Improving my system now...

acalex

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Hello hello, as you might now I have finally completed my systems, all units are in place except for the streamer which will be joining the family in 10 days. I have now an amazing kit which I would like to fine-tune since, as expected, still does not sound as good as it sounded in the shop when I have heard it for the first time.

I really like the overall presentation which is very smooth and relaxing...kind of sound you can listen for hours. What I would like to improve now it's a little bit of speed and sparkle. Sometimes I feel there is too much bass. I still have quite a few improvements to do starting with

- Cables: power cables, speaker cables and interconnects

- Electricity: power conditioner or proper power bar

- Room acoustic: positioning or acoustic panel (my delaer just sent my floor plan and pictures to Acoustica Applicata)

- Rack: looking at a finite elemente rack with ceramic feet in order to isolating better the different components

- Vibrations: looking at pads to use with amplifier and source, boards to decouple the speakers from the floor

Any idea or something I am missing? Of course any advice on the different categories is highly appreciated

Thanks
 

CnoEvil

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For cables....TQ Black / Ultra Black are very quick and clean sounding.....They also do power cables (The TQ Blue Power won HFW power cable for 2012).

For Power Cables, also check out Shunyata and Furutech.

Did you check out Vertere...also a great possibility?

IMO. BR really works for unwanted vibrations.

You are right in trying to prevent your system from sounding too warm and cozy......what cable brands do you have access to?
 

CnoEvil

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plastic penguin said:
You probably don't wanna hear this but...

Wait until the streamer up, running and dancing on the table... and the old lugs have adjusted.

Good advice.....but research, short lists, and a certain amount of experimentation can still be done....as long as no final decisions are made until the ADS is in place (not too far away).
 
A

Anonymous

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Iv set up a few systems for other people and they always sound good, maybe more satisfying than mine... Only thing is iv used my old components to set them up. Maybe it's the whole giving or effort thing?

I wouldn't worry about the last four for a while, sorbothane can help under speaker but probably not yours. You could try swapping copper and silver between your components/speakers.

You should also secure your speaker wires to you speakers well. Iv been experimenting with biamping using different cables for tweeter and mid driver. Every time I change one set I have to tighten the other. Must be the vibration.

other than that just buy lots of music to flip while your system balances.
 
CnoEvil said:
plastic penguin said:
You probably don't wanna hear this but...

Wait until the streamer up, running and dancing on the table... and the old lugs have adjusted.

Good advice.....but research, short lists, and a certain amount of experimentation can still be done....as long as no final decisions are made until the ADS is in place (not too far away).

Fully understand your sentiments, but once all his equipment is installed and 'bedded in' then you can make minor tweaks.....
 

richardw42

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Blimey, you've got it bad.

We spend a shed load of cash buying the stuff and then another load of cash getting it to sound like it should in the first place.

Seriously though your thoughts about room treatment is the best. It' seems to be an accepted way of improving things at reasonable cost. Sometimes just taking a step back and looking at your room.

Its on my agenda.
 

acalex

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Thanks all for advices, this is the spirit. I won't change anything before the ADS is here of course, but I like to start planning things in advance as I still have a source which is the turntable...which I actually enjoying a lot!

Actually there is a dealer in Netherlands which stocks the Vertere cables and already sells something else to Francis, he said he will try to get a pair of demo cables to try. I will also try Siltech cables as Francis said they might add that sparkle and speed I am looking for...let's see.

Regardinsg electricity, I think this might be a real problem as I have everyhting plugged on the same base which is just a commercial one...how much this could influence?

Thanks a lot
 

CnoEvil

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plastic penguin said:
Fully understand your sentiments, but once all his equipment is installed and 'bedded in' then you can make minor tweaks.....

If you believe in the effects of cables (and imo, can be more than a minor tweak), finding the right one can take some weeks.....or you can strike lucky very quickly.

Alex likes to be very thorough, which pays off in the long run...."measure twice, cut once!"
 
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Oh I forgot room treatment :cry:

yeah fluffy rugs from ikea and canvas pictures from charity shops.
 

CnoEvil

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acalex said:
Regardinsg electricity, I think this might be a real problem as I have everyhting plugged on the same base which is just a commercial one...how much this could influence?

Thanks a lot

Hard one to call.

It can range from very minor, to huge.....and is location and system dependent. I've even tried a mains regenerator ( Isol 8 ) that made the system sound worse (for my taste)...ie. made it sound too cold and analytical.

I prefer balanced mains transformers (like the Atlas one, which is the best I've heard), to both conditioners and regenerators ( I prefer regenerators to conditioners).
 

Helmut80

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Hate to break it to ya acalex, but we all know there is only one answer. Build your own house. Find an electrician who is also an audiophile and cable nutter. Give him an unlimited budget.

:cheer:
 

altruistic.lemon

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acalex said:
- Cables: power cables, speaker cables and interconnects

- Electricity: power conditioner or proper power bar

- Room acoustic: positioning or acoustic panel (my delaer just sent my floor plan and pictures to Acoustica Applicata)

- Rack: looking at a finite elemente rack with ceramic feet in order to isolating better the different components

- Vibrations: looking at pads to use with amplifier and source, boards to decouple the speakers from the floor

Any idea or something I am missing? Of course any advice on the different categories is highly appreciated

Thanks
Cables - Amazon sell good inexpensive ones.

Electricity - mate, most amps are made to cope with changes. Believe me, the same amp I had in Sydney worked just as well in Sydney as in the NT. 'Cept for the blackouts during the odd storm.

Room - definitely. That's what you put your money into

Rack - ikea is pretty ****ing good

Vibrations - odd tremor in Darwin didn't cause problems. Essential for turntables, though

You forgot to add music - spent a ton.
 
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And make sure it's all the same as the guy who broke his relationship designing the stuff
 

oldric_naubhoff

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acalex said:
Hello hello, as you might now I have finally completed my systems, all units are in place except for the streamer which will be joining the family in 10 days. I have now an amazing kit which I would like to fine-tune since, as expected, still does not sound as good as it sounded in the shop when I have heard it for the first time.

:rofl:

I don't know why you'd be expecting that. maybe it just doesn't sound as good as you'd want?

acalex said:
I really like the overall presentation which is very smooth and relaxing...kind of sound you can listen for hours. What I would like to improve now it's a little bit of speed and sparkle. Sometimes I feel there is too much bass. I still have quite a few improvements to do starting with

see! I wanted to steer you into the realms of panel speaker world (ESL or magnetostats) but you wouldn't listen. you won't make a speaker sound "faster" just by changing cables or putting it on some felt. if it's slow it'll keep slow. these tweaks may only bring some marginal change.

acalex said:
- Cables: power cables, speaker cables and interconnects

- Electricity: power conditioner or proper power bar

- Room acoustic: positioning or acoustic panel (my delaer just sent my floor plan and pictures to Acoustica Applicata)

- Rack: looking at a finite elemente rack with ceramic feet in order to isolating better the different components

- Vibrations: looking at pads to use with amplifier and source, boards to decouple the speakers from the floor

Any idea or something I am missing? Of course any advice on the different categories is highly appreciated

Thanks

-cables: a bit of different flavor. but if your gear doesn't sound well with generic cables it doesn't sound well at all.

-electricity: your gear is already fitted with state-of-the art power supply (at this price level it better should be). any mains related noise should be readily filtered out by capacitors fitted in your gear's power supply. make yourself a favor and do this experiment. if the gear sounds as poor very late at night then there's nothing you can do about electricity. otherwise balanced mains transformer is the only way forward.

-room acoustics: definitely worth looking into some available possibilities. however, most of the specialised hi-fi companies will rip you off, so be vary.

-rack: no comment on that :rofl: so you're saying how many thousands you're willing to spend on a hi-fi rack?

-vibrations: get yourself some cheep accelerometer and check vibrations on your current rack.... enough on that.
 

Neuphonix

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I would suggest having a least one dedicated circuit run in just for your hi-fi, maybe two if you can, one for the amp & the other for sources.

I'm not entirely convinced about the need for power conditioners, but from a protecting your equipment point of view you can't have enough I suppose.

Then room treatments, have your room tested & measured by a professional. Get rid of bass traps & reflections as much as possible.

Once all these have been taken care of then start looking at tweaks, but only after the room has been done.
 

acalex

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Hello everybody, thanks for all insights I appreciate. Just a few statements to clarify some comments. I said I wasn't expecting to sound as good as in the shop as I knew that room acoustic plays an important role and my actual installation does not allow me to do as much as I would. I have a "narrow" corner where all the system is fitted which is far from being the ideal placement. Also because I knew the system in the shop was "complete" with all possible twists and tricks a dealer knows how to put in place.

For the rest, I never said my speakers are slow...I love these speakers and even if I looked at different possible options I kept coming back to those. If I could probably do a major change now would be the amplifier to go towards something like Mastersound monoblocks...but this is another story. Plus any planae or electrostatic speakers had no chance to pass the wife test...as she discarded them quickly. I still have to share the living room with my girlfriend so I am still allowing her to decide what goes and what does not go. I also think is possible to correct a few things and improve quite a lot the system by playing with cables, acoustic and vibrations. I switched from a pure copper cable to Lavardin cables and the effect was alredy evident...so I expect still to be able to improve things by swapping again cables towards the "right ones for my system"

In terms of furniture, I don't understand why we keep spending thousands of eur on DAC, speakers, amp, cables and then we use a cheap Ikea piece of furniture? Be clear, nothing against Ikea, but in no way an Ikea piece of furniture would be as nice as a well designed hi-fi rack. Even leaving aside the fact that each shelf is properly isolated, I think also the sight deserves something not?

In terms of acoustic, unfortunately there is not much I can do as I can't move my speakers much more than this. I will try to post my floorplan. On the other way I cannot do any major change to the house as I am renting and it's still to early to buy a new house (still don't know if I am going to spend many years in Brussels or not). But I will definitely look at acoustic panels, bass traps etc to see if something can be improved.

In terms of electricity, I feel the system actually sounds better at night and during weekends, again not much can be done there if not adding a power conditioner/generator. The good thing is that I do not have to buy anything in advance but I can try as long as I want at home before deciding if it makes sense or not!

Thanks to all people contributing to this thread!
 

acalex

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Neuphonix said:
I would suggest having a least one dedicated circuit run in just for your hi-fi, maybe two if you can, one for the amp & the other for sources.

I'm not entirely convinced about the need for power conditioners, but from a protecting your equipment point of view you can't have enough I suppose.

Then room treatments, have your room tested & measured by a professional. Get rid of bass traps & reflections as much as possible.

Once all these have been taken care of then start looking at tweaks, but only after the room has been done.

Thats very good advice, unfortunately not everything can be done in the room. For example my gf does not want to get rid of a mirror wich sits just in front of speakers. I proposed to her replacing it with a nice big picture (maybe an acoustic panel with nice photo), I am waiting for a response :)

I will post pictures of the room now

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fatman

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need to get those speakers out in the open!

flip dining table 90 degrees and shimmy over nearer the fireplace

move bookshelf, stick sofa towards that corner and the long end of the sofa in front of the window

amp and speakers firing at your sofa - move speakers more into the room

draw the curtains!

failing that - how about a heavy curtain over your doorway?
 

acalex

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fatman said:
need to get those speakers out in the open!

flip dining table 90 degrees and shimmy over nearer the fireplace

move bookshelf, stick sofa towards that corner and the long end of the sofa in front of the window

amp and speakers firing at your sofa - move speakers more into the room

draw the curtains!

failing that - how about a heavy curtain over your doorway?

Forgot to mention that just underneath the big window there is a long heater...
 

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