Home Theater/Personal audio thread...

[Vracer111]

I figure it would be best to have a combined single thread for HT and personal audio given this is a car forum and there has been extreme few audio threads here. Putting this up as a show what you have/ask other's for advice/discuss equipment and audio thread...basically anything pertaining to Home Theater (everything audio and video related) and personal audio (headphones, DAC's, amps, players, etc...)

So let's have fun with this thread...

[jasonojordan]

Thanks for making a thread. I just moved into a new house at the begining of april and had to reluctantly let go of my old home audio setup. Was running a pair of Cerwin Vega At15 in the front and Cerwin Vega LS12's in the rear. These were coupled with two Cerwin Vega HT-S15's. Still have the two HT-S15's but now for front and rear im running 4 Electro Voice s-40's

[krayzie]

You guys ever hear a difference bi-wiring your speakers or is it a waste of time and money?

[Vracer111]

Originally Posted by krayzie

You guys ever hear a difference bi-wiring your speakers or is it a waste of time and money?

I tried bi-wiring, absolutely made zero difference to my ears. Bi-amping or matching up amps to each driver would make more sense but would cost a LOT...

[gramicci101]

A great resource:
http://www.avsforum.com/forum/index.php


You can build better speakers for less than you can buy them.
http://www.avsforum.com/forum/155-diy-speakers-subs/
http://www.diysoundgroup.com/

[babydriver]

Originally Posted by krayzie

You guys ever hear a difference bi-wiring your speakers or is it a waste of time and money?

It can make an improvement, but the speaker really needs to be set up for it. By that I mean a separate set of wires for the tweeter and the woofer in a two way, with the crossover components in series with each wire but parallel to each other. This provides better isolation between the low and high signals. However, and this is a big IF, the speaker must be high enough resolution to benefit from the signal path improvement. Many are not.

The next step is biamping, which can also work but as someone else pointed out, this is not cheap. You have to use an electronic crossover and this compromises the sound quality a little.

If by biwiring you mean two runs of wire per binding post, then no, it's not any improvement. The only advantage to this is that it will lower the per foot resistance of the wire, but you could do the same thing with a larger gauge wire. Get a higher quality speaker cable (Kimber Kable or something equivalent). Monster Cable is not so good (even the 12 gage stuff) and costs about as much, so go with a better wire. Look for very low resistance, capacitance and inductance per foot.

[krayzie]

Thanks for the comments guys.

BTW I'm using a Sony CDP-707ESD CD Player going straight to a TA-N77ES Power Amplifier (source variable output ---> amp fixed input with period correct Hitachi LC-OFC RCA cables) and have it hooked up to a pair of KEF RDM-2 bookshelf speakers via a run of Kimber 4TC speaker cables (the newer clear jacket ones, previously had old 8TC blue jacket cables but they are too heavy and kept popping out of the twisty binding posts lol).

The KEF speakers allow for bi-wiring and the amp has two sets of binding posts so I always wondered about this.

It's a modest setup so I guess it's not really worth the money and buy another run of cables to tinker with.

I originally wanted a pair of Sony APM-20ES speakers just to have a full Sony system (the local elitist audiophile shops would laugh their arses off if I tell them this), but could never find some locally in good usable condition.

[babydriver]

Originally Posted by krayzie

Thanks for the comments guys.

BTW I'm using a Sony CDP-707ESD CD Player going straight to a TA-N77ES Power Amplifier (source variable output ---> amp fixed input with period correct Hitachi LC-OFC RCA cables) and have it hooked up to a pair of KEF RDM-2 bookshelf speakers via a run of Kimber 4TC speaker cables (the newer clear jacket ones, previously had old 8TC blue jacket cables but they are too heavy and kept popping out of the twisty binding posts lol).

The KEF speakers allow for bi-wiring and the amp has two sets of binding posts so I always wondered about this.

It's a modest setup so I guess it's not really worth the money and buy another run of cables to tinker with.

I originally wanted a pair of Sony APM-20ES speakers just to have a full Sony system (the local elitist audiophile shops would laugh their arses off if I tell them this), but could never find some locally in good usable condition.

4TC is good wire! I'm using Kimber 8TC with spade lugs on a pair of Thiel CS 1.2's driven by a severely hot-rodded Dynaco ST70 (with a Joe Curcio cascode driver board, running EL34's in triode mode with zero feedback). The amp is a lot like my FR-S; not a lot of power but incredibly agile, with great control and superb precision.

The KEF speakers are certainly good enough to try biwiring just to see what you think. If you could borrow a second amp and an electronic crossover, you could try biamping. These are all fun experiments, but you have to find a buddy who can help out without blowing your bank account!

[Vracer111]

I just upgraded my personal audio system with an AudioQuest Dragonfly Red USB DAC/amp...VERY noticeable improvement in audio quality - pretty much almost like listening to the high quality DAC in my SACD player through the same Meier Corda JAZZ-ff amp - Love it!

[cjd]

my work is here: http://divine-audio.com

One of my other hobbies. I need to update the home theater pics, I have more room treatment now.

[Vracer111]

Originally Posted by cjd

my work is here: http://divine-audio.com

One of my other hobbies. I need to update the home theater pics, I have more room treatment now.

Cool that you've built your own speakers...something I've wanted to do (making twin subwoofers based off Rythmik 12" servo driven drivers and amps). Room acoustics is something I really need to do for my HT setup....room slap present, need to tame the room highs and low end house resonance. One reason I like personal audio so much is it is way to easy to get phenominal sound from headphones as there is no room interaction to worry about. To change/enhance the sound it is just a matter of either moding/selecting headphones or changing to higher quality DAC/amps that can resolve and perform better.

That said, I do love watching movies and gaming on my HT system: 110" display with 7.2 audio rocks even if acoustics still need to be dealt with. And I designed and built my own equipment rack, projector mounting system, ceiling speaker mounting system, and extended screen mounting system (to float it off the wall and get the throw distance closer to projector ideal.)

[cjd]

Originally Posted by Vracer111

Cool that you've built your own speakers...something I've wanted to do (making twin subwoofers based off Rythmik 12" servo driven drivers and amps). Room acoustics is something I really need to do for my HT setup....room slap present, need to tame the room highs and low end house resonance. One reason I like personal audio so much is it is way to easy to get phenominal sound from headphones as there is no room interaction to worry about. To change/enhance the sound it is just a matter of either moding/selecting headphones or changing to higher quality DAC/amps that can resolve and perform better.

That said, I do love watching movies and gaming on my HT system: 110" display with 7.2 audio rocks even if acoustics still need to be dealt with. And I designed and built my own equipment rack, projector mounting system, ceiling speaker mounting system, and extended screen mounting system (to float it off the wall and get the throw distance closer to projector ideal.)

Sounds like a nice setup.

I have a little slap in front of the screen which will go away when I get the ceiling done. 115" anamorphic, just right for the seating distance. Full custom setup, 7.2... enough bass response to shake the whole house on just sound pressure (4x15 in front, 2x15 in the back, approaching IB at 6x VAS, mechanically opposed drivers so no force transfer) and... I rarely watch that loud but it still is very tactile, flat 16Hz- 21kHz (with house curve and eq for the subs/room only)

All the work on my site is the stuff I've designed. More in the works too. It's fun for sure. I've had complaints about my crossovers (too many parts,) but never about the results. I can hear the difference for every part I use.

I think I have too many projects in the works...

[Vracer111]

Your system description sounds awesome... have pictures?

Here's some pictures of my setup:

[cdrazic93]

my setup consists of a Sony STR-DN850 paired to an old Onkyo 5.1 surround @~ 130 watts a peice.. Also paired to a Sony XBR-65X850B. Great for movies, but Im just excited for Project scorpio to output my videos in 4K.

Is there a difference between cabling when talking 4k singal and standard HD signal?