Nearly there.....but could use some advice

[TubularTechnician]

 

[TubularTechnician]

It took me an hour to one finger type that ! Where's it gone ?? :wall:

 

[simonlewis]

It's gone i'm afraid you will have to re-type, sorry.

 

[TubularTechnician]

Thought as much. Copy and paste from office word this time to be sure.

Please bare with me ray:

 

[TubularTechnician]

Thought as much. Copy and paste from office word this time to be sure.

Please bare with me ray:

 

[Covenanter]

Thought as much. Copy and paste from office word this time to be sure.

Please bare with me ray:

I hope you don't mean your last sentence literally! :rofl:

Chris

 

[Exoticsounds]

You are not saying what exactely is wrong with the sound in your room vs the demo. But my guess would be that your rooms total "volume" swallow the sound from your R100 at their current placment.

Personally i would actually rather have chossen a pair of floors-standers with a bit higher sensitivety for your set-up and room.

 

[TubularTechnician]

^^ wrong choice

Hopefully my Hi Fi choices are better

Good evening all.

Having been a reader of WHF for a while the mag and site became my points of reference now that I’ve decided to get my first proper system. I’m starting from scratch and know nothing about the subject whatsoever but I had a brief as to what I wanted to put together.

We probably have about 70+ CD’s in the house but the kids are always up in their rooms playing music on ithings or on laptops. I want to get them out of their bedrooms and into the main house so ability to play spotify et al through the system was a must. I also wanted it to look good in a room of mainly solid oak so wood veneers didn’t do it for me and I also wanted it to sound as good as it could for the budget, which trebled the more I read and looked into it.

Anyway, picked Frank Harvey Hi Fi in Coventry as it’s reasonably near and went to demo the kit I’d shortlisted. Didn’t want to complicate things by demoing too much kit so had pretty much settled on what I wanted beforehand. I have ordered as follows:

Marantz CD6004. Good reviews by mag and forum users and as it won’t be the prime source I figured more of the budget would be better spent on amp and speakers ?

Roksan Kandy K2. Auditioned this against the Arcam FMJ A19 but felt the Roksan sound had a bit more body to it.

Kef R100. Sounded superb to me and fit with the non veneer brief.

Nexus 6i stands. Cable management through the legs and the fact I heard the Kefs on them swung it for these.

MF M1-DAC. £100 off RRP and with the hope being that if I have to listen to my daughters playing Cowells latest cash cows through my system via whatever poor quality file, the DAC may help them to sound as good as is possible.

Will be adding a TT and Sonus through the system for the kitchen , dining room, Bedroom and Bathroom by stealth when the wife has recovered from the shock of this lot !

Now this all sounded fabulous to me in the shop. Indeed the opening to Blue Monday really made me sit up and smile, but obviously my room may make things different for better or worse. My room dimensions are 2.7m x 5.5 m with a vaulted ceiling ranging from 3m to 3.7m in height. My only option due to window at one end and door at the other is to have the speakers aiming across the narrow width of the room about a third of the way into the room.

Now Having no real experience of Hi Fi I’m now wondering if there’s anything I should be doing regards interconnects and speaker cables to offset / counter / enhance what your experience tells you is going to happen when I fire it all up in that shape room?

Or am I worried about nothing and all should be fine no matter what I hook them up with ?

All advice appreciated.

 

[TubularTechnician]

I haven't got the kit yet as not all was in stock and demoed at the shop so I've no Idea how it will sound in my room. It has only really occured to me with further reading that aiming across the narrow may effect sound ? Haven't ordered any cables/connects yet so just wondering if the knowledge on here could point me in the right direction ?

 

[dsuciato]

I also think that a pair of floorstand is better i.e. Tannoy DC6T SE with hi-sensitivity also real wood body.

For CD player I would go for Audiolab 8200CD not only it's much better than the Marantz CD6004 also you don't need to buy the M1-DAC as you can use the 8200CD DAC already. Add the K2 Amp or 8200P, all set & make some noise

 

[TubularTechnician]

I also think that a pair of floorstand is better i.e. Tannoy DC6T SE with hi-sensitivity also real wood body.

For CD player I would go for Audiolab 8200CD not only it's much better than the Marantz CD6004 also you don't need to buy the M1-DAC as you can use the 8200CD DAC already. Add the K2 Amp or 8200P, all set & make some noise

but with being a novice I knew nothing of sensitivity re spreakers. Also the tannoys are a grand and the audiolab cd (which I did consider but dismissed due to the reported reading problems) was more than the Marantz Dac combo and I had to cap the budget somewhere as it rose from the original pair of marantz's + Q2020i combo I thought I would buy before I started reading this forum

 

[Exoticsounds]

In any case you will not really know how it sounds till you get it set-up and playing in your own room.

From a pc/mac to the DAC you can use any solidly built usb cable no special hi-fi cable is needed there, the same goes more or less also for a coax cable to connect the CD to the DAC.

The signal cable from the the dac to the amp is a bit more important and here you could spring for some nice interconnects like for instance a pair of Atlas, Chord or Van den Hul's.

The place where you are most likly to hear any "significant" difference is the speaker cables, so you could spring for a nice pair from a brand like Audioquest, Wireworld, Chord, Atlas or QED.

 

[TubularTechnician]

In any case you will not really know how it sounds till you get it set-up and playing in your own room.

From a pc/mac to the DAC you can use any solidly built usb cable no special hi-fi cable is needed there, the same goes more or less also for a coax cable to connect the CD to the DAC.

The signal cable from the the dac to the amp is a bit more important and here you could spring for some nice interconnects like for instance a pair of Atlas, Chord or Van den Hul's.

The place where you are most likly to hear any "significant" difference is the speaker cables, so you could spring for a nice pair from a brand like Audioquest, Wireworld, Chord, Atlas or QED.

So I connect the CD to the DAC and the DAC to the amp ? Excuse my ignorance but are these digital or analogues ? I'm presuming the Sonos Connect goes into the DAC also and the ithing connects with the Sonos ?

I suppose what I'm most concerned about is that the base may be boomy in a narrow room. Is there a speaker cable in that lot that could negate that ? Wont be playing at massive volumes and I'm really looking for as much detail as I can get from the system.

 

[Exoticsounds]

PC/Mac, CD, Sonos connects digitally to the DAC. The DAC connects analog to the amp.

 

[TubularTechnician]

Now reading that, I can see the clue is in the Digital to Analogue Converter thing.

Got a feeling I'm going to make an awful mess of this if I haven't already. I suppose I should have come to the forum with my questions BEFORE I demoed and ordered some expensive kit :?

 

[ID.]

I suppose I should have come to the forum with my questions BEFORE I demoed and ordered some expensive kit :?

If it's any consolation, the kit you've ordered isn't that expensive :twisted:

 

[BenLaw]

In any case you will not really know how it sounds till you get it set-up and playing in your own room.

From a pc/mac to the DAC you can use any solidly built usb cable no special hi-fi cable is needed there, the same goes more or less also for a coax cable to connect the CD to the DAC.

The signal cable from the the dac to the amp is a bit more important and here you could spring for some nice interconnects like for instance a pair of Atlas, Chord or Van den Hul's.

The place where you are most likly to hear any "significant" difference is the speaker cables, so you could spring for a nice pair from a brand like Audioquest, Wireworld, Chord, Atlas or QED.

So I connect the CD to the DAC and the DAC to the amp ? Excuse my ignorance but are these digital or analogues ? I'm presuming the Sonos Connect goes into the DAC also and the ithing connects with the Sonos ?

I suppose what I'm most concerned about is that the base may be boomy in a narrow room. Is there a speaker cable in that lot that could negate that ? Wont be playing at massive volumes and I'm really looking for as much detail as I can get from the system.

At this stage you're worrying about nothing, which seems a bit pointless. Get the kit in the room, set it up properly and listen to it for a few days before you get used to it. If after that you find some actual rather than hypothetical problems then come back on here and ask and people will try and help.

As you've clearly done your research, you'll be aware there is a big debate over the efficacy of cables. No-one has ever been able reliably to tell the difference between them in blind tests. Even if they could influence the sound, at this stage you have no idea what changes to the sound you wish to make. You have also already spent a lot of money and shouldn't be spending more unnecessarily. I would therefore recommend using basic interconnects and generic multi strand copper speaker cable. If after some time with the system you really want to make cable changes, then obtain some that you can return free of charge and see if you can really hear a difference.

 

[RobinKidderminster]

+1 for Ben. I cant help thinking that aome advice has been unusually rather negative and maybe less helpful. I am sure the system u have ordered after demo is capable of delivering a decent sound for yr buck and asking for cables to correct a theoretical short coming is not the way forward. As Ben says, set it all up & enjoy for a while. Pix later of room & layout will help to overcome any deficiencies. You may need to consider some room treatment too.
Enjoy

 

[Macspur]

Hi TT,

Would a home demo be possible? If so, think that would put your mind at rest a bit, instead of worrying about

the likes of cables

at this stage.

Mac

 

[Cynic-al]

Having your speakers firing across the narrow part of room away from any side walls will give you the best results anyway.

My old lounge was set up like that and it sounded fantastic.

 

[RobinKidderminster]

I wonder which speakers u put against the KEFs? Interest only. I recon you will have a really decent system. As stated, across room is not necessarily bad although like many I think setee against back wall is less than ideal. Soft furnishings, non leather is good. Cheers

 

[BigH]

On an order like that I would have got cables throw in for free. If buying I would get Van Damme OFC for speakers about £4 p metre, Van Damme are pro suppliers used in studios and concert halls etc. Doubt you will get anything better without spending much more money. The mark-up on things like hifi cables is rather high.

 

[SpursGator]

Having your speakers firing across the narrow part of room away from any side walls will give you the best results anyway.

My old lounge was set up like that and it sounded fantastic.

+1. The fact that they are a third into the room is great as well. I wouldn't worry about this at all.

I do think that given the overall size of the room that maybe the bass could get swallowed up a bit, which is why several people immedately mentioned floorstanders. But with standmounts in a small room, people always complain that they can't get far enough from the walls and corners to tame boominess. So it just goes to show, you can't win.

I predict you will be thrilled with your system. Take a deep breath. You'll love it for quite awhile and once you are longer as excited, you can upgrade something and you'll love it again. If only real life worked this way.

 

[BigH]

Having your speakers firing across the narrow part of room away from any side walls will give you the best results anyway.

My old lounge was set up like that and it sounded fantastic.

Yes I tend to agree, away from corners and in a triangle (more or less equal sides) works pretty well I find, thats assuming you can sit opposite them, decent imitimate soundstage as well.

 

[Overdose]

Probably a bit late now, but I would have suggested a pair of ADM9 RS coupled to a Sonos connect. Build you multi-room system with additional Sonos devices.

I haven't looked at the price of all the kit you are looking at, but the Sonos/ADM solution would be around £1515, ish.