my updated setups

[naughty573]

initially i had one large system but i have decided to split it up into a stereo only setup in a dedicated room and a secondary HT type setup for the computer in the bedroom

so heres some pics of the stereo setup ..... one concession i made here is that i still have a large TV in the lounge just for watching football matches

the entire system

the custom rack with the electronics

the system description is as follows :

1) Denon PMA2000AE integrated amplifier

2) Denon DCD2000AE CD player

3) MIT T2 biwire speaker cables and T3 interconnects

4) Sony SAW70ES subwoofer (dual 8")

5) Dali Ikon 7 speakers

6) Samsung PN50c550 plasma TV and HD sattelite set-top-box

i still want to do a lot of room treatment and correction ie add a couple of rugs over the tiles and then some diffusion and bass traps in the relevant areas around the room - but it sounds pretty decent as stereo systems go since its in a huge room and the system definitely is able to convey a huge sense of scale to proceedings and despite the tiles the reflections do not seem too bothersome

 

[Dougal1331]

Slightly envious...

 

[naughty573]

Slightly envious...

probably because of the space available since your system description is not too shabby but yeah its all in a huge open plan room which is actually 8 metres long x 4.5 metres wide which is actually a lounge and a dining room all in one

 

[naughty573]

The second system was to use all the additional speakers from my surround set to good effect - so i replaced my PC monitor with a 40" 3D LED TV which was wall mounted with a tilting bracket

so now on to the equipment rack - i experimented with the two subwoofers that i have but this being a smaller room it only needed a single subwoofer

so this is what the wall eventually looks like with the speakers as well as the rack - i have wire trunking in place to hide the wires but the different color trunking for the main speakers is to simulate the effect of these being stands BUT the speakers are actually wall mounted

the rear speakers are actually on standsand to make it 7.1 the rear surround speakers are mounted on the wall above the bed

then to actually use a keyboard and mouse i extended the arms on the armrests of my computer chair

and then i aded a platform between those arms to house the keyboard and mouse which can slide along those extensions so you can be either as fat or thin as you like and you will still fit in the chair

the PC that im using is my modded monster rig which looks like this during the day

and it looks like this at night with the room lights turned off and the internal PC lights turned on

watercooled PC internals

the system description for this setup is as follows

1) Pioneer VSX922 AV Reciever

2) Pioneer BDP150k 3D Bluray player

3) Dali ikon 2 front speakers

4) Dali Ikon 1 rear speakers

5) Dali Ikon Vokal 2 center speaker

6) Sony rear surround speakers

7) Denon 10" active subwoofer

8 ) HP microserver as a Media storage NAS box (with 4 x 2TB hard drives for storage - additional drives in external chassi connected via e-sata and USB)

9) custom watercooled PC

10) D-link 3G router for internet access and a Sitecomm gigabit switch for wired network capability for media distribution to 3 other rooms in the apartment

11) Samsung UA40EH6030 3D LED tv

there are other smaller setups in my brothers room and in my moms room for them to watch TV and access all the media on my network - but its a pretty basic PC network based multiroom distribution additonally with sattelite TV setup in each room with multiview facilities ie each room can view different TV channels at the same time while recording three different channels simultaneously all via a single access account with a multiview facility (need to pay slightly extra for this)

i tried to work as neatly as possible all over the place with the network and TV wires being hidden in trunking all over the place like this

and wherever they had to go across the tiles or under doors - they were in aluminum trunking like this (strong enough so that shoes will not penetrate them (especially female high heels )

all in all it was a fun little project to do and im enjoying both the setups immensely - the smaller room suits playing movies in surround though it would be better in a far larger room since the autosetup drops the levels hugely so i have plenty of headroom in the setup .... and the stereo setup is really good at playing the type of music i listen to to so both setups are immensely satisfying

yes there are weak points in both systems, especially with regards to room acoustics but thats going to be the next fun project that im going to tackle and i have already started with the planning so as soon as finances permit i will crack on with this

 

[Dougal1331]

Loving the PC too.

I've got a pretty tidy rig myself (which is known as Evil Edna), but it's nowhere near as pretty as that!

 

[steve_1979]

Great looking computer. Did you build it yourself?

 

[naughty573]

if you are asking me then yes - i assembled the PC and modded the side panel - the offspring flaming skull pattern was cut out of 1mm thick acrylic using a Ryobi pencil grinder (a cheapie dremel clone) and the window is basically 5mm perspex with c-span rubber surrounding the aluminium edges .... and i had to do a bit of work to fit the watercooling radoator and related fans (mostly cutting off the fan grills at the rear of the chassis and fiddling around with bolts that hold the radiator in place - but it wasnt anything paticularly too difficult to do and it was far less work than the trunking and conduiting of the wiring in the AV setup

i have built so many PC's in the past including far more involved custom watercooled PC's (this one is just using a corsair H100 liquid cooler) that the PC build was done over a day and the longest process was actually installing the operating system and software that i needed installed

 

[steve_1979]

It looks like you've done a top job there. :clap:

I'm saving up to replace my ageing gaming rig which will need upgrading soon when the next generation of games come out next year with the release of the PS4 and the next Xbox. I've built a couple of PCs before but nothing as fancy looking as yours.

 

[naughty573]

after reading some reviews of the Sony STR-DN1040 here i decided to actually sell off my pioneer VSX922 and get myself one of those due to the additional features that it allowed as well as the extra HDMI inputs and outputs which will surely become useful sometime

the bedroom setup sounds absolutely terrific now - it wasnt bad with the pioneer but its just improved that wee bit that has elevated it to a level that im truly enjoying ..... this AV receiver is truly good with stereo music (and i have tried stereo integrated amps with the same setup in this room and i cannot really say that they performed much better than what im experiencing now)

also a PC as a music source is also capable of sounding mindblowingly good even when compared to the comparatively higher equipment in the bigger stereo only setup .... after some tweaking it manages to sound like a mini-me system to that bigger system :bounce: :dance: