My System - New Home Set Up

[crusaderlord]

My System

I have had my core Arcam & Neat Motive system for a while now and have posted pictures before, but i moved last month to a new house (after 16 years in my old one) and so after 3 months in boxes my Hi-Fi finally saw the light of day again, horay. The system needed to be consolidated into one rack now (wife's orders) which really wasnt too hard to do and does mean sky can be switched into the dac pretty easy. The Arcams take pride of place on their own shelves.

Best news of all was the sound was better than before. Hard to know exactly why that is but its likely room related, the oak floor meant i bought some spike shoes which is the only new item. Now i live out of London, and have a newer build house maybe the mains supply is cleaner too !

Not really much to alter now, which is just as well as the house will absord spare hifi funds instead. The system sounds more than good enough and now in a detached house i can finally play it when i want to rather than worry if neighbours can hear (dont worry it really doesnt need to be played loud to sound good).

Hope you like the update. If i did have a wish list it would be some Neat Motive 2 SE's maybe or a Naim streamer but neither feels necessary really.

 

[JJ]

That rack is very beautiful.

 

[iceman16]

Very nice :cheers:

 

[Ambrose]

Very nice setup, slightly biased of course!

How far away are speakers from rear wall btw?

You could possibly improve sound from Squeezebox depending how setup? Hardwired and decoding FLAC on PC helped me. Clean power supply also definately improved listenability, removing nasty noise for me. Sure mileage must vary.

I am experimenting with using Stands Unique Carbon Fibre risers between stand and speakers (have the same as you) and not yet sure which trade off is better, but with them, the sound sharpens up and midrange more prominant. If you want more precise imaging and more vocal detail might be worth trying out for £30ish. Sure the presence/weight does diminish however. Need more time to play!!!!

 

[Juzzie Wuzzie]

When is the TV going above the fireplace?

 

[BenLaw]

Congrats on the new house and your excellent, tidy setup

 

[CnoEvil]

A neat (!), simple and classy system.....though I agree that it would be great if you could find a way to place the TV between the speakers.

 

[Ben K.]

Nice setup!

Out of curiosity how loud do you usually listen to your system. Mine is a very similar system and I find it sounds best -35db to -30db. It still sounds good at other volumes but I generally listen to it in this range.

 

[crusaderlord]

Thanks for the nice comments

I will answer the few questions : TV location is still work in progress - only moved in 6 weeks ago and still working things out but couldnt resist posting initial set up - will need a bit of re-wiring to go on the wall.

Speakers are now only a few cm's from the wall. In my old house there were chimney alcoves and i needed to clear the wall by about 20cm or so, here lucky enough they work great close to the wall with no bass boom etc which is a result.

Volume normally is set at between -30 to -34 and rarely need to go louder.

Squeexebox already have some mains cleaning which isnt shown with a Russ Andrews extension filter, a plug in cleanser and power leads including one to the squeezebox.

Thanks

 

[Juzzie Wuzzie]

Crusaderlord - not sure if I should say this (as it is an unintended brag) but when we moved into our flat five years ago (and had to do works) I took a 'classic' photo of Miss JW sat on a painter's ladder eating dinner off her lap in our empty 'war zone' of a lounge that had been prepared for painting. But don't worry - the LCD was firmly mounted to the wall, and was wired into Sky. Arguable whether my priorities were right.

 

[steve_1979]

That a really smart looking setup. :cheers:

Have you considered putting the speakers either side of the TV so that you can use them for films as well as music?

 

[crusaderlord]

A year and half on and the TV never did make it onto the wall, it remains in the corner on its own unit with the sky box, blueray but with a soundbar addition to come.

The Hi-Fi was moved into the opposite corner with new cables and even sounded better for it - one of those fortunate experiences which i can only put down to the other plug socket not sharing any other equipment or maybe the cables indeed made difference (although they shouldn't have as they were just longer versions of the same Kimber 4TC cable).

I am extremely happy with how it sounds and a quite simple arrangement to keep it fairly minimalist at wife's request. The Squeezebox Touch is wired to the router and through the wall to the PC which is good news, and also i have 2nd set of speakers also wired through the wall to the open kitchen / diner which run off the Arcam A38 as well. The newest addition this month was the Arcam ir-DAC - i feel happier with it being all Arcam again and it also sounds much better than the MF1 DAC too.

Speakers are still around the fireplace and look the same, albeit there is now a picture on the wall and new sofas and cushions !

Cant see me changing much now really, occasionally i think about a turntable but cant see where it fits in now much i may like to have one again.