in my living room and was surprised at the difference it made. You may also consider getting some form of artwork with lots of textures for your back wall.

I would love to visit your 802D the next time I am in HK. Am I allowed? ;x(

Thanks a lot for the nice comments, kmcheng!

Yes, I know what you mean about the "typical"-sized Hong Kong condo. Considering the "average" Hong Kong flat is around 400-700 square feet (and usually much smaller than that as the "listed" square footage will also include the building's common public areas divided by the number of units in that building), with living rooms of 50-70 square feet, it would require an act of insanity to place a pair of 802Ds in that space! I'd love to be able to see a photo of such a set-up as well! :B

I'm glad to hear the "phantom center" channel is working well for you too. :T And I know what you mean about the HTM2D not working as well for aesthetics. That's also a reason why I'm holding off buying one right now as even though the HTM2D is a great looking speaker, I quite like the clean lines of my 802Ds with my component rack.

Thanks for the re-affirmation about getting a thick, furry rug as a room treatment. I'm currently looking for a nice one to place between the ottoman and by 802Ds. Out of curiosity, how did your rug affect your system's sound? Did it tame the highs a bit and improve the bass? I'm quite looking forward to seeing how it will change my set-up's sound once I find the right rug!

Thanks again for the nice comments. Yes, definitely PM me the next time you're in Hong Kong and would be glad to invite you over for a listening session! 8)

[kmcheng]

Out of curiosity, how did your rug affect your system's sound? Did it tame the highs a bit and improve the bass? I'm quite looking forward to seeing how it will change my set-up's sound once I find the right rug!

Being a non-professional sound engineer, I find it difficult to describe what the exact differences were. I want to say the room becomes less" reflective", but I am not sure if that word can be applied to sound. Perhaps I can say that there were less echoes after I laid down the rug, but it was not like I had a lot of echoes to begin with.

Maybe a comparison here can help. As a former violin player, I used to practice in rooms with thick carpets and also in rooms with hardwood floor. I preferred to hear myself in the hardwood-floor rooms because I thought I sounded richer. In a thick-carpet room, I felt more exposed and heard many more imperfections from my playing. In theory, the musicians on your CD are professionals and you would want to hear every notes they play rather than hearing their music bombarded with echoes.

A rug is not going to do magic in your room. I think the sound was cleaner, the bass less boomy, and the dialog clearer after I put in a rug. I also think I can turn down the volume slightly and maintain the same dialog clarity when watching TV. My wife, who is not a musician by training, heard absolutely no difference whatsoever. I cannot rule out the possibility that the difference I heard are purely psychological. Besides, at that time I was using the 805S and the PV1 as my speakers, and even without the rug, they sounded very clean and enjoyable. The PV1, which I still use with my new 803D, certainly was not boomy to begin with.

If you are really going to get a rug for acoustics reasons, take your time to shop for the right one. The home furnishings department at Lane Crawford sometimes have some nice sheepskin rugs. However, they are probably not big enough for your awesome place. (You want the rug to be as big as possible to cover up all the reflective floor surface.) I let my wife pick the rug so that she does not think my toys are taking over every corner of the living room. She picked a patterned rug, even though I thought a big, white, furry rug would have worked better. In hindsight, the patterned rug is easier to maintain and much more practical for everyday use.

[Briz vegas]

Albedo effect mate, albedo! That white rug would have played havoc with heaps of reflections, the coloured rug is much better and would hide all those tears of joy from listening to your system.

What pattern do you have on the rug? Up and down would be bad with 803 as it would make a tall speaker look even taller. Right to left would give more width and presence to your speakers and possibly the soundstage as well.

(I would take all of the above with a pinch of salt me thinks)

[William]

Yes, I know what you mean about the "typical"-sized Hong Kong condo. Considering the "average" Hong Kong...living rooms of 50-70 square feet...

:E The average prison cell in the US is 96 square feet. :P

[KyaDawn]

:E The average prison cell in the US is 96 square feet. :P

In that case, one shutters at the thought of the size of an average prison cell in Hong Kong! :B

To be fair, "small" does not necessarily mean "not nice". There is a bit of a culture shock when one first arrives here, but people make do, and you do find very many "nice" apartments that are small, but "cozy".

Here's just one example I found on the Internet:

http://chasehacker.com/hong_kong_apartment.htm

Of course, these may be more "typical" examples:

http://www.2dayblog.com/images/15majong.jpg

http://picasaweb.google.com/rszumlak/HongKong#5215326913810247506

http://www.mingenbach.de/apartment.htm

[KyaDawn]

Being a non-professional sound engineer, I find it difficult to describe what the exact differences were. I want to say the room becomes less" reflective", but I am not sure if that word can be applied to sound. Perhaps I can say that there were less echoes after I laid down the rug, but it was not like I had a lot of echoes to begin with.

Maybe a comparison here can help. As a former violin player, I used to practice in rooms with thick carpets and also in rooms with hardwood floor. I preferred to hear myself in the hardwood-floor rooms because I thought I sounded richer. In a thick-carpet room, I felt more exposed and heard many more imperfections from my playing. In theory, the musicians on your CD are professionals and you would want to hear every notes they play rather than hearing their music bombarded with echoes.

A rug is not going to do magic in your room. I think the sound was cleaner, the bass less boomy, and the dialog clearer after I put in a rug. I also think I can turn down the volume slightly and maintain the same dialog clarity when watching TV. My wife, who is not a musician by training, heard absolutely no difference whatsoever. I cannot rule out the possibility that the difference I heard are purely psychological. Besides, at that time I was using the 805S and the PV1 as my speakers, and even without the rug, they sounded very clean and enjoyable. The PV1, which I still use with my new 803D, certainly was not boomy to begin with.

If you are really going to get a rug for acoustics reasons, take your time to shop for the right one. The home furnishings department at Lane Crawford sometimes have some nice sheepskin rugs. However, they are probably not big enough for your awesome place. (You want the rug to be as big as possible to cover up all the reflective floor surface.) I let my wife pick the rug so that she does not think my toys are taking over every corner of the living room. She picked a patterned rug, even though I thought a big, white, furry rug would have worked better. In hindsight, the patterned rug is easier to maintain and much more practical for everyday use.

Thanks again kmcheng! :T After a bit of searching, I finally found the rug I was looking for. I needed to get it custom made, so I won't get it for another two weeks, but when I do, perhaps I'll post some more photos up. :P

Your insights are pretty interesting. Seems like the rug might actually have an effect on the sound or it could be just a placebo. In either case, it "works"! Still, even if the rug makes no difference sonically whatsoever, it's something that we wanted to add to our living room anyway. So it would be more of a "bonus" if it did add some acoustic treatment to the room, but if not, we still have a nice rug to cover some of that open space! :B

[htsteve]

I had one remaining acoustic panel. I decided to cut it into corner triangles and put them in my upper corners. Another nice tweak to the room. Soundstage has improved and less blare from the corners. It all works so well together now. Pictures are attached.

[aweil]

Yes, a TosLink cable makes a big difference (I think they use a TI PCM 2705 DAC in there). AAC (Advanced Audio Codec, not Apple Audio Codec) is a big improvement over MP3 at the same rate, but Apple Lossless will be bit perfect over toslink.

I finally found one of those cables, the difference for a 340 kbps mp3 is HUGE!

[Race Car Driver]

The latest addition to the B&Ws. Preamp, CD and DAC.

[wettou]

Race Car Driver

What Sony is that!

[Race Car Driver]

Race Car Driver

What Sony is that!

The CD and DAC are a little over 20 years old. They are the original R1 combo. The preamp is a TA-E1. Its not the matching preamp for the R1s, but will be the matching preamp the more common super audio CD player, SCD1 which I will get sometime in the future.

These are pretty hard to come across, they were never sold in the US. Im a very big hi end Sony fan and search out certain pieces. I have some more pics here.

http://htguide.com/forum/showthread.php4?t=33232

[wettou]

The CD and DAC are a little over 20 years old. They are the original R1 combo. The preamp is a TA-E1. Its not the matching preamp for the R1s, but will be the matching preamp the more common super audio CD player, SCD1 which I will get sometime in the future.

These are pretty hard to come across, they were never sold in the US. Im a very big hi end Sony fan and search out certain pieces. I have some more pics here.http://htguide.com/forum/showthread.php4?t=33232

Cool I wished Sony would make high end gear like they used to I have several pieces that are still running after 10+ year of daily service

[artv4]

updated pics of my radio

[artv4]

few more

[wettou]

few more

You might want to undo that coil with your speaker cables you are creating a magnetic field and interferences!!!

[joetama]

You might want to undo that coil with your speaker cables you are creating a magnetic field and interferences!!!

Not sure the profoundness of the affect, but there probably is some. Makes a really pretty inductance coil.

[artv4]

You might want to undo that coil with your speaker cables you are creating a magnetic field and interferences!!!

hi!!!! i have no where else to put the wire. what else can i do to prevent creating a magnetic field/interference?

[Audio_ElF]

It's better to fold it back and forwards rather than coiled ... that way half the field is in opposition to the other half ... hope that made sense.

[artv4]

It's better to fold it back and forwards rather than coiled ... that way half the field is in opposition to the other half ... hope that made sense.

im a bit confused. like make the wire parallel

[wkhanna]

Yes, like a 'serpentine' or 'S' shape.

[aweil]

Not sure the profoundness of the affect, but there probably is some. Makes a really pretty inductance coil.

Any external magnetic field that couples that coil will induce noise current into the wires.

[1oldguy]

When I get my Camera up and working I'll taking a few picks.
It's taken quite a while to see all these lovely setups.

[wettou]

Not sure the profoundness of the affect, but there probably is some. Makes a really pretty inductance coil.

Just shorten the cable that's all, it will look cleaner and your problem will be solved :T

[ray5]

They are called 'Perfect Sound Discs' or something, but I live in the UK so i'm not sure whether you guys could get them in the US?

Can you tell me where in UK you can get them and how much do they cost? What colors are they available in? Thanks,
Ray

[Briz vegas]

Neat cable awards

We should have awards. For neatest cables I think artv4 wins. I would probably get the booby prize in that department.

Try dealing with stiff power cords

ps, and I win the contented slightly out of focus kitten award

[artv4]

We should have awards. For neatest cables I think artv4 wins. I would probably get the booby prize in that department.

Try dealing with stiff power cords

ps, and I win the contented slightly out of focus kitten award

thanks lol!!!!!!!

[artv4]

Just shorten the cable that's all, it will look cleaner and your problem will be solved :T

unfortunately, i cant shorten the cable. my amp is right next to the speaker. so if i shorten the cable, the other speaker is still about 3 meters away from the amp.

[Ethan06]

Thought you guys would like to see some pics of the new setup (and the XT8's) post move.

Eventually this will grow into a full XT HT with quality separates but have to pay the bills first. It really is surprising just how great these babies sound with the Denon (pure direct mode) and I really don't miss a sub at all for music and most movies.
Cheers

[audioqueso]

Ethan06, nice pictures. That first picture is funny cause it makes the speaker look sooooooooo tall!
The place looks great. Where's your gear?

[Ethan06]

Ethan06, nice pictures. That first picture is funny cause it makes the speaker look sooooooooo tall!
The place looks great. Where's your gear?

Thanks audioqueso.
All my gear is in that low cabinet (11th pic). It will grow when I move to separates sometime in the future.
Sorry for all the shots, I got a bit carried away

[1oldguy]

Hey...We are all passionate people here.........Great picks by the way.

[KahunaCanuck]

Those XTs look really nice!

[ShadowZA]

Thought you guys would like to see some pics of the new setup (and the XT8's) post move.

Eventually this will grow into a full XT HT with quality separates but have to pay the bills first. It really is surprising just how great these babies sound with the Denon (pure direct mode) and I really don't miss a sub at all for music and most movies.
Cheers

Amazing and stylish setup, Ethan06.
Beautiful!
:T :T :T

[gross30]

Ethan06, great looking setup. Nice and clean. The XT'S look awesome. Nice job. :T

[Ethan06]

Thanks guys, great to finally be part of the owners club.
For an open concept condo setup it sounds remarkably good. I nearly went with M1s all around for the GAF and aesthetics but decided I wanted a fuller range speaker to build onto.

Thanks also for all the inspiration and great advice that this forum provides.
Cheers

[Dmantis]

Wow the fit and finish on those XT's are beautiful. Very good looking speakers.

[mvdveek]

My first step in the B&W world :T







What do you see:

TV - Samsung LE40A656
Receiver - Harman Kardan AVR 255
Front Speakers - Bowers & Wilkins CM9 8)
Center speaker - Bowers & Wilkins CMCentre2
Bluray - Panasonic DMP-BD30
Decoder - Samsung DCH-R360
Gamen - Wii
Netfiler - Belkin PureAV Homecinema Power Console PF50

[ray5]

My first step in the B&W world :T







What do you see:

TV - Samsung LE40A656
Receiver - Harman Kardan AVR 255
Front Speakers - Bowers & Wilkins CM9 8)
Center speaker - Bowers & Wilkins CMCentre2
Bluray - Panasonic DMP-BD30
Decoder - Samsung DCH-R360
Gamen - Wii
Netfiler - Belkin PureAV Homecinema Power Console PF50

Very nice and neat. Enjoy!
Ray

[artv4]

man i love the black gloss!!!!!!!

[1oldguy]

I agree Lovely setup.....and I too have a thing for neatness.Look very inviting.
To bad B&W don't have a gloss option for the 800 series,I would have gotten mine in Black gloss in a Heartbeat.

[KyaDawn]

Nice set-up mvdveek! Very tastefully done :T