I need HIFI in my life, but...

[lovstromp]

edit: this got a little longer than I intended. Scroll down to the end for my actual question if you want

There must be others in my position. Or does it apply for all of us in the end?

This summer I've been trying to uptimize my small living room in order to get the best out of my system. First I got rid of my TV - it took way too much of my time and I thought that the amount of time won, would equal more time listening to good music. Then I moved my system to another wall, making the speakers firing down the length of the room.

What I didn't consider beforehand was that the "new" wall was of wood and the R channel speaker was now positioned infront of a radiator. That was time to unpack the foamplugs and didn't sound bad and evening listening levels. When i really want to listen I pull the speakers out into the room and take out the plugs. This made it all sound better than it ever did. #winning, right?

But I've had people over quite a few times the last couple of months. And the left hand speaker's been knocked down by nuts passing by on their way to the balcony, maybe 3-5 times! At one time the airplug broke off, so the tips stayed inside. Took'em out and stripped the cable to connect it bare. And today I noticed the tweeter had been recessed on the very same speaker. I googled some solution suggestions and used some tape to fold it out again.

Now, I don't know whether it's just me imagining things because now I know that the tweeter had been dented, but can't help thinking that it sound harsher now.

------------

That's what got me thinking. Is it really worth it to have seperates in a living room as small as mine? Thinking of downgrading to an All-in-one and cheaper speakers. And then get something more exciting whenever I move to a bigger apartment.

How would the Marantz M-CR603 fare compared to my current amp & cdp pairing?

 

[Messiah]

How big is the room?

Ultimately only you can decide whether it is worth changing the set-up. I have put up with lesser systems in the past and in the end I couldn't live with it and got better gear again.

As for Marantz, Chebby or others can advise on this.

Best thing to do would be to audition it for yourself and hear how it sounds.

 

[lovstromp]

The thing is, I live in Greenland and auditioning hifi kit is really limited up here. You've only got micro systems, sorround all-in-ones and valve amps. No usual hifi stuff, actually.

I've drawn up my living room and tried to place the system and other furniture in it.

 

[lovstromp]

Should have explained the "0.9m high" thing: it's the half-wall around the stairs.

And drawing it up really showed how little I've really got to play it

 

[dave_k]

How will something like the Marantz you mention prevent speakers from being knocked over? Maybe you should be looking at wall mounting some small spaekers and adding a subwoofer, or perhaps some compact floorstanders would be more stable. If it were me and i wanted to stick with separates, I'd probably move the sofa against the wall at the 'bottom' of your diagram (ie beside the balcony) and place the speakers on the opposite one.

I also have a small sitting room that is made smaller by having a dining table in it and it is also how one accesses the kitchen, so my television and sofa are both perpendicular to one wall of the room and against that wall and the dining table is over against the opposite wall. This would mean that, if i had separate speakers one of them would be in free space and the other stuffed into a corner. In the end i bough Q Acoustics TV2 whcih avoids many placement issues and is securely attached to the TV and well out of harms way. It also sounds very good indeed with both movies and music. A further advantage is that ti can be rotated with the TV, so (up to a point) one can sit off to one side of the TV and still have good sound.

That probably makes no sense whatsoever!

 

[dave_k]

PS quite jealous you have a balcony!

 

[lovstromp]

Thanks for the input. It does seem that the best thing I could do ATM is move things around a bit as you said.

My initial thought was also switching my speakers to front ported ones. Or......the Db1's(?)

 

[steve_1979]

You could just rearrange your furniture like this.

 

[lovstromp]

That's what I'm gonna do only that the narrow rectangular thing I've drawn is the radiator lol!

So I'll try and find some space for the bookcase elsewhere. Maybe lose that little table all together. The bookcase is about 2m's high, so it's like I can find space somewhere else for the contents of it.

The reason I didn't lay it out that way in the first places is that I know my neighbour's bedroom is on the other side of that wall. And I don't want some falling out with her now that she's been so nice

 

[dave_k]

If you rearrange the room as above, perhaps you could experiement with some acoustic panels behin each speaker to cut transmission through the wall. Also, if your neighbour has been nice to you perhaps you could do an experiment together to determine what volume level is too loud for her. Then use that as a limit when she is at home and crank it up if she's out, or sharing a listening session with you

 

[steve_1979]

the narrow rectangular thing I've drawn is the radiator lol!

Oops. I thought it was a TV.

 

[Anonymous]

why does the hifi need to sit in between the speakers? couldn't the hifi go on/instead/next to the bookcase? - the speakers then sit either side of the rad?

 

[lovstromp]

You could just rearrange your furniture like this.

Re-arranged last week, almost as shown as above. Only that the bookcase is to the right of the sofa. Not only did it improve the sound and made me able to place the speakers a little closer to the wall, it also made he living that much bigger!

But the biggest improvement came when placed some blu-tack (which still is sold as white exclusively here btw) beneath the speakers. My intentions were to prevent them from falling off the stands constantly. But now there's a much more balanced soundstage and a lot(!) less boom from the bass. Allround a very a "grown up" and bigger sound - don't know how to describe it.

Restored a lot of my confidence in my amp.

 

[Anonymous]

Well your amp is fantastic and as for your speakers, I hope you enjoy the 2/6's as much as I enjoy mine!!

 

[lovstromp]

Well your amp is fantastic and as for your speakers, I hope you enjoy the 2/6's as much as I enjoy mine!!

The Dyns are wonderful! They've been knocked off the stands a few times and have some chinks on the corners. A tweeter had been pressed in too, I managed to pull it out although it doesn't look like what it did originally <-- is it something I should worry about, though I don't hear any difference (I think)?