New house full of sound

[matt49]

Our house move is on Thursday. Chaos will reign for some time, but obviously getting some sounds set up is a very high priority.

The basic principle will be the same is in my previous thread. We'll have Sonos in all the rooms on the ground and first floors. The house appears to have cat6 ethernet throughout, which is good. Much as I admire the Sonos mesh wireless network, there's nothing quite like ethernet.

Some rooms (e.g. the kitchen) already have ceiling speakers. There'll be a TV room; we don't watch much TV, but it'll be nice to have some bookshelf speakers (and maybe a sub) for the occasional film or concert DVD.

The biggest question is where to put the Martin Logans, and last night Mrs49 delivered something of a shock. I'd assumed the MLs would be in the first-floor room assigned as my study, which is about 4 x 4.5m. But Mrs49 has played a blinder: she's now insisting that the MLs must go in the big living room downstairs (5.1 x 5.25m) because that way "the room will be used more". Good thinking.

 

[Xanderzdad]

Good luck with it all.

As BB always says - pictures would be appreciated.

 

[matt49]

Good luck with it all.

As BB always says - pictures would be appreciated.

Cheers! Pictures in a week or so, once the dust has settled.

*shok*

Matt

 

[matt49]

'Ere we go. The hi-fi is all boxed up (the Martin Logans went into their boxes with surprising ease), and the removal men are doing their stuff.

 

[his dudeness]

gently gently removel men

 

[matt49]

gently gently removel men

Good point -- all the hi-fi kit was packed in original boxes, which was a bit of an effort with the Martin Logans though absolutely essential.

Anyway, no breakages. Phew.

Things are settling down. The main living room, where the MLs will be, is problematic acoustically. Horrible slap echo. Whereas all the other rooms are good to go, the living room lacks furniture ATM, which probably accounts for the poor acoustics. Big room, wood floor, bare walls: recipe for disaster. This may take a few months to resolve, because that's how long it'll take Mrs49 and I to reach agreement on the furniture and decor.

*man_in_love*

 

[James7]

Hi Matt

hope the house move has proceeded unproblematically.

Just wondered if you'd read Alan Sircom's Montis review.

http://www.hifiplus.com/articles/martinlogan-montis/

james

 

[matt49]

Cheers, James!

The house move went remarkably well. It was always going to be tiring and stressful: 150 boxes of stuff!

By far the biggest stress has been dealing with telecoms companies. We used Virgin Media in our old place and have changed to BT. Both have been a royal PITA.

I hope to get some pictures up soon. The main hi-fi system is in the front living room, and this is the room that's made the least progress. We don't have the right furniture for it, the acoustics are rubbish (huge slap echo), and there's a bit of building work to be done. So I can listen to the main system (am doing so now: Brahms String Quartets; Belcea), but it's quite a long way short of what it's capable of.

Upstairs I have a nice study where I plan to use my SF Cremona Auditor Ms (currently in storage). Downstairs there's a TV room which will also have a small hi-fi system (Peachtree decco into SF Venere 1.5s). And then there's the living room for the Martin Logans. The kitchen/diner has decent B&W ceiling speakers, and the whole house is Sonosed up to the eyeballs. A house full of sound!

The Alan Sircom review pretty much expresses my experience of the ML Montis. They're simply stunning, especially with classical music. The immediacy and presence is like nothing else I've ever heard. Transients are pin sharp. And the sound stage is enormous, which makes opera quite stunning. The combination of these three qualities gives a sense of being there that has to be heard to be believed.

Time for some Janacek!

Matt

 

[matt49]

For old time's sake: Sonus faber Cremona Auditor Ms