Moving from from Hifi to AV

[Paul.]

Hi all, been lurking here for a little while and thought id put my system up as it changes 🙂 Im in the process of moving from a Hifi system to an AV system. At the moment, its a Marantz PM 7200 (which I bought ages ago as a student) and some Monitor Audio BR5's. I mainly listen to music off of my phone or laptop, the girls in the house regularly plug in spotify etc through their laptops too. I wanted something that would be pretty good for music and av, but decided I couldn't really afford it and gave up on the idea for a while. Luckily my Dad decided to upgrade his Onkyo 805 to an 808, so now I have his 805, which sounds great and I can bi-amp my BR5's to boot.

So, the system Im building and hope to finish by january ish, Is based around the BR5's and the 805. I have a PS3 (hides behind the telly) and will shortly be getting a new style apple tv so I can stream music from my phone, the girls can stream their spotify and all will be well, in theory. I've just bought a REL T3 which will be paid for by selling the 7200 🙂 CD player (an old Philips burner) will probably end up in the loft as it seems to be worthless. Finally, a pair of BR1's and a BX centre (couldn't find a walnut BR centre) will be showing up at a convienently placed seasonal event towards the end of december.

The question I do have is about sub placement. As the room is nice and square (only looks weird because of the panoramic picture) the surrounds etc will be simple to set up, but I am unsure of the sub. REL claim that setup for their subs is a little different, and they recommend putting it in the front left and right corners. Where I have two doors. My options are in between speakers and TV stand, in the fireplace, or down the side of the sofa. Can anyone whittle it down for me so I don't need to test all four spots?

Paul

 

[richardw42]

Pity we're not allowed to trade. Know of a 6 month old BR CENTRE in walnut will be available in the next week or so.
It'll be going on ebay in next 10 days or so

Mods - have I been too obvious ? If so please remove my post and I aopologise.

 

[Paul.]

I bought all the speakers at the same time my Dad bought his new amp so I would get the 20% discount from Sevenoaks. Im allowed to play with the sub as I paid for it, but the BR1's and the BX centre Im not allowed until christmas as my girlfriend paid for those 🙂

 

[richardw42]

Xmas can't come soon enough 🙂

 

[Paul.]

Right, time for an update.

After loads of fettling, I've got the Onkyo 805 to sound nearly as good as the Marantz pm7200 in terms of warmth and smoothness, and thanks to the Bi-amping and direct connection to the DAC via an Apple TV, Ive actually gained a fair amount of detail in the high frequencies.

I've added the REL T3 via both the High level connector with the supplied neutrik cable and to the .1 connector with a chord crimson. The sub sounded best sat between the TV and the right hand speaker, it integrates seamlessly and is very musical. Haven't dialled in the .1 volume properly yet, will wait for the centre/surrounds at christmas to do this.

So far the Apple TV sounds pretty good. I've spent the morning (am off sick, cough cough) comparing lossless and 320 kbps AAC's on the iPad to my existing 128kbps on my iPhone. Im going to stick to 128kbps for the iPhone as it is full, and I only really listen to it through sennheiser buds. The iPad (since it has 20gb free) Im going to fill with 320kbps files. I noticed a drastic difference between 128<320, but negligible between 320=lossless. As lossless files work out three times larger than 320 files, it did not seem worth it.

I've also been noticing Airplay is rather flakey. I think its to do with the rubbish talk talk router Im using (my housemates have had problems on their macbooks too) so Im trying to pick up an Airport Extreme off of eBay to make that a little more stable.

Finally, I've decided I cant bring myself to sell my pm7200, its brought me too much joy! (even though they are for some reason selling for more than I paid for it on eBay). I have questions about speakers for desktop use, but will ask that in a different forum where it may actually get noticed 🙂

I will add more pics when I'm feeling a bit better.

Paul

 

[The_Lhc]

Paul Hobbs:I've added the REL T3 via both the High level connector with the supplied neutrik cable and to the .1 connector with a chord crimson. The sub sounded best sat between the TV and the right hand speaker, it integrates seamlessly and is very musical.

Ah, that's interesting, I've been thinking about adding a sub to my system (I don't run one currently) and I've had my eye on the T3 (I like the idea of hi and low-level connections), I've not been able to find too many people with much good to say about them though, you're happy with it though?

 

[Paul.]

Im very happy with it, but it depends what your after. If you want to shake the house down (which people in small terrace houses do not) this is definitely not the sub for you, as its quite modest. If you want to hear that double bass go lower and still have the bass pretty nimble and well integrated, then its great. The main reason I bought it though was because it was £200 cheaper than a B&W 610 🙂

 

[The_Lhc]

Although I have no neighbours to worry about I'm not that interested in bringing the house down (it's an old house, it could happen), I'm more interested in its musical abilities to be honest.

 

[Paul.]

Here we go, here is a pic of the current setup..



Ive been 'told' by the ladies in my life to plug the wii back in after I hid it away in the darkness where it belongs. Ive now hidden it nicely behind the TV with the PS3. Its a lot tidier than it was, how long that will last I do not know... The main faff I've been having is with my network/ internet/ AppleTV. I just switched to Talktalk, and the modem router they sent me was absolute junk. It could only handle two or three conections, and for somereason I was getting ip clashes that was causing the airplay icons to not show up on my iPhone and iPad at random intervals. I pinched a decent wifi router from my brother, and set all the wifi devices in the house bar the consoles up with a static ip, and everything is running increadibly smoothly.

My new game is hiding in another room whilst my housemates listen to music on the AppleTV, then hijacking with random youtube videos from my iPhone. "Suprised darthvader", spoof of "suprised kitty" works very well 🙂

Need to get some matching tiles so that I can get the sub on spikes, and think about modding my cheap ass ikea tv stand so that I can recess the BX centre. Its huge and at the moment will block the bottom of the TV. Its doing well though, it cost me £35 over six years ago, and its suprisingly stable loaded up with over 45 kg! (the 805 is a monster weighing in at 23kg)